Prof of World Politics, University of Bristol. Research/action on Somali led sustainable development with @TransparencySol. Honoured by my Somali name Warsame
Gradually moving to Bluesky
Joined November 2009
- Tweets21.7K
- Following847
- Followers3.5K
- Likes12.9K
Pinned Tweet
'Decolonising Development: Academics, Practitioners and Collaboration' - my journal article with @TransparencySol.
Reflects on 7 years of TS and @BristolUni partnership to promote Somali-led development.
Free to view and download: transparencysolutions.com/wp…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
NEW RESEARCH: Pakistan's solar boom is one of the world's most impressive renewable deployment stories.
It is also a story about a broken grid, high electricity prices and inequality.
This is the first peer-reviewed paper to take a deep dive into it.
sciencedirect.com/science/ar…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Of all the blueprints I have read on how to redress the long-term damage austerity and financialisation have inflicted upon Britain's society, this one is the most impressive - and hope inspiring. A must read. hostagenation.com/
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
🦔An NYU mathematician says OpenAI used his own progress against him to beat him to one of the biggest unsolved problems in mathematics. Tristan Buckmaster had been working toward a Millennium Prize proof using OpenAI's Codex when information about his progress reached OpenAI.
Days later, OpenAI published a full proof of the same problem using the same uncommon approach, after burning $22.5 million in compute to get there. When Buckmaster confronted them, exec Sébastien Bubeck allegedly said "Why would you ruin your career?" and "If you don't want me to be nice, then I don't have to be nice."
My Take
OpenAI spent $22.5 million to solve a problem with a $1 million prize. They didn't do this for the bounty. They needed a headline that says "our AI solved one of the hardest problems in mathematics" and they needed it before someone else got credit. They started days after they heard about Buckmaster's progress and took the same uncommon approach he'd pursued for months. That's hard to explain as coincidence.
Buckmaster did his work inside Codex. OpenAI reserves the right to train on Codex data. They admit they can't rule out that his usage helped improve their models. So a customer used their product, potentially handed them the roadmap, and then OpenAI outran him with $22.5 million in compute he could never match. I don't know if any of this was intentional. But if you're a researcher and you just watched this happen, I don't think you'd keep your best ideas inside someone else's product.
Hedgie🤗
techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/op…
Petition: Hold a UK-wide briefing on climate and nature risks
The UK faces growing risks from climate and nature breakdown - from extreme weather to economic disruption and national security threats.
petition.parliament.uk/petit…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Charlie Stayt, "You said Andy Burnham is too in hock to vested interests to deliver real change. You haven't given him a chance, have you, he hasn't even started?"
Zack Polanski, "If he does do the right things I'll be the first to applaud him"
"He's appointed James Purnell as chief of staff. This is a man who is a corporate lobbyist for private water companies"
"When we have water companies pumping sewage into our rivers and charging us extra for the privilege, this doesn't seem a good start"
"Then we know Josh Simons hired a private investigator to look into a journalist who was talking about undeclared donations for Labour Together"
"And finally, the only substantial thing he's voted on as an MP in the last week, is to support Shabana Mahmood's regressive immigration reforms. Including asking asylum seekers to review their cases every 30 months. That's deeply inhumane for people fleeing war and persecution"
"Andy Burnham might surprise me and move in a more progressive direction and I'd really welcome that"
"But the rumours of appointing Shabana Mahmood as Chancellor, a politician who cites Margaret Thatcher as one of her political heroes"
"This doesn't sound like we're moving in a direction to end ripoff Britain, it looks like more of the same"
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Very pleased that our (@Jethro_Norman and my) article has now been officially published in @AfrAfJournal first issue 2026, with page numbers as final and printed text. It will hopefully remain relevant for a long time.
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
We cannot consider #AI to be morally neutral. In reality, every technical tool embodies choices and priorities through what it measures, ignores, and optimizes, and how it classifies people and situations. Ethical discernment cannot be limited to asking whether we are using a system for good or bad purposes. It must also examine how that system is designed and what vision of the human person and society is embedded in the data and models that guide it. #MagnificaHumanitas
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
The next Labour leader must commit to reversing NHS privatisation.
