David Bartram

Tonight on GB News:
-was I a Nazi at school?
-did I dodge tax on my house in Clacton?
-did anyone else in Reform take Russian bribes?
-why I won’t answer any of these questions
-how can my supporters be so gullible?
-why am I such an entitled prick?

Hmm -- I think you mean someone else: @davidbartram.bsky.social

Hmm. That means someone who posts on Bluesky is a "plonker".

Might not go over well in Britain.

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

Nigel Farage's racism denials are dishonest, says ex-classmate Peter Ettedgui tells the BBC Nigel Farage targeted antisemitic abuse at him when they were teenagers.

Peter Etedgui, a Jewish former classmate of Nigel Farage, says he is angered by Reform leader claiming his recollection of racist bullying is untrue. Two former classmates bsck Etedgui's challenge to Farage's (partial) denial among 20 who recalled Farage's conduct then
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Fifty higher education providers at risk of exiting market in England, MPs told Regulator says 24 are at more immediate risk and may have to stop degree courses within next 12 months

In what other country* would we see news stories about the risk of collapse of 𝗱𝗼𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀 of universities?

And all for the sake of pretending to "cut immigration", something that has already happened in large measure.

Insanity.

*Leaving aside the USA, naturally

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

I visited the SD zoo in ~1992. A strong memory involves observation of two tortoises having sex. (How? very slowly....) Perhaps one of them was Gramma.

I watched Gramma having sex.

When you draw a platoon leader like Hegseth, it’s your worst nightmare. You just ride it out until he’s gone and gets replaced by someone who isn’t a complete jackass. Only a fool like Trump would put one of them in charge of the entire defense department.

"A system built on specialisation, efficiency", that right there is the death knell for the current university system in the UK, if (big if) government pushes it through. They actively don't want HE to grow, they will intervene, apparently, to help it shrink.

per this morning's education committee.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

The Polish prime minister reacts

Do I understand correctly that there is now a dispute within the administration about whether this "peace plan" was written by Russians or Americans?

Taps run dry as water crisis forces Iran to consider evacuating its capital A prolonged drought along with years of overconsumption, an inefficient agricultural sector and mismanagement have led to the problem, analysts say.

Whether it's mainly climate change is not clear -- I've read stuff pointing to mismanagement & corruption.

I've got no expertise on it; it's just something I've read.

www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/i...

The Jews are just kindling for the fires of the Apocalypse, in the eyes of the Evangelicals.

I mean, maybe he's in the files?

You know your union branch is in good shape if the mere *threat* of strike is sufficient to achieve your goals.

If you have to actually go on strike, you've probably already lost.

(congrats @lancasterucu.bsky.social!)

The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted.

If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.

As many others have suggested: there's a market niche here for universities (or programs).

"We don't use AI at all, come study with us and you'll really learn to think for yourself, and you'll have an edge over the schlubs who do it the 'new' way."

‘We could have asked ChatGPT’: students fight back over course taught by AI Staffordshire students say signs material was AI-generated included suspicious file names and rogue voiceover accent

Someone at Uni Staffordshire apparently thinks they've found some magic beans, and are currently hoping to reap a pile of ££.

I expect they'll get a crop of something else entirely.

Possibly a future that entails their own "retraining" and career change.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

And I remember thinking – so if the teacher is the same sex as the student and they’re both heterosexual, the teaching relationship doesn’t work??

bizarre conversation...

I recall a conversation, decades ago, where a prof suggested that teaching is erotically charged; it’s what helps motivate the student to strive.

So, what’s bad about sleeping with the student is that it “discharges” the sexual energy and thus demotivates.

THAT was the problem, not anything else.

Graphic shows % of universities undertaking various cost cutting measures, comparing spring 2024 with spring 2025. Course closures, cutting optional modules, compulsory redundancies, and department closures have all surged

I’m old enough to remember when everybody agreed that higher education was a “market” and offering “choice” was how the universities were meant to grow

on.ft.com/3WTwBue

Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK

I don't see how Labour expects to get *my* vote while seeking votes of people who would want THIS.

I'm a practical person; I don't normally vote for (smaller) parties that can't possibly win.

But I will not vote for this (nor the rest of what's now coming out).

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Imagine having a thumping majority in parliament and deciding to use it for something as squalid as this.

Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.

“Housing shortage – Jews to blame," letter sticker, German Reich, 1938

zwangsraeume.berlin/en/context

Maybe they’ll come to enjoy the experience of having a spine. Could come in handy.

14 Postdoctoral Fellowships (2 years) - Early Career Rescue Fellowship Programme - Academic Positions Two-year fellowships for early career researchers unable to work in the USA due to political pressure; open to all disciplines and nationalities.

Positions in Freiburg, Tuebingen, and Konstanz:

academicpositions.com/ad/universit...

I'm going to have to look at that sandwich picture again, am I not...

“In another of the messages, Mr. Epstein asserted that ‘water was wet.’”