🔴 For the past year @lucasamin.bsky.social and I have been investigating Palantir in the UK What we found was a company with unrivalled political access, selling a product many data experts in the NHS don’t use, and don’t rate Please read and share democracyforsale.substack.com/p/its-just-a...

I've signed and sent a letter - from authors, broadcasters, journalists, artists, scholars and performers - to express our deep concern at @exeter.ac.uk’s troubling plans to make mass redundancies within the Humanities Dept @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social. I would love it if you read and shared widely.

Now pretty confident it was: shapenotescotland.weebly.com

Does anyone in Edinburgh rent (or loan) hand trucks for less than the cost of buying one (£40?)

Just saw the Biniam Ghirmay tv advert - it would have been so much better if they’d filmed him riding in Eritrea - amazing views from the plateau, and the zigzags down to Massawa (fewer dead camels and tanks than on the road north…).

Whose choir is going back and forth on the union canal in Edinburgh?

The only groups that need convincing of the value of history degrees are university administrators and legislators.

Couldn't believe the huge amount of cars on the Merchiston Avenue to Dundee St via Yeaman Place route. 5pm last night it was static. I was shopping at Margiottas by bike - can't wait till the pavements round there are widened as per @merchistoncc.bsky.social proposals.

We're hiring! We're looking for passionate, skilled people to help us preserve and share Scotland's cultural heritage. #Jobs #LibraryJobs #HeritageCareers #ScottishCulture #EdinburghJobs

📢 New Article! Do extractive mega-projects create development or deepen inequality? Mattioli compares mining in Tete & LNG development in Cabo Delgado, showing how communities experienced dispossession, organised resistance & challenged extractivist development www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

City-Scope has been redesigned across the board. I've been working away at polishing the existing features and completely overhauling the look and feel of the site. Most features are still the same fundamentally but hopefully feel much more enjoyable to use. East Lothian updates now live too

'The lords know the problems because everybody can see the problems. Some peers are particularly astute at calculating the damage being done. Yet there was an air to this debate of a bunch of clever people discussing climate change in an air-conditioned room while it is 38 degrees outside.' 1/2

Teacher, Gwen Mayor Victoria Clydesdale Emma Crozier Melissa Currie Charlotte Dunn Kevin Hasell Ross Irvine David Kerr Mhairi McBeath Brett McKinnon Abigail McLennan Emily Morton Sophie North John Petrie Joanna Ross Hannah Scott Megan Turner Rest easy, little ones 💔 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🇫🇷 Le tracé du Tour de France 1957 🚴 23 étapes pour 4 669 km et une victoire finale de Jacques Anquetil 🥇 Le dernier TDF sans aucun transfert.

“Who funds him?” No one funds him! There’s nothing to fund. He just gets the same bin costume out the loft for one evening every 6-12 months.

The latest one is how he had a baby and how he will neglect his children to campaign as a comedy character. Guys?! He doesn’t campaign? He literally turns up on the night. Just trying thinking about it for more than two seconds. Do you think he goes door knocking with his head in a bin?

On this day in 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act were passed. The Acts were passed after a land claims agreement was ratified by 85% of voters in what became Nunavut. On April 1, 1999, Nunavut was created out of the Northwest Territories.

Arthur’s Seat from Liberton Brae in Edinburgh… 📸 Me

A six-month investigation by Byline Times reveals that with the support of Palantir's Peter Thiel, Reform's policy chief James Orr has used the University of Cambridge as a student recruitment ground for a hard-right, theocratic political project aimed at bolstering talent in Farage’s party

'We say this every year, but in any customer-focused service industry outside of the public sector these results would be celebrated as superlative. As would the response rate – 71.8 per cent of the eligible population'. 2/3

'Notably, a record 88.1 per cent of students who completed the NSS are positive about the quality of teaching on their course – with 93.6 per cent agreeing that teaching staff are good at explaining things.' 1/3

I strongly suspect these are very senior people. Hope this becomes a trend.

To nobody's great surprise, I fear. (Admittedly it would be hard for anything in central Edinburgh to go on fire without affecting the vital American candy and wizard tat industries.)

