Depressing, though not surprising, that a senior Labour figure would back impunity for British military crimes against civilians in Northern Ireland.

I always feel he's the Monkey's Paw answer to some literary scholar who wanted a sign that books can still change the course of history. (No Hillbilly Elegy, no Vice President Vance.)

Big news today as Ishiguro's next novel, his ninth, is announced: www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Obviously this is not the standard through which it should be judged, but I doubt the Palestine Action verdict will be an asset for this government in the long term - every arrest will remain a prominent and constantly visible reminder of why left and liberal voters cannot trust them with a vote.

and - not that anything would justify it - all these sweeping anti-democratic moves, restricting protest, proscribing groups, imprisoning people on trumped up charges, all of it is in defence of a regime that has been murdering children, babies, whole families, on an industrial scale, for *years*

Devastating news from the Court of Appeal today. But the political and moral case against the authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action remains as strong as ever, and will be remembered long after the vast majority of this government’s actions are forgotten.

While driving today I got stung by a wasp that flew in through the open window. Not an experience I'd recommend!

Lovely light here in Sussex this evening

We should treat it the same way other crimes of this enormity are treated (on the rare occasions when they lead to an actual process of justice).

The only way to avoid this grotesque abuse of power, as it turns out, would have been for the jury to acquit entirely. The jury in this case are effectively being punished for their good faith, and I suspect future juries will take note.

Effective early-modern rulers, faced with a subject accumulating extraordinary personal power and wealth, would find an opportunity or pretext to seize the wealth and destroy the power. No doubt there were undesirable aspects of this, but there were reasons kings did as they did; we should heed them

This is pushing the point to an extreme, but Labour (and indeed Tories) losing the young on both progressive *and* aspirational sides doesn’t get discussed enough. Support (at least rhetorically) of personal aspiration among the young was a constant of post-Thatcher governments…now it just isn’t.

I do love an academic book with an unashamedly provocative title.

The key point here is that the purported logic of Labour’s ‘tough’ approach to immigration - that once the numbers are down, Farage’s appeal will dissipate - is utter bollocks. As we knew.

Today is the final day to express your interest in contributing to The Modernist Review's special issue for the Weird Modernisms conference in Loughborough, held jointly by @moderniststudies.bsky.social & @modernistudies.bsky.social . Get in touch at [email protected]!

In general Starmer's unwillingness to be honest about Trump is an underrated factor in his political failure. I get that there are genuine dangers/downsides in risking a breach with US. But I doubt those who argued for normalcy at all costs were clear-sighted about the costs of their own preference.

There's probably never been a better time to remind you that when David Hockney first took his Mum to California she remarked 'all this lovely weather and nobody puts their washing out'.

Exclusive: Office for Students spent almost £450,000 on Sussex court case. Experts say “extraordinary sum” for legal costs in free speech case will “raise eyebrows”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Northern Ireland, functionally, has no immigration. Net immigration last year was about 8000 people in a population of 2 million, and that was a record.

I don't think people should tell you anything they want to be kept from your partner, unless there's an exceptional and powerful reason for it (or something innocent like planning a surprise party).

Taybeh is the last fully Christian Palestinian town in the West Bank, with roots going back to antiquity. Israeli settlers are now setting its fields on fire and throwing Molotov cocktails at homes.

The folks at @literaryhub.bsky.social were kind enough to publish an extract from LIKE A CAT LOVES A BIRD: THE NINE LIVES OF MURIEL SPARK, all about Spark's idea of the 'intellectual monster' (a woman who, horror of horrors, isn't all that fussed about men and marriage) lithub.com/an-intellect...

I am after your top children's (/family) British Folk Horror / Folk Gothic / Just Bloody Weird and Unsettling for Kids. Preferably books ir audio drama over film/tv series. E.g. Dark Is Rising, The Owl Service etc

Let’s keep saying it: advocates of viewpoint diversity are the enemies of peer review. asheeshksi.substack.com/p/introducti...

This is a powerful, concise overview of where UK HE is today. I want to pick up on a couple of points in it, in the short thread below. None of my comments are referring to specific institutions.

Pope Leo at Port of Arguineguín: “Human dignity has no passport, nor does it lose value when crossing a border.”

