Christmas Eve meal prepped for the oven for later; and plan of action for tomorrow done and on the fridge waiting for the off. Christmas, bring it on!

Overheard on a train, a continuing series. "We don’t need the females names, or east versus west, etc etc. Maybe as a PS? All I’m trying to say is that you have to have it written down. They’re just making it unnecessarily complicated because it's to their advantage. So we need to keep it simple."

Overheard, on a train (No. Something of Many) “I’m a train driver. I’m not just going to ‘choo-choo’ every time I’m walking. Actually, I might do. That could be a thing. So why’s he rapping all the time? We know, you’re a rapper. You don’t have to do it all the time.”

Commute soundtrack this morning Gavin Bryar’s Jesus’ love never failed me. A while since I last listened to it, but still can’t decide whether it’s heartbreaking, hopeful or both.

Thinking about the current crisis engulfing the BBC I was reminded of an email I sent a Radio 4 prog in 2016 suggesting a conversation on differing practices and ethics in the use of speech in 'direct quotations' between media and academic professions. Some thoughts here: medium.com/@mikejenning...

Is aid dead? A few thoughts on my (much neglected) blog reflecting on conversations I'm sure we're all having with colleagues and & those engaged in global development. tl;dr - nope, it's not. But crisis may offer a moment for change. mikejennings101.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/t...

In my somewhat tired state at this time in the morning, I just wrote out 'applehood and mother pie' in a lecture note. I think I prefer it.

I rescued a goat today. Not saying I deserve a British Hero award, or a peerage or anything. But it did appear quite grateful and had a look that said it would have nominated me if it had been able to.

I didn’t go to a listening party for yesterday’s big new album release, and haven’t been following the media frenzy. But having listened multiple times since Friday, and again this morning, I can confirm Ninebarrow’s new album is fantastic. No view on anything else that might have been released.

In a good piece in @theguardian.com on autism/paracetamol bad science, the implicit criticism of RFK jr for saying 'epidemic' ("better reserved for infectious disease outbreaks") would have more bite if the paper didn't often use it itself. eg 'loneliness epidemic', 'vaping epidemic', etc

Apple Maps has all the regional subtlety of an Andy Burnham speech. For the record, Apple Maps, the M3 is NOT in the “direction of the Midlands”. Harrumph.

I'm fine with getting reminders to respond to journal review applications. But I got one on Friday , and then the reminder on Sunday! This doesn't make me more likely to agree to do the review. And don't send reminders on a weekend. I don't check emails anyway over weekends, but still...

I'm one of the guests talking about the impact of aid cuts on @bbcworldservice.bsky.social podcast The Inquiry (along with three other great guests: Harvard's CID Fatema Z Sumar, George Ingram from the Brookings Institution, & Edinburgh's Francisca Mutapi. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

One of our former @soasdevelopment.bsky.social students, @jyotirsondhi.bsky.social has written on aid from and to India in the context of the attack on USAID. It's a great read, and you can find it here: thewire.in/world/us-shu...

The aid tap is being turned off - USAID is suspended, and the UK is moving funds to defence. What happens to those who depend on this assistance? Phil Dobbie and I hear from @mikejennings101.bsky.social @soasuni.bsky.social whycurve.com/episode/aid-...

Thanks for inviting me on - it was an interesting (and important) conversation.

I was invited by @phildobbie.bsky.social & Roger Hearing to chat about the state of development aid at a point of crisis on their The Why Curve podcast. Interesting conversation, and hopefully addressed a few issues of importance around aid in the episode out now. whycurve.com/episode/aid-...

Latest Why Curve podcast looks at dev aid in a Trumpian world with a guest appearance from me! Always fun to hear one's verbal tics. But I had fun recording & hopefully an interesting conversation on the state of development aid right now. You can judge for yourself. whycurve.com/episode/aid-...

I’ve been re-reading Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical on development for a project, and reminded just how radical it has remained (or how far the world has moved in the opposite direction perhaps)?

I think it's a law now that all academics must pen at least one opinion piece on the latest Trumpian lunacy, & here's mine for @theconversation.com. I look at the cancellation of Pepfar programmes & the implications of destroying it. theconversation.com/trump-is-can...

Ah, the 1st sign of spring: a newspaper article about hot cross buns going all fancy / awful with flavour additions. As reliable a sign of the new season as any daffs beginning to put their heads up.

Brilliant double-bill inaugural lectures tonight at SOAS from Profs @tommytanner.bsky.social and Uli Volz. the theme running through both was climate change, adaptation, resilience and climate finance. A great showcase for the work being done by these two, and at SOAS.

Having spent pre-Christmas seeing present ideas, and then ideas on new year resolutions, self-improvement and wellbeing activities afterwards, in @theguardian.com, it makes me chuckle when it has articles accusing other media of being overtly middle class fantasies!

My favourite list of the year: He’s making a list. He’s checking it twice He’s measured the oven To see if the space will suffice. Serving dishes chosen, Timings are set. The plan is made So no need to fret. We eat at 2 If all are here. But whether 2, 4 or 6 We’ll be of good cheer (and drunk!)

