Seems UCU’s GMB staff (steered by regional officials) threatened a Congress walk out over a motion on how their union is run. After they crossed picket lines, shut UCU meetings & threatened members wanting to talk about the GS bringing UCU into disrepute. Relevant: www.ucu.org.uk/1daycongress...

Britain is waiting too long to save vulnerable children: The scandal of profit-making residential homes is just the tip of the iceberg, says Camilla Cavendish via Financial Times www.ft.com/content/c646...

People say being on strike all the time is tiring, & it is (esp. for the people organising the IA). But is it actually less tiring than living with the fear of/imminent threat of redundancy, ever expanding workloads for those individuals & uni's that survive & an emboldened boss class?

hell freezes over, the FT opens the door to nationalization

Throughout this year, Fiona Duncan, the Independent Strategic Advisor – the promise, will visit all local authorities across Scotland, to hear from people about progress to keep the promise. In this blog, she explains why she is heading out on the road. Read more: https://ow.ly/NIhJ50Z51Kx

Bemused by the idea that some members and factions within UCU think we should not have progressive subs. We moved to change this locally at Durham and have been able to re-distribute money in solidarity payments to other branches as a result. Do people think this was not worth doing?

Relieved to see more coverage of the grip Nous is getting on #UKHE. Thanks @privateeyenews.bsky.social! A million pound @cardiffucu.bsky.social alone. That’s a lot of money for the very same PowerPoint…

Have just lined up solidarity payments from @ducu.bsky.social to @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social, @uonucu.bsky.social @goldsmithsucu.bsky.social & Heriot Watt UCU. They may be local disputes but you are not alone! Solidarity! We still have some allocated funds for unions in dispute, hmu if this is you.

Read this. Peter Mathieson is manufacturing a crisis to impose cuts.

Why illegal children's homes are being paid up to £2m per child by councils. Outstanding reporting by Noel Titheradge. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The make-up of this Parliament is different to the last, but sustained cross-party support for the promise will help move Scotland closer to ensuring it is kept by 2030. To help with this we have shared a briefing for all new and returning MSPs: https://ow.ly/5LOp50Z0Zb0

2,700 staff at the University of Nottingham have received 'at risk' letters from the management. The same management which refused to cut their own pay, and the same management which refused to resign after losing £60 million on a disastrous attempt to build a new campus. #JoinAUnion

Wes Streeting just gave your address, your ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, if you are cis or trans, if you've ever had an abortion, an addiction, are disabled in anyway and a million other pieces of info about you, to a far right tech company the UK government has no control over.

If privatisation, starving the poor and transferring wealth to the rich worked then the economy would be massively Booming! We've been doing it for 40+ years and all it's done is make everything worse. Only an idiot or Nigel Farage would think more neo-liberalism is the solution.

#StopTheFarRight #StandUpToRacism #WomenAgainstTheFarRightScotland

How is this cartoon of Zack Polanski, published in the Sun - complete with forked tongue and other Der Stürmer tropes - not blatantly antisemitic?

For a glimpse into the plunder of children’s services by private companies, look no further than this new report into what is effectively, a market in children. www.revolution-consulting.org/wp-content/u...

#OtD 5 May 1818 Karl Marx was born in Trier, Germany. Living until the age of 64, Marx was a journalist, revolutionary socialist, philosopher and economist, and one of the most influential figures in world history. Works by or about him available here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

Solidarity - this is appalling

Cruel executive management have left it to 4:30 on a Bank Holiday weekend to tell Coventry University staff they have no jobs. Shame on them. #SaveHE #StopTheCuts

A week to go until the Scottish elections - here's a quick @scothealtheq.bsky.social overview of what the different manifestos say about prevention, health & key social determinants 👇

Something shocking and out of the ordinary is happening in the UK. While in most comparable countries, healthy life expectancy is rising, here it is plunging steeply. Q. So what marks us out? A. 47 years of extreme neoliberalism, culminating in austerity. www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

If you haven't already, sign up for our upcoming webinars - we invite speakers with expertise in lots of subjects relating to children and young people in conflict with the law. All our webinars are FREE to attend - times are scheduled in BST and hosted on MS Teams. Book here: buff.ly/WxpGJTM?

