As the Smiths didn’t quite say: 🎵Ban the vox pop, Ban the vox pop, Ban the vox pop, Ban the vox pop🎵

How low will Farage go. Police say this was an interrupted burglary by a 26 year old white British male. And the police probably thought they had to spell that out in the certain knowledge Farage would do what he’s just done…because it’s always about HIM.

Does that include universities?

The danger of using voxpops in place of real analysis. Cameras are a magnet for motivated activists. These two made it into four different reels + a dozen print pieces. The illusion is that we're getting an insight into "Clacton voters". In truth, we just know what Farage Megastans Jim & June think.

It is no bad thing if from time to time an "extraordinary person" gets into the House of Commons

Hydration Break #FraMar

“In a letter to the Office for Students, which distributes the funding, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said funding should no longer be given to support nursing, computing, history, creative arts, performing arts, archaeology, and geography courses.” removepaywalls.com/https://www....

Me and @whyoutloud.bsky.social, in 2024, on fringe candidates - a tradition long before the binman commeth. www.politicshome.com/thehouse/art...

The UK has now said it will actively harm or damage: *Chemistry *Nursing *High-end physics *Languages *Astronomy *Creative arts *Theatre and performance *Cultural industries *Europe-level science The UK has lost its mind. 🇬🇧

Andy Burnham will potentially become PM on 20 July and do a first PMQs or statement in the HoC in September, after about 2 months (as @aliceolilly.bsky.social @danielgover.bsky.social @philipjcowley.bsky.social have pointed out). How does this look historically post-1945? Quite unusual! 🧵 1/

A handful of universities are determined to destroy all the others. It's that simple. That would end the Burnham regionalism agenda before it'd even got going. Unfortunately, no-one even seems to know this and our governance structures are so pitifully weak there's not even anyone to tell.

Cutting off consistently profitable and celebrated lines of British expertise seems like a great use of government. Lovely stuff.

You can't help but wonder what young people are expected to do with their lives. They can't all go and work in finance and law.

Crazy how much money the arts is worth to the British economy, how much we excel in the field on a global level, and how it is treated with total contempt by every government of my adult life.

This is nonsense. The (tiny) tuition fee rise seen so far is massively offset by over a decade of real terms cuts. Adjusting for inflation tuition fees are lower now than a decade ago - when the teaching grant was much larger.

Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em (1973-8)

This. Is. England.

'A school leaver in Barnstaple weighing up what to study this autumn can reach eight subject areas within 25 miles of home – three years ago it was 15. Their counterpart in London faces no such arithmetic, and that gap is the problem.' (Wonkhe Monday Briefing, accompanying Jim Dickinson's blog) 1/2

Absolute banter outcome if this ends up running past 5am and pubs are chucking people out during extra time

This would be quite a Starmer moment.

Taps post.

I think this applies to our government too. Stop picking on artists. We’re the ones who can put on a show for you. Make your shambles look slick. Keep us on side, you twats.

What a fitting end for Neymar…shit talking the goalkeeper who won the game for his team while you score a consolation penalty

I loved doing this. We talked at length about 1968, the Kinks, the Beatles and the Chris Shakespeare Globe Show. God save @chrisshaweditor.bsky.social for preserving the old ways from being abused. 🙏

Good job there aren’t massive cuts to humanities departments that threaten the viability of these fields of study

I would kill or die for Larry

I think it would be a fitting way for us to observe the 250th anniversary of American independence if we completely ignored what the occupant of the White House thinks about our ministerial appointments 😊

‘We urge the Government to prioritise this issue. Should this situation continue unchecked, the damage to the health of higher education, research and innovation will be profound and have long-lasting consequences.’ www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/stateme...

Government stats that the government doesn't seem to read 🙄

A column that offers both high levels of pedantry and free tips for a healthy marriage:

Me, for @thehousemag.bsky.social, on Rivals, non-rakish sports ministers, and who gets to meet ministers www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Oh, now suddenly people notice! Absurd, pathetic. It's been going on for years. Wait until the Big Names suddenly piling in see what happens next - and where it happens. Serious failure of journalism on almost every front of the university crisis. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

And yet we get told that arts and Humanities don't matter in "the real world" or have no capacity of real income generation

I am very glad to see how widely covered the insanity at Exeter is, but please I beg everyone, understand this is happening EVERYWHERE in UK universities. If people care about anything valuable that this sector does or contributes too, they need to get loud, now.

Today is the day for discovering that, in 1981, Tim Rice added lyrics to an instrumental track from the 'McCartney' album and gave it to Noosha Fox to sing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vmD...

Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed

When will we focus on the life chances of our world-leading higher education sector who are currently on their knees due to a series of boneheaded decisions?

In case you missed it last night, BBC4's extraordinary "Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky" (The Firebird in this case, with the New Philharmonia, in September 1965) is available on the iPlayer for another month.

When Nottingham, Exeter, and Glasgow are making cuts, the entire sector is dying. Well done to successive governments for killing one of the few sectors that combines local economies and global influence.

This is fantastic

This is very good by @philipjcowley.bsky.social on how prime ministerial transitions are getting longer. We are likely to get a new PM just in time for parliament’s summer recess. This seems to be part of a pattern of politician decision making getting slower - in an ever-faster media environment…

Highly enjoyable (and palpably correct) piece by @philipjcowley.bsky.social:

I am surprised not to hear more complaints about this.

"Let’s get on with it." Well, quite. Nature abhors a vacuum and all that.

‘Universities that aren’t fully committed to arts and humanities as a flourishing part of their science offering aren’t committing to the future.’ @christophersmith.bsky.social anatomiesofpower.wordpress.com/2026/06/28/w...

Love these historical comparisons in @philipjcowley.bsky.social’s FT column on the Burnham transition giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

That's from this piece, which is full of great quotes. bsky.app/profile/jess...

Me, in the FT on the St Augustine transition in premiers. Also ft Harold Macmillan reading Pride and Prejudice and a reluctant Lord Melbourne. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...