Xmas stuffings, done; bread & cranberry sauces, done; gravy base, done; red cabbage, done and sitting in the freezer with the rest. Xmas pud, steamed and being regularly topped up with enough brandy to stun an elephant. Christmas prep is coming on strong. 🎄

Blog drawing on an article I co-authored for the EAIE's Winter Forum magazine (issue on 'Building Back Better?'). Features @unioftheartslondon.bsky.social Q&A-style case study on integrating social purpose into post-pandemic global engagement strategy. www.vickylewisconsulting.co.uk/uk-universit...

Many bilateral aid programs—characterized by small, overlapping, & uncoordinated contributions—are fragmented.🔀 To assess if #aid resources can drive real impact, @charlesjkenny.bsky.social proposes the 10th recipient test for the largest donors: www.cgdev.org/blog/tenth-r...

Today Guardian and Observer journalists are on strike over plans to sell the Observer to a loss-making digital start up and put its journalism behind a paywall. 🧵 How can you support us? SHARE our posts WRITE to [email protected] JOIN US - there's cake!

If not showing Masterchef is unfair to the contestants, why not borrow from 80s news coverage of Irish nationalist politicians: don’t edit Greg out, but dub his voice. Either Jacob-Rees Mogg, or better, a ‘middle class woman of a certain age’.

First comedy gig I’ve been to where they take a register rather than look at tickets!

On BBC Radio 4’s World at One, Luke Johnson said growth has never gone up with expanded public services or taxes. It’s not true: the rapid econ growth from 1950s in the UK came after half a century of building welfare services, expanding the state & increasing tax to pay for it.

It’s taken me 6 hours but I have cleared the email mountain (not emptied the inbox, you understand, just got it down to manageable hill size). Please no more emails this afternoon! Let me start Monday feeling good.

Interesting blog from @drvickylewis.bsky.social looking at two UK university overseas campuses and asking what it means to be a global campus. Anyone interested in global education, partnerships, internationalisation, worth a look: www.vickylewisconsulting.co.uk/strengthenin...

I'm not a regular listener to BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme, but they had the best explanation I've heard so far as to the huge discrepancy between Treasury and NUF figures on how many farms will be affected by new inheritance tax rules.

Interesting piece by Basile Boulay on the impact of English language hegemony for both native & non-native speakers. I wonder to what extent it's also about the ways in which publishing power has transformed over the past decades and where it now lies?

Interesting piece on @devex.com's Michael Igoe on the GCD and the anti-abortion coalition preparing for Trump's return and the re-imposition of a (likely expanded) global gag. www.devex.com/news/inside-... (free registration required to read).

Great blog post from @drvickylewis.bsky.social on engaging more equitably in international education & collaboration. Must-read for anyone working on global education partnerships

In advance of previous Republican administrations taking office, donors like then-DFID announced increased spending to protect sexual & reprod health services. We know the global gag will be returning in January. FCDO & other donors need to announce now how they will protect women’s health.

A revised version of my earlier blog post on the reimposition of the Global Gag we can expect when Trump takes office in Jan has just been published for The Conversation: theconversation.com/how-a-second... Bad news not just for abortion services & wider SRH, but global health more generally.

The #UK aid budget was cut by £1.5 billion ✂ 💷. Where does that leave UK #development policy? Andy Sumner examines this cut within the context of the new government’s commitments and explores what to expect. ⬇ bit.ly/3UOP62n

Our latest blog post offers three reflections on what a Trump second term might mean for countries in the Global South. @idos-research.bsky.social www.developmentresearch.eu?p=2030

Very sad news about the death of Prof Richard Rathbone, a wonderfully kind man as well as exceptional scholar of African history. I got to know him in the Dept of History at SOAS in the 1990s. An amazing vibrant place to be researching African history at that time, and he was a great support.

I find it annoying when it’s assumed we can just easily fit a 10 minute slot into a lecture for a non-subject chat (eg importance of NSS or module surveys). I get those things are important, but do they think I haven’t v carefully planned the session. I don’t have many spare 10 mins!

I found out this week that my mother was a founder member of Shelter: from the start helping fundraise & provide housing advice for people in need. I knew she was very involved, but no idea it was from the start. I think she assumed it was obvious so never mentioned it!

Following on from yesterday's post on the Global Gag, I've written up some longer thoughts on my blog, which you can see here (as well as, if you're interested, some of the other things I've written on!): mikejennings101.wordpress.com/2024/11/08/t...

In the (quite right) focus on implications for abortion in the US following Trump's victory, there's been much less discussion of implications for the (inevitable) re-imposition of the Mexico City Policy (global gag) which will have disastrous impact across g.South.

I’m always interested in new units of measurement (you know - the “area a size of Wales” kind of thing). New one for the US elections: an electorate the size of Bournemouth Football Club’s stadium crowd will decide the outcome of the US election. Bomo has made the big measuring scale league!

My favourite line from todays Research Professional News: "We look forward to the next publication of Phillipson’s register of interests, when she will presumably need to declare the appointment of the new shadow education secretary as a gift." Indeed.

Some have been pointing out that the govt managed to build the NHS despite massive war-time debt after 1945. Which is true. But it's worth remembering how much the UK govt exploited its Empire to pay off wartime debts. As we can see in this from a colonial official.