Today’s activities: an all-day meeting to decide how specifically to make our surviving degree courses worse, the general outlines already having been imposed (fewer modules, fewer hours per module, fewer assessments, fewer subject modules, fewer academics).

Six years of amazing work from great poets and a boat load of graft by @markantonyowen.com . Very much worth celebrating.

ICE is about TERRORIZING Americans, not immigration. They want chaos and fear, not safety.

Trump is telling US citizens to exit Iran immediately. So everyone knows what’s coming next. I really wish we could have a break from all this madness. He keeps flooding the news. 🔄

Face it. ICE HAS ALIENATED AMERICANS by slamming their victims faces into the ground, wearing mask, not identifying themselves and using aggressive “Gestapo” tactics on immigrants & citizens alike. Americans are resisting, as they should. It is time to defund ICE! Repost if you agree. #BlueCrew

Everybody...on 1! Synchronized Sanderlings in Santa Barbara today. #Birds #Nature #Photographs #ThousandStepsBeach

We have not forgotten!

Chewing this black raisin I feel like a thief, an imposter in my mother's clean kitchen. #cinquain

NEW: Top DOJ officials quit after their division refused to probe Minnesota ICE shooting - At least four leaders of the Civil Rights Division resigned because the section's head, Harmeet Dhillon, decided not to investigate shooting of Renee Good. www.ms.now/news/doj-civ...

Spliff Kid - Ben Banyard @benbanyard.bsky.social atriumpoetry.com/2026/01/13/s...

A thrill to receive Finished Creatures and see my poem 'Buddleia in the blood' in the company of many poets I admire. Jan Heritage's signature treasury tag envelope, and the thoughtful placement of a bookmark in each writer's page, is so classy. I can't wait to dive in! @finishedpoetry.bsky.social

Happy publication day! Finished Creatures issue nine - trespass. Thank you to the sixty contributors, and all who sent work in. 💙🕊️ x

'Why I Memorise My Poems' Many thanks to @finishedpoetry.bsky.social for publishing this poem.

In a court filing, the FBI said it found no body cam footage, social media clips, or any surveillance video of the incident.

It's been well over three weeks since the deadline set by law and they still haven't fully released the Epstein files because withholding exculpatory evidence is clearly what you do when you're "innocent."

They refused to probe a murder. The people with consciences walked out. 🚨 NEW: At least four leaders of the DOJ Civil Rights Division resigned because the section's head, Harmeet Dhillon, decided not to investigate shooting of Renee Good.

Reflections...

One for you, @richardmortimer.bsky.social.

A rare view of Westminster Abbey.

@savevtg.bsky.social I expect you've seen this...

AOC: I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.

Every 👏🏽 Blue 👏🏽 State

Again, absolutely consistent with decades of right wing politics: *they* have unlimited rights and freedoms, and when you oppose them in pretty much any way, you threaten them intolerably and they are fully justified in meeting that aggression by having the cops smash your face in.

#TelephoneBoxTuesday Islington. Remember, Another World Is Possible

Here's a Duolingo blog about slang (not just in English). Whether or not some of this is 'slang', or whether we should use that label at all, is a bit debatable but it's not a bad read. blog.duolingo.com/slang-all-la...

"The increasingly extreme and repressive efforts of pro-Israel lobbyists to stifle even the mildest criticism has had a chilling effect on free speech and democratic institutions. "

How timely that the first episode of Industry S4 is about the effect of the Online Safety Bill and the financiers of exploitative online platforms.

A Tory spokesperson goes in two-footed: "Reform is fast becoming the party of has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train. Their latest recruit used to say he'd be 'frightened to live in a country' run by Nigel Farage, which shows the level of loyalty for sale."

c’est noté ✔️ looking forward to it!

❤️‍🔥Tory sources confirm that Nadhim Zahawi made approaches to senior members of Kemi Badenoch's team about getting a peerage just weeks before defecting to Reform UK - but was turned down.

Almost too many evasions and distortions to count in a short piece of text, but the argument seems to be that “law-abiding countries“ are ones which amend the law to make whatever they do legal, which makes them law-abiding

They erased us from the textbooks. I’m putting us back in the story. They buried our truth and hoped we’d stay silent. ERASED isn’t a book—it’s a weapon. Read it before they ban it. Share it before they silence it. Get your copy now. stan.store/gxldsociety/...

Listen to this.

Buy it. Read it. Learn from it. Do better. Vote better.

"One study found that, over a 10-year period, a police officer was caught committing sexual abuse or sexualized misconduct at least every five days." This is policing by professionals in the USA

A friend’s father survived a heart attack thanks to a lifeguard doing chest compressions properly: every rib broken and his entire torso is a mass of bruises. It takes real bravery to do it.

Today’s book post: Liam Harrington’s The Hill in the Dark Grove (not sure how that works, topologically) and the April 1930 issue of The Studio for its pieces on Gwasg Gregynog and Eric Gill (not then known to be a monster).

If you like books about linguistics and languages (perhaps you'd like to write your own?), here's a free talk for you! On the 27/1, I'll be putting questions to four fabulous authors over Zoom, getting their experience of writing linguistically for the public. Link: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

We've got this @engmediacentre.bsky.social course coming up in February and it's one of my favourites to run. Everyone coming gets a printed copy of our chunky and extremely useful New Directions pack, along with our (Even) New(er) Directions update.

You can book your place here: www.englishandmedia.co.uk/courses/793a...

What teachers had to say about it last time... • Absolutely brilliant! Resources, guidance and new research - thank you! • Fantastic day - really interesting and informative. I am taking away engaging new ideas to teach students about accent and dialect.

This is obviously the right decision. It should spark a wider conversation about social media platforms. We clearly can't - and shouldn't - just rely on the responsibility of the owners. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Even before the fatal shooting last week of Renée Good; YouGov poll showed surging support for ICE's abolition | Martin Burns

💚

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

Spot on! They are acting with impunity, knowing they are working for an Authoritarian Regime that will put out lies, propaganda, and misinformation to justify their actions The #NaziPlaybook Trump Miller & Vought have implemented #Project2025 giving Noem’s & Homan’s thug arms to murder US citizens