😂😂

& Dev turns into John Bruton in 1952 😂

Though on reflection -is ‘the AI’ making some clever clogs point that they’ve all been more or less the same? #oldgreymen Hmmm 🤔

Albert Reynolds 😂

This is a really excellent piece - detailing the situation for geography (&other subjects) across UK #HE. The cuts & more general lack of support are having a devastating effects that will reverberate for decades @jennypickerill.bsky.social @peterhopkins.bsky.social @timeshighered.bsky.social

Lovely obit here. He was brilliant in The Godfather -the evil civil servant who seemed urbane and charming. #RIP

Will Trump even allow an election? The president is manoeuvring to delegitimise the November midterms By Freddie Hayward

Bereft of ideas, UK Far Right copy the US to manufacture ‘free speech’ culture wars focused on unis. They target unis not because of their rich recruitment potential (they aren’t) but because we teach critical skills that easily undermine their divisive claims. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What does Peter Mandelson have to do with Palantir? Learn more in the video below, about click here to read our Palantir investigation: : www.prospectmagazine...

It’s time 🥬

Smile when you’re winning…

There’s another way of looking at it though -other than the PM is just a gullible fool. It’s more in cynical fecker territory -how better to wrangle a convicted sex offender serial liar & harasser, just elected US President, than appoint someone who ‘understands’ him? Marriage made in hell perhaps?

Nice obit of the great man here -no one did Alex Higgins impressions as well as JV -including Alex Higgins! Saw him ambling into the Crucible at last years World Championships -dandering along talking to all the punters. #RIP

They are definitely leaning into their Mountbatten legacy these days 😉

👏 seems a good case for misconduct in public office and significant jail time if convicted. (ironically nothing to do with his friend being a convicted pedophile -but due his leaking of sensitive information from Cabinet to a hostile foreign actor).

Been a farcical pantomime so far -an awful ordeal for their victims to endure. Hopefully lawyers will now get on with it - finally.

GBeebies level of ignorance on this show - woeful 2 minute ‘discussion’ of current Troubles Bill which Philips refers to as, ‘sort of domestic affairs’, while Baroness Cavendish 🤷‍♂️ opines gravely about 100s of soldiers being prosecuted! Sonia Sodha: ‘yeah I agree. It’s a difficult message to send’ 🤦‍♂️

The totalitarian turn of US is well underway. Closing down the media print & broadcast, show trials & suspension of constitution are next -with rule via emergency legislation while a new (territorially larger) America is built. Killing US citizens in the street & denying due process only the start.

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

UK clearly needs to rejoin EU for Nat security and economic reasons. But As I recall it, the UK was the author of its own misfortune in #Brexit. EU merely backed Ireland as a remaining member state in its negotiations with UK which proved a very unreliable and amateurish negotiating partner.

"Top UK universities increase their reliance on China for overseas recruitment: Data shows that two in five overseas [NB OVERSEAS] students at Russell Group institutions last year were from China" (though that figure hides considerable variation!) www.ft.com/content/9db6...

Correct! And when he was an academic he ate his own books as a penalty for getting it completely wrong! This was his inevitable destiny.

Agreed and probably a great boost for Andy Burnham in the long term as well as others like Angela Raynner. Starmer looks increasingly weak and vulnerable.

Get in! #TeamRachel #Traitors

Reminds me of Dick Tracy’s ragbag of villains -he is Bigboy Caprice of course but Mumbles, Pruneface, Flattop and the Rodent are all on board. Oh and Tony Blair who has clearly now found his tribe,

Solidarity with colleagues @sheffielducu.bsky.social at the latest example of institutional cruelty within HE. Not an isolated case of course, but indicative of the current mismanagement within the sector and further evidence that converting mediocre academics into managers isn’t the solution.

Myself & many colleagues are facing this at Sheffield Uni - double punishment for strike action. In the midst of this, yesterday many departments got an email announcing imminent structural reviews (ie redundancies). @sheffielducu.bsky.social

Rejoining the #EU as quickly as possible is now a UK national security imperative. You’re welcome.

Delighted to have this piece on attitudes in GB towards constitutional change in Northern Ireland published in the forthcoming 500th issue of Fortnight. Yes that’s 500 issues going back to 1970! Full magazine is out next week 👍 (Spoiler -don’t hold your breath for a BP-but change is coming anyway)

Not before time -and possibly due to lack of academics remaining there rather than any ethically driven decision? Long since time for MSM and governments to do likewise. Outrageous that BBC news and journalists is still overwhelmingly on X -with a few notable exceptions @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social

His ‘address’ was same old constructive engagement waffle. No actual action proposed in response to US aggression towards Greenland/Denmark. He made no ref to Trump being responsible for crisis. Has positioned UK as Trump’s de facto henchman, logic being that it will best protect UK interests.

Good piece on link bet sport, identity & politics in NI. Ironically if unionists had allowed the CGNI to rebrand with more inclusive flag/logo, there would have been less push factors for nationalists to opt into Team Ireland -in CG context at least that could have strengthened Team NI.

Kudos to @niallstanage.bsky.social who is a highly respected and experienced journalist and won’t be at all worried by this sort of bellicose tantrum. Apart from his answer being factual, her response shows how brittle authoritarian regimes are when challenged.

Not sure that importing a rag bag of failed Tory grifters and sleeze bags is the political master stoke that Reform UK seems to imagine?

This ought to be a huge national news story. But the quiet dismantling of a key sector barely registers outside HE. Maybe someone will care when the local economies that Unis sustain start to go bust too. Important story from @patrickjack.bsky.social & @timeshighered.bsky.social

Loved this show -wish it was repeated on telly but never is 😩

Sadly -Westminster will do sweet FA about reform unless Assembly indicates support -clear it will be unforthcoming-DUP prob bigger obstacle than SF on this -e.g opposition to Justice/d’Hondt & even to minor tinkering at edges./ Joint FMs etc. Been plenty of advice from academics to AERC & NIA Comm.

I think Derek speaks for us all in terms of Mandleson’s ‘apologies’.

Agreed -and another 12 months of modest achievement at local government level won’t help. Also not sure that surrounding himself with disgraced Tories will be a big vote winner for Farage?

Reminds me of one of those films where a gaggle of super villains gets together for a fiendish heist -or perhaps a swindle?

I agree -but not sure this is realistic option when senior politicians including the PM, cabinet ministers & main media organisations inc BBC & all senior journalists are still actively posting content there. Rather than a ban -it needs to become socially unacceptable -like not picking up dog poo.

It’s like he went to a ‘how to’ retreat run by Putin- or did a distance learning course at the very least. Little doubt now that he wants to expand the territorial footprint of the US, as his mentor is doing in Russia.

This does seem like a real gear change now -where it’s just gangsterism,with nothing to separate US policy from that of Putin. It’s the ‘Big fu*ks Small’ school of int diplomacy. Really looking forward to hearing the UK Prime Minister condemning the naked aggression of the US government!