Senior Researcher @csjthinktank. Writer and columnist. Previously @JSMilbank
London
Joined March 2026
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Apologies for long Twitter absence. My previous account - JSMilbank - has been hacked and I'm locked out for the foreseeable future. If you've received a message from that account its a scam. Would deeply appreciate if previous followers would follow me here at @SebMilbank
Hmm a neogothic skyscraper stuffed full of religious symbolism commissioned by a chancellor who had a professor fired for his irreligiosity probably isn't the best symbol for atheist aesthetics out there...
Have you ever met a writer
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Those of us with longer memories will recall the IEA leading the charge to scrap the net migration target and liberalise immigration rules before the Boriswave.
When the CSJ proposed a higher salary threshold in 2019, Christopher called it “particularly stupid”.
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
These were issues I raised 15 years ago when I was lay chair of my deanery and a member of the Diocesan Synod; the answer was always along the lines that dioceses cannot model best-practice and fulfil their legal and regulatory responsibilities without large bureaucracies
"The Church has increased its administrative staff by nearly 80 per cent in 20 years while the number of parish priests has almost halved" says @emmasthomson
"Where is the logic in running a charity which increases its administrative costs relentlessly while the donor base is shrinking?"
Much of this is because they have no actual vision of the nation's future, beyond an end of history secular humanist internationalism. I voted remain but I'm struck by how little the rejoin crowd seem to engage with geopolitical reality or what's going on in Europe
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
.@SebMilbank explains how liberals can become anti-democratic and authoritarian
thecritic.co.uk/liberalism-a…
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Labour MPs used parliamentary privilege to make allegations about Russian ties that were later found to be inaccurate. In seeking to expose subversion, some of the country’s most senior politicians themselves subverted democracy and parliament, writes @SebMilbank
thecritic.co.uk/liberalism-a…
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Everywhere liberalism is in crisis, and everywhere its defenders have found a scapegoat. Russia is now the “omnicause” for the radical centrist, writes columnist @SebMilbank: blamed for populism, online anger and every crack in the liberal project.
thecritic.co.uk/liberalism-a…
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
The year is 2026
Martin Lewis is master of Britain
Mental health hubs are now battlefields
100% humanities scholars have destroyed the reason for what they do by neglecting the business of stewarding beauty, creating citizens and cultivating virtue in favour of the driest sort of archivism and pseudo-empiricism
One is really struck by the exceptional aggression of the British military at its height. Just read about the siege of Gibraltar some time - an extraordinary degree of courage and initiative that produced extraordinary results
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Censorship is bad. Funding terrorist organisations is bad. If you have issues with the proscription of Palestine Action, that's fine; but the NS framing is a strawman (literary freedom) and not the real underlying issue (should PA be proscribed?) xitter.cf/NewStatesman/status/21…
OPEN LETTER: Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist. Her books must be available to the public. Their withdrawal from sale, on the basis of ill-conceived and draconian anti terror legislation, is an affront to basic principles of free speech and expression so long taken for granted in this country. We categorically reject censorship - whether direct or indirect - and urge the government to change course, amending the legislation which has led us to this point of repressive absurdity.
If this sounds oddly familiar its because its the same argument that Montesquieu and Gibbon make about the fall of the Roman Empire. It's also sheer nonsense. Victorians ruthlessly pursued the national interest throughout the 19th century, and you'll struggle to prove otherwise
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Read our new report, Growing Up Online
As written by @SebMilbank
He argues for:
✅Parental covenants to protect children
✅Send official guidance to every parent and teacher
✅Creating an offline culture in every school
As covered in The Times today👇
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
Tetrarşi ortaklarına ait ünlü heykel grubunda görülen kartal başlı kılıç kabzasının kazılarda bulunmuş bir örneği (Metropolitan Müzesi, MS 4. yüzyıl).
Sebastian Milbank retweeted
The Royal Navy in October 2026: A Paradox of Ambition and Decline
Views my own, comments, corrections and strong debate welcome.
1/25 The Royal Navy of late 2026 is a force of extremes. It operates two large aircraft carriers that are notionally operational, a small number of highly sophisticated Type 45 destroyers and Astute-class attack submarines, and a nuclear deterrent that has never broken Continuous At-Sea Deterrence. At the same time, the surface and subsurface fleets required to protect those carriers, sustain the deterrent and meet routine tasking are thinner, older and less available than at any point since 1945.
This is not the result of a single review or a sudden funding cut. It is the cumulative outcome of decisions stretching back to the late 1970s, accelerated by the 1998 Strategic Defence Review and deepened by the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
The Royal Navy has repeatedly chosen exquisite individual platforms over the numbers needed to keep them at sea, deferred hard choices on infrastructure, and operated under a culture in which responsibility is diffused until it disappears.
