I am *shocked* to discover that Ratcliffe is an even worse person than we already thought.

I have some problems with this reporting: 1) Portugal has always had a far-right presence embedded in society (former dictator Salazar was voted the greatest Portuguese at the turn of the century) but this didn't have a strong political representation...

This seems like rather a blatant rewriting of quite recent and well documented history. Starmer got the leadership by lying - something that his cheerleaders in the media were all well aware of and happy to indulge at the time.

anyway, i’ve set this as (admittedly a bit tricky for undergrads across different degrees) reading: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Once again, The Guardian's reporting on the far-right is simply appalling: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Egas Moniz won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his development of the lobotomy as a therapeutic procedure for psychosis.

This is huge. Tenure was axed in the UK by Thatcher for political reasons in 1988, and since then UK academics have gradually completely lost control of their entire sector. Tenure is the bedrock of what *real* academic freedom means, not the right-wing 'you must platform fascists version' /1

Really interesting CfP on the Family as site of environmental politics.

You tell me.

I've been priviledged to witness a number of "Great Noticings" in my lifetime. Periods in which everything that has been apparent to many, many people over a long time are finally deemed noticable by the British media.

The thing is, you didn't have to be Nostradamus to see it. You just had to be independent of the ultra-rich. Unfortunately, the great majority of the media is in the plutocrats' pockets. So the people pointing it out are shunned. In 2009 I tried and tried to get the BBC to pick this up. But ...⛔🤐

Also the British political media were quite happy to look the other way and not dig too deep on Mandelson as long as they had a regular 'senior Labour source'.

Also as a 'practitioner' in child-rearing rather than having any deeper research, my feeling is that having clear boundaries and expectations is something that gives children a sense of security. I always described it as my job is about establishing the boundaries and their job is to push them.

Goodwin on the campaign trail

This is funny. Harman fixed a seat that was due to be an all-women shortlist so her husband could be the candidate.

I really don't want to be a pollyanna but I think the prospects of a British ICE need a bit more critical thought. In the first place it's important to recognize that that expansion and acceleration of ICE in the US isn't a response to a perceived policy problem of migrants.

Electrelane Dehd The Slits This is the Kit The Beths

Join us! Lots happening as we kick off events in 2026 - wetlandic thought, animal readings, writing sessions, bringing down capitalism, book launches to come, big ideas, critical explorations and speculative experiments. What’s not to love? Sign up for updates at www.contemporarycriticalthought.org

CfP for @rgsibg.bsky.social annual conference just dropped! Organised by @geogdurham.bsky.social 's Leah Edwards and myself: The Family as Site of Environmental Politics. Please share widely! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Some not so subtle xenophobia in defence of Starmer's response to Trump.

The funny thing is that Polanski's message is now closer to those extreme radicals such as... Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen than Starmer

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again. www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Whoever the brains are at X (it's not Musk), they understand that as a right-wing hate machine it *has* to retain a material user base of lefties, even as they kill civil society, media outlets etc So turning activists, politicians and journalists into addicts with no moral baseline is part of that

Sweden and Finland arriving late to the NATO party

Starmer admits that "our nuclear security depends on our relationship with the US". So the UK does not have an independent nuclear capacity www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

The grown-ups are in charge

Tunisian inspired Sunday lunch

Daal is the best winter dish

The personification of “peace” right here. One of the indictments of our “democratic politics” is a public inquiry can outline how your failures led to hundreds of thousands of deaths & you still face zero repercussions + anyone who mentions it is deemed gauche www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

So? Who will enforce this? The federal government has already claimed agents have immunity. The supreme court is stacked in the regime's favour.

In 2025 I submitted 4 grant proposals (2 Horizon Europe, 1 UKRI, 1 FCT). A conservative, back of a napkin, estimate of the person hours involved in their preparation across consortia/networks is about 800-850ph*, including several day-long workshops. None were successful

I don't want to minimize the impact of the US regime's actions but I am struck by the extent to which they are simply extending, or finally making explicit, things that have been going on for decades: - a capricious 'ally' that will always place its own interests above the group (...)

Coincidentally been rereading Rosa on the mismatch between the speed of democracy and the pace of social life and technological change.

Good work from @thierryaaron.bsky.social responding to this piece. One thing that is implicit in this though is the way in which natural scientific expertise is given broad scope to pontificate in areas (such as social science) where they lack the knowledge, theories and methods to explain.

"A dying empire is a dangerous beast and will extract a big price in blood for its decline. The more desperate it becomes, the more reckless it grows, even without such a notoriously dozy, incompetent and self-aggrandising leadership." - @leninology.bsky.social

I currently have an article under review at a journal that discusses potential consequences of the US abdication of a leading role in climate science... Might need an update. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Strongly agree here (and it's something I have been as guilty as anyone). I think it's, in part, people's discomfort with making explicit moral judgements/critique. We need to recapture that. Some things are bad and wrong and we should make our case as to why.

This contains a good discussion of whether ICE is or could become that militia, and is generally well worth listening to thedig.blubrry.net/podcast/fasc...

I've seen quite a few comments and short pieces about the connections between ICE/proud boys/right-wing militias but is there something written already out there on the US Military - Law enforcement/ICE pipeline from a political economy/reserve army of labour perspective?

The whole recent set of Events has persuaded me that there's not really a majority for the new right authoritarianism in the Anglophone world. The public don't actually like it when they see what it is these people revel in. But also various failures in our democracies mean that might not stop them.

@katharinehayhoe.com @michaelemann.bsky.social , @hausfath.bsky.social . I'm about to send this letter to The Guardian expressing concern over yesterday's SRM article which ignores how the fossil fuel industry could abuse Solar geoengineering R&D. Is this OK? Link follows.. /1 #ClimateCrisis

In this week’s Talking Climate, I unpack why recent cuts to scientific programs and data don’t only affect climate research in the U.S. They weaken the knowledge infrastructure we rely on to protect public health, manage risk, and make good decisions around the world. www.patreon.com/posts/how-si...

Folks getting in the weeds about licensing agreements but this research study engaged me in research, by creating a bespoke dataset about me, before I agreed to participate. They already made the dataset before I was invited to participated. That's not how informed consent works

somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work. lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply

Human dimensions of climate change adaptation New article in @dialoguescc.bsky.social by Chandni Singh journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

I did English Lit at the University of York (2002-06). I remember to this day the first seminar, we had to introduce ourselves give some information EXCEPT where we were from. Then we had to guess where our colleagues were from based on accent.

I had a conversation with an academic (Italian, political science, c.1000 followers) about this around 9 months ago. Their argument boiled down to: - BlueSky/Masterdon have little viewpoint diversity - They want to reach as wide an audience as possible

Just a brief glance at history would show anyone interested that the US doesn't care whether the Maduro regime was democratic or not. The US has shown itself time and time again all too willing to remove democratic governments that don't represent its interests.