Palantir put out the most cartoonishly evil statement possible. They’re so arrogant and self-confident they don’t seem to believe their fascistic plans can be opposed. We must get rid of Palantir altogether. twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

Scotland must listen and learn from children and young people’s experience of secure care and do better. Read our response to the consultation on the future of secure care and click here to read more: ow.ly/l7OE50YKPST

The Times’ most strident fascist maniac is disgusted to discover that the Pope is a Catholic

Check out the upcoming webinars in our Spring series! Our webinars provide a great opportunity to learn from speakers across a wide range of disciplines relating to children and young people in conflict with law. Get your FREE tickets here: buff.ly/PF7XRom?

Looks like American civilisation has already been destroyed.

#OtD 4 Apr 1968 Martin Luther King Jr, legendary civil rights activist and non-violence advocate, was assassinated in Memphis, sparking riots across the US. He was in the city supporting a strike of garbage workers. Learn more: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1040...

Harvey's been teaching Marx's Capital for 50 years—longer than most academic careers. Him in conversation with Adam Tooze has got to be worth some of your time.

#OtD 3 Apr 1951 Nye Bevan declared he wouldn't be part of a govt that charged patients for healthcare (though Attlee had already introduced prescription fees in 1949). The next week fees for glasses and dentures were introduced, and Bevan resigned stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1015...

Ask your local candidates what they intend to do for you, those you support, and social work as a profession. Getting active can seem daunting, but it needn't be. Our Election Hub and Manifesto have all the information you need. Election Hub: buff.ly/RbhKcx1 Manifesto: buff.ly/UbnyeWW

The Certification Officer has issued his decision in Blake & McGaughey v UCU. My initial response is here: vickyblakeucu.uk/2026/03/31/t... I urge members to read the full ruling rather than relying on the summary emailed to all members by HQ today. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69cbcb...

Modern Capitalism resembles Feudalism more and more.

Another EGG-cellent day on the Pickets. Student sign makers out in force. We could not BEE anymore pleased with our RAWRsome inflatables who have done more for staff morale in a few hours than Heriot-Watt has all year. #ucu #loveLINCS #savescholar Protect jobs

Matt Goodwin using ChatGTP to “write” his book is an example of everything that is wrong with the world.

If we're spending millions commemorating a woman in Scotland, I have some ideas. Here's a 🧵of high achievers worthy of statues. 1st Jennie Lee, MP & founder of @OpenUniversity . The work she did as Arts Minister was transformative. Also = Mrs Aneurin Bevan /1

#OtD 22 Mar 1974 Scottish workers in the East Killbride Rolls Royce factory refused to work on plane parts from Pinochet's Chile. They kept the refusal up for 4 years, leaving the engines outside to rust, before they went missing one night stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9498...

World social work day, whilst universities in Scotland and elsewhere in the U.K. cut staff, meaning that tomorrow’s social workers do not receive the training and education in they require.

In less than a month, new providers of children’s homes, fostering services and secure accommodation will no longer be able to make a profit in Wales — making it the first nation in the UK to take this landmark step. nation.cymru/news/wales-b...

It was brilliant to see Alistair Fraser, Fern Gillon and Graeme Armstrong talk about the 'Straight Out the Scheme: Youth Work Resource' which launched last week. If you work with young people please make sure to check out the recorded talk and download the resource pack! youtu.be/HYXUmY68z_w?...

I saw this and at first thought "no, there's no way 'we definitely had alternative leadership in mind for Iran but I blew them up alongside the schoolgirls using AI' is what the White House is actually saying, that's too clueless and evil to be real"

People in the Media pretend that Britain's base in Cyprus is just a nice place protecting civilians. The locals paid to have this road sign put up.

Please consider signing & circulating this open letter to the VC of The OU regarding the Term “Ancient Palestine” - Google Docs [link for signing is at the opening sentence where it says (sign here)] @europeangroup.bsky.social @lsepoliticsblog.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/d/e...

I’m starting to think the building a university campus a few miles away from a US navy base was a bad idea.

😂 And the #Tories lost their deposit... #GortonAndDenton

When a trade union management chose to ignore the first two of those three words, this is what happens. Meanwhile, trade unionists will continue to stand with fellow workers. Solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social

Have you posted that ballot yet? Many will have them hidden on their desk under piles of marking, or somewhere in the bottom of their bag... Please vote - the leadership of UCU really matters! 🙏 If you believe branches by themselves can't solve this crisis - we need national unity. Vote left!