UK Column News - 17th March 2025

Brian Gerrish, Ben Rubin, Prof. Diane Rasmussen McAdie and Dr Jobst Landgrebe with today's UK Column News.

 

The 'New Media Nudge Unit': Steering Minds with a £697,474 Budget

00:54 The Telegraph (2012): 'Nudge unit' to become Whitehall's first profit-making business (Archived)

Institute for Government: MINDSPACE: Influencing behaviour through public policy (PDF)

That means that citizens may not fully realise that their behaviour is being changed - or, at least, how it is being changed. Clearly this opens up the government to charges of manipulation.

Behavioural Insights Team: Behavioural Government

GOV.UK: SAGE meetings, March 2020

The Times: No 10 seeks influencers to spread Starmer’s word on social media (Archived)

The Irish Times: Who is Morgan McSweeney, the Irishman heading up Keir Starmer’s Downing Street operation? (Archived)

UK Parliament: The role and status of the Prime Minister's Office

GOV.UK (2023): TikTok banned on UK government devices as part of wider app review

 

Alarm Bells Are Ringing In Germany With Dr Jobst Landgrebe 

11:37 Wikipedia: 2025 German federal election

Euronews: Explained: How does Germany’s electoral system work and what changes this year?

Reuters: German parties agree historic debt overhaul to revamp military and economy

Bundestag (German): Seat distribution of the 21. German Bundestag

Federal Constitutional Court (German): Unsuccessful applications against convening of the old Bundestag before the meeting of the newly elected Bundestag

Tagesschau (German): What has agreed on the Union, the SPD and the Green

 

Dirty Money Shuffles: And Who Are Quadrature?

21:37 Quadrature Capital Limited: We’re building the Ultimate Automated Trading Business

eFinancialCareers: Quadrature Capital: the hyper-secretive prop trading firm that's "a bit of a cult"

Financial Times: Labour’s hedge fund donors took low-tax option of £160mn loans 

Open Democracy: Labour given £4m from tax haven-based hedge fund with shares in oil and arms

Quadrature Climate Foundation: Our grants

The new climate reality demands unprecedented climate action…

Power Technology: Private investor Greg Skinner acquires 50% stake in Ethical Power Group

The Guardian: UK climate envoy to keep role at charity whose founders invest in fossil fuels

Apolitical (YouTube): Apolitical Government Climate Campus

Apolitical: Building energy and climate capable governments this decade

 

Cheltenham Event Tickets — UK Column Is Member Funded, Please Join Us

33:41 Support Independent Journalism from the UK Column with only £5 a month

Access UK Column News Extra Today—UK Column Community

UK Column shop: UK Column On Location — Cheltenham — 5 April 2025

Billetto: Supporting Farmers for Food Security Symposium, March 2025

UK Column (on X): Dick Tater video

Fatsoma: Thetford Truth and Freedom Festival

 

Diane's Report From Keswick: A Festival of Words and Ideas

36:48 Words by the Water Keswick: A Festival of Words and Ideas

The University of Cambridge's Museums and Collections: Pride In Nature LGBTQ+ tour

 

Key Cities at the Heart of the Government's Agenda

45:54 Key Cities: Key Cities is celebrating its tenth anniversary

Key Cities (LinkedIn): On Monday night, Key Cities launched its latest report, On the Waterfront at the third annual Cities in Parliament reception hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Key Cities

Key Cities: Local partnerships to drive net zero innovation

The Loomba Foundation: Her Skill, Her Future: Empowering 100,000 Widows in India

 

Woke Academia

54:30 Cogent Social Sciences (2017): Sociology - Research Article: The Conceptual Penis As A Social Construct (PDF)

The Telegraph: Shakespeare’s birthplace to be decolonised after ‘white supremacy’ fears (Archived)

Midlands4Cities: The AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C) brings together eight leading universities across the Midlands

National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange (NCACE, 2022): Decolonising the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s Collections as an Inside-Outsider: A Perspective on Collaborative Research

Wall Street Journal: How Federal Workers Are Dealing With the $1 Limit on Their Corporate Cards - Trump Administration Freezes Federal Credit Cards (Archived)

The College Fix: Agriculture Dept. gave university $600K to study menstruation issues, including in trans men

USA Spending: Project Grant FAIN 20243882142035

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): The Europe that Gay Porn Built, 1945-2000

Taylor & Francis Group: Queer canine becomings: Lesbian feminist cyborg politics and interspecies intimacies in ecologies of love and violence

Royal Holloway History (TikTok): Dr Shahmima Akhtar explains what the Royal Holloway history department does to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

Taylor & Francis Group: Who’s afraid of the vulnerable terrorist? Framing violent jihadists’ life and intimate relationships