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Emeritus Prof. Christopher May

ChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk

<p>Retired Professor of Political Economy; now enjoying the fediverse.</p>

Posts

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    A key problem with the instrumentalist view of education, is that it includes a clear conclusion that education can be &#39;wasted&#39; if someone doesn&#39;t get a job that reflects their &#39;level of education&#39;. Education is never wasted, its a benefit to society to have better educated individuals, and it is also a benefit to individuals&#39; self-development. Both public &amp; private goods, it seems to me are absolute, and as such the instrumental view misunderstands education itself...

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    @tomgauld.bsky.social on the impact of AI &amp; associated technologies &amp; writing... (all a bit meta, of course) #AI #technology #books #media #writing

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    Somehow this week I missed that the Home Office is preparing to rollout extended facial recognition surveillance at transport hubs &amp; around public events, justified by a &#39;clampdown&#39; on (so-called) &#39;illegal migrants&#39;. As usual, a focussed (non?) issue is being used to justify a much wider threat to privacy &amp; justice. Once again Labour is demonstrating it is a threat to democracy &amp; remains wedded to the idea of the &#39;hostile environment&#39; for migrants. #politic...

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    I&#39;ve often suspected that auto-complete was used as a subtle/shadow form of semi-censorship, and now comes evidence from the auto-complete function on the Apple iPhone that confirms exactly that suspicion... anyone who thinks this issue is limited to Apple, has not been paying attention to the politics &amp; behaviour of Big Tech. #censorship #politics #BigTech https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/nov/06/struggling-to-spell-male-chauvinist-pig-apple-grey-list-means-your-iphone-wont...

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    Ireland (already) has a relatively high density of data centres, so its worth looking at the impact on local communities. Chap Patefield-Isacoff warns, the claims for a contribution to economic growth are weak (and skewed/uneven), the impact on energy &amp; water use significant, and the impact on local communities (especially the poorer communities where many of the data centres are located) is detrimental. Big Tech is not here to help! #BigTech #DataCentres #politics https://chappisacoff....

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    Will the Mid-Terms (and the Democrats trouncing of Republicans) be the spark that (finally) ignites the petrol of an AI-driven financial crisis. If the Dems *do* slow down (or even halt, only temporarily) the build-out of data centres, the associated debt overhang is pretty quickly going to look unsustainable (as many already think it is). And this morning, stock-markets across the world are already falling as AI-related stocks look (even) more risky! #FinancialCrisis #politics #AI h/t FT

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    As @davidallengreen@mastodon.green warns, while we may celebrate the result in the US mid terms as a turn away from illiberalism, we should also be clear that when a competent (and sane?) Illiberal leader emerges, then the battle against the forces of the Far Right will be that more difficult.... its not like no-one voted for the Republicans! This battle against the Far Right may have had a positive result this time, but the war is never-ending. #politics #MidTerms #FarRight https://theempty...

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    As (another Emeritus Prof.) John Holford (UNottingham) argues, one clear way to rebuild democracy in this country is to revive &amp; rebuild adult education. As someone who was a mature student (studying between my mid-20s &amp; mid-30s) I completely concur: for many, access to all levels of education after school-leaving age would be a major route to self-fulfilment &amp; a more informed electorate (which is why our political class are lukewarm). #education #politics #democracy h/t Guardian...

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    A number of people have pointed this out in my timeline over the last months but I wanted to reiterate: the defence - &#39;they were just a few bad apples&#39;, misses the actual point of the aphorism: a few bad apples in a barrel, actually corrupts the entire barrel, unless removed (very)( quickly. users of the phrase may defend that use by saying they acted quickly to avoid the corruption; but as they never really do, the original use - the corrupting effect *of* the bad apples, stands! #p...

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    The arrests of peaceful protestors demonstrating against the proscription of Palestine Action continued in London today; The problem is now that the Met. have decided Sarah Helm&#39;s post did not meet the criteria for police action, others are using that form of wording (although as pointed out previously the thresholds for on-line &amp; public statements are different). So, are the Police being &#39;over-zealous&#39; of *just* doing the Govt.s bidding? #protest #PalestineAction https://ww...

