My uni have just withdrawn Geography, History & Geography and Politics & Geography undergrad courses run from our Penryn campus.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 😡
Scandifriend
@scandifriend.bsky.social
Wigan-based diminutive middle-aged would-be punk elfin. Obsessed with all things Scandi, chess, politics, music, languages, cooking, and doing the washing up https://worldlyscandifriend.wordpress.com/
For the record, Shreyas was a good bit better than me even in 2018 when he was nine and I was 44 so I take double pride in that victory lol. Daft the Home Office ever tried to deport him though.
Scandifriend@scandifriend.bsky.social · 4d agoJust before Shreyas and his family won the right to stay in the UK, I played him twice in the Sam Black Memorial Blitz at Wanstead. He won the first game brilliantly and I have never been happier to lose. I won the second game and I have never been happier to win. Delighted for him today.
Just before Shreyas and his family won the right to stay in the UK, I played him twice in the Sam Black Memorial Blitz at Wanstead. He won the first game brilliantly and I have never been happier to lose. I won the second game and I have never been happier to win. Delighted for him today.
Jonathan Calder@lordbonkers.bsky.social · 4d agoBoy the home office tried to deport at 9 wins British chess championship at 17 Congratulations to Shreyas Royal. liberalengland.blogspot.com/2026/08/boy-...
Journalists attacked with rocks for reporting on racist rioters waging a pogrom whilst calling for refugees to "have their f**king heads chopped off". These are the "protesters" with "legitimate concerns" we keep on hearing so much about www.edp24.co.uk/news/2644352...
I've been attacked as a journalist twice in a year... I'm just trying to do my job
I was attacked for a second time in a year while covering the Thetford riots, here's what happened and why I'm going back.
edp24.co.uk
What puzzles me about those 'writers' who are fanning the flames of enmity and division is that they are just so full of *hatred*. They shake with it - quivering with malice and fear. But they're usually successful people with a foghorn of influence and some status. What's the matter with them?
I have actually realised that the last line of this article is Kenny Everett saying 'Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away' at the Tory youth rally in the 1983 election, only presented as a genuine and serious policy (but this time with reverse ageism as opposed to plain vanilla ageism)
Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · 7d agoThis is misogyny and anti-disability discrimination on par with old-timey doctors claiming women are prone to ‘hysteria’ and the vapours. It is unacceptable seeing this in any newspaper. UK philosophers should loudly condemn it as a whole, since it is authored by an ex-colleague. It is wrong
"Legitimate concerns" is starting to feel very "you had people that were very fine people on both sides"
A protest is a march, an assembly in a public space, a crowd by the headquarters of a public or private body that has taken an objectionable decision. It’s not a mob hurling abuse at people in their homes, let alone trying to intimidate or burn people out of an area. We have other words for that.
Mark O’Neill 🐻@radiobeartime.com · 6d agoI recognise the difficult job Civil Servants face but the Home Office is a disgrace and shames the entire Civil Service.
Grotesque response by the Home Office, reassuring far right would-be stormtroopers that they’re on their side and that they have a legitimate point to make, as long as they just tone the violence down and lay off the police
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · last wk.Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
He steps down as a candidate and...this happens instead?
Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social · last wk.In a post on X he says he’ll instead be advising the Conservative Party on how young men become radicalised
The net effect of this is that Badenoch never conveys a sense of authority because she is constantly and restlessly querying and snarking at everything, including herself without realising it. The ability to be calm and centred and chill out a bit is surely imperative for doing the job she has?
Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · last wk.Just thinking how Johnson spoke like a newspaper column — colourful, bantering bullshit — whereas Badenoch speaks like the worst kind of comment section: querulous, chippy, pedantic (I'm just talking tone here, not content)
A gravedigger and his family, 1962. We think of the 1960s as basically the modern day, but millions of British people still lived like this. Gravediggers were probably paid quite well, too, compared to other manual workers. This is the reality behind the "corned beef of my childhood" nostalgia slop.
*Renewable energy *Racial attitudes (despite recent backsliding) *Football *Football hooliganism *Violent crime *Rail travel (yes, really) *Air quality *Cancer survival *Deaths on the road *Car safety *Dog mess on pavements *School results *University access *Teenage pregnancy... Etc (2/2)
Things that are better than forty years ago: *Double glazing *Fitted kitchens *Central heating *Mixer taps *Hand-dryers that work *Power showers *Coffee *Unemployment *Inflation *Reliable cars *Passive smoking *Lung cancer *Drowning *Suicide (tho not so recently) *Mental health drugs (1/2)
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." 🤔
3/ The Union flags and St George's flags put on lampposts in Brum last year now look really tatty as well as hostile. Both cowboy country and menacing and degrading. I don't actually mind a few extra flags in some appropriate public places, but not this (again Burnham should take note)
Scandifriend@scandifriend.bsky.social · last wk.2/ If Burnham wants an easy populist win then he should do something about fake news motorway electronic notice boards that repeatedly say that sections of motorways are closed and this isn't necessarily the case. You're left in an enervating lottery trying to plan your journey
2/ If Burnham wants an easy populist win then he should do something about fake news motorway electronic notice boards that repeatedly say that sections of motorways are closed and this isn't necessarily the case. You're left in an enervating lottery trying to plan your journey
Scandifriend@scandifriend.bsky.social · last wk.1/ Some things I noticed from driving back from Dorset to Lancashire last night. The countryside is dry. Dry, dry, dry. West Dorset should look green and lush but it is seriously arid. This is an obvious thing to say but I'm surprised there haven't been more wildfires.
1/ Some things I noticed from driving back from Dorset to Lancashire last night. The countryside is dry. Dry, dry, dry. West Dorset should look green and lush but it is seriously arid. This is an obvious thing to say but I'm surprised there haven't been more wildfires.
If the parliamentary Conservative party can't go 'fuck this' in sheer horror at this point then they have gone past the point of no return
Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · last wk.It's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.
I grew up in South Somerset and what distresses me about this is that political debate at school and on the local scene was healthy and democratic and robust, whatever our disagreements. I simply cannot reconcile the Crewkerne and Yeovil I knew with this disgusting man. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Peer urges Tories to block candidate jailed for antisemitic abuse against her
Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed over neo-Nazi activism, but has been selected to stand in a new Somerset Council seat in 2027.
bbc.co.uk
Yeah, you just can't separate this stuff from "it's good to see free speech is so healthy" after a far right march launched a race riot in your capital city.
Rob Ford@robfordmancs.bsky.social · last wk.This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms
The commentators love her for all the tired stupid reasons that have contributed to the erosion of intellectual fibre in politics. 'Forthright', 'combative', 'says what she means', 'breath of fresh air'. If you are being incoherent and unpleasant and your policies don't hold water that's worth shit
Chairman Moët@chairmanmoet.bsky.social · last wk.This aligns with the point Steve Richards makes on his podcast today that the commentators may love her but Badenoch is pursuing the wrong strategy if she wants to win a GE
excerpts of these remarks should be read out to every Tory being interviewed while this guy remains an approved party candidate
Ian Rennie@theangelremiel.bsky.social · last wk.The judge's sentencing remarks when this man was jailed for antisemitic harassment of Luciana Berger are absolutely horrifying www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...