The thing about architectural conservation is that it’s supposed to transcend the question ‘DO WE LIKE THIS?’. It’s meant to be about preserving characteristic exemplars of style. Is there another large exposed aggregate panel building in Scotland? I can’t think of any.

This is as bad as anything proposed by Reform. Leaving refugees in permanent limbo and unable to build a new life in the UK would be a complete abdication of our humanitarian responsibilities www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Evening folks, I'd love some help with this pic. Forget the people, can anyone identify the plants? Is this a potato crop, partially coming into flower on the left? Or are these wild flowers? Context: this is a coastal plain at the village of Inver, Easter Ross, 1915, south of the Morrich More.

Important amendments from @ariane-burgess.bsky.social and Mercedes Villalba being voted on in Parliament tonight. They would ensure public oversight over significant land transfers and set a presumed limit on landownership at 500ha unless owned for wider public benefit. Much needed interventions

It's been a few years since I've seen the remnants of the 1788 Portobello harbour exposed. As you'd expect, there's an interesting thread on this export infrastructure of pottery and bricks by @threadinburgh.scot: threadinburgh.scot/2022/09/30/t...

Working with students at 40 George Square today and och it’s not a bad view at all.

It’s surely the other side of his gold fixation – for Freud, gold and shit are close correlates. Even by the standards of this Presidency, it does seem historically remarkable and troubling.

This is a crucial point And why the ‘stay on X/Twitter so you don’t cede the public square’ is such a nonsense argument It isn’t Hyde Park, it’s a billionaire controlled algorithm *designed* to spread far right ideologies

Edinburgh needs this!

Winter Well is on air BBC Radio 4 this week. An audio guide to thriving in winter, with advice from medics, artists, poets and future-gazers on simple but effective ways to bring light into your life during the darkest part of the year. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... @hesterparr.bsky.social

Why people don't trust mainstream politics is a mystery...

If university marketing had any guts they’d use this as a recruitment tool and watch their applications soar.

I’ve started a new method of composting, and it’s … quite hot. Consistently over 70° and today over 80°C (176F). I have to fork it over daily + adding ~15kg of coffee grounds every week.

What should happen: National revulsion, hounded out of public life What will happen: New set design for Sky News as three very, very right wing parties fight out The Deportation Election

The improvised response at 2:08 is remarkable. No one in the political life of the UK is anywhere near as impressive as this … or as threatening.

Hard not to sound like a Prevent referral but … it seems important that Labour are not allowed to go down this road.

Israeli forces have intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla so now would be a good time to pressure your government to hold Israel to account and ensure everybody's safe return. Kieran Andrieu is one of my oldest friends and I'm worried about him. youtube.com/shorts/HiiJn...

Sad to discover a new writer through their passing. It’s only a 3 minute read but Kaleb Horton’s last blog says a lot. kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/

joining the war on autism on the side of autism

Just to illustrate how much worse it's got, I have received more abuse over the past year and a bit - including death threats and a large volume of antisemitism - for what I write than in the previous 15 years of covering migration and the far right put together.

Solidarity to these colleagues. Will professional bodies like AAG or RGS speak up, even if universities bend the knee?

There should be a name for days when you can hear both house martins and pink-footed geese.

Wow, that Ta-Nehisi Coates essay: “If you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, from what else would you look away?”

Absolutely agree with this. I know many folk have already been doing anti-fascist organising but this needs to be *everyone out*: workers, trade unions, students, religious & community groups... The crisis is now. 🚨

It was troubling to see miles of saltires on lampposts in Glasgow yesterday. This wasn’t a 2014 indyref vibe, it felt truly sinister. As Peter says: very dark, very quick.

A perceptive thread, especially about the need to address the offline lives of people now being radicalised by the right.

Very troubling news. Berkeley has historic form when it comes to putting fash before faculty; awful to see a return to Loyalty Oath days.

HUUUGE turnout this morning to demand protection for our jobs and our students' learning conditions. There is no deficit!!!

It is quite simply dishonest to describe TPUSA as a “free speech” organization and not even mention the “Professor Watchlist,” as NPR just did. Reporting on a crime does not entail adopting the victim’s views.

the David Brent look at the end ☠️

‘Any form of “just transition” seems implausible in the context of spiralling energy costs, failed climate targets and mounting closures in older manufacturing sectors without compensatory growth in newer industries.’ @ewangibbs.bsky.social on the Grangemouth refinery: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Brilliant & important analysis from @kojokoram.bsky.social: why the populist right’s attack on history is integral to its attack on democracy & human rights: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

By way of context, Grangemouth’s closure was 400 direct job losses. 1800 is … a lot.

On strike again. We’ve had to do this for so long that our primary school kids who joined us on snow day picket lines are now students themselves. Utterly ridiculous way to run a university.

A risible, tragic figure.

This is a marvel. A perfect example of how craft labour could have the consistency and replicability usually credited to mechanisation.

Sure, I’d like a 1st ed of Marion Milner’s A Life of One’s Own with vg dust wrapper but…. £1400. Seriously, what?

This is all becoming very dangerous and the Government's failure to show any kind of resistance to it is a disgrace www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Coming soon. The Citizen and the Vagabond. A Politics of Mobility.

The provision of cycle infrastructure is completely inadequate. I was rear-ended by an SUV last night, wasn’t hurt thankfully, but the risk of active travel should not be borne by cyclists in this way.

Scotland has not adjusted to the reality that we now have a bushfire season. So many implications, not least for air quality.

Brown move: 2005: let the betting magnates wreck lives 24/7, at vast cost to the NHS, while trousering their party donations 2025: no mea culpa, but let’s claw back a wee bit in tax

Some of Edinburgh’s scaffolding is so old, it should be listed. No one alive can remember what’s underneath.

Strange days at Menie.

The groundhog politics of British decline. This was 28 years ago today, 30 July 1997.

An important response to the IHRA debate - many Jewish staff at Edinburgh (myself included) believe it must be scrapped.

Update: no one can identify a single person as belonging to a group that The Times says has 130 academic staff. Totally unnamed and likely fictitious academics being quoted by the Daily Express, The Times, the BBC & the Times Higher.

Any Edinburgh colleagues know anything about this shady group?

‘The real issue is change’: @proftjcurry.bsky.social - Edinburgh’s first Black philosophy professor, on racism and reform 'How do you create leagues of Black thinkers and clinicians and doctors and engineers and artists that fill the gap of what were lost...' 👇 www.theguardian.com/education/20...