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    How might one define &#39;super&#39; profits, that should be subject to windfall tax? When (fossil fuel) firms see abrupt rises in profits (see latest from BP), we know that: new innovations have not come on line; new investments are not (now) &#39;paying off&#39;; but rather; firms&#39; costs remains broadly similar to what they were, but the price they can charge for their product has risen due to external market issues! In other words *they* have done nothing to earn such profits #Foss...

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    (Especially for my USA-based followers) One of the ways that the Tangerine Tyrant may try to skew that mid-terms in favour of the Republicans (and indirectly himself) is through the claim of &#39;wide-spread&#39; fraudulent voting.... so here&#39;s @BBC Verify setting out the claims and the *actual* evidence. Like so much else Trump is in no way a reliable witness on this. #USPol #Trump #politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckeq3vezxlx1o

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    Why won&#39;t politicians countenance major increase on taxes for the most wealthy? Tax Justice UK interviewed a range of MPs &amp; concluded that &#39;the barrier to taxing extreme wealth is a deeply entrenched pattern of political fear, economic uncertainty, institutional capture &amp; parliamentary self-preservation&#39;... But, it may also be possible to shift the dial; we need to make it much more &#39;costly&#39; for our political class *not* to raise the rich&#39;s taxes! #politics #t...

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    Each time someone claims the UK&#39;s fiscal problems are caused by the triple-lock on state pensions, or wealth hoarding baby-boomers&#39; are behind UK inequalities,, I see a major programme of political distraction. The UK&#39;s problems are not primarily linked to generational difference(s), they are the result of an ongoing programme of class warfare by the rich, which they are seeking to camouflage as a generational issue... it is not! The wealthy are the only dangerous minority here! #...

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    Perhaps a little more quietly than in the past, the next UN Climate Convention, CoP31 gets under way in two weeks time... we can expect: lots of pious words; but lots of blocking (through procedural manipulation, focus shifting and backroom diplomacy); claims the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is not fatal... But, more generally what we will see is more about what we won&#39;t see... any concerted &amp; comprehensive agreed actions on climate change! #ClimateChange #politics #UN #CO...

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    Bill Gates is warning (in the Observer) that AI will see mass job losses, but the need for a &#39;safety net&#39; means that the wealthy (who reap much of the financial benefit ) will need to pay more tax. Whatever the merits of the second aspect of his argument, (as always) this sort of technological determinism undermines responses; AI &amp; associated technologies are not natural forces we need to deal with, they are human constructs whose social impact can &amp; *should* be fully regulated...

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    So, likely confirming many sceptics&#39; view of the Online Safety Act, Ofcom has concluded that in its first nine months it has had no discernible positive impact on the flow of inappropriate &amp; dangerous material reaching children via social media. As many argued at the time (and as I became convinced of after discussions in my timeline) this was the wrong way to address what remains a serious social problem. We need a much bigger stick to deal with BigTech! #politics https://www.thegua...

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    Many of us would like to see wholesale reform of the UK&#39;s second chamber (the Lords)... but while its hereditary elementhas been the focus of attention, as Huw Macartney (BirminghamU) points out, the real problem is the role of the wealthy (with a concentration of wealth in property - landlords - and corporate shareholdings in the Lords). Given its role in legislation, the domination by wealth, is a major problem for equitable governance &amp; skews legislation. #politics https://theconve...

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    While I agree to some extent with Miriam González Durántez that the Far Right&#39;s rise is because they are more committed to politics than an historically complacent centre, what she really doesn&#39;t identify is how the centrist political class have continually depicted the moderate Left as &#39;extremists&#39; too, and thereby played into the hands of the Far Right (as an &#39;acceptable&#39; extremism). The centre has proved to be really dangerously disingenuous in its views of the Left!...

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    Across the country people know the value of migrants who work across a range of sectors *and* contribute to the country&#39;s culture &amp; economy, yet the Labour Govt. like its Tory predecessors continues to deny this value, seeking to denigrate migrants in an attempt to appeal to voters with &#39;legitimate concerns&#39; about immigration. As Gaby Hinsliff, argues this hasn&#39;t worked on its now terms, and has also undermined the value of migrants to the UK. #immigration #politics https...

