David Blagden
@blagden_david
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Associate Professor @SSI_Exeter @exeterpolitics @UniofExeter. Senior Associate Fellow @NATO_DefCollege. Co-Editor @UExeterPress Strategic & Security Studies.
University of Exeter, UK
Joined March 2015
Look what finally landed! My volume (co-edited with @soulpatch68) on 'Games: Conflict, Competition, and Cooperation'. Available from @CambridgeUP: https://t.co/X6Vp5h1lBu (and a large, well-known online retailer). Intro available free here: https://t.co/NNj7AbaFOZ. Featuring...
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Surprise 0.5% rise in retail sales on ONS measure, after City expected 0.2% fall in September.. also consumer confidence up unexpectedly on the major GFK measure…[though that remains in negative territory]… NatWest Q3s look pretty healthy too…
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The usual UK defence spending cycle - SDR sets out ambition for coming 5 years, DIP spells out how it's going to be delivered, multibillion pound spending black hole discovered that renders the entire exercise moot. Rinse and repeat...
The fiscal bow-wave before the Autumn Budget puts a Spearfish torpedo into the side of SDR and the Defence Investment Plan?
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Farage’s big weakness, as I’ve often written, is that 60%+ of voters don’t want him to become Prime Minister. For a populist he’s not that popular.
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Scale of Plaid win in Caerphilly is significant, not least because of what it says about the potential for progressive tactical voting in (relatively) high turnout elections to block Reform. Voters in this race knew it was a Plaid-Reform contest and voted accordingly.
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Oh. My. Word. How totally unlike Nigel Farage — to make a performative point about never being asked to speak at PMQs — whilst never actually requesting a question. Textbook. And they want to run the country? Pathetic.
🚨 NEW: Nigel Farage has not applied for a PMQs question since July It comes after he watched yesterday’s PMQs from the spectators’ gallery in protest of never having a “right of reply”
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Since @MichelleMone is feeling chatty, perhaps she could explain why PPE Medpro, the UK company that supplied £122m of dodgy PPE, has a mysterious Isle of Man "shadow" company with exactly the same name. What was its purpose?
Over-Promoted and Over-Protected by the Establishment On 20 December 2023, I posted the following: “You’ve probably never heard of him, but Sir Chris Wormald is the man directly responsible for wasting £10 billion of public money on PPE. As Permanent Secretary at the
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How Brits used to chuckle at certain other states leaving ships alongside for so long in one place that they could be used as fixing marks…
Obviously the days for Daring is tale that is beyond ridiculous As for the continuing scandal of the A Class, its grim to look at the commissioning dates (Astute-27/8/10, Ambush-1/3/13, Artful-18/3/16 Audacious-3/4/20) & reflect on how much of their service has been spent in port
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Makes it sound like a playground spat, but strategically Scotland is critical to Western security - breaking up the UK, especially with a "neutral" or semi-demilitarised Scotland, opens the Atlantic to Russian fleets and bombers. Nationalists using it for bargaining says lots.
Scotland becoming independent would be a 'win' for Vladimir Putin, a UK defence minister has claimed
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Loving that @Uni_Gib have a CHOOSE A SUNNIER STUDENT EXPERIENCE sign right next to @KingsCollegeLon on the Strand. A compelling logic (especially in late-October London). Well played, @GibraltarGov House.
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Just to note... When the RAF finishes disposing of the Tranche 1 Typhoons, they will have just 107 left in service to share with 7x operational Sqns, 1435 Flt in the Falklands and 2 OCU/Trials Sqns (plus the Qatari aircraft with 12 Sqn)...
🇫🇷 France plans to raise its procurement target for Rafale multirole fighter jets from the current 225 to 286, according to the current 2026 draft budget. In addition, it is looking to order two Rafales in 2026 to replace the two aircraft that crashed in August of 2024.
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And because academics should always footnote their quips:
theguardian.com
Analysis: Boris Johnson’s move seen as high-value commitment at a time of great tension
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All the UK had to do was offer Sweden a military alliance, and the next thing you know, they’re sending their Volvos to Washington to finish the work of 1814.
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Also this, rather obviously:
The thing is, a local politician would’ve done exactly the same thing as West Mids Police did - because they’re responsive to local voters. So, this has to mean *central* govt politicians. Which thus has to mean all UK police under the direct personal direction of PM Farage.
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A tyrant is often only the front-man of an oligarchy. His main part in the heist is to be the decoy. He says and does outrageous things to keep people distracted. Meanwhile, the looting and extraction go on unnoticed and unpunished.
Trump's ballroom donors include: -Google, whose CEO thanked Trump for "resolution" of an antitrust case -Palantir, which has lucrative contracts with ICE -Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, who would profit from Trump's regulatory rollbacks for private equity Pay-to-play.
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(Not a comment on the rightness/otherwise of policing speech. Simply an observation on the position’s internal logic)
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The irony in this position is that it implies that the police *weren’t* under direct govt control when they cracked down on rioters and violence-inciters last year (or subsequently). So, Reform’s policy is to implement a system that Reform also says already exists (and is bad).
Lab, Con & LibDems today all agreed the decision by Weds Mids police to ban the Jewish fans is wrong, disgraceful etc, but nothing they can do because ‘operational independence’. Only Reform UK will change the law to put the police under the control of elected politicians.
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I am so terribly sorry for asking @grok this question about Reform's Danny Kruger policing ideas. Just kidding. I'm not. Spot on.
@OneFinanceGuy @RhonddaBryant Few liberal democracies grant elected politicians direct operational control over police decisions like arrests or event policing, as it risks partisan bias and erodes rule of law. Examples include Hungary (under Orbán, rated partly free by Freedom House), Turkey (hybrid regime),
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So under the triple lock, the state pension will be going up in real terms by even more than expected next year (4.8% with earnings, versus the 3.8% CPI inflation reading today). Need to start considering what level as a proportion of median earnings we want to get to.
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Wild that Digital ID is apparently an afront to Ancient British Liberties yet the PM giving all UK police forces direct orders on what to allow/disallow would be a total non-issue.
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The thing is, a local politician would’ve done exactly the same thing as West Mids Police did - because they’re responsive to local voters. So, this has to mean *central* govt politicians. Which thus has to mean all UK police under the direct personal direction of PM Farage.
Lab, Con & LibDems today all agreed the decision by Weds Mids police to ban the Jewish fans is wrong, disgraceful etc, but nothing they can do because ‘operational independence’. Only Reform UK will change the law to put the police under the control of elected politicians.
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