Reread this short guide to responding to fascism in higher ed this morning. I have very mixed feelings about how increasingly resonant it is proving to be, but also I hope it will prove helpful and maybe comforting as we watch current events unfold. halperta.com/shalperta%20...

All of the unions in Hollywood should immediately boycott Disney/ABC. They only care about money, so go after that.

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Found Some nice new decorations on campus today

Hi #UCU, A reminder that the @ucu.org.uk equality conferences are coming up! If you are disabled, please consider registering for the Disabled Members conference. It's hybrid and should be fun! Also consider going for Disabled Members Standing Committee! www.ucu.org.uk/disannual?ut...

The United States is now North Korea, only with nukes that work and grocery stores full of food, but only if you have the money to buy it.

Pretty clear illustration of "you may as well stand up for what you believe in, they're coming for you anyway."

Dam been writing a book about this and she just TikToked it in 90 seconds.

Probably the most influential & absurd lie in recent British history: the idea that white people will enjoy a better quality of life only if brown & black people can be prevented from crossing the channel to seek asylum.

Dear UK, Just wanted to let you know that you don’t, in fact, have to take immigration advice from Donald Trump.

STEWART: “Comedy doesn’t change the world, but it’s a bellwether— we’re the banana peel in the coal mine… authoritarians are the threat to comedy, music, art, thought… progress.” Nailed it.

Education is the enemy of fascism.

The TUC has called for extra legal protections for trans people following the Supreme Court ruling

WATCH: Zarah Sultana brings a packed room in Newcastle to its feet During a Majority Party event, Zarah Sultana energised people even more with bold statements and promises. www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...

2 Texas A&M Administrators and Professor Out After Viral Video Video circulated by Texas state representative shows student accusing English professor of teaching material related to gender identity and violating Trump’s executive orders. https://bit.ly/3JTlONz

"My school saves thousands of pounds every year from those solar panels." The TUC directly takes on Reform, a party funded by the fossil fuel Industry. Posted on IG by tradesunioncongress

"We will police the streets and not the tweets" says Nigel Farage, who previously demanded the police arrest a comedian for making a joke about him

On the same day in the Telegraph:

Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell. Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass. That, right there, is the problem.

Since this is apparently a resigning matter, I’ll just leave this here… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

“Farage claimed last year to have “bought a house” in his constituency but the property is actually owned in the name of his partner, meaning he legally avoided higher-rate stamp duty on the purchase of an additional home – given he already owns other properties” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is a huge story. Don't let him get away with it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The visit didn't go well for Farage leftfootforward.org/2025/09/nige...

Iconic moment at the Downton Abbey premiere

Labour could have made the case for a humane immigration system that treats refugees with dignity and respect. Instead, they have fanned the flames of racism and emboldened the far-right. My piece for @tribunemagazine www.tribunemag.co.uk/2025/09/labour-is-paving-the-path-to-fascism

I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.

Where has this ludicrous ECHR "debate" even come from. I've never once met an ordinary member of the public who's said to me, "Do you know what? We REALLY need to leave the ECHR." It's just a new right wing talking point because every other shit idea they've foisted on us has run out of steam.

Look at this graph. The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened. This is why we must build back union power.

Durham Council cutting Pride funding is a clear attack on equality. 📢 UCU GS @drjogrady.bsky.social "Equality is won through struggle. In these dvisive times, we must stand together" Fundraiser: 5 Sept, 6.30pm, Redhills Miners’ Hall Tickets → tr.ee/yY3tYB

GB News isn’t really a news channel at all – it’s a factory for rightwing propaganda, where accuracy and integrity go out the window. goodlawproject.org/gb-news-the-...

LAWLESS BRITAIN? New Byline Times has gone to press on the authoritarian forces – here & abroad – driving this narrative 👇 "Anti-Britain propaganda is clearly working... Where is Starmer's vision of this green, pleasant & multicultural land?" (Sonia Purnell) In shops / subscribe.bylinetimes.com

📺 🔍 INVESTIGATION 🔎 📺 We’ve looked at a year’s worth of the rightwing TV channel’s output and uncovered unhealthy obsessions that paint a distorted picture of modern Britain. Take a deep dive into the looking-glass world of GB News: goodlaw.social/p1uq

The threat to our society is not from asylum seekers in small boats. It’s from politicians and media cynically whipping up fear and prejudice, labelling them all as criminals, inciting hatred against people for where and what they’ve fled from. It must stop. For all our sakes. It’s deeply sinister.

I am so sick and tired of seeing MPs and the media shit themselves over refugees arriving in small boats over the channel. If your initial reaction to seeing these boats is anything other than “those poor bastards, I hope they make it across” then you have failed as a human being.

Automated systems are “a complete and utter nightmare” for university staff, exacerbating rather than easing administrative burdens by trapping academics in a logjam of service requests, Australian survey finds www.timeshighereducation.com/news/automat...

Must be This Nation's Saving Grace. Or Hex Induction Hour. You decide.

No one sums up the utter shamelessness of the British press and the ugly politics of Farage quite like Private Eye.

Still, if it gets you in Vogue, eh?

And staff losses/churn and hotdesking make academics anonymous to students too...

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts. The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative. Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

The situation in many UK universities is awful, but the news coming out of Lancaster is especially bad: 1/4 jobs to go, with senior management either leaving or not taking a pay cut. Please sign and share this petition to support colleagues there: chng.it/X6g46TjMSC

Skegness, one of your absolute finest people right here. Buy her a drink whenever you see her.

This was astonishing

Cutting "red tape" (aka public protections), as Reeves is doing, does not save money. Instead, it transfers costs from the rich to the poor. Other people pay for financial recklessness, filthy rivers, air pollution, lax building standards and consumer rip-offs. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...