Well, my house is dead-on 100 years old, but not my oldest: I have a little oak footstool - early Arts and Crafts, so late 19th Century - that was passed down from my great-grandfather, which I use most days as my footrest in my home office.

Help an MSc student out - survey on socioeconomic barriers affecting access to and progression within the heritage sector. Thanks! and please share... qualtricsxmgykkhmykp.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

'the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of nature'

The new face of climate denial is bleating that “mitigation is hard; we must prioritise adaptation (while burning every last drop of North Sea oil“, then wetting your pants over schools closing early in a heatwave or regulators trying to protect the ecosystems that buffer our fragile water supplies.

Eeew. Just reading that (this week’s) business secretary, Peter Kyle, is on about a ‘golden visa’ scheme for ‘investors’ in UK businesses, and if you think that sounds like the UK raffling off to the undeserving rich visas that once went to skilled and essential workers, I’d struggle to argue.

Who thought “accursed” and chose it anyway?

100% here for the nanny state.

Ugh… Shabana Mahmood vs Mike Tapp, jockeying for attention/status/the next job 🤦‍♀️ No, Mike, a superficial tweak to a fundamentally flawed immigration policy doesn’t make you the good guy. The immigration white paper is not grounded in reality, let alone social/economic need. You can’t patch it up.

Here we go again… FT: Unions combine to try to stop Ed Miliband becoming chancellor That’ll be TWO unions, both very partisan about Miliband’s efforts to meet the UK’s LEGAL OBLIGATIONS to #NetZero The other ~125 unions apparently aren’t so distressed by Ed.

We were big into lead water pipes too, back in the day… clearly they damaged some brains more than others

There’s a feature in Nature about how to make Europe a ‘science superpower’ once again - problematic terminology in itself, but I’ll get to that. What’s weird is that all the science-native indicators they describe, Europe IS top-flight for science. Where it ‘fails’ is on economic* indicators…

I keep reading that Ed Miliband as chancellor “would anger the unions”. IDK who needs to hear this (Guardian reporters for a start), but ‘the unions’ are not a monolith, and just because Sharon Graham has said it would anger her, doesn’t make it true of the rest of us.

Happy 10th anniversary of the Great Irish Passport Rush.

Just reading the obits of Starmer’s stint as PM, and in case you’re inclined to forgive the ‘island of strangers’ speech as a brain-fart, go read his foreword to the irredeemably GRIM immigration white paper… “a one-nation experiment in open borders. The damage done to our country is incalculable.”

Quite enjoying John Harris (in Guardian) explanation of Starmer’s problem: “The blankness on to which voters projected their years of frustration”. Can’t help thinking, though, that it probably starts with the blankness on which voters are invited (as the new political norm) to project their hopes.

Me: frequently considering just preemptively resigning because I *imagine* people *might* think I’m doing a shit job Keir Starmer: reports of people lining up to tell him to “go home; it’s not working” and he STILL believes he’s doing us a favour by staying? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Surely there comes a point when the only viable response to “I’m not walking away” is “okay dude… we’ll send for the stretcher”.

Whereas if you ARE promising the moon on a stick, you can just *say* that - no notes, sure AF no citations because, let’s face it, there can be none - and everyone will applaud and probably give you a pay rise or a ministerial position or some shit.

Valid concern. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I’m a massive fan of “we need a policy debate” as the professionally/politically acceptable face of petulantly whingeing about not getting everything your own way.

Feeling sad to read that David Hockney’s died, then reflecting that I (and how many, MANY others?) have chosen to put his work in front of me every day of my life… that’s a hell of an impact on the world. Thank you for such beauty, friend!

Here’s a message my dean sent to the whole school. Please help me get more followers for @soest.hawaii.edu! 🙏

I’ve been hitting up trade union members, lately, on the nature and balance of scientific R&D/infrastructure, and an old friend said of carbon storage: “There are only two institutions with the longevity to meaningfully take this on…” The church has other priorities. It’s the state, or not at all.

Conference is nearly upon us, so in time-honoured tradition, I am currently wearing things I definitely DO NOT want to wear, and therefore will not need to pack… Today’s ensemble: my rattiest old gym leggings, oil-stained woolly slippers, and a rather glamorous silk shirt. 💁‍♀️

It’s Pride 🏳️‍🌈 Spare one repost for a small creator? 🥺 My science and sci fi pins raise money for homeless LGBTQ+ people. Just sent another £800 to @aktcharity.bsky.social bringing total to £47,521 New for Pride 2026: 🌈Scientist🌈 🏳️‍🌈🐥🦜🦅🏳️‍🌈 🌈pronouns🌈 www.jamiebgall.co.uk/shop

“How come politicians give in to #burnout while teachers ‘n’ nurses crack on?” Well, friends, as one of the army of teachers who actually just cracked, and therefore are teachers no longer, I think I can explain this one… www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Buckle up, UK friends… I feel like there’s a whole world of stupid commentary on youth unemployment coming our way, from sanctimonious berks with 30 years’ continuous service, a defined benefit pension, and a house they bought before the prices got silly.