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    I see the BigTech builders of UK data centres are sufficiently concerned about the prospect of widening (local) political resistance &amp; protests that they are seeking Govt. intervention to deliver a &#39;compact&#39; to ease the local environment for construction... Of course, given our political class&#39; disdain for protest and people&#39;s local interest(s), we&#39;re more likely to see proscription of protest groups &amp; repression of campaigns against data centres. #politics #AI ht...

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    After years of speculation &amp; complaint, the Treasury has put a figure on the loss represents by the UK&#39;s failure to establish the sort of oil-revenue fed sovereign wealth fund the Norwegians have built. The estimate is that that fund would likely be worth around a £1 trillion, but instead the funds from peak earning in the North Sea were deployed by Margaret Thatcher to fund tax cuts.... One more reason to see Margaret Thatcher as a wrecker of the UK! #Oil #politics https://www.bbc.c...

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    Not sure what the implications of the decision to give the go-ahead to the Jackdaw North Sea gas field are?.... then here is a reasonable overview of the issues from @BBC Verify. As I&#39;ve said before away from the spotlight there is still good journalism happening at the BBC, just not by their high profile commentariat. #BBC #Jackdaw #FossilFuels #politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq4g13pplyzzo

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    And so The Canary goes dark, among recriminations &amp; conspiracy theories about attacks and partial &#39;de-banking&#39; from Lloyds.... The Canary claims it will offer its side of the story of its closure imminently, but given how the political class treats anything that looks left-ish, it doesn&#39;t take too big a leap to see something political behind the closure of a leading outlet for left-opinion &amp; analysis. They&#39;ll be more on this soon, I&#39;m sure.... #media #politics htt...

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    I&#39;ve made this point before, but thought I&#39;d make it again, today: One of the most serious problems that undermines the UK&#39;s public sector is a logic that sees cuts in funding for everyday normal activities as &#39;efficiencies&#39;, but then produces increased failures in the everyday provisions of services that need to be addressed (or rectified) by much more expensive emergency/reactive actions &amp; services. Everyday service cuts are a false economy seen in education, health,...

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    The World Health Organisation warns bed occupancy rates above 85% signals congestion &amp; difficulty absorbing additional demand. Nuffield reported overnight general &amp; acute NHS bed occupancy of 92.5% in the final quarter of 2025–26. In September, England recorded 99,290 instances of &#39;corridor care&#39;. So, the NHS is not &#39;running hot&#39;, its in continual crisis; slow discharge to social care is one issue, but a &#39;just-in-time&#39;/&#39;lean&#39; management logic is anoth...

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    A new campaign to collect media stories that prejudice &amp; abuse disabled people in one place - the Disability Media Action campaign - is looking for people to submit examples from the news media of such stories. As always, campaigning on an issue is helped by having a single detailed record, allowing trends to be identified alongside the serial offenders. If you have examples please contact them. #disability #media #politics h/t Disability News Service https://www.inclusionlondon.org.u...

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    So, around 53% of UK households are net beneficiaries of the state (with 47% net contributors). But the ONS calculates this through taxes (direct &amp; indirect) and benefits (including those in kind; education, the NHS) &amp; doesn&#39;t attempt to account for things like defence, the rule of law, policing, roads &amp; so on. So its a figure that is at best misleading &amp; at worst promotes a rampantly individualised politics (i.e. students presented as the sole beneficiaries of university)....

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    You&#39;ve seen a lot of bleating against the equalisation of income tax &amp; capital gains tax, but meanwhile the HMRC has been busy clawing back unpaid CGT, recovering nearly £500m in 2025/26; its renewed vigour on business taxation raised the haul by 82% up on the previous year. As this suggests, when the HMRC deploys more staff &amp; resources to business taxation, strangely the tax-take rises pretty significantly... its almost like business people were lying about their gains? #tax #poli...

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    Oh dear, more trouble for Palantir&#39;s attempts to capture patient data via the NHS... more NHS Trusts are rejecting the software &amp; the claims made for it... all as ex-Labour MP Tom Watson goes into bat for them (claiming if other technologies were available they&#39;d be competing with Palantir&#39;s... err, that exactly what NHS Trusts are saying!). The thing Palantir really seem to dislike is scrutiny &amp; scepticism about their performance claims! #Palantir #NHS #politics https:/...