Enlisting the dog once again to make ‘reindeer’ teeth marks in a carrot.

‘Club seals for free speech’

And they say satire's dead. 😂 "Far from the outdated stereotypes, today’s bookmakers are lively community hubs. During the festive season especially, betting shops take on a special atmosphere filled with excitement, companionship and familiar routine that many people look forward to each year."

As it’s the Telegraph, would the three channels be: GB News, Yesterday and whichever is currently repeating The World at War.

Reform are such pathetic whingers

Labour does so badly in this poll mainly because, as the tables show, they lose 29% of their 2024 vote to the Lib Dems and Greens. Only 8% goes to Reform, just ahead of the 6% to the Cons. Those Lab–Con switchers push the Tories over 20%, despite them losing a quarter of their 2024 vote to Reform.

New substack: why so many people are content with economic stagnation: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/wallowing-...

Another datapoint for the argument that we are living through an increasingly ludicrous market bubble

British Academy's pioneering 'cold spots' work now replicated by HESA. 'University "cold spots" are developing in some parts of the country, new data analysis suggests, with courses in some subjects no longer available to students in certain regions.' 1/2

We bought a dog carrier for our very old dog, for occasional use. The demonstration picture suggests either super strength fingers or a hollow beagle.

This is excellent on the fundamental incompatibility between Starmer’s focus on “growth” and his determination to reduce the number of migrants. As Ben concludes, something will have to give and that’s likely to Starmer’s time in government app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/71810/...

Private Eye skewering TalkTV re. Lucy White

All these questions prove is that very few people have the slightest clue what an apprenticeship actually looks like these days.

Everything must be the fault of ‘liberals’ at all times

BREAKING: Four major publishers agree deals with UK university sector Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis and Wiley meet “sector-agreed thresholds” in long-running talks Free to read www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-o...

Slow week at the Telegraph?

An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

In some ways this is a useful reminder that a lot of the talk of European security guarantees to Ukraine have the whole thing backwards. For more than three years Ukraine has been guaranteeing European security by fighting and degrading the Russian armed forces. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve written the @resprofnews.bsky.social Sunday Read this week. I’ve looked at the value and importance of the arts, humanities and social sciences and what policymakers might do to support them at a time we are seeing major cutbacks in universities www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

Predictably History Reclaimed complain about a ‘hatchet job’ rather than recognise Biggar’s weak performance and arguments.

The Liz Truss Show review – hapless ravings from a cupboard

Here’s the link to watch History Reclaimed’s right wing moral, logical and historical arguments being scrutinised. It’s uncomfortable viewing in places as Biggar’s put on the spot. The truth about the British Empire: Mehdi Hasan & Nigel Bi... youtu.be/SZvkTmNQSy4?... via @YouTube

A fear of intrusive government at home, but dictatorships are OK 🙃

Will there be more episodes than days in office? Hard to say

Weird thing to campaign on - being bilingual is bad…?

A good piece from Wendy Goldman, in the Conversation, on Stalin’s post-war attacks on Soviet Jews

Nothing to stop Sitwell from leading by example

This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started

A strange comment from Anthony Beevor that historians ‘have always underestimated the importance of rumour’ - it’s extensively studied!

Rather unusual for a chancellor to be told to resign for not increasing taxes as expected in light of better-than-expected revenue forecasts.

Very much agree with this. The days when, if pushed, you could wing it as a seminar tutor by relying on a critical mass of students having done the reading and arrived prepared to discuss it are long gone.

Speaking of lies and economic damage…

Jesus as fiscal conservative

Today's 70% fall in net migration to 205,000 was not one of the six stories in BBC ten o'clock news. Ta massive assymetry in whether rises in immigration and falls in immigration are considered newsworthy by broadcasters Down by 140k isn't thought to be. Up by 140k undoubtedly would be.

In a way, you have to admire their optimism

Really good edition of The Briefing Room on Ukraine and the peace deal chaos... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

New net migration figures at 930am. Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023 56% of people think it went up last year 17% think stayed the same 14% think it went down 2025 figure to be lower again 16% expect that 38% think it will be up 31% about the same

This is quite a story for English Higher Education policy. #Budget2025 on.ft.com/4ogqPxZ Threshold for repaying student loans to converge with minimum wage

Good thing Allister didn’t overreact.

‘linking much-needed support for students to international recruitment – an unstable and overworked income stream - is risky and unsustainable. This measure could further weaken universities’ Read our Budget response here www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...

Total insanity. Deeply illiberal and authoritarian. Snatching people who look different off the street on the off chance they might be illegal. Does Philips realise that this is the language of tyranny?

The mother of all disguises

I'd like to see the response to this if the question added "if that that means universities have less money to spend on UK students".

As I said at the time this was the landmine in the immigration white paper. It will cost unis much more than they're getting from inflationary rises in domestic fees.

A relief that university finances are in such good shape

On worldwide waste www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

They brought it upon themselves of course, but leaving space for Reform is a disaster