David Bartram

Jim Ratcliffe accused of hypocrisy after saying UK ‘colonised’ by immigrants Manchester United co-owner, who lives in Monaco, faces growing backlash for using ‘far-right narratives’

"colonized". What a putz...

Would love to see protesters outside his Monaco home holding placards:

"We are here because you were there."

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Sure -- no anti-Semitic *bone*

But his *mouth* on the other hand...

In which Jeffrey Epstein, who laundered money for the Russians, explains how Donald Trump was doing exactly the same thing, and how this accounts for most of his wealth.

1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

Donald Trump is:

- Openly racist
- Covering up evidence he may have sexually abused children
- Directly responsible for the murder of US citizens by masked agents of the state
- Openly looting the treasury and taking bribes from foreign leaders
- Polling at 38% amongst the American people

UCU elections 2026: recommended votes. All information is available at https://ucucommons.org/election26/

From tomorrow, Friday 30 January, ballot papers will start to arrive by post for VP (HE and FE), and several key positions on our NEC.

We're supporting our own @markpendleton.bsky.social for VP (HE) and independent @suzitoole.bsky.social for VP (FE) & lots of other great people. Please share! #UCU

For the very wealthy, "happiness is probably best achieved by having a sense that you've done some good in the world, and that you've treated people around you with care and kindness. It's not exactly rocket science."

FA with the editorial page.

FO what happens with the rest of the newspaper.

Any reader with the least bit of empathy will end up caring about the main characters.

Learning objective achieved...

In my own view: my course on International Migration is greatly enhanced by having students read The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota.

It helps "humanize" immigrants -- they (we) are not a generic category, they are of course human beings.

They want people to stay home so that doing it on Zoom insulates them from the anger.

So much cowardice...

Universities try to woo Reform as party gains ground Serious lobbying efforts under way, with right-wing party expected to be more sympathetic to elite universities than rest of the sector

Before anyone gets too angry about this, several things. (1) Universities in the UK, unlike the US, are pretty much under the financial and admin control of central govt. If RefUK moves to wipe them out, as they will, then some will choose life. (1/3) www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

This sort of thing is the reason I'm happy to pay ~ $30 a year for a different email system (fastmail).

"If it's free, you're the product."

They used "anti-semitism" as a pretext to deport foreign-born students and chill free speech, and their deportation chief -- the one with the nonstandard Hugo Boss-style greatcoat -- was spouting anti-semitic insults at a US attorney

i can’t believe the lead nazi is antisemitic

Brian May says US is currently too dangerous for Queen to tour there Queen guitarist says ‘everyone is thinking twice about going there at the moment’ when asked about touring plans

More of this please.

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

Live Free and Die: US Life Expectancy Has a Problem (But It's Not Seed Oils) We deserve to live until we are old

We deserve to live until we are old.

substack.com/home/post/p-... #publichealth #demography #epidemiology #healthpolicy

I'm glad more attention is being brought to the insane fact that the head of Palantir UK is the grandson of none other than Oswald Mosley who absolutely shares grandad's views.

This is how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.

bsky.app/profile/char...

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

Another angle that is going to soak up my time dealing with manuscript submissions to my journal.

If the students have figured it out, so too have the professional academics who are inclined to cheat...

The Dept. of Appearing to Take Things Rather Seriously While Wearing a Navy Sport Coat and No Tie is actively searching for a Dean of Comfortably Ordering Wine in a DC Steakhouse Where Denny Hastert Used to Sit Right Over There. The position will pay $580,000. The history department is abolished

The murders will continue until submissiveness improves

"never again" isn't meant to be (only) "never again for Jews"...

After 5 years I can finally share a full WP of our project conducting cognitive interviews of life satisfaction reporting.

Main findings:
1. LS scales are psychometrically valid, but...
2. Standard statistical assumptions made when analysing LS data are not credible.

osf.io/gv5e3/files/...

ICE terrorist

NRA and pro-gun groups call for ‘full investigation’ into killing of Alex Pretti Groups typically aligned with Trump call for investigation as NRA wades into the national dialogue

This whole, horrible situation has exposed the US’s 2nd amendment as a sham. The entire point of it, all the dead children in schools, was all apparently so that ordinary citizens could arm themselves against tyranny. When tyranny arrives, what happens? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Republicans have screamed tyranny for 18 years because white Americans got a letter in the mail from the government.

Markets and Mobility: How Employers Structure Economic Opportunity

Intergenerational mobility, measuring the ability to achieve economic success regardless of family background, is a critical reflection of a society’s commitment to equality of opportunity. Rising income inequality has raised concerns about the potential erosion of upward mobility. While education has traditionally been viewed as the path to mobility, its transformative power is facing challenges in a rapidly evolving job market. This project reorients the focus of intergenerational mobility research by highlighting the labor market as an arena for the reproduction of advantage. It employs a comparative approach, using administrative data from four countries: Sweden, Austria, England, and the United States. It also incorporates evidence from a broader set of nations through cross-national surveys, longitudinal household surveys, labor force surveys, secondary data, and digital trace data. The project employs cutting-edge empirical methods, including quasi- experimental designs, event studies, within-family comparisons, decomposition analyses, counterfactual simulations, and diagnostic checks to rigorously assess the extent of inequalities in the labor market. The research investigates how family background influences the sorting of individuals to employers and workplaces, accounting for education and occupation, and explores variations in career progression within and between employers. It comprehensively catalogues and assesses mechanisms shaping workplace inequality, contributing to the development of social closure theory. Additionally, the project evaluates intervention strategies, encompassing both employer practices and government actions, to promote fair opportunity in the labor market.

JOB! I'm hiring a postdoc for 2 years on my ERC MaMo project.

Looking for someone with strong quant methods, ongoing work close to the project's aims, and a desire to publish in sociology. Start flexible in the next 12 months.

Formal call out shortly, but contact me first.

Essential clarification: are you addressing this comment to editors (e.g. to me)?

Editors are distinct from publishers. I as editor have no $$ to pay reviewers.

I support your suggestion -- but it is a matter for publishers, not editors.

My practice:

1) I write to ask them whether they did it using AI. (They never respond -- but my question acts as a notification that it is detectable even if not provable.)

2) I disable their reviewer rights.