Reading Graeber on bullying, so good for thinking with: 'Bullying creates a moral drama in which the manner of the victim’s reaction to an act of aggression can be used as retrospective justification for the original act of aggression itself.' theanarchistlibrary.org/library/davi...

I've voted in #ucu elections, have you? Last chance to post your ballot! If you'd like a better UCU (the one we have is sometimes pretty dreadful), please vote for @markpendleton.bsky.social @suzitoole.bsky.social and the list here: ucucommons.org/who-else-sho...

And that’s my #ucu ballot in the post! A reminder: these do need to be at the Civiva head office by 5pm on Monday 2 March. Get them in the post by this coming Thursday to make sure they arrive!

Yes!! Just a few days left to get those ballots posted. And if you need a new one order it right NOW. #ucu yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/UCU-elect...

The inevitable next stage of academic publishers profiting from academics' work is here - scraping it for AI then charging subscriptions for access to the AI summaries, and then again for the citations. Academic content assetization as we called it in a recent paper. www.science.org/content/arti...

The suburban villas of Leith are elegant and grand, With accommodation that might suit the greatest lady in the land; And the air is pure and good for the people's health,— And health, I'm sure, is better by far than wealth.

🧵1/3 Giving a special shout out to our wonderful @ucucommons.org candidates - all people putting in the hard graft for UCU members. Matt joined HEC recently + it would be great to continue having his wisdom contributing to our union strategy. Vote @matthewbarnard.phd (owner of excellent cats)

It is a vile scandal that 2 of the biggest AI companies in the world attack children by inciting them to self-harm, and by generating sexually exploitative imagery of kids for profit. I wanted to document this so that people in tech will stop saying they don't know: www.anildash.com/2026/02/18/t...

Hi #UCU folks, Moving quite slowly these days due to various health issues, but here's my NEC/VP election post: bparsia.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/u... Please please please vote for @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social for the VPs.

Basically yes to Bijan's blog post. If you've doubts about maximalist demands and maximalist recommendations for action as UCU strategies at this time in UK HE, please realize NEC elections are really important to this and please vote for the @ucucommons.org slate and the candidates they endorse.

Hustings videos for the #UCU elections are up. Both UCU Left candidates clearly state they are members of the Socialist Workers' Party, which won't be a shock to anyone in the know. In more positive news, check out Mark and Suzi's videos here! www.ucu.org.uk/article/1419...

the people pushing this bullshit, including those who claim to be on the left, are basically trying to enforce a tech version of TINA (“there is no alternative”): there’s only Silicon Valley’s version of digital technology, or none at all. don’t dare consider there could be another path.

Blimey. Looks like Matt Goodwin, who seems to think the Handmaid's Tale is an instruction manual, is in the pay of an Orban think tank, funded by Russian oil money.

Yet again the fees regime - so eagerly embraced by university management - returns to bite us on the arse. Fees for HE are retrograde shite, universities should have fought this, not welcomed it, and the pain will end up - yet again - being borne by staff put, as usual, in an impossible position.

‘Journalists describe how far-right actors have used the mass media outlets to appear moderate to the wider public.’ ‘The party [AfD] seeks to exert pressure on media outlets with the ultimate aim of controlling them’ #noplatform

Our national museums are full of amazing people doing great work. I’ve seen so much exceptional work done by grassroots workers. Those who govern them, however, have long since lost their moral compasses (if they ever had them).

Professor @sarasilverstein.bsky.social is someone to whom I listen on issues of health and history. This essay helps us to situate the present American health drama in the history of health care, and thereby to see much more clearly what we face. snyder.substack.com/p/consumptiv...

Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon. Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.

“The #BBCWorldService costs less than the upkeep of one tank,” Prof Jean Seaton, BBC Official Historian. So in the midst of a disinformation #war with #Russia and #China, etc, there’s no visible govt plan to fund WS 7 weeks from its money running out - even for the price of running 1 tank.

Here’s Nick Hillman nonchalantly admitting the student loan plan 2 system was put together while they were flopping around in giant clown shoes. Enraging. Deeply unserious, dangerous people. #UCU web.archive.org/web/20260213...

Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

The other day Manchester United’s co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said the UK had been "colonised by immigrants"….today there’s this billboard outside of Old Trafford 🔥….way to go Manchester 💪!

