Derby's annual feast of genre fiction is back this September, with interviews, panels, workshops and more taking place at Edge-Lit 12! www.derbyquad.co.uk/whats-on/edg... #Derby #Derbyshire #eastmids #eastmidlands #fiction #writing #writers #authors #books #novels

Edge-Lit 12

Edge-Lit makes it a dozen with its return in 2026, once again serving up a wide array of interviews, talks, workshops and more for lovers of genre fiction.

derbyquad.co.uk

Today on Writing Worlds @emilyinkpen.bsky.social and I are chatting about the ethics of #worldbuilding with the wonderful Claire North! Listen/subscribe pod.link/1812994751

On the one hand, I suppose Badenoch is pleased that the Tories are in the news for once.

Quite impressive to completely undermine your own defence and insult most of your party's elected officials in the same sentence.

Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 8h ago

It's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.

This feels like such an obvious own goal. Sure, people deserve 2nd chances but: 1) The guy was a Nazi! 2) You spent years calling out antisemitism in Labour 3) Why spend political capital on him when there are people just like him *who weren’t Nazis*! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Ex-MP urges Tories to drop candidate jailed for campaign of antisemitic abuse against her

Luciana Berger says Joshua Bonehill-Paine should have no role in public life because of ‘his racism and his view of women’

theguardian.com

Please note that my account has been hacked. Please ignore any messages or anything else you may receive from me. I would never knowingly send any personal messages. I’m currently trying to resolve the issue. I apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

Kemi Badenoch on Today defending the neo-Nazi council candidate by saying that it is right to give those who have previously been radicalised a chance. Badenoch on Shamima Begum, whom was groomed by Islamic State when a child, "Citizenship is a privilege, she forfeited it." 🤔

My new book, An Injury to All, traces the history of The Unmaking of the British Working Class. Thanks very much to @demleftscotland.bsky.social for publicising An Injury to All as it goes out for pre-order. Full details below🔽 www.democratic-left.scot/post/an-inju...

An injury to all - New book on the 'unmaking of the working class'

Ewan Gibbs, the Glasgow-based historian who is author of Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland will be known to many Democratic Left Scotland members. Ewan’s ...

democratic-left.scot

And to think I had a hard time persuading the PhD office to accept my PhD because it was 808 words over ...

Emma Yeomans@yeomans.bsky.social · yesterday

Calls for the Office for Students to investigate Liverpool John Moores University, after it passed Jason Arday's PhD thesis despite plagiarism and the thesis being 38,000 words over word count. He says received just one supervision in 2.5 years. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

wp.me/p15p2Q-hlv

Engels to Marx, 4th August 1856 ‘tropical heat which has brought everything to a standstill’

The letter below is not the proof that climate change deniers may be looking for.. The temperature in Manchester on 4th August 1856 was 25C, warm certainly but well below temperatures reached in 20…

wp.me

Notice how no media commentator has asked Reform how they will afford making the English Channel the most militarized and surveilled stretch of water in the world? Meanwhile reducing bus fares to £2 will apparently bankrupt the country.

GP practices provided 35,000,000 appointments in June 50% more than 2019 Sadly too many in the media ignore this Many commentators refuse to accept the truth In the end GP practices will close, GPs leave & GPs will be blamed despite doing more for less year on year

GPonline@gponline.bsky.social · 2d ago

General practice in England delivered nearly 35m appointments in June this year - a new record that is 46% above the same month in 2019, GPonline analysis shows. Full story: www.gponline.com/general-prac...

I’m very much on the “don’t speak ill of the dead” side of civility but that doesn’t mean distorting what someone did with their life, particularly if they used their position to hurt others. Liddle was not a brilliant provocateur. He used misinformation to whip up hate against bedbound people.

Judging from the reaction to Farage's 'policy' announcement today from both Labour and the Tories, it may be that his capacity to do the below is waning. Not sure about Hanson, mind.

Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 2d ago

Sorry but unless you, as a media outlet, have managed to get someone from the Navy (probably a former sailor because those currently serving maybe disbarred from commenting) to explain that this is extremely unlikely to happen for legal reasons, then, arguably, you haven't really done your job.

No need to pay tribute to anyone who spent their career demonising people and contributed to making this country a more miserable place.

