Marc Welsh

Nige is no longer laughing at himself as he ‘performs’ yet another big speech | John Crace Reform leader is trying to make it as a mainstream politician – which involves contradicting himself and gaslighting voters

“His main theme was that the country was fucked. Largely because of Brexit. Weirdly, he has no memory of being the main architect behind the Brexit vote. He seems to think it happened in a world in which he played no part.”

Farage - the foghorn of failure.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

As per usual the PCPSR latest public opinion poll of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is worth a read. Lots of detail.

And as per usual 66 year old Marwan Barghouti (now in prison and abused by the Israeli state for 23 years) remains the only unifying political figure.

pcpsr.org/en/node/1000

🚨🇸🇩 The Blood is Visible From Space Peter Rothpletz on the genocide in Sudan, Trump’s latest weaponization of the DOJ, and 'journalists' from The Free Press wreaking havoc on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The sand in and around the city of approximately 400,000 is so caked with blood that you can see evidence of the RSF’s war crimes via satellite imagery, according to Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL)."

Zeteo's Peter Rothpletz in today's First Draft morning newsletter, on Sudan:

Jesus. This is quite something.

Who knew Len Deighton would be quite so prescient ?

We take no joy criticising a young left-wing UK political figure who has often spoken up for workers' rights and progressive causes. But these barely coherent comments from Zarah Sultana on Ukraine sum up much of what is wrong with her wing of the left www.instagram.com/reel/DQT62ys...

This is not exactly good news and will mean higher sea-level rise.

... and increasingly lack the time and resource to do so, driven by the demands of a 'market in education' rather than education as a public good.

Definitely worth a read. Provocative and clear.

I don't personally concur with the argument (I'm more 'genie and bottle') but it is exactly the sort of argument academics and academic institutions SHOULD be having ...

"Make no mistake this is a disastrous result for Reform."

A late night analysis of the Caerphilly result. Lots of insights from Will Hayward as ever (and I'm sorry to hear of the harassment he's been receiving).

The weather is shite. The morning's drawing in. I've got no milk. I'm out of clean socks. And Plaid very convincingly WON CAERPHILLY, despite a media narrative of an unstoppable rise of Reform and non-stop culture war stories to support them.

Da iawn Caerffili! What a lovely morning :)

It's finally out?!

I agree. There is a distinction between using software to help address specific learning differences and one that increasingly incorporates tools to re-write work to meet a brief and locates/inserts citations and references so you don't have to read them.

Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.

Hmmn. UK media discovers story about the precariousness of UK Higher Education whilst the government sticks its fingers in its ears and goes nyah nyah nothing to see here shocker.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"I have no regrets at all"

Irish comedian Tadhg Hickey sends a message from the Global Sumud Flotilla.

So to recap:

🟣Farage made Gill Welsh UKIP leader

🟣Gill left UKIP 2 days after Farage and has admitted to his first count of Russian bribery THE SAME DAY

💎Gill joined Brexit party and re-elected to Brexit Party during the bribes period

💎Gill made Welsh Reform UK leader

11/14

Thanks to everyone who is chipping into this tonight.

MSM is letting us all down. We’re growing the authentic news alternative… from the bottom up.

See: chuffed.org/project/byli...

TLDR: Make racism shameful again. While you’re at it add fascism too.

a cartoon character with purple hair and a braid ALT: a cartoon character with purple hair and a braid

Soooo. What's the best KPop: Demon Hunters song?

And why is it Free.

Asking for a friend.

Feels like now would be a perfect time for a successor to Rock Against Racism, not as a reaction or a ‘counter protest’ but an affirmation of something good

Some more direct incitement from Musk

This man burned his sheep's clothing a long time ago and is now fully leaning into his right wing white supremacist nationalism

Any Conference Questions?
#edchat #HigherEd #academia

This Government, This Crisis. Higher Education funding is in crisis and the present Labour government is not making comforting noises. Until recently, the Government has been mostly silent on Higher Education, even their manifesto...

This is a readable & logical analysis of the straits we face from @matthewbarnard.phd . There are no quick fixes, there is a fundamental reframing & rethinking of what higher education 'is' required to move the political dial. Question is who is leading that?

blog.matthewbarnard.phd/this-governm...

I can only say O word so many times, but HE is already distorted and dominated by the interests of a small number of institutions. The very system and crisis situation it has created is a major driver for oligopoly in HE.

The more watertight our dispute and construction of the ballot the less opportunity for either vexatious or even legitimate opposition to it in the courts. Partic important in context of ensuring statutory immunity.

That's not the question or suggestion Jo. Employers have and will use legal remedy if they believe they have grounds to do so, irrespective of whether we believe something to be lawful. If we have legal advice an employer can't challenge on grounds stated above then that's good news!

Hmmn. GMB have said they are NOT balloting - though our comms say they are (maybe we know something the GMB members don't?). I believe Unison have a policy of disaggregated ballots. And Unite haven't said they will aggregate yet. Might be some hyperbole at play here!

Thanks Bijan.

I appreciate you don't and don't claim to speak for HEC, I'm throwing these out there as further questions that, if we are to follow this course, might merit consideration in the discourse to follow.

On the question of timing. From what I can tell the earliest IA can occur is 15th Dec. And the mandate would run out 1st June.

So the mandate runs out before marking, exam boards, and graduation for most unis. Simpler surely to plan backwards - when do we need a mandate to achieve most impact?

I'm assuming HEC have sought legal advice prior to making a decision, or will do so, but so will UUK.

Equally for any campaign to mobilise support HEC members need to envision and tell us what such an agreement looks like. I struggle to imagine one, but it must have been discussed at HEC.