Simon Glendinning

As some will know, I have been writing without (discursive) footnotes or endnotes for nearly a quarter of a century now. I’ve blown that away in this new essay. The opening page explains why. This was a lot of fun to write. I hope it is interesting to read. www.lse.ac.uk/asset-librar...

A Swiss-style relationship for Britain: “it is a workable arrangement”. Yes, it is - but will introducing the idea just make the full-fat alternative only more attractive? A stepping stone rather than a settled landing zone? Will it even have to be a stepping stone the UK ever actually lands on…?

I’m giving a talk about academic studies of Europe this lunchtime. Come along or join online: www.lse.ac.uk/european-ins...

If Trump really wants to serve a third term he should have to run against Obama

I really like this 2025 illustration of the Baltic Sea (“East Sea”) by Andrew Rhodes. It’s like seeing the North Sea in spate.

Another in the series of anthropomorphising conceptions of the human. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Good morning, Britain. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

You can stop saying “litigating” and “re-litigating” now. It’s done. Don’t argue with me on this.

Restore Britain supporters are sharing Britain First's petition to deport Kemi Badenoch

Watching Jordan and Pippen dove-tailing so perfectly in an impossible seeming no look passing move is a special kind of joy. youtube.com/shorts/2Vtek...

EU responds to Burnham “…the UK is welcome to join the customs union or single market via membership of the European Economic Area.” www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

QOTD: "When politics grows too focused on the near term, it is not just the lives of future people who will suffer, but the democratic commitments of the living." - Jonathan White, IN THE LONG RUN

Discover the academic career of our very own Head of the European Institute, Simon Glendinning, entering his final of almost 10 years serving as the Head of our Department. @simonglend.bsky.social Full post 👇 🔵 LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... 🟣 Insta www.instagram.com/p/DdTU0lzDtY...

The fallacy that University leaders pushing AI are falling into is thinking that the point of undergraduate research is to find things out. It isn't. What students find out is typically already generally known. The point of undergraduate research is to learn how to find things out.

And yet we barely blink at the fact that the human today anthropomorphises itself without more ado. (The rational animal, the self-conscious animal, the thinking animal, the animal with the capacity for language, the psycho-sexual animal, etc.)

My annoying traits are likely inseparable from self-restraint: the lengths I go to not to get annoyed. When I am annoyed, the philosophers I’m annoyed with just find me unintelligible. One of the first things I understood about philosophy: at least half will hate what any other does in its name.

Oh. Substack. It’s…better than this.

Itself onomatopoeically gross, the constant reference to AI generated text as “slop” is bizarre. Frankly, it says more about the human generated text that uses the word. In any case, AI and human texts (spoken or written) both bubble up from who knows where and both are uncanny and remarkable.

So renaming Lake Ontario is what the "Art of the Deal" moron has decided to do next? America is run by an 80 year old flatulent Orange-painted child, who has no sense of diplomacy, decorum, common sense or shame. What a hideously embarrassing moment in American history.

After this week's "policy" announcement, helpfully trumpeted by the BBC, this is truer than ever

📢 LSE Political Theory job opening We’re looking for a political theorist to join us at @lsegovernment.bsky.social - it is an open rank search, so we welcome applications at Assistant, Associate or Full Professor level Reach out with questions & please share widely! jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/...

I sincerely hope this is widely read. substack.com/@willself1/n...

#BBC you are fast undermining your credibility as an impartial and balanced national broadcaster. And you are genuinely becoming a danger to this country. For those who do not know, Richard Sambrook @sambrook.eurosky.social is not some random skeeter. He is a former Director of BBC News.

This really cheesed me off this morning. There was no “slight confusion”; NF told a straight-up lie. No wonder so many people no longer engage with BBC News content…

Not sure about Joe Pike's analysis of Clacton on BBC News... While technically accurate to say Reform "has had a commanding lead in national opinion polls for much of the past 18 months," isn't it misleading to omit that its numbers have been dropping for months and it is now not even in the lead?

