Just over here observing, occasionally contributing. But always enjoying music.
Sociologist. Gender. Class. Queer. Higher Education. Work Precarity. Critical Pedagogy.
Solidarity is sexy. Inclusion is braw. 🏳️🌈🏴🏳️⚧️
Anyone surprised?
Of the many of the things Labour promised to fix, this is (one of) the biggest direct injustices for young people.
That and the explosion of zero-hours contracts.
Which of course, I have full faith in Labour banning like Tony Blair promised at the 1995 Labour Party Conference.
Labour now briefing young people won't get the same minimum wage uplift.
Even Starmer didn't break this pledge. Workers rights mean same rights, pay & conditions, same rate for the same job.
What does this Labour government have against young people?
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Instead of hunners of different complex schemes so people can apply for to heat their homes, can you have cheap, clean and community owned energy please XOXO
the humanities are not going to survive the next decade as a going concern (meaning, disciplines with hundreds or thousands of full-time employed scholars).
if the disciplines themselves are to survive, institutions/publishers/conferences need to significantly shift resources and labor models!
Education is a public good, not a commodity.
As Andy Burnham calls for greater public control of essential services, UCU general secretary Jo Grady asks: where is that ambition for post-16 education?
Universities and FE need proper funding and long-term planning.
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1469...
Yet another dismaying example of the Scottish Government failing to turn its stated policy into action.
With the majority of Parliament, the SNP voted for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel and companies complicit in occupation. This must become reality.
Well done ASLEF and RMT ✊
NEW: ScotRail train drivers have vowed to refuse to drive new trains if a firm linked to Israel’s illegal settlements wins a major public contract
Aslef has hit out at Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn over the decision to allow Spanish firm CAF to bid for the contract
Who could have ever guessed that an organisation led by Toby Young would be absolutely riddled with misogyny and bigotry
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Families on their annual holiday shouldn’t pay the same rate of tax as wealthy and business travellers who fly on a weekly basis.
Scottish Greens would tax the super-rich frequent flyers who are wrecking our climate.
Even without attending to the fact that degree apprenticeships are more expensive for universities to deliver than degrees (a key component ignored here), turns out they're more problematic for employers and employees than the hype suggests.
Fix the HE system.
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
More on the Goldsmiths dispute, now in its 130th day. Management is STILL not sharing its figures about the finances while justifying redundancies on those figures.
This article completely exposes the cruel and shortsighted cuts that are being made to creative courses at Edinburgh University and elsewhere.
UCU are fighting for every working class student to have the right to create and inspire.
Make a stand.
news.stv.tv/east-central...
The president of Brazil has won a court case against Meta, after accusing them of restricting his posts and algorithmically favoring his opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro
www.nbcnews.com/world/south-...
it seems to shock the New Zealand government that Peter Jackson, Taika Waititi, and the Conchords etc all emerged from the same city in the same span, which coincidentally is when Wellington rent was dirt-cheap and there were heaps of empty industrial buildings around
EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay has dismissed SNP grandee Ian Blackford’s claim that the lack of pro-independence figures in the House of Lords is an 'Achilles' heel' for the Yes movement
EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Green co-leader Gillian Mackay has dismissed SNP grandee Ian Blackford’s claim that the lack of pro-independence figures in the House of Lords is an 'Achilles' heel' for the Yes movement
I have already heard from trans constituents who are avoiding essential NHS screening and treatment for fear of being treated without respect and dignity.
Ministers told me: “the revised guidance will support the privacy, dignity and safety of all patients”
How exactly does this do that?
EXC: Edinburgh University managers have been warned that the closure of 90 programmes will cause serious reputational damage.
A motion submitted ahead of next week’s Senate meeting calls on leadership to "reconsider" the decision
@heraldscotland.bsky.socialwww.heraldscotland.com/news/2663661...
Today, in unprecedented action at GCU, 4 trade unions took strike action and stood united on the picket line in their collective fight against cuts at the university.
GCU management must work with the joint trade unions and agree to a no compulsory redundancy guarantee✊🛟
🪧 Unite members join strike action
Glasgow Caledonian university’s attack on jobs, pay and conditions is unnecessary and a vindicative choice by its management. Our members have been left with no option but to fight back against these unnecessary cuts.
Recently, KFC/Taco Bell workers organized a strike in California due to extreme heat. In the 9 years we’ve been working at this store, the AC has never worked or never been turned on, and the thermostat on the wall always reads 84 degrees no matter what the temperature feels like!
Enough is enough!
Companies like Amazon have taken more and more from our communities while giving far too little back.
We need to redistribute the wealth.
Greens would tax billionaire online retailers to support local communities and high streets.
Humza Yousaf: ".. those 4 weeks were really tough. Every day they're wondering if the next [Israeli] jet they hear is the one thats going to kill them. What must it be like for the people of Gaza who have now endured that, what I would consider a genocide, for the last 3 years"
Protestors gathered in Glasgow city centre on Monday evening to condemn violence against women and girls and its "weaponisation" by the far right 👇
👉 www.thenational.scot/news/2...
No you don't get it, the BBC had to edit out the protect the dolls t-shirt because of impartiality.
On the one hand some people think trans women should be safe, but on the other hand some people think trans women should eat glass.
It's a deeply politicised issue actually.
30,000 job losses in one of the few sectors we are still genuinely world-leading, and zero national conversation beyond tuition fees and loans. UK Higher Ed is sinking and apparently no-one has noticed.
The Green Party have said that they will refuse to engage with The Telegraph after accusing the newspaper of publishing a “racist and antisemitic” cartoon depicting leader Zack Polanski and his deputy Mothin Ali 👇
This summer: Thousands of deaths from extreme weather.
This weekend in the media: What's the point of the Green Party?
This morning from the Labour party 👇
Universities contribute £6.3 billion a year to the East Midlands economy. But at the University of Nottingham, hundreds of jobs and vital courses are under threat.
“Students suffer as much from this restructuring as staff.”
This fight is about protecting jobs and education for future generations.
There is 73% support in Britain for the principle of refugee protection - including in the UK - while 20% are opposed to this. The peak of support was 2022 at 80% (largely because the images from Ukraine had more impact than images from the Channel that year, though boats + migration were high)
“Classrooms up and down the country need to prepare young people for the wider world – an ever complex and changing world – and that only happens if their classrooms, their learning materials and their discussions reflect the diversity of experiences in that world.”
LGBT lives are not “ideologies.”
“An AI tool used to speed up the processing of thousands of asylum cases is failing basic accuracy tests…”
The idea that synthetic text generating “AI” can be a useful aid in determining refugee status is ridiculous.
We should challenge the automation of decision-making and erosion of our rights.
“Universities are revoking offers en masse made to international applicants from countries including Nigeria and Pakistan as they fear the UK government’s visa crackdown will result in a ban on their recruiting international students.”
The British government trashes universities and pursues racism.
"The contrast between the utterly sycophantic coverage of Badenoch ... and the utterly dismissive coverage of Polanski, who has significantly improved his party’s standing over the past year, tells you everything you need to know about media bias in the UK"
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/why-the-ho...