Och, sad news. What a writer! Who Paid the Piper? redefined the cultural history of the Cold War. Also that mega LRB essay, The Suitcase. RIP
Frances Stonor Saunders obituary
Author and documentary-maker best known for her 1999 book about CIA-funded cultural espionage Who Paid the Piper?
theguardian.com
I grieved for the Internet, I grieved for Social Media, now I grieve for universities, and their communities. This is all part of a mass-dismantling of social connection (and university leaders have been blithe to their part). What does that leave? We all become selfish? Not why I work at a uni…
Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2w ago'In some respects, what we are seeing resembles a form of collective grief. Not only grief for colleagues who have left, but grief for ways of working, professional identities and communities that once gave meaning to academic life. This creates an important challenge for university leaders.'
‘Yet the emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way.’ This from @trillingual.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk is really worth a read www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
Daniel Trilling | Masks Off
The emergence of Patriot Platform is not necessarily a sign that the far right is getting its way. Radical right-wing...
lrb.co.uk
Huge. Huge testament to the power of organising. Huge relief for Exeter friends and colleagues. Huge waste of time and resources. Huge reputational damage done. Huge warning to universities who want to treat their staff like they don’t matter.
Exeter UCU@exeterucu.bsky.social · 3w agoThe University of Exeter has confirmed that it won’t proceed with compulsory redundancies “at this time”. This means colleagues do not need to complete the pro forma, and there will be no selection process.
“did maliciously dig up turf on the golf course … paint political and offensive slogans on the grass, score a political slogan into the turf… aggravated by reason of having a terrorist connection” Scotland, 2026
Seven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’
Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti
theguardian.com
A civilian geography professor was fired from West Point for pushing back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change.
West Point professor fired after pushing back on limitations to teaching climate change, lawsuit says
Adam Kalkstein pushed back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change, the lawsuit says.
stripes.com
I hope that the Scottish Government can urgently attend to this, despite yesterday's resignation of the minister, Ben Macpherson. Universities and their staff are struggling – this story explains why.
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · last mo.I have a limited appetite for fiscal wonkism, but this seems like a major story about systemic underfunding of universities in Scotland, Wales and NI. Scotland is being penalised for not charging tuition fees.
I have a limited appetite for fiscal wonkism, but this seems like a major story about systemic underfunding of universities in Scotland, Wales and NI. Scotland is being penalised for not charging tuition fees.
The Treasury is bankrupting three nations' universities
With funding reviews underway in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Justine Pedussel and Jim Dickinson worry none will examine the hidden accounting rules driving the crisis
wonkhe.com
Absolutely mortifying piece – very thought leader-y
Richard Van Noorden@richvn.bsky.social · last mo.Dean of Science at Stellenbosch University writes that although AI generates almost all the words for his articles (including this one): "AI did almost all of the writing. I remain the expert and the thought leader behind the piece." www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Extraordinary that the Scottish Government should be so cavalier with such an important cultural archive.
Dani Garavelli@danigaravelli.bsky.social · last mo."A civic arts centre should not be sold off for parts." www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...
Just remember this message is aimed at your children not theirs.
I've just heard that the BA/BSc Geography programme is to close at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) in Cornwall. This programme was made up of excellent modules with original and content, taught brilliantly—often with real innovation—by extremely 1/9
The story is here is less about university finances than about a management culture that has undisguised contempt for its own staff.
Dr Susan Greaney@suegreaney.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy uni have just withdrawn Geography, History & Geography and Politics & Geography undergrad courses run from our Penryn campus. Terrible for Cornwall. How did the staff find out? When UCAS clearing opened at 8am 😡
Heartened to see that my university is ending its contract with Turnitin before the next academic year, because Turnitin is going to use student submissions to train AI models. Institutions can and should resist this stuff!
This is good to see! There are so many sites across the city with Douglass associations, at the moment unmarked.
The Past and other Places@pastandotherplaces.bsky.social · 2mo agoA Frederick Douglass plaque has been approved. www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinbur...
Frederick Douglass spent about six months in Edinburgh and we have no blue plaques, indeed very modest official commemoration of any kind. Let's change this.
Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 2mo agoHe was only briefly here - giving two lectures to North Shields anti-slavery society in 1846 - but it’s good to see Frederick Douglass celebrated, adding to the complex record of Shields’ history. www.bbc.com/news/article...
My trusty 3M Peltors are now held together with duct tape but wow was I glad of them for The Odyssey.
back when our uni was doing "curriculum transformation" instead of "spending restraint" I tried to tell anyone who was asking for input that the biggest proven gold standard higher ed intervention we were missing and should invest in was foundation writing courses plus writing centre
Mary Lewis@profmarylewis.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
A measured and sensible response from Jon Moses to those who object to ‘Scottish style’ responsible access south of the border.
Right to Roam@righttoroam.bsky.social · 3mo agoShould the access movement be less political? Is it all about paths instead of wider rights? In our first substack, co-director @jon-moses.bsky.social responds to comments from the author and geographer, Nicholas Crane, about the right to roam campaign. righttoroam.substack.com/p/should-the...
He didn’t even pay for his own spectacles … he only ever saw the world through the lenses of a plutocrat.
I don't think any university teacher is ready for the next academic year. It's a crisis without precedent.
Jeff Sharlet@jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 3mo agoAt the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/
‘There needs to be a co-ordinated strategy that tackles not only acts of violence but also the narratives that make them possible.’ Essential reading from Luqman Saeed in Belfast.
London Review of Books@lrb.co.uk · 4mo ago‘We are living under a kind of house arrest, unable to go out, with an oppressive sense that an assault could occur at any moment.’ New from Luqman Saeed in Belfast: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
The rapid erosion of the mainstream political taboo on Powellism and Mosleyism (etc) is one of the most striking and alarming features of the present moment. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Winter@owenwntr.bsky.social · 4mo agoIn his white lives matter address, Nigel Farage calls George Floyd a career criminal and says "the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities" in Britain
One of the oddest things about Tony Blair is that he has turned into the cartoon image drawn by Steve Bell since the 1990s. It’s spooky.
Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump
In highly unusual intervention, ex-PM says his party’s ‘almost infinite capacity for self-delusion’ makes it likely to lose next election
theguardian.com
‘The task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist – rather than, as at present, the other way round’. Essential context for Britain’s university crisis.
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
lrb.co.uk
Acrid smoke now in East Edinburgh. WHO recommend a PM 2.5 limit of 5 µg/m3, tonight it’s over 82.
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · 4mo agoThat’s Arthur’s Seat ablaze again. 2026 bushfire season starting in May not August.
That’s Arthur’s Seat ablaze again. 2026 bushfire season starting in May not August.
Fraser MacDonald@frasermacdonald.bsky.social · last yr.Scotland has not adjusted to the reality that we now have a bushfire season. So many implications, not least for air quality.
"wild swimming ... causes issues with private ownership" is genuinely a sentence written by the national park authority for Kinder Scout, the locus classicus of public access protest in England
Right to Roam@righttoroam.bsky.social · 4mo agoIt would be nice if, on a hot sunny day, the @peakdistrict.bsky.social, spent its time advising how swimming can be done safely without impacting wildlife, rather than acting like the most normal thing in the world is a dangerous act of criminality. #RightToSwim