Monument to the Conquerors of Space, (1977), Dzhezkazgan, Kazakh SSR. Artist: L. Pak, Architect: K. Turlybaev, Sculptor: N. Andreev

I think it's useful to remember that managers call in consultants to justify a decision they've already made.

Alex Prichard@profalexp.bsky.social · 2d ago

The government has effectively outsourced HE policy to consultants, including Nous, KPMG and others. At Exeter it’s Nous www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

1/3 Strip away the theatre and Reform UK is a billionaire-backed project to dismantle the public realm, shred regulatory protections and hand what remains of state power to capital. It’s plain to see – just follow the money.

'Last week the Office for Students (OfS) published research on commuter students that it had commissioned from Savanta. The conclusion was tidy – journey time is the best way of identifying commuters in need.' 1/4

Commuter students? It's all about the money

Last week the Office for Students (OfS) published research on commuter students that it had commissioned from Savanta.

wonkhe.com

William S Burroughs sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/burrou... died and Ken MacLeod sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/macleo... was born on this day, so here’s some related artwork (Artist: [couldn’t identify], Don Brautigan, [couldn’t identify] and Lee Gibbons):

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says

LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance

ft.com

The COVID brain fog explained. The COVID-19 virus binds to the ACE2 receptor to enter cells. Dopamine producing neurons are rich in the ACE2 receptor. The virus causes disruption in the dopamine network in the brain. 🧪 tech-paper.com/scientists-f...

Scientists finally have a biological explanation for why long COVID patients lose motivation and can't think clearly. They scanned their brains and found the dopamine system was physically damaged - T...

Millions of people with long COVID report the same cluster of symptoms: a crushing lack of motivation, an inability to think clearly, memory that slips, movements that feel slower than they should. Fo...

tech-paper.com

Currently halfway through this extraordinary & captivating novel. As many have already pointed out, ‘hallucinatory‘ is certainly an apt description. A personal quest set against the backdrop of an ambiguous global disaster, with shades of Kafka & Ballard thrown into the mix. Beautifully written.

🚨 After 40 years of research, Brazilian scientist Dr. Mariangela Hungria wins the World Food Prize for pioneering a $2 nitrogen-fixing bacteria treatment that replaces costly fertilizers, saves farmers $25 billion annually, and cuts 230 million tons of CO₂ emissions.

In exchange for £25, Facebook are offering me the chance to feature my page posts on, wait for it, at least *six* other timelines. 10 years ago it was a fiver for 1,500.

What was hot on the blog last month. Feat. Farage's difficulties, the advent of Andy Burnham, the uses of Ann Widdecombe ...

Five Most Popular Posts in July

Time for the monthly duty post! What did the business on the blog during July? 1. The Desperation of Nigel Farage 2. From Brexit to Frexi...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

We've got seven weeks to go until Edge-Lit returns to QUAD - Derby, and here's our full line-up of events for the day! www.derbyquad.co.uk/whats-on/edg... #derby #derbyshire #writing #writers #authors #fiction #books #novels #shortstories #genrefiction #genrebooks

Edge-Lit 12

Edge-Lit makes it a dozen with its return in 2026, once again serving up a wide array of interviews, talks, workshops and more for lovers of genre fiction.

derbyquad.co.uk

I agree with this. I understand why Badenoch pursues a Farageist strategy because consolidating the base is an understandable response to getting smashed. But what she doesn't get is that sticking with it won't get the Tories anywhere beyond that base.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 4d ago

Sorry I just don’t buy this. They were polling better during the Sunak interim than they are now. Is the argument that Kemi’s approval ratings *travelled back in time*?

Local council by-elections for July CON 19% (+1 cllr) LAB 15% (-2) LDEM 16% (+1) REF 24% (+4) GRN 12% (-1)

Local Council By-Elections July 2026

This month saw 75,444 votes cast in 46 local authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. 22 council...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

Worth remembering that this government is subsidising a theme park to the tune of £1.3bn. An amount that would go some way to preserving the intellectual and economic footprint of our universities.

James Woodfield@jameswoodfield.bsky.social · 4d ago

According to the parliamentary annual report & accounts for the 2025/26 financial year, the cost of subsidising the bars in the House of Commons alone was around £5.8 million. Meanwhile, to save £3 million less than that, Jodrell Bank is being defunded and shut down. share.google/MRHIvCsCsKoc...