A good indication of what, today, can rightly pass for “philosophy” - something that (with assistance) can also be produced by Claude. That really should surprise no one. dailynous.com/2026/08/13/p...

If the weather in England this summer was just a year where for once we got really great summer weather I would simply be loving it because I really love great summer weather in England. Unfortunately, while I cannot help loving how it feels - it’s not possible to be happy about how it is…

If you haven’t already done so, please sign the petition to save the Philosophy programme at Dundee. c.org/5Smh96VnfG

Larry Kramer is right - and we really need to think this through if UK universities are going to flourish as they should. www.ft.com/content/e14d...

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social has calculated (roughly) how the Conservative vote (probably) went in the second round in the Mayoral election in Manchester. I am trying my best not to get ahead of things but…Reform sliding in the polls is so f**ing heartening.

Labour’s Bev Craig won the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election Friday night and will now succeed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the region’s top job.

Under the abandoned plans, FIFA would have sold stakes in a commercial subsidiary to private equity investors. The proposed investor consortium was to be led by "Thrive Eternal”, a fund run by "Thrive Capital” — founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. FO.

One of Burnham’s most notable comments in his first days as UK PM was saying he aspired for people to “live well” — rather than the supposedly more objective (quantitative, calculable) aspiration to “raise the standard of living”. Doubtless he will be called on to say how it should be measured…

Andy Burnham calls on Infantino to resign over ‘outrageous’ World Cup plans

Evidence has since been uncovered by fans online which appears to show repeated instances of Saltburn players mimicking the sound of an edge with their fingers.

That's a wrap on the 2025/26 academic year! 💫 And what a year it has been! We invite you to discover our brand-new 2025/26 Annual Report just hot off the press, covering the past academic year here at the EI! Thank you for being a part of our community! 👏 www.lse.ac.uk/european-ins...

Tim Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social makes a bold claim here on the November elections in the US. Please make it so America. Il faut. substack.com/@snyder/note...

“an unexpected connection between a predominantly Moroccan Jewish lineage and the Saint Thomas Syrian Christian community of Kerala” Oh wow, did not see that coming

It was interesting seeing the penny drop on the Chancellor post to one of the BBC journalists (and with that for me too) yesterday evening having seen only three go into no 10: “I suppose we shouldn’t completely exclude Healey..” - eyes suddenly wide (omg) open “Absolutely not”…

The 1st point made by new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, was spot on: something has gone very wrong that he is the 7th PM since 2016 (since the Brexit vote). His 2nd main point is the need for “a circuit breaker” and that means rolling back 1980s de-industrialisation and privatisation. Yes, yes.

Wayne Rooney was, in fact, consistently in a league of his own among the BBC commentariate.

Garry Sobers. Absolute class. www.theguardian.com/sport/galler...

Reading the Boghossian report on the humanities, I was (not really) surprised to find a group of self-styled “analytic” philosophers who are still so wedded to its rendering of the philosophy/sophistry distinction that they configure everything in such a way that IT IS STILL ALL DERRIDA’S FAULT.

From the terrific “Derrida Today” conference in Paris this week, this is a slide from a talk by Elizabeth Weber on Derrida’s opinion on the future of Israel. Apologies for the faintness of the picture of the slide, but I think it is legible. I also think it is credible.

Colombia v Switzerland being referred to as Charlie v The Chocolate Factory.

English fanaticism.

England can win but they will have to swap Gibson for Dunkley so that they too can bat long. Gibson’s bowling and batting are meh. Dunkley can bat. The strength of Australia is their deep batting line up. England can get close to that - if they sub Gibson. #WT20WorldCup

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There are 2 arguments here, both strong. 1. Rejoining needs a stepping stone approach that begins with the most tricky issue: free movement. 2. It’s not likely to happen. A further point worth adding is that anxiety about the heading of the EU towards a federal (“superstate”) form has not gone away.