BBC Question Time now doing exact same with AI they did with Farage? This ‘expert’ panel on AI is a disgrace: not one critical voice. Gilbert works for Tony Blair to promote AI. Jones is govt chief AI booster (& Blair flunky). Riparbelli is industry. Gawdat is ex industry. And a Tory MP

My office has a strict no cats policy but frankly I could use a little of whatever this is right now

Mornin' Dr Andrew. I found this yesterday and thought of you, I've put one aside to send across.

From the FT: ‘One cabinet minister said of the recent UK political upheavals: “Ed was the wind turbine who fanned the flames of this.”’ Is this someone who doesn’t know what wind turbines do, or someone who totally does and is making a subtle joke about Miliband’s passivity in the slow-motion coup?

I have many concerns about the announcement of performance related pay “for doers, not talkers” in the civil service (UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES KLAXON!!), but seeing as this is not even close to a new idea, there are MANY histories to learn from about why it’s been dropped before…

But really, what kind of AI future - what kind of productivity-growth - did the government *think* they’re cheerleading for?

If Palantir is the only possible answer, public bodies need to ask better questions. And you know, Palantir isn’t even the root of the problem. If they vanished off the face of the planet (we can dream), we still have public sector leaders proving they’re incapable of safe technical governance…

Just because schools are a common feature of young people’s life trajectories doesn’t mean that schools are the problem. Might as well say breathing is a pipeline to joblessness. Better still: dysregulated capitalism actually IS a pipeline to joblessness. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

You know thought experiment of AI agents writing and sending emails that will only ever be read and replied to by other AI agents..? That’s LinkedIn already. Goady ‘share your expertise’ ‘discussions’ to pipe AI-generated bilge into their own AI corpus, like a dog eating its own vomit.

OMG… GET OVER YOURSELVES, TECHBROS! I expect fucking Excel has already helped with a load Nobel prize-winning discoveries, but nobody’s such an idiot as to breathlessly afford that the credit of a co-author.

Once again I am looking for words - words appropriate to a professional setting - to describe what’s happening to Bucket 4 of the UKRI ‘3 buckets’ model, when all that’s in my head is “Seriously??? Are you taking the piss?!”

TFW you realise you’re literally going to be past retirement age before they envisage getting HS2 to Euston.

Good employers design good jobs that support people to do good work. I am not a trade unionist because I want to fight the bosses - that is really not my favourite bit (though I bloody will when I must). I am a trade unionist because I believe a better world is possible with a lot more of this 👇

My takeaways from this week… It’s no use pearl-clutching about the issues that people OUGHT to be voting on, while talking past the ones they actually ARE voting on. It doesn’t take a populist to win a popularity contest against non-stick corporate-bland. Any spark of human personality will do it.

Pro tip: if your ‘best fit’ is a bad fit, you can do even better by just deleting that misleading line. [just because Excel says you can doesn’t mean you should]

Umm… I’m absolutely sure there are circumstances when you definitely do change pilots mid-flight. Thanks for the (possibly unintentional) reminder, David Lammy.

“Brown said that when he was chancellor, the then prince demanded a fleet of aeroplanes separate from the RAF, provided by public funds. Brown said he turned down the request and informed the queen.” “No, and I’m telling your mum on you” Is a 100% golden moment! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“In around 7 years, AI models have progressed from completing tasks that toddlers can do to surpassing PHD level intelligence.” Oh FFS! 🤦‍♀️ There’s some worthwhile stuff in this speech, then you undermine the whole thing with this ‘PhD in your pocket’ tech sales bullshit www.gov.uk/government/s...

All the way to oblivion

Environmental disaster; completely at the whim, under the control, and for the enrichment of US tech thugs; and “at least 47 jobs”* Why WOULDN’T we make them the pinnacle of our industrial strategy?! www.theguardian.com/technology/2... *that was bloomberg on Starlink’s $100bn Texas datacentre

“AI will create demand for new jobs!” The jobs: galley slaves for tech billionaires’ super yachts

Just read this morning that meta is cutting 10% of jobs, Microsoft 7% of US jobs - both citing their need to chuck MORE money at AI. GET REAL policymakers! Your ‘future of work’ forums are pure imaginarium until you rebalance them to the live-and-tangible harms, not some vague, hypothetical good.

The road to hell is paved with pRAgMaTic point solutions