Jon Wilson

Badenoch to call Labour policies ‘vandalism’ in firebrand speech Conservative leader will single out chancellor Rachel Reeves in criticism of government

Means-testing the winter fuel allowance is, I'm sorry, a simple test of seriousness for the Conservative party. If you cannot bring yourself to restrict this single benefit to pensioners I don't want to hear about how you are ever going to lower taxes at this point.

Visiting Bye-Fellowship for scholars from the Global South The Opportunity

Visiting Bye-Fellowship for Scholars from the Global South: applications now sought from scholars with posts in the Global South, this year 2025-26 in arts and humanities only, for a one-year research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. www.cai.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/vi...

This title if the comic is ‘Googling Stuff…’ The comic shows two columns: on the left is “Then” showing search results with one thing listed as “the thing you want” On the right column is ‘Now’ - also showing search results but in this case it’s a whole bunch of stuff you don’t need: AI TAKING A WILD STAB AT IT WITH SOME BLATANT MISINFORMATION SPONSORED RESULT SPONSORED RESULT SPONSORED RESULT SPONSORED RESULT PEOPLE ALSO ASK VIEW PRODUCTS And then right at the bottom just off screen is ‘the thing you want’

Googling Stuff: Then v Now.

This is a book, from @itihaasnaama.bsky.social and Ornit Shani, that is most eagerly awaited. The Indian public took an active part in the process of the making of the constitution.

Spending time with people in their final days showed me that we need not assisted dying, but better end-of-life care | Gordon Brown We can and must improve on our current end-of-life options – ‘Switzerland, suicide or suffering’, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brown

Exactly this: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I find the assisted suicide debate maddening (and this from the Economist just the most maddening). There are so many flaws in the bill. But the biggest problem is that we, again, focus on the wrong thing. We should be thinking about how the poor live, not how the rich die. econ.st/4fD6Hm6

Good, balanced piece, but interesting lack of Russell Group voices

After Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister, he and his wife went on a cruise to recuperate. The cabin steward who looked after them was John Prescott.

…I just don’t like knee-jerk defences of the HE status quo. Much of how universities work are because of unintended structural factors. Much is good, much could be better designed

That’s how elite US universities work, big lectures + 100s of seminar sessions for core modules. I don’t think it’s necessarily the right approach, but nor do I think it’s idiotic…

UK wants 'strong' relationship with China, says Keir Starmer - BBC News The first in-person meeting since 2018 comes as the PM prioritises shoring up support for Ukraine.

Grown-up foreign policy, at last. The UK needs a good relationship with China. About two sovereign states working together in areas they can cooperate, without hysterics about either a ‘golden age’ or ‘new cold war’. www.bbc.com/news/article...

…of course it’d require the HE sector to be run in a very different way. But let’s imagine a different future!

Is it so mad? The idea universities would collaborate to create different + mutually compatible syllabi rather than competing? It’s how the University of London once worked…

I’m finding Blue Sky’s self-righteousness wearing, and twitter/X’s venom tiring, so caught between a rock and hard place

ha. I have 25

How did you get so many followers? Are you famous (more than already)

most of the rest of the world disagrees (about the reckoning not theory). the sense of entitlement generated by elite US universities’ business model is a global concern

Foucault question: has anyone connected MF’s 1970s critique of the obsession with sovereignty to the early C20th pluralist / solidarists critics of the same? MF seems to have forgotten Duguit

Our ride is much better!

If there are any cyclists on here, the latest LeeVelo anti-sportive is this Sunday, the Ride of the Dropped Chips (no cost, a route but no signs, no support other than a bunch of friendly people, a pub at the end) www.strava.com/clubs/122253...

I’m listed twice, but it’s the same book, with different US & UK titles!