Qusay has been living in tents in Gaza for over eight months, facing hunger and uncertainty. He’s accepted to Glasgow University but needs help with living costs and tuition. Your support can change his life. Please consider donating: gofund.me/22780ee12

New Brunswick African music and culture festival kicks off Friday www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/new...

This stuff is just utterly normal at universities now.

So, there is a precedent for vetoing an MP's resignation Viscount Chelsea (Henry Cadogan) applied for the Chiltern Hundreds in 1842 The Chancellor (Goulburn) refused because, get this, Cadogan wanted to resign to obstruct an investigation for bribery h/t @fascinatorfun.bsky.social and @gazhay.com

Do you or someone you know have expertise⬇️ Archaeological research, field documentation & survey, satellite imagery analysis & GIS in Africa Deadline 26 July 2026 🔗 Find out more tinyurl.com/GISFellow #jobopportunity #AfricanHeritage #UCLArchaeology #RemoteSensing #GIS #AfricanArchaeology

If Napier does move, hopefully CEC will request a large Section 75 agreement to upgrade surrounding active travel infrastructure as part of any redevelopment. Holy Corner redesign a must @livingstreetsedi.bsky.social @thecockburn.bsky.social www.edinburghinquirer.co.uk/p/napier-set...

"This is the core claim of populism: only some of the people are really the people." — Jan-Werner Müller, What is Populism?

Farage announced the by-election within an hour of the deadline he was given by the Guardian for responding to the story

Nigel Farage £5 million 'gift' from a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers who were concerned it was money laundering. The whistleblowers alerted the NCA as they were "not satisfied they could trace the ultimate origin of the funds."

The question for Nigel Farage now is whether it's less embarrassing to un-resign and claim that was an establishment stitchup, or to spend a month competing with a bin. Neither is exactly a *great* option. Neither solves his ongoing scandals. And it's a mess entirely of his own making.

£1300 placed on Count Binface to beat Farage on Betfair in the last hour. Could be sign of real momentum. But remember… it also could be deep-pocketed ideologically-motivated dodgy offshore gamblers trying to intervene in British politics by boosting Binface’s national standing.

Our far-right leader campaigns against a man with a bin on his head, your far-right leader campaigns subject to a nighttime curfew enforced by an electronic tag. We are not the same, but we’re both pretty weird.

Farage just shot himself in the foot with a bazooka

Game on, Nige.

A Labour spokesperson said: "Nigel Farage is engulfed in a sleaze scandal and he's desperately trying to change the subject. It's pathetic and the Labour party is not going to indulge it." The party's ruling NEC held a meeting earlier this evening and decided not to stand a candidate.

BREAKING - Labour will not stand a candidate in Clacton by-election, NEC confirms Tories, Restore, Lib Dems also won’t stand against Nigel Farage. Has the stunt backfired?

I think that this is the right strategy.

Inertia? Many UK Universities have spent time, money and resources endlessly restructuring trying to adapt without sufficient government funding

omg GH is still running?! (never actually watched it, but it was just always *there* in my childhood)

📢 New Article! How do liberation movements continue to shape politics after conflict ends? Whang revisits the history of Lesotho’s Liberation Army, arguing it was more than a proxy force & tracing its lasting impact on Lesotho’s political landscape. Read here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Tour de France 2026 has begun and we are 1 year away from Edinburgh hosting the grand départ 🚴 After pushing the Council to introduce a ban on fossil fuel advertising, I’m aware that next year’s tour is a big moment as oil-backed sponsors will descend on the city 🌎 Read more about it below ⤵️

The World Cup and Tour de France going on simultaneously means we can watch FIFA and the UCI try to one-up each other with ridiculous decisions and rules

See also university league table ranks

Stages 3 and 4 of the Tour are very up in the air atm due to the extreme heat and wildfires in the area of the stages. Decisions will be made on the day as to whether the stages happen or not.

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... The Peter Mair assistant professorship is out. Sascha’s stint was a short but an exceptionally positive experience that we want to retain and perhaps even augment.