(3/3) @jamesbowes01.bsky.social analysis, on which the Times article is based, explains the numbers and why the government's "earned settlement" proposals are a disaster economically as well as morally. [end] ukandeu.ac.uk/the-coming-c...

There were 29,300 student visa applications last month, 17 per cent less than in December 2024 "The Home Office will be pleased but pretty much everyone else will see it as the disaster it is—for university finances and the UK’s soft power," said Nick Hillman, director of @hepi-news.bsky.social

As we move into 2026, Jamaica is slipping off the agenda — but the impact of Hurricane Melissa remains. Nearly 4,640 have signed the petition for UK support. Each One Bring One: share, sign, and help keep Jamaica on the agenda.

'Despite all their difficulties, universities remain an enormous and irreplaceable national asset. As well as educating millions of people, they generate about £24bn in export earnings, which is about 1% of GDP – more than aircraft manufacturing and legal services combined'. 1/2

Staff at the University of Nottingham fear that planned course closures and changes to staff-student ratios could damage the university’s international standing and create “impossible” workloads, reports Juliette Rowsell #academicsky #edusky https://ow.ly/YKnf50XNcFX

On 18 December 2025, the CJEU ruled that Poland’s “Constitutional Tribunal” is not an independent court and that its actions breached core principles of EU law. WOJCIECH SADURSKI explains why this judgment matters – and what the Polish government can do next. verfassungsblog.de/the-cjeu-ver...

We are a living through an essentialist reaction to the openness of social categories. You can see it in the disability discourse in particular, as well as in so much contemporary discourse about race and sex.

Two Lectureships in Law with us at @lawatleeds.bsky.social. Open call, 'An ability to contribute to teaching in one or more of the foundational LLB subjects is essential.' Genuinely a lovely bunch of people to be around. In the present HE context, it matters! jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

With only a handful of days to go before the visit of his closest friend, Michaels was reported to be “absolutely fucking bricking it”.

Christmas Break ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/12/c...

"Migrants who came to the UK on skilled work visas in 2022-23 will make a net contribution of £47bn to the public finances over their lifetime, according to new estimates from the government’s Migration Advisory Committee." Not surprising, but some observations (1/n) www.ft.com/content/10da...

Catriona Mullay: A Fresh Start, the Old Tradition: Sovereignty and the Scottish Constitutional Imaginary ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/11/c...

Reminder that the ECHR prevents people being expelled to face torture, inhuman treatment, slavery or death, and prevents splitting of families unless there's a strong enough public interest. European leaders are evidently comfortable with at least some of those things, at least for foreigners.

Alexander Baxter: Common Law Post-ECHR: What Lord Briggs’ Anniversary Lecture Tells Us ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/09/a...

Kirsty Hughes: The Implications of the Court of Appeal’s Judgment on ‘Family Life’ for the Government’s Immigration Proposals ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/10/k...

Happy #HumanRightsDay! Starmer has chosen to mark it by... kicking off negotiations on how to water down our human rights 🤯 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The ECHR protects all of us, so we should all be worried about changes that amount to "human rights... except for those people"

Veronika Fikfak: ECHR Reform: A Danger of Contagion in Relation to Article 3 ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/09/v...

Worth re-reading this seminal 2017 essay from Ta-Nehisi Coates, in light of everything that's happened since. To say it still stands up would be an understatement. A genuine tour de force. Very impressive. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Yinke Bankola says he was 9 when the sixth form Dulwich school prefect Nigel Farage, aged 17, asked him where he was from, then told him "that's the way back to Africa". www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Sadism is the lifeblood of MAGA politics. Hard to overstate how disgusting and embarrassing for our country it is for the US Secretary of Defense to be doing this:

It's revealing about taboos around racism that the visceral bullying racism of schoolboy Farage cuts through while the much more consequential thinly veiled racism of adult Farage doesn't. Many people need that veil and flinch when it's removed. You can advocate racist policies but not say the words

Eleni Frantziou and Anurag Deb: Direct Effect, Disapplication, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Still Together in Northern Ireland after Dillon? ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/12/04/e...

Even people who have concerns about sport or refuge spaces would do well to justify why trans women should be excluded from the Women’s Institute or Guides. Just cruelty and spite. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

It's like the incredibly tedious "Rachel from accounts" thing. Misogyny in politics remains a powerful force.

The Home Office’s absurd taxi bill results entirely from its insistence on forcing people to move round the country without choice or notice, & to live on the breadline so they can’t afford public transport. That Mahmood didn’t know about it till the BBC told her shows how appallingly the HO is run.

Home Office #HostileEnvironment - seems nothing has changed www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

'The British Academy has redoubled its call for a “comprehensive” review of higher education funding in the wake of the government’s levy on international student fees.' 1/3

Labour immigration policy explained: ✅ Net immigration rising: CRACKDOWN REQUIRED ✅ Net immigration plummeting: CRACKDOWN REQUIRED

This article suggests a sustained and worrying obsession with race and ethnicity that doesn’t seem to have ebbed away. No matter what the perpetrator’s intentions, claiming lack of intent is an attempt to deny the legacy of his actions on his chosen targets. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research? We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections. Find out more: collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Guy Baldwin, "Positive Obligations to Protect the Population under Human Rights Law" (Ahead of Print, Judicial Review) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The “toxic and chaotic culture” inside Boris Johnson’s Downing St was behind the UK’s “too little, too late” response to Covid-19, with Johnson singled out for particular blame. Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett said poor decisions by him, his ministers and officials cost tens of thousands of lives.

The UK isn’t a “soft touch” on asylum. UK asylum seeker benefits are similar to European neighbours No right to work before 12 months (it’s 6 months in France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands) UK settlement after 5 years (it’s 3 or 4 in Germany) Let’s cut out the alarmist rhetoric.

Kirsty Hughes: Immigration and proposals to amend Article 8 ECHR ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/11/19/k...

Mark Bennett and Joe Tomlinson: Life Events and Administrative Justice ukconstitutionallaw.org/2025/11/17/m...

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning. The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

My most woke opinion is that "woke" at root is a beautiful concept: active socio-political consciousness in the context of the Black American liberation struggle. And the way it's been turned into a sneering pejorative is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen in Western political discourse.

Enough with this morally repugnant Labour government.

It's a lifeline, not a comprehensive solution to the crisis, but if you're a UK-based PhD (or equivalent) in a SHAPE subject within 10 years of your viva, do join the British Academy's ECRN. It's free, has resources & you don't need to be employed in research or academia to be a member. 3/3

"Good news, bad news" situation. It's actually good the Home Office won this one. Alternative was a raft of councils closing hotels with no suitable alternatives, meaning people were either made homeless or put in camps. Bad news, still no suitable alternatives. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Donald Trump’s attack on the BBC. The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.

My God.

As a doctor, I have been really angry about this!

For anyone still tempted to take Dominic Cummings at all seriously, he's now an advocate of Donald Trump-style open racism.

Well, this is bloody depressing. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This from @lewisgoodall.com

Hurricane Melissa has done catastrophic damage to Western Jamaica. We are used to hurricanes, but this is the worst hurricane on record that has ever hit the island. There has been devastation to infrastructure and housing. If you are able to, please donate to relief efforts: supportjamaica.gov.jm