How do you know this is Labour?

Disgusting (though not surprising) to see Biggar and the Spectator publishing these completely unjustified smears of colleagues at the Uni of Sussex. Sending solidarity @alanlester.bsky.social

“Is Self-Affection Relational? On Reflexivity and Difference” Ellie Anderson (Pomona College. Overthink Podcast) at The Laboratory for Phenomenological Research - Online guest lecture. Thursday, February 26, 2026 www.thebsp.org.uk/2026/02/24/i...

What I find so fascinating about this is that they've stopped pretending that the nuclear family, and heterosexuality, are 'natural'. They've acknowledged that their maintenance requires significant social and policy intervention.

POLISCI.BMF

Some people have left, but we’ve not had a single compulsory redundancy and will continue to fight against any plans to further reduce the exceptional and necessary research and teaching all of us do. And we will outlive these management vandals, who have no vision for the future of our university

The final #ucu VP hustings question asks whether we need a national campaign to defend the sector. Of course we do, but it can’t be just tacked onto a pay dispute as HEC voted to do last year, despite the evidence it wouldn’t work. Focus, strategy, creativity and unity. That’s what’s needed.

Please make sure you fill out and post your ballots for the #ucu elections, whoever you choose to vote for. I especially support @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social for VP for HE and FE respectively, and myself and the other fine people in the flyer.

If you haven’t voted in the NEC elections yet, please do. Helpful voting hints in the post below. Cheers!

Thank you Lisa. And, to confirm, yes I do indeed have excellent cats

Want to access a list of awesome folks like these? Check out ucucommons.org/election26/

3/3 and then we come to @profalexp.bsky.social who came SO CLOSE to election a couple of seasons ago. Really rooting for Alex to bring his insightful radical passion to benefit members across UCU. Interrogating the arguments so we win important advances. 👏🏼

2/3 Next up, the mighty @drgillhistory.bsky.social who I've had the pleasure of being alongside at several Equality conferences seeing her do the good + hard work of being firm about inclusion + support for all our sisters. Gill will bring her wealth of experience at the OU to benefit all ❤️

🧵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)

Ah, surprise, surprise. Our VC's second job at a UoE spin-off *is* paid after all. We'd like to know since when, and why his SFC declaration of interests has only recently been updated. www.theferret.scot/edinburgh-jo...

*AT A UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFF*??? How is that legal? He makes decisions that impact the resources (financial or otherwise) that that spin-off benefits from.

Please make sure you fill out and post your ballots for the #ucu elections, whoever you choose to vote for. I especially support @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social for VP for HE and FE respectively, and myself and the other fine people in the flyer.

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...

Extra elections mailout! All VP candidate hustings videos are now on the UCU website. I do recommend watching. We've divided Mark's video into shorter ones, plus added transcripts so you can read if you prefer! If you haven't yet, please vote for Mark, Suzi and our amazing slate. #UCU

This was a smart move from Vivek to keep this alive, after a (too short) debate. On March 6, HEC are due to have a renewed discussion on how to move this forward. I’ll be arguing for a deeper discussion with branches and members, who should be in the driving seat on strategy (unlike last year).

I used an early word processor to type my English essays at school and had to sign a declaration that I hadn't used the spell-checker (because that would be cheating). My teacher also had to vouch for me.

Very glad Vivek is correcting these false claims. On HEC we were given a choice: either the IA ballot or the SoS dispute, as we could not pursue both at the same time. At the last HEC, Vivek was the one to stop the SoS dispute being abandoned, and Commons voted to remit it to the next meeting.

Enough with the outright lies.

A UCU NEC rep has written a post with false claims. Let me set the record straight. 1. I am in @ucucommons.org & I've been a strong backer of the Sec of State dispute. I spoke in favour of it at Congress & against UCU Left amendments that would have gutted it. UCUL are ambivalent at best about it.

