Really good piece on Manchester's development success (TL;DR Burnham had little to do with it). I'd add - the BBC moving to Salford and Eamonn Boylan - Stockport's equivalent of Bernstein. Those two between them and Leese How Manchester Turned Its Economy Around open.substack.com/pub/jamesbre...

He couldn't even end neoliberalism in Manchester www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

My life's ambition is to have an ego the size of Burnham's.

As long as it's not his children ...

Manchester and Salford are two different places 🙄

Enjoying reading how little commentators know about Burnham & (Greater) Manchester. Best piece I've read is Jennifer Williams FT article www.ft.com/content/9dd4... btl comments illustrate why Andy will find Westminster very different from GM & that's if he can win Makerfield (fwiw I think he won't)

If Burnham’s the solution I’d rather Starmer just carried on.

total coincidence I was watching this last night

There are three types of economist in this world: those who can count, and those who can't.

Coincidentally, the number of staff currently at risk of redundancy (2700) at the University of Nottingham is the same as the number of jobs at risk at British Steel. Yesterday, the govt said they aren't neutral on job losses & so pledged to save those steel jobs. Watch as they blithely ignore HE.

It's almost as if Smith doesn't really understand why universities are so keen on 'bums on seats'. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/smith-t...

that tacking right strategy seems to be really effective 🤔

A UK university satellite campus next to the site the German Army surrendered Breslau in 1945. I may need to think about what that means for a while

In random life events I am staying at the same hotel as the exploited

Wait till he finds out which government introduced school targets for GCSEs and primary tests 🙄 www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Started messing with LLM as a search tool. Could it identify EBRD employees and their university education? looking for socialisation patterns relations, etc. not wholly convinced with the accuracy of the list 🤔

And season 1 of The Pitt had been so good 🙄

Probably time to get some solar panels up on the roof?

This is out in the wild a little sooner than I'd anticipated! If you don't have institutional access - 50 free eprints here www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZFHUM... or just email me.

I hope you all celebrated Good Friday in the traditional manner youtu.be/AGm2dvRK7Uw?...

Academic year 2025-26 has been rather stressful so it was nice to be reminded why I started all this in the first place: research. Thanks to two great referees (peer review not broken) & anyone who sat through me trying to make sense of babayagas looming over cityscapes & tanks in fields.

Finally found a house that matches our Robin Day chairs 😆 themodernhouse.com/sales-list/f...

Every time I think things can't get worse ... the 51st state 🙄 www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

nominative determinism www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Who's been reading Alami and Dixon, then?

Extraordinary piece of social history from the BBC archive about Manchester. Plus ça change ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0SO...

Traumatised that this is 40 years old today. youtu.be/gFdxkb-MbJQ?...

a pretty fair piece on the VC as well as the wider struggles all UK HE is facing from the @manchestermill.bsky.social manchestermill.co.uk/why-the-hell...

we can but hope joelgouveia.substack.com/p/the-death-...

Manchester Political Economy Centre & Global Political Economy Research Cluster seminar 4th March 3:30-5pm: Simon 5.04 All welcome Heloise Weber (University of Queensland) Anti-colonial struggles and the politics of organizing structural injustice: Critique of the ‘Right to Development’

The next Global Policy North Workshop will be hosted by the Centre for Global Law and Governance at the University of St Andrews 24-25 June 2026. Call for papers in the attached but TL;DR version ... if you're working on global governance/policy you'll find it interesting!

"But student finance isn’t broken. It is doing exactly what it was designed to do: protect inherited advantage while shifting risk onto those with the least" www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/02/24/s...

Labour are totally asleep at the wheel with regard to university funding, student loans, regional economies, and seem to have little sense of the electoral implications of that.

Bloody hell they were brilliant.

and I was having a difficult time getting a journal R&R to 10,000 from 11,479

This will cheer all my academic colleagues up no end ... the excellent @gsoh31.bsky.social on the equally excellent @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast open.spotify.com/episode/3uWt...

is it being racist that helps you become a billionaire, or does being a billionaire help turn you racist?

I guess the mistake is to assume they would somehow play by the rules (and laws) manchestermill.co.uk/exclusive-re...

These proposed changes are horrifying and this government needs to stop even considering them. If you have a moment (and live in the UK), please fill this out!

Can't wait until they find out why the original sunken gardens were redesigned in the first place 🙄 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I didn't think I could like the @manchestermill.bsky.social any more than I already do. Is it possible to be petty and important simultaneously? If you live or work in and around Manchester you should be reading the Mill manchestermill.co.uk/why-the-mill...

Stuart's 25 from 25 open.spotify.com/playlist/2y7...

Man believes own publicity 🤯

My local team at it again

I think he means the UK economy is no longer a passport to social mobility ... www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Ministers set to lay out details for ‘Northern Powerhouse’ rail scheme in new year www.ft.com/content/d62f...

Can't imagine what inspired them to change the name www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Given the state of the world, here’s a picture of the dog to cheer you all up

'Until now, research funding has been the story of nudges toward the things government wants through bodies it influences but does not control, and through setting the legal and reporting guardrails for...QR. This is now going to significantly change.'