Dr. Luke Blaxill
@LukeBlaxill
Followers
808
Following
926
Statuses
892
Historian of British Politics, Elections, Monarchy. Digital Humanist. Lecturer at Oxford. Also in London. Media Enquiries: [email protected]
London, England
Joined May 2019
@stevemilton @ShippersUnbound I think our Media has always been very weak in its analysis of US elections. We don't culturally understand American conservatism as well as we do American liberalism, and we don't know how to interpret US opinion polling. We're thus always surprised when Democrats don't win.
0
0
1
Writing about the Colchester By Election of 1870 (which I know something about) and not about US Election of 2024 (which I don't)
0
0
6
Five and a half hours if Warhammer discussion
Dr. Blaxill and Bardic Broadcasts have released a five and half hour long video discussing Warhammer Fantasy Catch you later gamers
3
2
9
Proud to have this article (on which I am lead author) on Electoral Violence in Britain published in Past & Present. It's on Open Access, so have a gander...
On advance access: "Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832–1914" by @VictorianEV_UK: @LukeBlaxill (@OxfordHistory), @garyhutchison16 (@EdinburghUni),@GidonCohen @patmkuhn, Nick Vivyan (@Durham_SGIA) #OpenAccess
2
6
22
@redhistorian I hardly think those constitute 'huge sums' by any standards of political fundraising. Would pay for about one minute of a state campaign ad in America, and all of the candidates will have personal wealth far exceeding them.
1
0
1
@redhistorian No, it means their meaning is not categorical and is instead dependent on time and political perspective. In 1866 Robert Lowe used both words to describe the Reform Bill in the wider historical context. Others disagreed with him, but not because he was ignorant of basic facts.
0
0
0
@Calzeto1_ Oh please enlighten me so I can pass my PPE prelims! Why should historians should have a monopoly on defining what is and is not a revolution, what is and is not a democracy? Both terms are contestable and not categorical labels.
0
0
0
@SAThevoz The decline of Billiards is a very interesting story, much wound up with its perceived medium as a TV sport compared to Snooker. Ironically I think it's a much better game to play at lower skill levels, so inherently well suited to a social club.
0
0
1
@rcolvile Was Sunak a 'werid' leader? With weird policy? Was Hunt a weird chancellor? If anything the Tories under Sunak were less weird then under Truss or Johnson. They had many problems, but I don't think this was really one of them.
0
0
0
The British public love removing liberties they do not use from other people
Britons tend to support the proposed smoking ban in pub gardens and outdoor restaurants Strong support: 35% Tend to support: 23% Tend to oppose: 17% Strong oppose: 18%
0
0
5
@MichaelLCrick I agree that the BBC's coverage of US politics is uncritically pro Democrat. But, does it have a 'duty to be impartial' in reporting *other* countries' politics? Would we expect this with Macron vs Le Pen? Or with North Korea? If not, why is the USA an exception?
0
0
0
RT @PastPresentSoc: New on advance access: "Electoral Violence in England and Wales, 1832–1914" by @VictorianEV_UK: @LukeBlaxill (@OxfordH…
0
18
0
@implausibleblog Rachel Reeves crowned master of eloquence is somewhere between Cicero and the MS Word auto dictate function.
0
0
1
I find it amusing that an MP with 3 weeks experience of an institution of 700 years standing expects her 'initial impressions' of the defects of the Commons to be taken seriously precisely *because* they are based on no actual experience of how it operates.
Must watch on House of Commons reform @EllieChowns Dr Ellie Chowns, "As a newly elected member, I'd like to offer observations on three elements on how this house operates: sitting, speaking and voting" ➡�� Sitting - Chamber is too small - In Council and in European parliament we had own seat, desk, plug in devices - Extraordinary there aren't enough seats for every MP There is a practice of Christian prayers, as a daughter of preachers I am familiar with this. But in this day and age where we are a mix of all faiths and none, it might be time to represent a range of faiths ➡️ Speaking - If we have more time limits more MPs would be incentivised to speak - Trying to get a slot, bobbing up and down, last week I did for five solid hours without getting attention of the speaker - This is not good for a democracy - Find a better way of allocating speaking time - The culture in this house is everything from excessive deference to braying, we need to clean to clean up politics, we are here to debate in as positive a spirit as possible ➡️ Voting - It's extraordinary we do not have electronic voting - While I've been here I've participated in 5 votes, that's taken 1.25 quarter - If you add up all the votes thats 1.5 months of MPs time, totally unproductive - If we got rid of the voting lobbies we could double the physical size of the chamber (everyone could then have a seat) "My final point, if we want to be a truly modern house of commons: proportional representation"
0
1
6
@LeeDavidEvansUK What I particularly found amusing was that an MP with 3 weeks experience of an institution of 700 years standing should expect her 'initial impressions' to be taken seriously seemingly precisely *because* they were based on no actual experience
0
0
2