bsky.app/profile/hear... Brilliant!

This article injects some much-needed sense and nuance into the sometimes bizarre world of diplomatic reporting. Well worth a read by @helenebismarck.bsky.social on when the normal seems abnormal and the importance of making the best of a bad situation.

A useful read for those into political communication esp on how Democrats are using the strategy set out by Bitecofer in "Hit 'em where it hurts". Memes do not always use humour and when they do it can flop, but when the combo works it can be powerful esp when mixes factually accurate + humour

Even if you don’t enjoy travel books, this is for you. One of the most remarkable and interesting men of the 20th century, an extraordinary adventure, and a fascinating and unique culture now long swept away by the sands of time (cliche alert!).

Horrifying [in972mag] That the attacks are "intended to harm Palestinian civil society: to create a shock that will lead civilians to put pressure on Hamas,” is the exact definition of terrorism. Israel is committing a stated campaign of state terrorism. [h/t RJackson] www.972mag.com/mass-assassi...

Hillingdon Herald "It is with great sadness that we announce our beloved colleague at Brunel University, Professor Benjamin Zephaniah, has died. Benjamin died in the early hours of this morning, December 7. Benjamin was diagnosed with a brain tumour 8 weeks ago. He was an inspiration to us all.

This from Marie Le Conte is delightful. I've lived in London for 20 years and had forgotten the novelty of these small British traditions. Good to be reminded on a grim December morning

Under the snappy title News, I’ve started curating a list of top level information providers across a range of subject areas - journalists, academics, opinion formers…

· Event: Representing climate change: Problems and challenges for the 4th Estate” · Date: Thursday 7 December 2023 · Time: 1pm – 2pm (UK Time), please check time difference for your country. · Link to register: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/2a9114...

News that a “bashful golden mole” has been discovered in South Africa after 87 years is sufficient excuse to post one of my favourite LRB pieces. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

· Event: Representing climate change: Problems and challenges for the 4th Estate” · Date: Thursday 7 December 2023 · Time: 1pm – 2pm (UK Time), please check time difference for your country. · Link to register: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/2a9114...

A big part of growing up in South Africa was seeing the blue whales in Hermanus, a couple of hours' drive from Cape Town. Great news tihs😍😍

Fascinating talk by Hauke Riesche at @brunelsmcj.bsky.social yesterday on a paper he + others published. Argues a research program on the Public Understanding of Social Science "cannot take the paradigm developed for the natural sciences and apply this unproblematically to the social sciences".

Perceptive by Chris Grey. W/o a core belief to anchor him, Sunak is an opportunist, turning in the wind like a weathervane. Bizarre in a politician, unsettling in a PM. Dangerous for a country "It's just that there is less to him than meets the eye ... no hidden depths ... nothing to read."

If Braverman is going to ban chants which are racist or anti-semitic by implication rather than overtly (and by implication according to someone's controversial view of the connection) then I look forward to her prosecution for the phrase "cultural Marxism"

The bear patiently waits for the tree to fall under its tremendous bulk, humans aren’t the only persistence hunters

Obviously BlueSky is superior to the Twitter now in any number of ways, but we still don’t have an efficient mechanism for the distribution of videos from Rosie Holt MP.

I hope Suella Braverman is part of next year I’m a celebrity. I wouldn’t watch it of course, so why the hope? Because if she’s on celeb, it means she will no longer be in government.

This is a very good idea: count me in. x.com/mrbrendancox...

This was mostly carried out at night, while the bombs were literally falling on the London docks where the majority of the tea blending industry for the whole Empire was based. Soldiers and tea-workers cooperated to move vast stocks of tea, to safer locations before the Luftwaffe could destroy it.

And it's deeply ingrained in our research and archiving practices (ask yourself, where are the archives of student experience/attitudes/activities/voice that future historians will use?)

