Stephen Baker
@stephenbaker.bsky.social
Socialist. Trade unionist. Strummer of strings. Co.Down. Researches, writes & teaches. Radical whore of sociology. "...clean living under difficult circumstances." Proudly Paddystinian.
Many people outside the UK have been asking me who Rod Liddle was. Here's Stewart Lee (from 08:53 onwards) on the man described by Fraser Nelson (former editor of The Spectator) as 'the greatest satirist since Swift.' Let this be the last word on the subject. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFt3...
Stewart Lee Comedy Vehicle - 4.5 Migrants
YouTube video by Ian Kenny
youtube.com
Louise Ryan in 'Irish Nurses in the NHS' takes testimonies from Irish nurses in the NHS. There are stories of patients in England who refused care from Irish nurses during the 'troubles'. Whether it's collective punishment or racism - toxic political discourse is a massive factor in this.
Stephen Baker@stephenbaker.bsky.social · yesterdayYou’d be a hateful, despicable prick to your core to refuse care on these grounds. Your racism would be pathological. Whatever else was wrong with you, you would need your racism treated first. news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...
You’d be a hateful, despicable prick to your core to refuse care on these grounds. Your racism would be pathological. Whatever else was wrong with you, you would need your racism treated first. news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...
Patients refusing to be treated by non-white staff as NHS reports shocking rise in racism
Paul Awah, a Bedfordshire-based diagnostic radiographer originally from Nigeria, said: "It's definitely got worse – people are more expressive."
news.sky.com
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael rule out Sinn Féin at every election and pay nothing for it. No party of the Irish left has ever ruled them out. Who gets to say no to whom. The new essay, on the door nobody will shut. 💭✍🏼 #Spéirghorm #IrishPolitics #Elections forlouth.medium.com/the-door-the...
The Door They Will Not Shut
A sequel to No Form To Hold It, beginning with a correction to it.
forlouth.medium.com
If you're around Belfast tomorrow afternoon, why not join myself, @stephenbaker.bsky.social and Phil Ramsey in discussing what the media landscape may look like in a 'New Ireland'!
Yesterday was some craic.This in the Irish News and a Féile panel on Irish unity. I wanted to say something about the emotional journey many of us are on with all this.
The terrible, stupid waste of UK universities policy continues. Your cash down the drain. www.irishnews.com/news/norther...
New Ulster University buildings will ‘sit gathering dust’ if job cuts go ahead, council told
Over 400 positions are set to go from April 2027 at Ulster University as it tackles £25m deficit
irishnews.com
‘It hurts to lose a job you love’, says Bridget Phillipson. Ah! diddums! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘It hurts to lose a job you love’: Starmer loyalist Bridget Phillipson fights on despite cabinet demotion
Exclusive: The former education secretary on her new role as Labour chair and continuing as the minister for women and equalities
theguardian.com
Are such people psychopaths? I don't know. But I bet they help them out when they're busy. Read the whole thread...
George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 6d agoI'm not qualified to judge whether such people are psychopaths. All I can say is that they behave as if they are. From today's Telegraph.
Claire Mitchell, one of the 'happy lundies', today at Féile 1pm. "But I do know that, for me, participating in conversations about Irish unity has been a deep act of political and personal reconciliation."
While now sadly out of print, John Gray's "City in Revolt" is a compelling account of this overlooked period in the social history of Belfast. In many ways, 1907 gave birth to the "rotten Prods" of 1920.
Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · last wk.#OtD 28 Jul 1907 soldiers were deployed to break escalating strike action by "unskilled" Protestant and Catholic workers, who had found solidarity in struggle, as part of the four-month long Belfast Dock Strike. Read more about the strike here: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1001...
British universities are becoming not so much managerialist as authoritarian. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/uk-d...
UK devolution must extend to its authoritarian universities
Institutions whose managers are unaccountable to their staff can never be truly civic universities, says Krzysztof Nawratek
timeshighereducation.com
It's amazing how when 150,000 racists marched through the streets with Tommy Robinson, all the outlets had breathless live coverage, helicopters out covering the march and reporters on the street. 150,000 trans people and allies march and barely a peep
Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · last wk.150,000 marched yesterday in London for trans rights. Opened the Sky News app. Scrolled and scrolled. Nothing. BBC News app. Nothing. Guardian app. Nothing. This is what actual silencing looks like.
University senior leaders have discovered that the best way to improve education & research is to make academics spend more time worrying about whether they’ll still have a job 😉
British billionaire Unionist flexing on Republican West Belfast is certainly a look.
Miffythegamer@miffythegamer.bsky.social · 2w agoRowling looming over a progressive Irish cultural festival with her menacing insinuations & a phalanx of expensive lawyers dashing off legal letters. And all because the organisers don’t want transphobes peddling hate at their event. A nauseating spectacle of spite.
Only just got to see this. It contains a remarkable graph. Appears that Councils stopped building houses...and basically nobody took their place.
@michael-s-marshall.bsky.social · 3w ago1) Andy Burnham wants to pivot the Affordable Housing Programme away from housing associations towards councils. This FT article highlights several associated challenges. Previous attempts to boost social rented delivery show us that these challenges are real. www.ft.com/content/354e...
A beautiful addition to Derry’s streetscape and a fitting tribute to the man. Also great that local young people helped shape the project.
“…an incredibly powerful phalanx of skilled political operators” What have these skilled operators been doing since the GE 2024? There’s been little evidence of their presence. And surely undermining Burnham’s first budget would only make Starmer’s Barmy Army even more loathed by the public.
PoliticsHome@politicshome.bsky.social · 2w agoLabour MPs unhappy with the treatment of Starmer loyalists have warned they could make life hard for Burnham at the Budget “Andy’s Starmerite purge has created an incredibly powerful phalanx of skilled political operators who intimately know the government’s fiscal position" Harriet Symonds writes
#OtD 22 Jul 2005 Brazilian commuter Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by armed London police at Stockwell tube station. Despite being restrained, he was shot seven times in the head and once in the torso. No officers faced charges related to his death stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9487...
Féile an Phobail Media and Culture in a New Ireland St Mary's University, Falls Road Monday 3rd August an 1pm What a would a new democratic public media mean for culture and politics in a new Ireland?
This half time entertainment is only the second worst thing I’ve seen today.
Me, @dmcbfs.bsky.social, @gavreilly.com and Chris Donnelly will be talking politics at St Mary's on the 3rd August if ye fancy it.
Bit by the ghost limb docs' fabulous and longsuffering producer, Dónall Ó Maolfabhail. www.rte.ie/culture/2026...
The Ghost Limb - a Northern writer's magical journey to belonging
rte.ie
While public tastes are moving away from tighter regulation and audit culture in the information sphere, higher education moves inexorably towards it substack.com/home/post/p-...
The Rest is Academic Research
What happens when Gary Lineker comes for the universities?
substack.com
I've spent today listening to the late, great Cathal Coughlan's entire back catalogue of solo work, because I can. I'm going to do it all again tomorrow.
