Bijan Parsia

What? Burn me out? Was this your and Claire’s plan all along!?

You play a deep game Jo Edge…I salute you.

But having the VP and thus chair of HEC is a big deal. The current chair, @dyfrigjones.bsky.social is quite good and made a lot of reforms that have reduced the intra meeting shenanigans. Obviously, if a majority wants to be silly they can but hopefully we’ll have a non silly one.

We’re still going to need the nominal independents and some of the vote with UCULeft crowd survived. Not a lot of margin for people being sick etc.

It did just not conclusively. Some architects of the disaster lost. Others did not or not enough ;) We need more people to run too. Part of the problem is warm bodies.

They will move to mischief making at congress.

But it’s solid. Haven’t done a final seat count but it should be better.

Next year is my last year on NEC before an enforced minimum 1 year break. I’m thinking of going for USS negotiator. It’s a lot of work but important and I think I can do some good before I’m totally burned out ;)

The #UCU election results are quite good overall. We could use more good people running.

The turnout, unsurprisingly was worse than the baseline though I’m gonna have to dig out all the numbers again.

However having @markpe as chair of HEC is a relief for me.

I hear you. It’s tough for many people I know.

Delighted to announce I have been elected UCU Vice President from the FE sector. I am honoured by all those who voted for me and endlessly thankful to everyone who supported my campaign. I pledge to listen to members and fight for our sector with fierce energy and integrity. Let's do this 💪

Beyond delighted by these election results. Huge congratulations to @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social : I cannot imagine a better VP duo. And some incredible UCU members will be joining the NEC in June! #ucu

Many congratulations to all those standing in the #UCU elections this year, and to the successful VP candidates @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social

Absolutely BEAMING at this. So proud of all our candidates and those we supported #UCU

Congratulations @markpendleton.bsky.social & @suzitoole.bsky.social for smashing the UCU Vice-President (HE & FE) election!

Overall results are great. EVERY single @ucucommons.org candidate was elected, as were the vast majority of candidates we endorsed!

Forward! 💪

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1419...

UCU UK elections 2025-26 UCU has a national executive committee, elected by the union's members. Elections take place annually.

The full results are available here: www.ucu.org.uk/article/1419...

Congratulations to all of our members who got elected, as well as those endorsed by us. More from us in the coming days. #ucu

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for our candidates! #ucu

NEW: A judge ordered the US government to refund Trump's illegally collected tariffs.

It was theft in broad daylight.

I'm pushing Donald Trump to give the American people their money back.

Believing in your strategy over reality is silly and won’t typically end well.

Reform is a million times worse and yet Labour is not looking now like it even wants to beat it.

It’s a bonkers strategy such as it is a strategy and it’s easy to recognize that it’s bonkers.

If your strategy conflicts with reality you can believe in your strategy or in reality.

I am a die hard lessor evil voter. I want to avoid as much harm as possible. That has kept me with Labour even when it was doing things I hated (Corbyn’s bullshit on Brexit, Gaza, etc) because the Conservatives were so much worse.

Also winning the last GE with a solid majority did not need a super clever plan. The fundamentals were overwhelming. I don’t think coalition management would have been that hard. But they are sucking at it.

So, I think it comes back to the same point: if McSweeney is the architect of this mess, he sucks as a political
strategist and completely misread the moment.

It’s unclear what they even are *trying* to do other than rerun the Conservative playbook of chasing Reform and chasing Reform in ways that are deeply unpopular elsewhere. And you ain’t gonna win Reform voters per se.

You still need to, you know, do stuff that’s reasonably popular with your coalition of voters. Preferable stuff that will strengthen and widen your coalition.

The evidence thus far is that Labour has been complete dog shit at that.

HOWEVER, if we look at long term party building and governance, there seem to be some issues (to say the least) with the current strategy. “Maximize seats then consolidate with deliverism” isn’t bonkers but a lot then depends on your delivery.

Similarly, it’s not bonkers to trade a little overall vote share for seats. MPs are what let you exercise power and incumbency helps in future elections.

It was absolutely the right call and not being ready for that cost HRC the nomination. (She nearly clawed her way back. Being even a little more delegate chasing early on might have tipped it.)

In an election campaign, it is strategically sensible to focus on the actual structure.

I don’t have the data access to check this but I thought the strategy of the last campaign was to focus on vote efficiency rather than vote share thus maximizing the majority in Parliament.

This isn’t necessarily galaxy brained. Obama focused on delegate share rather than “primaries won” in 2008.

The post mortem of 2024 is a classic in only acknowledging the top line result, rather than thinking what par would have been for the starting position. Hemorrhaging votes in solid Labour areas should have been a massive warning light.

Just WTF man.

That’s interesting. DC has had loads of issues.