We're participating in the ONS Living Costs and Food Survey for the next two weeks. The diary they gave us to fill out has some (clearly long unchanged) examples. These are a window into a vanished world! "Payphone", "BHS", a pint or a G&T for £2.50. Mars bar on a train for 40p

Kipkirmizi Turkiye'ye baking, topraklar kan agliyor

Güçlü, müreffeh ve adil bir Türkiye’ye ulaşmak için “hak yemem, hakkımı da yedirmem” düsturuyla milletimizin hakkını gözetmek için zor ve uzun bir yola çıktık. Bu yolda bedel de ödesek, cefa da çeksek sonuna kadar mücadele edeceğimizden kimsenin en ufak şüphesi olmamalıdır.

Bu millet bir yolculuğa çıktı, artık geri dönüş yok. Adil, demokratik, refah içinde bir Türkiye yolculuğu bu. 📍Beylikdüzü

A video has emerged showing the final moments of more than a dozen Palestinian emergency workers shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza last month, casting doubt on Israeli claims that soldiers opened fire on vehicles "advancing suspiciously."

Leaseholders in my constituency are tired of the injustices inherent in our feudal leasehold system. The Commonhold White Paper is a crucial step to getting rid of it for good and I will be working to ensure that leaseholders can transition to commonhold as soon as possible.

Academic meetings. Embarrassingly petty, self-absorbed, oblivious to big picture and generally the world around. I blame the REF regime for producing the cohorts with no sense of civic mission.

Wishing #JustinTrudeau proper R&R for a little while.

As a practice, illegal short term letting hollows out our communities, and disturbs neighbourhoods. Read more below about my work to crack down on them below: www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Democratic "strategists" talking about the 2026 midterms...Heeellll-LOOOO!

Wow - have just received feedback from our assessment colleagues saying that asking students to deliver a live presentation over Zoom needs a rethink because "they may lack the technical skills". Uhh.. YES- and how do you think we develop such skills?!

Yeah, it's fully crackers. The hours some councillors end up working in cities between their fulltime actual job and their political/adminsitrative one is wild!

Kral

That moment when you've found a reliable Co-I in your European project

Good morning Worthing West! ☀️ If you would like to meet with me for a quick chat 🗣️ (& a lovely cuppa), get in touch with my office and if you are a constituent we’ll book you in to a convenient ‘Meet your MP’ event. My next event will be 15 March in Worthing Town Centre! ☕️🍰

Reminder of what wartime leaders wear when visiting the White House

One reason I wish more humanities-oriented people would engage with AI is that models are writers, trained on words, producing words. There are strengths & weaknesses in the models that can only be seen if you engage deeply with them as writers. They do not show up in coding benchmarks or tests.

The mad merry-go-round of spending on stop-gap accommodation for homeless. Up 80% in a year. Huge waste of money that isn’t fixing the problem. New report out from LSE and @crisis-uk.bsky.social reported in @financialtimes.com w @amyborrett.ft.com @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social on.ft.com/43d3q9U

Oh England - still nearly impossible to find a place for a cup of coffee, to do some work, after 4 pm, even in reasonably sized towns.

A very minor outcome of all of this will be the complete destruction of the meaning of the term "deal".

"Eating alone in a restaurant is dinner with someone you love". What words of wisdom! Thank you for the memories and this farewell piece @jayrayner1.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/food/2025/fe...

The 'fuckaround' phase was rapid fire, and now "we are in the find out phase". Love it.

Throwback to last weekend when Labour teams were out in central and Tarring speaking to peope about our Employment Rights Bill. This bill will strengthen employment rights and make work pay! Check out the detail! bills.parliament.uk/bills/3737

It is sadly a fact that academics genuinely believe they are busier than anyone else.

I could have sworn it was an English local council building www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

The QS Survey is examplary for how to do a completely wrong survey. Just about everything to be taught in a research methods class captured in one instrument. Kudos; it's quite an achievement.

Just how awful is Organization Studies- supposedly a premiere journal in the field? Issue after issue the table of contents reads like a parody of academic research. What will it take for a proper reboot?

Finally caught up on #TheBear phenomenon and what stands out for me is that it's the most vivid illustration of how exhausting and unrelatable millennial neurosis & fragility can be.

Surely there's got to be an AI app that allows lecturers to pick up all the essays citing the same examples and sentences as one another and which are not from the class materials?

If only all Microsoft outputs were so to the point. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

We're hosting an unconference on March 20th, in Pimlico, all about involving the public, workers and civil society in digital government. If that's something you're interested in, please come along!

‘Learn to code’ Should’ve done a proper degree like sociology or political science

This really was absolutely woeful, coming from the official leader of the opposition. I've heard first year undergrads do a better job of defending their logic-free reasoning.

@davidpintod.bsky.social and I have convened over 80 Labour MPs to fight for a better deal for leaseholders. Many residents face rip-off service charges, poor maintenance, and bad communication from agents such as FirstPort. If you have concerns, please get in touch. [email protected]

💔

At @techuk.bsky.social tonight for the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre report - which also kicks off the next five years of our work. Chuffed to be a part of this dynamic hub that's intellectually ambitious while keeping feet firmly on ground of practice. #digital #futureofwork

Shall we freak out because AI will take all the jobs or because fertility rates have totally crashed and there won't be anyone to do any jobs? Let's decide.

Extraordinary quote in the FT profile of Alice Weidel - the AFD candidate for German Chancellor. Asked to explain how her being married to a woman fitted with the party's "anti-woke" philosophy an official said: "She is just gay by biology but not by political conviction."

When it's beautiful it's gorgeous. #Worthing

I doubt any Troll here who’s trying to smear ⁦Keir Starmer about decade-old events will be interested to read these pages from my book about his record prosecuting rape gangs. But he’s done more to bring them to justice than Farage, Yaxley-Lennon - or Musk -will ever do.

For the past couple of years I have an assignment in a 2nd year class to read an entire book. Not met a single student who had done / was having to do this for any other class. I reckon less than half complete the task. To be fair, 95% of books I own are from before the mid naughties.

An additional problem with ChatGPT essays is that I have lost the ability to trust that some of my students are actually really capable of fantastic writing.

Have written about Starmer's speech- his best moment yet as PM. He implicitly identified what sits at the heart of this story: the emergence of a common UK/US online right, headed by the radicalised Musk. It is making extremist, until recently fringe politics mainstream in British conservatism.

If the casting team of the next Big Brother are not totally ON this then what are they good for really www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The right algorithms could easily give me more of what I want to see (Spotify is not bad) but none of the online platforms appear to be even trying. What do they think will happen in the end? We leave them.

The current state of devolved authorities in England. While we in the South, in London's shadow, have bobbed along with our micro-regional rivalries, the North has been claiming direct power for a while now. They are bold and plucky, and will be first to post doing important things. #devolution

So why can Christmas level downing of tools (I mean I know, not for those in hospitality or retail) be done more frequently- say, twice or three times a year?