I need to write but instead I’m crying about the state of the world

Just blown away by this poem. I wasn't familiar with it and am so glad it was posted on twitter by @sathnam.bsky.social

New Blog - "Repeat child removals: structural inequality & iatrogenic harm" - Susan Mcpherson, Danny Taggart, & Pam Cox look at ‘recurrent care proceedings’ (RCP) where where mothers have had successive children removed from their care by the state. www.cost-ofliving.net/repeat-child...

With the Trussell Trust reporting that 1.5 MILLION emergency food parcels were handed out between April & Sept - the largest ever - it’s sobering that 400 years after Elizabeth 1's govt passed laws to make it illegal to let people starve, in 2023 our govt allows food poverty. Fascinating read ⤵️

Good morning.

The problem is that, as abhorrent as their logic is, they were not wrong. And as abhorrent as their method is, it succeeded. That's not only a political problem. It's a moral and ethical one, too.

Met head Rowley has said no legal grounds to ban the march this w/e. Braverman saying he should and by not doing so is partisan is advocating an institution of the state charged with law and order should break the law. Sound familiar? Braverman modus operandi with int and domestic law. Scary place

Starmer today in HoC: "Without a serious Home Secretary there can be no serious government and he cannot be a serious PM." This is smart politics. If there is violence during the weekend protest, then Labour can blame Braverman's "brand of divisive politics" and Sunak for keeping her in post

A sentence I just came across reading which deeply resonates me at the moment: "Are you trying to understand what is happening, or are you trying to find someone to blame?“

Even in death, this old blackthorn is a thing of life and beauty, adorned with a thick mantle of lichens and mosses. 🌎

"The children of Gaza have become “collateral damage,” ... and Israel must be condemned for not doing all it can to avoid [it] ... But we cannot neglect the utter nihilism and cynicism of Hamas in placing their weapons and headquarters under hospitals and mosques." Excellent from Seyla Benhabib

Weekend podcast listening from @instituteforgov.bsky.social ! 🎧 @drhannahwhite.bsky.social @emmanorris.bsky.social Nick Davies & BBC health reporter Jim Reed look back on a week of astonishing revelations/appalling language at the Covid Inquiry www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/insi...

There is a pattern. Consequences of policy failure are rendered visible, so rather than deal with the causes of the failure seek to make visible consequences of it invisible. This is more than a performative politics of cruelty. It is a politics of visibility-invisibility /3

Home Sec collapses the asylum system so she needs to use chunks of the foreign aid budget to fund asylum hotels. Then introduces a law that means she can't dip into those funds. So she closes the hotels forcing people onto the streets. Then thinks about banning them from sheltering in tents. /2

Braverman's justification gets worse in dehumanizing homeless people as petty criminals and nuisances. Such victim-blaming shames us all. /1

I'm totally burned out from 18 months of trying to push my book in relation to daily newspaper articles about poverty/govt mishandling of the pandemic and too exhausted to start again but if anyone wants to give it a plug in light of the Covid enquiry feel free. It's ALL in here.

I know people will be angry but I wrote this in the immediate aftermath of Oct 7 and I couldn't just sit with it. newlinesmag.com/first-person...

Sunak needs to sack Braverman before she risks igniting inter-community violence. In a context when level-headed people and measured language are needed, Braverman is potential dynamite.

Minister's letter puts at risk academic freedom. It is for UKRI and the academic community to decide what is appropriate and ethical, not for govt. It is also somewhat rich that a minister in this govt which has driven a coach and horses through the Nolan principles, should cite them in this case.

I haven't commented on what's happening in Israel/Palestine as I don't feel I have anything meaningful to add to the horrific events taking place. But I do agree with Richard Murphy's comment.

Starmer misstepped badly on Israel/Gaza. The situation is volatile, the conflict complex + the ME a tinderbox. My impression is of a man out of his depth. Why not take as a starting frame the lawyers' letter + bring in former foreign office experts in the ME to advise? This is not going to end soon.

Taken in 1961 by Flip Schulke, Ali - who could barely swim - convinced Schulke he regularly trained in a swimming pool when in fact Ali simply knew it would make for some great photos. Ali was the greatest in many spheres but as a one man PR machine he was unparalleled.