There are very few industries in which Britain can genuinely still claim to be a world leader - two of them are the creative sector and higher education. You'd never know it from listening to the Tories, lol.

My English degree led to: working in comms for multiple charities; health journalism; working in accessible comms for people with a learning disability; writing novels; writing drama for the BBC; and researching the cultural construction of Britain’s national identities. It’s a great degree.

We utterly condemn what appears to have been an arson attack on a mosque in Peacehaven.

It would be really helpful if we could start talking in a joined-up way about the desecration of non-Christian religious spaces. Islamophobia and antisemitism rises and falls together. The far right wants to drive a wedge between the Muslim and Jewish communities of Britain but we can all resist.

Trying to anaesthetise the pain of the world with art. In the past 48 hours I’ve downed bilingual Romeo a Juliet (Welsh and English) which I really enjoyed. And seen One Battle After Another which (with normal PTA reservations) I enjoyed immensely. And read half of The Names which is excellent.

Encountering the strange mixture of sadness and riotous absurdity at the heart of this show at the age of 15 changed my life. This is a wonderful and nuanced assessment, almost fifty years later.

Amateur view. AI bubble shows that there is too much money chasing too few opportunities for genuine innovation. The solution is to take a medium/long view and put much more funding into basic science in universities rather than cutting as is happening now. (But I would say that wouldn’t I?)

Spoke to a Turkish cabbie last night, who talked about how the English left felt as if it had disappeared; how he felt unsafe and vulnerable while watching the far-right get more popular. He was in his sixties, living in a tiny flat, and called himself one of the lucky ones. Quietly heartbreaking.

God, I love Graham Greene (and read him when I don’t know what to read) but he’s so bad at understanding women. The End of the Affair is so beautifully written and so stupidly and clumsily misogynistic. You want to shout: ‘Bloody hell, Graham, have a chat with a woman once in a while and *listen*.’

Lovely. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Probably silly but I’m so upset about Angie Rayner. I have so much respect for her. She has had to fight her way to where she got. I don’t believe she’s a bad person. I don’t believe she’s corrupt. And she was basically the only wc woman at the top of government.

Absolutely delighted that Dan Briggs, son of the BBC's first official historian Asa Briggs, has written to The Observer supporting the need for on-request vetting to re-instated at the BBC Written Archives Centre (p.29; not I think online). Letter's wording is in the .alt element. #waccampaign

Living in Wales, the whole St George's flag thing seems at the same time to be very near and very far away. Have visions of crossing the border & being faced by a landscape of jarring red & white. Mind you, Bristol's on the other side, so the flags probably say Refugees Welcome or Aardman Forever.

Calling historians and researchers. The BBC Written Archives Centre has changed its access rules without consultation. This means an end to proper independent research into the BBC's rich history. 178 have already signed the open letter. Please join the campaign here: tinyurl.com/bbcwaccampaign

Just throwing this out there. It seems to me that it would be helpful if - instead of trying to negotiate the whole autism/ADHD/etc pathway - we could get ourselves or our kids assessed for neurodivergence and then get advice on our/their specific issues/needs.

Another plug to visit Louisiana in Denmark (this time with photos as I’ve just been back).

No cheating. Your last saved celebrity photo is your therapist. Who is it? (That’s Hergé as painted by Warhol. I feel like he’d tell me to climb a tree and stop overthinking.)

Went years ago in a snowstorm and stood in the garden watching the Calder with the snow blowing round it. Totally magical. Very much second this recommendation.

Allan and Janet Ahlberg were astonishing - a gift to young readers and parents. Funny, silly, clever, endlessly enjoyable. What a legacy!

OH MY GOD.

We already have voting at 16 in Wales and I’m a fan. But politics education is minimal to nonexistent. Voting at 16 (or even 18!) has to go hand in hand with education on political structures, the parties, the social contract, the meaning of citizenship…

As a Welsh and English person I am having a very stressful night in front of the football…

Still find it weirdly emotional that I can go home on a Saturday and watch women’s football on the telly and it’s on BBC1. 🤯

Alanis ❤️

PSA for any early-year #academics who are learning how to write an #abstract for a conference Call for Papers. This blog post holds your hand through the process and is one of the best and clearest guides I've seen. bakercatherine.wordpress.com/category/pos...

Really bad at actually putting up work stuff but just to say that I’m very happy to be on the shortlist for the Rhys Davies Short Story competition.

I’m baffled as to why a leftish newspaper like The Guardian is determined to centre Trump in almost every headline. Why are they doing his work of self promotion for him? You can tell us what’s happening in Iran without splashing his self-aggrandising, ugly mug all over the front page. 🙄

Holy shit. One of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's first-look images. This image is 3,840×2,160 but the original image is 40,000×21,047 px. Virtually every pixel is a star or a galaxy. VIRTUALLY EVERY PIXEL

There’s also the issue of integrity and reputation. Women are brought up to be honest, do their homework, show their working out. If they enter an intellectual work world, they frequently feel the need to prove themselves regardless of their experience. Of course they’re going to shun AI.

The Ballad of Wallis Island is so, so good. Very funny, deeply affecting, just doing exactly its own thing and doing it well. Do go and see it in the cinema. It deserves to be a success.

A vase by Jewish ceramicist Grete Marks personally designated as degenerate art by Joseph Goebbels and banned for its un-German African and Chinese influences. Currently in British Museum.

This game is nuts… and much too stressful #BELWAL

Spent the afternoon surveying writing guides for sports writers from both sides of the Atlantic to see what they had to say about covering women’s sports. The advice is essentially ‘For god’s sake never mention their sex or race! Never! You are blind to gender! You do not see race!’ 1/

Look what's about to arrive in Wales... At The Workers Gallery, Ynyshir, from June 1st.

Excellent day @hayfestival.bsky.social with youngest child hearing Simon Armitage talk about nature writing and @robinince.bsky.social interviewing Dr Gina Rippon about the autistic female mind. Brilliant sessions both.

I finally watched Conclave. I like that Ralph Fiennes has the same energy as Kermit the Frog trying to keep The Muppet Show from going off the rails.

I am at Tiverton Parkway. 'Parkway' is an English word that means 'not very close to'.

A little ranty thread about GCSEs. Eldest is in the middle of taking GCSEs. She is neurodivergent and ill with various conditions. But she is also in a supportive and safe home, academic, doing the revision, sitting and finishing the papers. Things aren’t great but they could be worse. However…

I know everyone has pointed this out but this is a truly wonderful piece of writing. Immensely moving, blazingly unsentimental. Please find the time to read it.

My Hitchcock top 5 Shadow of a Doubt Lifeboat Strangers on a Train Rear Window Notorious

Honestly, Son - and how happy he is - is even better than the cup. ❤️

Proper sushi has arrived in Barry, South Wales. We’ve gone full hipster. It’s practically the end times.

That was very surprising. 😶#COYS

Youngest (13) is doing a podcast/radio course and she and her friends decided the subject should be the ongoing flaws in LLMs and why art created by humans will always matter. ❤️

Lovely article on male friendship and its modern challenges…

Speechless.

Spotted on Google Maps, from a folkloric perspective this seems unwise…

Went to see The Undertones at the Tramshed, Cardiff. They were great. Really excellent, brilliantly performed, fun gig. Touring all summer. Highly recommended.

Look on my woks, ye Mighty, and this pear!