It’s Friday. May I be blunt? F*ck this. www.bbc.com/news/article...

One should be in no doubt that most of Britain's elites will simply make their peace with Farage and do a deal, so long as they get left alone or benefit. Tho there is resistance to Trump in the US, it's v much the exception.(1/2) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The consultancy Nous takes hundreds of thousands of pounds from universities, leaves the exact same path of destruction everywhere, and keeps trying to avoid transparent contracts. We’re urgently need control over consultancy spent in #UKHE, @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social

No matter how tough you say times are, there’s always enough money in the banana stand to pay an external consultant to scope ‘academic efficiency opportunities’ www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

🔴 NEW: The University of Edinburgh has quietly paid more than £750,000 to a controversial consulting firm amid job cuts - staff say bosses ignored "repeated" questions about its role. Read more about 'Nousferatu' 👉 www.theferret.scot/p...

At last, some properly rigorous reporting on the vampiric management consulting behind proposed cuts at Edinburgh Uni. Grab some garlic, read and weep.

Some of our most precarious members, tutors and demonstrators on 'guaranteed hours' contracts, have had their work hours cut or disappeared entirely in management's cost cutting spree. All the money paid to Nous could have gone to them. #StopStaffCutsatUoE www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

£750k?!?! 😡😡😡 Nothing like waking up at the weekend after another exhausting week to find out your employer is paying a consultancy firm £750k to set out ways staff are not efficient. www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

I've said it before and I will say it again many times, people using "AI" to design and deliver 'teaching' to students, to mark their work, and in this case to (!) generate literal voice overs are risking their jobs, and frankly they *should* be at risk if they do this sort of thing:

VERY funny that Labour are being pointlessly cruel and haemorrhaging support from their base and yet none of what they're offering is ever going to be enough for the people whose approval they're seeking, WHO could have predicted it

Cross-party support for the UCU Edinburgh rally this lunchtime @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social #WeAreTheUniversity #Solidarity

Great placards from the rally at the parliament #StopaStaffCutsatEoE

An amazing turnout at our UCU Edinburgh strike rally at the Scottish Parliament @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social #StopTheCuts #WeAreTheUniversity

Great turnout at the Edinburgh UCU rally at parliament to demand an end to the University of Edinburgh management reckless budget cuts and redundancies! #StopStaffCutsatUoE @ucu.org.uk

Amazing turn out of Edinburgh University staff outside the parliament building right now to defend education against needless cuts @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social

Great turn out at @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social rally at the Scottish Parliament!

Pickets, pickets, and more pickets! Join us and show your support #StopStaffCutatUoE

Lively picket with great music outside Old College

Morning! Here is our schedule today⬇️ Join us at the rally in front of the Scottish parliament at 1pm today!

SNP minister 'could force' Edinburgh University bosses to negotiate with unions over job threats www.scotsman.com/education/sn...

'Nottingham will be the only Russell Group university not to teach modern foreign languages degrees if it approves plans to close a swath of courses including Spanish and French as well as music and dozens of others.' 1/3

Solidarity to all at @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social! I studied there in 2010-11 and staff were on strike then - I remember one of my tutors explaining that she felt it was part of her responsibility to us as her students to protect the future of academic pay and conditions.

RALLY TOMORROW! Join the fightback against job cuts! Wednesday 19th November at 1pm at the Scottish parliament.

A soggy morning challenging damaging cuts with my @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social colleagues at Old College. Read about the dispute here: www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/industrial-d... #ucu #StopTheCuts

Join us tomorrow at the Parliament for a staff and student rally against the cuts!

UCU Edinburgh strike rally. 1pm, Wed 19 Nov, on the concourse outside the Scottish Parliament. Speakers from @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social UCU, Unite and Unison branches at the university and students #StopTheCuts #StopStaffCutsatUoE

Intervention from @alex.scotlibdems.org.uk on cuts and job losses at Edinburgh university as @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social UCU take three days of strike action this week to save jobs. Strike rally at the Scottish Parliament tomorrow, Wed, at 1pm #SaveHE #StopTheCuts #NoCompulsoryRedundancies

Question from @martinwhitfieldmsp.bsky.social in the Scottish Parliament on cuts and job losses at Edinburgh University as @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social take third day of strike action this week #SaveHE #StopTheCuts www.heraldscotland.com/news/2563152...

Hi Alex, thanks for raising this; it’s difficult to say that the uni is ‘facing financial trouble’ because the details and provenance of alleged trouble are being withheld by management. We need much more transparent accounting, given the public implications of 1800 job losses.

Edinburgh University is facing financial trouble, and the UCU said as many as 1,800 jobs could be at risk. Our universities are built on the hard work of their staff, and we lose them at our peril. That's why I raised this issue with the Minister for Higher Education today.

ECA students ❤️ 2/2

Staff is currently striking here at the University of Edinburgh. Senior management is planning widespread compulsory redundancies (without a real need for the same). You can read more here @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/blog/rd72kte...

Another morning, another picket✊ Come and support striking workers outside the Main Library and get some baked goods! All the proceeds go towards our Hardship Fund to support UCU staff going on strikes

Edinburgh University UCU staff are on strike protesting compulsory redundancies and students are protesting the university’s investments in Israel. Staff and students were in solidarity with each other this morning at Old College, which the students closed down. @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social

Back on the @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social picket line, standing with colleagues against senseless cu ts. Cover in The National by Lucy Garcia with quotation from @drjogrady.bsky.social pictured, and in The Herald, www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562598... #UCU #StopTheCuts

Don't cross the picket line! We are on strike because of UoE's budget cuts that have and will affect students and staff. We are striking for a better university, join us! #StopTheCuts

If Edinburgh Uni, with no operational deficit, gets to sack 1800 people, imagine what this will signal to more fiscally challenged Scottish universities? MSPs need to realise that this is more than a local crisis – we need urgent public scrutiny of Edinburgh’s governance.

And here's a whole new shift of picketers later today at CMB! UCU staff saying No to compulsory redundancies.

Warming up from the picket line by calling all my MSPs to ask them to support our struggle against devastating job cuts at the University of Edinburgh #StopStaffCutsatUoE Hope to hear back from you soon @suewebbermsp.bsky.social @lornaslater.bsky.social @foysolchoudhury.bsky.social

I can't join the strikes today as I'm off work recovering from stage 2 cancer. That hasn't stopped me emailing all 8 of my MSPs, inc @patrickharvie.bsky.social, asking them to show support & calling for an inquiry into the University of Edinburgh’s finances & failure to avoid redundancies.

Via @Staff-Student Solidarity Network at Edinburgh. Please take a minute to read and sign: "Between 1000 and 2000 people will lose their jobs if these cuts are implemented, adding up to as much as 1 in 7 workers across the university" docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social

Calling all staff and students at UoE, and all those who care about its future: join us on the picket lines! Teach outs, picket locations, bake sale... see our FAQ #UCU #WearetheUniversity #StopStaffCutsatUoE www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/industrial-d...

📣 Strike at University of Edinburgh 17-19 November against unjustified compulsory redundancies @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social 📌 JOIN OUR RALLY AT THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT, Wed 19 November 1 pm 🙏🏼 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rally-to-s... ℹ️Info about the dispute 👉🏻 www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/industrial-d...

There was moment I thought perhaps we had movement here, but the @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social strike is on. You can read more about why here: www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423... Please write and call your MSPs on Monday: www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/lobby-your-msp