For the moment let's leave the tactical discussion, the grim DUP, the Tory panic and the musings about Theresa May's lack of normal antennae to one side and concentrate on what might be the early, cheering conclusions of this unbelievable General Election. The first...
Our blogs
Missing election issues 3. That stupid magic money tree
What is wrong with the Tory Central Office inspired act-of -desperation, the 'magic money tree' meme? The first is the patronising tone: as if they were talking to idiots, as if there was nothing they could possibly understand about our economy. It is never difficult...
Missing election issues #2. The rise of the giants
This is the first of a series of contributions which New Weather is setting out before the last week of the general election, about what has been glaringly missing from the campaign. There is clearly something about airlines which, beyond the other business sectors,...
Climate change? Hmm… that rings a bell
Bill McGuire is a leading global authority on climate and geophysical hazards and a Professor Emeritus at UCL. Today, in the wake of President Donald Trump taking the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, he begins regular contributions to the New Weather...
What we don’t talk about when we talk politics
The first thing we're not talking about is 'we'. Who are we, when it comes to this General Election in particular? And, to sign in for that master class in linguistics, what do we mean when we say 'talking'? I'm not about to attack politicians on the ground by saying...
The rise of authenticity, and what it means
Some years ago, fourteen to be precise, I wrote a book called Authenticity. The subtitle was 'Brands, fakes, spin and the lust for real life', which had a kind of ring to it. I've since written more in a collection of essays called The Age to Come. I was predicting...
Neoliberalism – The Break-up Tour
Premiere: 7.30pm, Friday, 9 June 2017 The unwinding of Neoliberalism comes under the microscope in this new interactive performance by playwright Sarah Woods and the New Weather Institute’s Andrew Simms, staged for the first time at the opening of the 2 Degrees...
New Weather at the Hay Festival: a progressive alliance for politics and new folk tales for troubling times
Joint the New Weather Institute at the Hay Festival to get to grips with political upheaval and explore different ways to understand our troubled times THERE WAS A KNOCK AT THE DOOR - CAN MODERN FOLK TALES HELP TO UNDERSTAND THESE TROUBLING TIMES? With Sarah Woods,...
When they conspire against the public
A conspiracy against the public – that’s what the pioneer economist Adam Smith called the process whereby suppliers get together and collude. I thought of that last week when I set off from Shoreham-by-Sea, my local station, to find that Southern Rail had been rushing...
New study: How did we do that? The possibility of rapid transition
A new study by the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex University and the New Weather Institute points to historical evidence that the sort of rapid, large scale social and economic change needed in the face of climate destabilisation has occurred before and could do so...