Share if you agree 💙
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
It would be *much* more socially transformative to ban social media for over-65s
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
HOLY CRAP Trump actually accomplished a miracle. Here is what he got out of Iran:
- Reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by about 98%
- Limit uranium enrichment to 3.67% purity (far below weapons-grade)
- Cut the number of installed centrifuges by roughly two-thirds
- Only enrich uranium at one declared site (Natanz)
- Stop enrichment activities at Fordow and convert it into a research facility
- Redesign the Arak heavy-water reactor so it could not easily produce weapons-grade plutonium
- Ship out or dilute excess enriched uranium
Allow extensive inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Permit continuous monitoring of nuclear facilities and supply chains
- Accept “snap” inspections under expanded monitoring rules
- Avoid building new heavy-water reactors for years
- Stay within strict limits on uranium stockpile size and centrifuge development for set periods ranging from 10–25 years
Ooops, sorry!
That was the JCPOA that Obama signed with Iran, only to have him tear it up, kill 140 kids, get hundreds of Americans injured, 13 killed, and gas prices to surge 50%.
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
This is a massive story. It'll go over heads of many, but represents a major structural change in China's agrarian transition & major event in global agrarian history. Till now limitation in the Chinese economy has been it's structural dependence on semi-proletarian labour (1/3)
China removes hukou hurdle for migrant workers in social insurance shake-up.
scmp.com/news/article/335457…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
What a terrible start to his bid to reverse Starmer’s descent into one moral void after another! Adopting Mahmood’s ‘racism-lite’ agenda after embracing Reeves’ laughable fiscal rules does not augur well for Andy. Go Greens! theguardian.com/politics/202…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Truly brutal obituary for the Starmer project from one of Britain’s great living historians, David Edgerton
"The question is not whether Labour values have been usurped by Starmer’s faction. It is what kind of party could be built out of the corpse of Starmer’s party. One option is clearly a more Blairite party: pro-tech giants, the US, and privatisation. But are there any serious options to create a progressive party, one that dares speak out on the issues of the day, that actually communicates with a progressive electorate? It is hard to see at the moment whether the ambition or capacity exists within it.
It is worth noting that Starmer’s Party is only barely the official party of the organised working class. Whereas Labour had affiliated to it nearly every major trade union, today only just over half of union members are in party-affiliated unions. And even then some may leave. This is hardly surprising: as it stands its policies, Starmer’s Party’s political instincts, are far closer to those of the Tories and Reform than to the progressive parties that are eating it up. And that is not accidental, or the result of a lack of vision. It was the whole point."
Read @DEHEdgerton's obituary for Starmerism
newstatesman.com/politics/la…
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
The McSweeney/Starmer strategy was for Labour to out-reform Reform and treat progressive voters with contempt.
We warned this would smash up Labour's voter coalition - and let Reform in.
New polling shows that's what happened last week.
Labour's vote "disproportionately stayed at home or went to another left party."
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
🧵NEW: Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield, has resigned his seat to allow Andy Burnham, Manchester Mayor, to stand in a by-election. Simons is the controversial head of Labour Together, that hired a PR firm which spied on journalists - including Paul Holden. He wrote the book @StarmertheFraud which was highly critical of Starmer’s rise - accusing him, Morgan McSweeny, Mandelson etc of brutally smearing Corbyn and other MPs. 1/
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Wes Streeting, the member for Palantir North.
ALT Who Funds Wes Streeting? Graphic. A picture of Wes Streeting with a 'Sale?' price tag above his head appears on a Green background. Right panel reads: "59%- Private health linked companies & individuals: £426,400 (includes OPD Group, MPM, Red Capital, John Armitage, Peter Hearn, Trevor Chinn and Kevin Craig.)" "41% Other £296,713" Source: Parliament, Electoral Commission, Good Law Project. Green Party - Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box78066, London SE16 9GQ.
Eric Herring ericherring.bsky.social retweeted
Andy Burnham voted for the Iraq War, an illegal war that killed over a million people.
As Health Secretary, he helped drive NHS privatisation.
He joined Labour Friends of Israel, opposed BDS as “spiteful”, praised Israel as a “democracy”, and called the Balfour Declaration “British values in action”. He is a Zionist.
Stop pretending he’s a radical alternative, he’s more of the same.
I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election.
I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics.
Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours. I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic.
Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics. We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures.
However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people.
Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.
I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that.
Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again.
ENDS
