Shocking to hear LibDems (72 MPs) getting coverage on the Today programme this morning, in the slot usually reserved for hearing the latest Farage Reform UK (5 MPs & a racist goat in Catford called Kevin) rage over baddie invading foreigns.

Why is this horrible for Universities? Just about everyone who isn't a citizen or green card holder already who's hired for a tenure track faculty position is hired through an H1B and then, after 3-5 years, applies for a green card. This is literally "No more foreign professors can be hired"

Frogs, nightingales, moonlight, Tokaji - a perfect evening. From H. Ellen Browning, "A Girl's Wanderings in Hungary" (1896):

@andraswf.bsky.social A pleasant Anglo-Magyar interaction for you, from 1896 (the village she describes is now in Slovakia). bsky.app/profile/kove...

'The Patronage of Icarian John'

Frogs, nightingales, moonlight, Tokaji - a perfect evening. From H. Ellen Browning, "A Girl's Wanderings in Hungary" (1896):

Nazis ban comedians shock.. NYT, 4 Feb 1939

The @uofglasgow.bsky.social is currently running a free online course (3 weeks, 3 hours/week) on Early Modern Scottish Palaeography www.futurelearn.com/courses/ems-...

Only just noticed we made the US President watch redcoats in c18th uniforms #trolling

...what is called "the spirit of an age" is something to which one cannot return... although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of 100 years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation. Hagakure, qtd in Ghost Dog (1999)

⚠️This is the Jimmy Kimmel monologue that got his show pulled. Not hate. Not celebration of death. Just the truth: Republicans rushed to blame the left before any facts about the shooter or motive were known. Keep sharing it. Spread the truth.

"Whoever appeals to authority and tradition will have no authority... Anyone who simply appeals to prejudices is not someone you can talk with. Indeed, a person who is not ready to put his or her own prejudices in question is also someone to whom there is no point in talking." Hans-Georg Gadamer.

If you are Academia [edu] platform, now might be a good time to delete your account

Report: You To Be Fired For Reading This Headline About Charlie Kirk

I wasn't sure if my internal radio rage had become manifest as I listened to Stewart Lee rebuking Matthew Parris. Anyway turns out it hadn't and I transcribed this bit to make sure. Great Lives: Derek Bailey If you can't bear MP try from 23min to 25m 15s www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

These are the Trump Administration’s demands on UCLA, in addition to a 1.2 billion dollar fine, as reported by the LA Times today. I must note again that the Trump Administration’s attempt to use title vi to enforce conservative agenda items is flagrantly illegal.

1824: Wrote 2 or 3 more pages of my Life - read some of the Sonnets of Shakespear which are great favourites of mine & lookd into the Poems of Chatterton to see what he says about flowers & have found that he speaks of the lady-smock: 'So have I seen the lady-smocks so white / Bloom in the...

The Royal Literary Fund are offering grants to writers facing financial difficulties. If you're currently experiencing difficulties, such as an illness or unexpected bill, you might be eligible to receive support.

Never ceases to cheer me up to see Alasdair Gray's street scene of the West End, our UofG campus, and every single one of our School's buildings, in his 12m wide 2012 mural on the wall of the Hillhead Subway, on my way into work.

Reform UK: the place to be if you're a racist who wants to see people burned alive.

Maybe she's a liar, who knows. But it is so sad to see a powerful working-class woman - who has maintained an actual accent, her own voice, in the face of a foul ice wall of class and gendered prejudice - take this tumble, while all the braying Tories feast on the cadaver of her career.

Would an upper middle-class politician - who grew up with a parental property portfolio & the greedy knowledge that went with it - have known exactly how to navigate more than one property, a divorce, a trust fund - in ways a working-class woman, no matter how seemingly successful, just could not?

Yes! Still remember how a senior archaeology professor took a ten minute detour from his lecture to tell us how best to dispose of a body

Glasgow pals, check out my new exhibition at the Mitchell Library on c19 theatre, empire, and celebrity! On display thru October. I'm also giving a talk at the Mitchell on race and c19 theatre on October 4 😊 www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/exhi...

Three of my books have been stolen by Libgen for AI training - I bet yours have too - this class action is not just for US authors - very easy sign up below. Thank you @alexdecampi.bsky.social!

Superb article on why and how we need to take a more proactive stance towards social class in higher education by @bethjohnsontv.bsky.social: www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/soci...

Job klaxon: full time, permanent lectureship in Liberal Arts at the University of Glasgow: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOM506/l...

I'm ded 💀 😂 😂 😂

BUT THE KITCHEN SINK - new DJ set on SubCity radio (Glasgow) from a close Curran-Kövesi family member - live now and for eternity via the internet. Ludicrously proud. www.subcity.org/show/butthek...

Rowlandson, 1799. Plus ca change...

The Ronald Blythe Fellowship is John Clare Society's new scheme awarding a PhD student focusing on Clare a £1000 bursary to support their work. Please pass on - &/or contact me or Honorary Secretary of the Society, Karen Lakey, for further information: johnclaresociety.wordpress.com/contact-us/

It's time to go to total war with extreme right politics - but where's the leadership? Where's the full-spectrum resolute rejection of racism, xenophobia, nationalism, the hate-fuelled, pig-ignorant, incendiary and violent rhetoric of Reform UK?

This one - from Gov Bob Ferguson to Pam Bondi- equally worthy of praise.

“The study authors asked GPT 4o-mini to evaluate the quality of 217 papers. The tool didn’t mention in any of the reports that the papers being analyzed had been retracted or had validity issues. In 190 cases, GPT described the papers as world leading, internationally excellent, or close to that”

1825: Found a beautiful Deaths head Moth catterpillar in Billings potatoes it is about 4½ inches long of most beautiful rainbow colors

‘Adventures, then home for tea. The strikes into Scotland or Ireland or Wales are just that – strikes, then retreats. Cambridge is still the centre of the world: we started there and will end there, albeit up a tree.’ Kathleen Jamie on Robert Macfarlane, from 2008: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

An authoritative and experienced educator’s views on the English GCSE resit challenge for @draperel.bsky.social

If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?

❤️Tom Leonard

For the second day running, a crow has come in our house, down the chimney, had a bit of a fly about, and then sat around waiting to be let out like a cheeky pet / messenger from Satan / cast member of The Omen movie.

⬇️⬇️⬇️ Bursary opportunity for PHD student - from John Clare Society - plse share ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Yeah man what kind of dumb country takes on a nation ten times its size to assert its independence?

@bars.bsky.social @univeng.bsky.social @bavs-uk.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @studiesinrom.bsky.social #AcademicSky Please circulate!

The Ronald Blythe Fellowship is John Clare Society's new scheme awarding a PhD student focusing on Clare a £1000 bursary to support their work. Please pass on - &/or contact me or Honorary Secretary of the Society, Karen Lakey, for further information: johnclaresociety.wordpress.com/contact-us/

Stories of “class transition” have a long history in French literature. Three books by Annie Ernaux, Claire Baglin, and Édouard Louis describe it as “a life-defining rupture, almost an act of violence.” Read Aaron Labaree’s review, new at PB:

Good luck with the parking when you pop into the Westgate in Oxford to buy a round of Lush bath bombs for your security team, you turnip.