It’s also worth pointing out that concerns about new ICT being cheating machines have been levied with every advancement since the 1980s. Turnitin (and grammarly, in its defence) quelled the concerns about “copy and paste plagiarism”. LLMs made surveillance impossible. The anxiety is back. 1/7

But as @matthewbarnard.phd pointed out, Word has Co-pilot built in (much to my endless frustration) and we don't call Word a 'cheating machine'

'Penalise' how?

Full recordings of the #ucu VP hustings will (I think) be up this week, but with the voting deadline looming I’m going to be posting my clips myself over the next few days. First, some introductory comments in two short clips (2 mins each). More about me also at: ucucommons.org/mark4vp/

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

My favorite exchange on Twitter in the history of the site

dear media, Jim Ratcliffe’s far-right language does not mean it’s a green light for a phone-in asking ‘is he right?’ it’s the moment to call out his use of far-right language

I feel almost like a grown up academic this year. I haven’t done invited talks for a few years but this year I’m off to Newcastle, Galway, Sussex and Malta

No

☞ ☞ ☞ the index finger is a pointing gesture to be found in manuscript and print traditions. It was used to draw the reader's attention to a certain part of a text or image. This slow-moving thread highlight a few of them:

Ballot finally arrived and posted! Voted for UCU Commons members and friends @markpendleton.bsky.social @drgillhistory.bsky.social @matthewbarnard.phd @profalexp.bsky.social, plus @suzitoole.bsky.social for VP FE plus independents! #ucu

And here comes the nationalistic pronatalism. People with wombs are mere vessels.

My #UCU NEC ballot paper arrived! Voted for @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social obviously plus a bunch of other @ucucommons.org and independent candidates at the list below.

LOVE THIS! ctan.math.illinois.edu/graphics/pgf... "This package provides an essential feature to LATEX that has been missing for too long. It adds a coffee stain to your documents. A lot of time can be saved by printing stains directly on the page rather than adding them manually."

You know it’s bad out there when the shift from late Roman Republican to Imperial portrait busts make you audibly sigh with recognition in the galleries.

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!

This May, I step down from UCU's NEC as Women's Rep (HE) after six years' service (as is mandatory). I can't think of anyone better to hand the baton to as women's reps than @drgillhistory.bsky.social and Poppy Gerrard-Abbott, both of whom have been fab on our Women Members' Standing Committee. /1

This is really interesting. I will note that there’s a pretty big gap between 5% (at least doubling the 2.5% offer) and the 26% ask (albeit over several years). Also interesting is the union rep’s repeated insistence that there’s no plan to go on strike.

Fifteen years ago on this very day, I made this low quality photoshop of a photo I took in 2002, and somehow it became a meme. You’re welcome.

Really helpful thread getting into the complexities of LLM energy usage. LLMs energy usage is concerning, but the situation is more nuanced than is often given credit. This lets the vendors off the hook. If a sustainable LLMs are possible, we must demand that *all* LLMs be sustainable.

I’d just like to remind my fellow #ucu folks that when many campaigners say “vote on the left” or “vote for left aligned candidates” they mean specifically “UCULeft”. This sort of redefining of words is terribly annoying. UCULeft is a SWP flavoured leftism. If that’s your bag, great.

Just a quick note to @greenparty.org.uk and @greenpartyhan.bsky.social - I was not consulted on being quoted on your leaflets and I have not endorsed your campaign (or any campaign in this seat). I think this note, like the bar chart next to it, is misleading and out of context.

This from my fellow departmental #ucu rep Anna means a lot. We have been through the wringer in recent years but we built power through a focus on unity, organising and empowerment, doubling density in the process. We can do the same in UCU nationally. ucucommons.org/endorsements...

Also, maybe don't use this as an excuse to cut courses and programs that are currently profitable? And make faculty who bring in research funds redundant? Seems, I don't know, obvious? #stopthecuts #savehe #UCU #UoNUCU #UON #UniversityOfNottingham

A good response. We have to stand with our trans siblings. I'm white, cis gendered, female presenting, middle class, educated and awash with privilege. Pin your flags to the mast here. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️