Delighted to announce that my first academic monograph - "Ali Smith and the Politics of Connection: Encounter, Relationality, Praxis" - is under contract with @edinburghup.bsky.social! 📖 This book will offer a deep dive into contemporary Scottish author Ali Smith spanning the 1980s/90s to the 2020s

An event is planned to be hosted in London proudly promoting the sale of land on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is obscene. I've called on @london.gov.uk and @yvettecooper-mp.bsky.social to stop the event and for this govt to take real action on illegal settlements.

I genuinely, honestly, don’t understand how it’s possible to ban/jail peaceful protesters campaigning for justice for Palestinians, or who are anti-monarchy, yet permit far right agitators to continue spewing hatred on X, which leads to actual harm and violence on our streets. How? Why?

It has not been a good few days for the ‘Starmer is basically a decent guy, it’s a mystery why everyone hates him so much’ takes, as our alleged Prime Minister lets houses burn because he’s scared of a rich asshole who makes the Succession kids look like noble leaders.

A serious government would be not only going after X, but after Tesla also; any entity that constitutes a substantial part of Musk’s wealth is materially contributing to his attack on our country.

was talking to someone recently who kept maintaining that they don't think Starmer is a bad person, just weak, and honestly what does it matter at this point? whether you are actively feeding people to the wolves or just standing by while the wolves eat their fill, the result is the same

"bland whimpering" is genius

the lie (or misunderstanding) at the heart of this is the idea that a 26-year old graduate should be earning the same as a 42-year old aka the average worker when has that ever been the case?

Frankly it's a failure of governance that university leaders can still get away with this genre of bland whimpering.

jobcentre LLM creating slop for recruitment agency LLMs to misinterpret, sending hallucinated LLM slop to employers for jobs that have been listed online by LLMs, ensuring no humans are involved in any part of the process: the perfect summary of today's economy

This time last year I was heading up to Stirling for the @bacls.bsky.social conference, surely one of the friendliest academic conferences anyone could find. Caught up with many old acquaintances and made a few new ones, in between some fantastic papers. I feel quite nostalgic for it!

I wonder whether one motivation for the mainstream US Christian Right's hatred of the LDS is an unconscious jealousy about Mormons having a coherent, scriptural basis for incorporation of American nationalism/exceptionalism into their religion, while their own denominations so obviously lack one.

I mean, hiking barefoot is essentially impossible for anyone who has grown up wearing shoes, right? Getting more than 100 yards barefoot on anything except soft sand is seriously difficult.

Obviously this wouldn't matter to Lowe and co, but there is a real paradox about this being the case while at the same time the right to a family life in the ECHR is both one of the only hard constraint on governments in this policy area, and a totemic target of anti-migration campaigning.

I wonder whether one motivation for the mainstream US Christian Right's hatred of the LDS is an unconscious jealousy about Mormons having a coherent, scriptural basis for incorporation of American nationalism/exceptionalism into their religion, while their own denominations so obviously lack one.

There have been several indications, especially from the US, that use of AI for assessment has a strong correlation to class, with wealthy students more likely to access and use AI prosthetics.

Mixed feelings. Placing this in the Spectator will serve the hostile agenda of the Spectator and its allies towards HE; that choice reflects poorly on the author. On the other hand, on the substantial points there's a lot I'd give at least some agreement to, and the rebuttals are not all convincing.

This is right; parents may not know what has gone on with their kids in a basic factual, as well as any deeper, sense. While that does not mean regulation is impossible, you cannot make good policy without accepting that total knowledge/control is impossible and attempting it will itself cause harm.

The late Dame Hilary Mantel guarding the entrance to the reading room in the BL - @spectres-of.bsky.social would approve

I thought it was an interesting detail in that horrific story about the mother and deceased daughter last week that the neighbours did try to help and indeed successfully helped for some time. We are often less atomised than the bleaker narratives suggest.

One thing that really annoys me with trains - at least with Southern, maybe others are better - is that they literally refuse to state their off peak or super off peak times online, while ticket machines instruct you to check the allowed times but the only way of doing so is to ask a staff member.

A powerful and accurate piece. The scale of moral failings here will echo down the centuries. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Just listened to a certain Reform-led County Council singing the national anthem and can confirm their tune is as evasive as their budget savings.