aka @timbale.bsky.social Teach politics at @QMPoliticsIR. New book: "The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation"
Suntrap of the South, Sussex.
Joined October 2010
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Thought the tree had been cleared. We're all sitting at Haywards Heath on a Bedford train waiting to go (and maybe for a driver?). Should we just give up and go home? Or is there any chance of us moving towards London soon?
Will you hold the 17:32 from Lewes to Seaford so those of us in the 1624 from Vic to Ebn, now terminating at Berwick can change at Lewes and get picked up by car by family/friends happy to drive us home to Ebn? ATM our ETA at Lewes on this train is showing as - gulp - 17:32! 😬
Ta. Worth noting that it would anyway be technically impossible for me or anyone else to have booked an advance ticket on the 1554 *after* the timetable had been altered, so - logically - the gate staff, had they been apprised of that rule, should by definition have let us on!🙄
And if I show this conversation to them at 1459 at Platform Gate 13 tomorrow, will they let me through, do you think?
I left work far earlier than I needed to on the basis of the information I was given. And now I'm stuck with a much longer journey. As were all the fellow passengers with Southern tickets turned away at Platform 13 at Victoria and told to get a later connection-missing train!
Apparently, they were only told this today - yesterday they were allowing it. You are the same company for goodness' sake - and you have totally messed up the off-peak timetable for us all. Surely you should allow us to take any train we can to get home. Please sort this mess.
Furious. I was explicitly told by ticket office staff yesterday that with my advance ticket (VIC to EBN) I could travel on any train down either to HHE or BTN 2 hours either side of my original time. But gate staff stopped any Southernn ticket holders boarding (1459) GX train!
Tim Bale retweeted
Q&A: Can't we have welfare AND defence? Was Reform UK stung or entrapped? And why is everyone going Bayeux Tapestry crazy?
@the2Matts from @TheNewWorldmag
open.spotify.com/episode/2xe…
Tim Bale retweeted
Labour MP Hugh Dalton was known for his booming voice.
On one occasion, during WWII when Dalton was in the national government, Winston Churchill was said to have complained about a loud racket from the adjacent room.
The prime minister was told, 'That's Dalton speaking to Glasgow, sir'.
'Well, why doesn't he use the telephone?', Churchill fumed. – at Dorval, Québec
Thanks Will. Just on the second answer: Does that mean that it's *not" valid when I go up to London from Eastbourne?
Two urgent questions:
1) What happens if you have an advance ticket for a service that is no longer running?
2) Can you travel to London Victoria or Clapham Junction from Eastbourne by travelling via Brighton at no extra cost?
“You call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.”
My sceptical (but not Eurosceptical) take for the @NewStatesman
newstatesman.com/comment/202…
Thanks @Peston. For those interested in reading further, here's the report in full: esrcpartymembersproject.org/…
Tim Bale retweeted
And back on the shelf: two definitive classics, newly updated
🔴British Labour Leaders edited by Charles Clarke and @TobySJames
🔵British Conservative Leaders edited by Charles Clarke, Toby S. James, @ProfTimBale and @PatrickDiamond1
Tim Bale retweeted
COMING ON 18 SEPTEMBER
British By-Elections 1789-2025 - The 88 By-Election Campaigns That Shaped Our Politics
Preorder a signed copy
politicos.co.uk/products/by-…
Full list of by-elections and essay authors below.
Parliamentary by-election happens when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant between general elections, whether the sitting MP dies, resigns, goes bankrupt, is convicted of a crime or is subject to a recall petition. Whatever the circumstances, by-elections have long provided some the most dramatic moments in British parliamentary history.
In this latest volume of political essays, Iain Dale picks the most consequential by-elections of the modern era and presents a series of thoroughly researched, and absorbing essays by some of the finest political writers working today.
