Let's talk about JK Rowling's 'bearded men'... I want to vent something that's been on my mind: The way transphobic groups and individuals are also actively homophobic. I've experienced it first hand, and know many others have too. 1/

Following Rod Liddle's death I've been thinking again about the often unacknowledged privilege in being able to see the words of a demagogue as just things you disagree with rather than things that threaten people.

IMO it’s a big problem that people think meritocracy in higher education = a more diverse student body at Oxbridge, as opposed to fewer people caring about the symbolic value of Oxbridge in the first place.

this multifarious violence *against the world* can never be forgiven, because no administration put in power by American voters will ever permit itself to grasp that it is not for Americans to forgive

Sylvia at Tono Latino@tonolatino.bsky.social · 2w ago

He was here on VACATION. He is not a criminal. He wasn't here trying to steal anything. And he was still targeted by ICE. His name was Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran.

Private Eye tells me that How Green Was My Valley is one of Andy Burnham’s favourite books. Oh dear. I write a PhD on 1930s Welsh mining novels, including a whole chapter on Llewellyn’s work. I even read the terrible sequels. It really, really isn’t a story of working-class solidarity etc.

This disingenuous commentary doesn’t help anyone. Frauds start unravelling pretty quickly. That you apparently cannot afford to put your oven or treat yourself is quickly undermined by the question “so why are you spending £50 per week on petrol?” Then, it turns out, she has an agent and /1

Ash@queerash.bsky.social · 2w ago

Elaine in this article "can't remember the last time she used her oven" but also spends £200 a month on petrol (so driving probably ~50 miles a day?) (she's also a professional old person; she was on Good Morning Britain last year, and then also at the Nov budget, and the year before lmao)

PSA on the Victoria Line tube in London. Phillipson and every other GC weirdo needs to take note.

Buses, famously for the richer classes and upper orders.

Ian McEwan every few years:

Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now@understatesmen.bsky.social · 2w ago

hey guys I don't read this genre but I'm here to revolutionise it. I haven't read a single book that's done this.

Great to see the Guardian champion the SHAPE (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) subjects, but this piece gives impression that they are expensive, whereas many are 'cheap to teach' subjects subsidising more expensive subjects, mainly in STEM and medicine. The crisis demands better understanding.

The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial

Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed

theguardian.com

The condescension of much of the BBC now embodied by Fiona Bruce going 'of course, most of the tourists outside Buckingham Palace today know anything about the politics of this'. You know, I think they might? Today? Feels like a reasonable guess that they've come specially, like.

The shamelessness of a political party which is led by a man who just weeks ago called for "pure cold rage" on the streets, shortly before migrants were literally burnt out of their homes, now accusing their opponents of "stochastic terrorism" against them, is quite something

Please give our capital city its full name: you plan to return to Khan’s London for your safety

On this day in 1981, Richard Cobb got an honorary degree from the University of Essex. That may not seem significant to you, but it makes this afternoon the 45th anniversary of one of the finest graduation addresses ever delivered 🧵

Stares in "Not approved", "Approved", "Well approved".

Gareth Millward@millieqed.bsky.social · 4w ago

*me having progressively over 40 years convinced the university to adopt a 4,000 point mark scheme* Yeah, but I just can't decide if this is a 3,756 or a 3,757...

The UK has now said it will actively harm or damage: *Chemistry *Nursing *High-end physics *Languages *Astronomy *Creative arts *Theatre and performance *Cultural industries *Europe-level science The UK has lost its mind. 🇬🇧

In proof that the Dutch are obscenely good linguists, the conductor of this cross-border service has seen my Swedish ticket, spoke to me in Swedish, and has added Swedish to the announcement languages. Why? I have no idea. But it almost compensates the general shittiness of Deutsche Bahn...

I weep for the country that once gave me, a "white working class" child, funded access to the higher reaches of the education system, far beyond anything my own parents ever claimed to understand enough to want, because I was capable of it, and the system was there to show me the way.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last mo.

I genuinely do not understand why vocational pathways are for working-class youths rather than for youths as a whole. Just as universities are meant to be available for higher education learners, not for middle-class learners or the posherati.

New blog! My first, tentative attempt to think through some themes in on-going resarch. What do the relations between patient groups, their periodicals, and advertisers reveal about C20 health? Thanks to ActDisease colleagues for feedback, and @the-polyphony.bsky.social for the invitation to write!

The Polyphony @the-polyphony.bsky.social · last mo.

What do advertisements in twentieth-century patient organisation magazines reveal about medical consumerism and the globalisation of diabetes care? @andrewburchell.bsky.social tells us in the latest contribution to our Multilingual Medical Humanities project. thepolyphony.org/2026/06/29/c...

It was inevitable, wasn't it🙄 Of course the Telegraph would run with something like this👇 So let's remove some of the rose-tinted spectacles and also look at some of that data comparing 1976 with modern heat waves Because the 1976 nostalgia porn is wearing a bit thin at this stage 🧵1/23

Me: Ooh, not long until my trip back to UK, I am sure things are going absolutely fi--

Is binning expert correspondents in eastern Europe a good idea at a time like this? Disinformation on the rise, Russia interfering in many countries, threatening several and actually at war with one? Well, BBC News management seems to think so. It's disposing of me and 4 of my colleagues.

Sad to hear Starmer talking about young people online as if every adult who ever reached out to them was a predator. Aye, that was how those of us supporting young LGBTQ people in the early 'nineties were treated, but we tried to help anyway, because what would have happened otherwise? 🏳️‍🌈

I'm sorry but I am just regularly very disturbed by how some adults talk about young people over the age of 16. (Or as they are in fact better known 'other adults'.)

Tech bros have recommended pet politicos ban kids from social media, knowing it doesn’t work. & it gives tech more personal data about everyone. Regulating users, rather than tech, is yet another example of how authoritarian control is normalised & users exploited.

I do think a lot of English-based analysis of what happened in Northern Ireland last night is missing the specifically loyalist aspect of the violence. These are groups with a long history of violently driving out "outsiders", turning their sights on a new vulnerable minority.

Another is, for example, that salaries *in the Civil Service*, supposedly running the actual country on our behalf, are barely above minimum-wage until you reach senior management levels. www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/civil-servic...

Jim Pickard@pickardje.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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?

There are so many differences unaccounted for that this is beyond oversimplification. Off the top of my head, 4 deeper factors are key. 1) The Dutch pay high taxes & that makes everything possible. Investment is made for decades ahead, which pays off for individuals & society 1/?

What can the Dutch teach the UK about how to tackle the youth jobs crisis?

The Netherlands has the lowest rate of young people not in education, employment or training in the EU

theguardian.com

We are profoundly saddened to share that our Honorary President, Maureen Duffy, has passed away. Maureen was extraordinary: a novelist, poet, playwright and critic of incredible range, and one of the founding figures of ALCS. Learn more about her legacy and impact: https://ow.ly/yHWs50Z52Ye

Ahead of next week's #MBS26 conference, our website is now live! Check out our new blog series, Histories from Here, and our plans for prizes and conferences in Modern British Studies modbritstud.org.uk