I do think we sometimes forget: 1. We need high-skilled migrants to keep the NHS working, and to grow the economy 2. High-skilled migrants have a *lot* of choices over where to go And 3. We’ve been getting less attractive as a destination for years anyway (wages here famously suck)

Long overdue move. It's time that affiliated unions realise that there are true alternatives and they don't have to be chained to the Red Tories Here in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @plaidcymru.bsky.social is the party for workers news.sky.com/story/unite-...

Growing up, I was a WW 2 buff. I was always incredulous that citizens of Nazi Germany lived blissfully ignorant of the Holocaust's horrors We see for ourselves now how Israeli citizens frolick on the beach & talk "resilience" even as babies starve in a genocide in Gaza youtu.be/nMyyVaiY4V8?...

This is a choice of the VC. With ”under 10 posts” at risk, he could have ruled out compulsory redundancies & let departments get on with their planning Instead, we have: “A university is in chaos with no clarity on who is teaching what amid a swathe of job cuts” www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-w...

😂

Nid oes gan ein haelodau unrhyw hyder yn yr Is-ganghellor a'r Prif Swyddog Ariannol. Roedd eu penderfyniad i wario £1.4 miliwn o linell achub ariannol Llywodraeth Cymru ar seilwaith diangen, heb ei gynllunio yn dangos diffyg barn syfrdanol. newyddion.s4c.cymru/article/30355

Our members have no confidence in the VC & CFO, as they pursue the same failed cuts they used against @leicesterucu.bsky.social Spending £1.4 million of additional Welsh Gov funding on unplanned spend while making staff redundant was a disqualifying lack of judgement nation.cymru/news/bangor-...

Just do it already! It was embarrassing that you let him in in the first place.

Vote Labour, get Reform. And that’s probably true even if Labour do get in.

I don’t know when it’s going to pop for a lot of normies that they are living under an authoritarian regime, but the cancellation of popular TV shows that make fun of the administration might do it www.vulture.com/article/abc-...

a good arbiter of how close we are to bad hybrid regime shit is if the political comedy shows start getting pulled for whatever reason

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

The remarks weren’t “about Charlie Kirk,” they were about how this administration is using Kirk’s death as an excuse to shut down critics … and they responded by proving him completely correct.

First past the post is not fit for purpose in this political environment. If democracy is to mean anything, the UK Government must bring in proportional representation so that ALL voters' voices are heard.

Starmer cares more about pandering to the racist narrative pushed by the grifters at Deform

Unlike the joke of a third-world banana republic that is the United States in 2025, Brazil is a functioning democracy with rule of law where criminals are actually held accountable for their actions. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

It has been made very clear by both Kent and Greenwich that we are at the very beginning of discussions. Unions and the wider staff have not yet been consulted - we're told it will happen. Announcing a single UCU branch is, at best, premature, and at worst unhelpful and ill-informed.

I can’t believe senior members of our HEC are glorifying the new ‘super university’ of Greenwich/Kent because ‘there’ll be a big UCU branch’. Whole courses and disciplines will go, PS staff will lose jobs, workloads will spiral. This is a disaster.

BREAKING 🚨 @drjogrady.bsky.social on Greenwich/Kent “merger”: “This isn’t a merger, it’s a takeover. Severe financial pressure is driving this & staff & students are left overlooked, overworked & ignored. Govt must intervene before the crisis in HE worsens.” www.ucu.org.uk/article/1417...

Absolutely astounded that the UCU and Unison branches at Kent and Greenwich were not consulted, and that staff only found out about the merger this morning via BBC news and Kent Online. Solidarity to all colleagues.

HEC's decision to go to an uncertain ballot, costing upwards of £200k, was by 20 votes to 19. Please read the #UCU Commons special report, vote in these casual vacancies, and encourage your colleagues to vote as well. Replacement ballots are here: yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/UCU-Casua...

An update from UCU commons on the HEC decision to run a national strike ballot immediately. The close nature of the vote (19-20) really emphasizes the importance of voting for HEC reps (there’s a ballot out now to vote for new regional reps!). ucucommons.org/2025/09/08/u...

100% this. Slow handclaps everyone on HEC who voted for magic beans being conjured up by a National IA ballot. To those on HEC who tried to say this will predictably sink local action + negotiations, I'm sorry you couldn't win the vote. VOTE @matthewbarnard.phd + Adam Hansen for UCU HEC

Your public service announcement for the day If you are a @ucu.org.uk member and you do not want your union taking stupid decisions, then you need to VOTE in the current casual vacancy election! Please vote for Matt Barnard (UK-wide HE Rep) and Adam Hansen (Northeast HE Rep)!