Middlesex 1769 Robin Eagles
Co Clare 1828 Richard Gaunt
Preston 1830 Gordon Pentland
Manchester Withington 1867 Peter Kellner
Colchester 1870 Luke Blaxill
Northampton 1884 Simon Barrow
Mid Lanark 1888 Baroness Pauiine Bryan
Oldham 1899 Alex Puffette
Barnard Castle 1903 David Laws
Norwich 1904 Duncan Brack
Colne Valley 1907 Gerard Hetherington
Manchester NW 1908 Pippa Caterall
North East Derbyshire 1914 Gordon Marsden
Merthyr Tydfil 1915 Sir Vernon Bogdanor
Clare East 1917 Richard Grayson
Spen Valley 1919 Roger Gough
Paisley 1920 Hugh Gault
Woolwich East 1921 Nan Sloane
Cardiganshire 1921 Russell Deacon
Newport 1922 Stephen Williams
Mitcham 1923 Lewis Baston
Westminster Abbey 1924 Lord Lexden
Smethwick 1926 James Bird
Westminster St George's 1931 Sir Robert Buckland
Fulham East 1933 T G Otte
Oxford 1938 Simon Heffer
Kinross & West Perthshire 1938 Amy Gray
Bridgwater 1938 Alun Evans
Maldon 1942 Will Timmins
West Derbyshire James Heale
Motherwell & Wishaw 1945 Richard Finlay
Bournemouth 1945 David Hencke
Carmarthen 1957 Roger Awan-Scully
Torrington 1958 Michael McManus
Orpington 1962 Lord Norton
Bristol Souh East 1963 Lee Evans
Kinross & West Perthshire 1963 Andrew Holt
Stratford upon Avon 1963 Scarlett Maguire
Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles 1965 Sir Peter Riddell
Leyton 1965 Richard Johnson
Carmarthen 1966 Sam Blaxland
Kingston upon Hull North 1966 Nick Thomas-Symonds
Hamilton 1967 Mike Russell
Sutton & Cheam 1972 Connor Hand
Rochdale 1972 Alistair Burt
Lincoln 1973 Julia Langdon
Govan 1973 Gerry Hassan
Woolwich West 1975 Amber Whapshott
Walsall N 1976 John Barnes
Workington 1976 Michael Mullaney
Ashfield` 1977 Robert Waller
Grimsby 1977 John Bowers
Garscadden 1978 Mark Peel
Liverpiool Edge Hill 1979 Lord Chris Rennard
Fermanagh & South Tyrone x2 1981 Toby Harnden
Crosby 1981 Matthew Cole
Warrington 1981 Paul Linford
Glasgow Hillhead 1982 Andrew Marr
Bermondsey 1983 Sir John Curtice
Darlington 1983 Francis Beckett
Chesterfield 1984 Greg Rosen
Greenwich 1986 Nigel Fletcher
Govan 1988 Gerry Hassan
Eastbourne 1990 Tim Bale
Eastleigh 1993 Mark Garnett
Christchurch 1993 Michael Crick
Newbury 1993 Elinor Goodman
Dudley W 1994 Lucia Henwood
Winchester 1997 Jack Brown
South Antrim 2000 Richard Bullick
Brent East 2003 Joe Pike
Haltemprice & Howden 2008 Robert Evans
Glasgow East 2008 Lesley Orr
Crewe & Nantwich 2008 Lord Stephen Parkinson
Clacton 2014 Tim Shipman
Richmond Park 2016 Aggie Chambre
Batley & Spen 2016 Mathew Hulbert
Copeland 2017 Chris Whiteside
Hartlepool 2021 Alia Middleton
Batley & Spen 2021 Emma Burnell
Chesham & Amersham 2021 Rosie Campbell
North Shropshire 2021 Corey Froggatt
Southend West 2022 Iain Dale
Mid Bedfordshire 2023 Henry Riley
Selby & Ainsty 2023 Edward Young
Rutherglen 2023 Mark McGeoghegan
Rochdale 2024 Sunder Katwala
Runcorn - 2025 - Harry Horton
Tim Bale retweeted
➡️ In response to @ProfTimBale's recent article for @ECPR_TheLoop on stopping the use of the term #HardRight, Federico Taddei argues that the term isn't the problem but how journalists misuse the categories political science has worked hard to define.👇
buff.ly/YXQFxwq