If Matt Goodwin is serious about his concerns that women are delaying motherhood, he should demand: - Better employment security for women - Better maternity rights - Better maternity pay - Free or at least affordable childcare - Equal pay for women - Equal pensions for women

Has anyone told Matt, and Reform, that The Handmaids Tale wasn't meant to be an instruction manual?

This all needs to be publicised as widely, persistently & loudly as possible. And anyone in Universities who thinks they should ‘stay out of politics’ needs to realise that politics isn’t staying out of you. You’re being targeted. You’re involved whether you like it or not.

Mr Goodwin also appeared to agree with the host’s claim that universities have become hotbeds of “politically correct authoritarianism” because they are full of “childless women”. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Oh look! We’re talking about immigration again! Instead of corruption money & pedos permeating our politics! 🤩 Brilliant! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZk...

Jim Ratcliffe is best known as the unpopular Manchester United owner and today he has been in the news for saying that 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants'. We need to understand Ratcliffe's as an energy billionaire who made his power and money by closing workplaces and opposing unions 🧵

"A conservative network led by Michael Gove and Nigel Farage’s senior adviser James Orr has spent more than half a million pounds pushing far-right and anti-trans voices – some of it fuelled by profits from Russian oil."

Newsletter #9! #UCU Featuring @markpendleton.bsky.social's VP election campaign updates, news from Essex & Northumbria disputes, @hagenilda.bsky.social on casualisation, @sophisteria.bsky.social on Scotland @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the research/teaching divide! ucucommons.org/ucu-commons-...

It's the second week of voting in the #UCU elections. Is your ballot lurking on the kitchen table? Still getting carried around in your bag? Get it in a postbox and have your voice heard. Of course I'd be grateful if you voted for me but it's more important that you vote! www.suzitooleforvp.com

First 'super-university' ?🤣 This is something cooked up in the PR & comms dept It distracts from the real problems: systemic underfunding, declining international enrolment & government policy that’s turned UK universities into ultra-precarious businesses www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century. He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times.

I wrote a piece for the CDBU blog with some low or no cost things our employers could do right now if they care about precarious staff as much as they say they do.

Excellent piece on casualisation from @hagenilda.bsky.social cdbu.org.uk/our-employer...

MAGA: “But I don’t understand Spanish.” China: pronounces every lyric perfectly 😭 Bad Bunny dropped an album in January2025 and now the world is learning Spanish for fun. Culture travels faster than complaints. 💃🌍 #BadBunnyBowl

This week at Group Threat, I spoke with @grundrza.bsky.social about Florida's censorship regime, teaching under authoritarianism, and how folks are coping (or not).

As a good member of @ucu.org.uk I have posted my ballot papers for the current NEC elections. I fully endorse this slate of candidates including @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social for the vice president positions in HE and FE. Please vote if you are a member - it really matters!

We are deciding right now whether we want to be a country with ethnic cleansing and concentration camps.

Will the axe fall on those who made this daft short sighted and dreadful financial decision? Of course not. The chop will come for teaching and support staff who actually bring value to the institution. Mind boggling! www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.

"LLMs do not improve one’s writing ability much like taking a taxi does not improve one’s driving ability." This is an academic paper against AI, so caveat emptor, but it lays out the reasons against adopting AI as inevitable or even desirable, and pulls no punches. zenodo.org/records/1706...

Really good reporting, let's see more of this kind of thing www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

This is just straight up revenge from a racist, frankly fascist, administration which thinks it is above the law. They don't like that they were called out, so now want to take out their microdick insecurity by persecuting a five year old. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/u...

Time for university administrators to stop buying AI hype. None of my very smart and eager-to-learn students wanted anything to do with chatbots.

A huge turnout of staff, students and community members against the proposed closure of the Uni of Essex campus in Southend. Thanks to @ucuessex.bsky.social for the invitation to speak about what’s happening at Sheffield - your fight is our fight! And solidarity for your picket lines next week!

👉NEW VIDEO -- Jury frees Palestine activists who smashed Israeli arms factory Six protesters have been found not guilty of aggravated burglary at an Elbit weapons site. We were at Woolwich Crown Court where family and friends celebrated the result👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0vl...

Not just a university restructure but a coastal town losing its future. Rally tomorrow, 12–1pm, The Forum, Elmer Square, Southend (SS1 1NS). Be there.

I'm not sure people appreciate quite what a blow to Starmer's government the acquittal of the Palestine Action protestors is. It both blows apart the whole proscription idea and demonstrates how out of touch they are. This was a jury. Juries represent the public.