Full Special HEC report available now. Thanks as ever to our HEC members for preparing and writing them.

For all the gory details, please see our report from the special HEC ucucommons.org/2025/09/08/u...

We lost the vote 20-19 A vote for Matt Barnard (UK-wide HEC rep) and Adam Hansen (Northeast region HEC rep) will allow for a majority on HEC that votes for winnable strategic action If you want to stop HEC from voting for stupid things, please make sure you VOTE in the NEC casual vacancy election

If you insist that only the true believers can ever join, you're going to have a pretty small union, no meaningful funds, and no bargaining power. But hey, you can still cosplay revolution with your friends, so worth it I guess? 🤦‍♂️

We're so proud of our candidate in these casual vacancy elections, @matthewbarnard.phd. Please vote Matt for UK-elected representative when you receive your ballot paper: and if you are in the Northern or Yorkshire and Humber regions, please also vote for Adam Hansen. #ucu

I sent my vote for @matthewbarnard.phd for UCU’s NEC! Please vote for the causal vacancies you are able to vote for. If you are in the NE, I can also recommend Adam Hansen.

If we're down to such a small number of days where solar and wind aren't plentiful, that's plausibly a good point to mop up the last bit of slack very cheaply using behavioural interventions - Demand-Side Response, i.e. turning stuff off www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hi #UCU folks. In advance of Monday's HEC meeting, I've finally finish my massive post about how I approach (in part) the decision to go to ballot. It focuses on how to interpret the 3 consultation events we'e had over the past year. bparsia.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/i...

BEST WIKIPEDIA PAGE EVER: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

Thanks for the plug! The link to our very nefarious and bad intentioned survey is here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The consultative ballot response unfortunately has not given HEC a clear steer. To inform our decision, we are asking @ucu.org.uk members' views on the questions below. If you are a UCU member in HE, we want to hear from you! Please respond to the form below by 5 pm on Friday, 29 August

Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine 🇺🇦

Despite the horror that was inflicted on this family, their strength of conviction in ensuring that the tragedy of their daughter's senseless murder is not hijacked for spreading more hate and poison in our communities is awe-inspiring.

This is the kind of hate and poison that Reform are spreading in our communities. Targeting children based on the colour of their skin is vile. Anyone who participated in or incited this incident should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. news.sky.com/story/angry-...

#UCU members please vote in the consultative ballot, the unique voting link is in your inboxes I voted to reject the offer and voted NO on industrial action, for the reasons mentioned by Bijan Also, as a branch balloting locally on jobs, a simultaneous UK-wide ballot will impede our local ballot

NEW: Our report from the first HEC of the 2025–26 formation, held on 4 July 2025, is now on our blog. ucucommons.org/2025/07/16/h...

No amount of obsequious bootlicking is going to help you win with Trump. If you want to win, you need to win through strength, like China did a few months ago. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

We also will not stand for what appear to be pre-determined decisions being rushed through under the guise of a "consultation" nation.cymru/news/staff-a...

Staff and students at Bangor University deserve better than a chaotic and rushed consultation that was full of mistakes 88% of staff voted YES to strike, because our members know a joke of a process when they see one, with decisions having been made long beforehand nation.cymru/news/staff-a...

Listening to my amazing friend @choochod.bsky.social giving his first ever update to UCU's HEC as @ucuscotpresident.bsky.social. So proud of this amazing human.

While the world's focus is on Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran, here's a reminder that the genocide in Gaza is still underway. news.sky.com/story/at-lea...

THREAD: Reform are as happy as can be. Why? Because Labour have chosen to fight them on their preferred battlefield - immigration - rather than on Brexit, something that would be very awkward for Reform to defend given the prevailing negative mood in the country about our decision to leave the EU.

I can't even put into words my absolute contempt for the bloodthirsty violent genocidal imperialists of Israel and the United States and our hypocritical, guilty, pathetic British running dogs. I mean what else to say? The situation is just a mire of grotesque hypocrisy and you feel so powerless

i think these professional antivaxxers are literally demonic www.bbc.com/news/article...

Just a reminder that the Edinburgh redundancies are, to all evidence, ones purely of choice. They are not cash strapped or likely to be. They just aren’t making as much surplus as they’d like.

Look, Britain is always going to support the US but this is an absolutely nonsense statement. Iran didn't leave the negotiation table. Israel launched an unprovoked attack which America has now joined.