Tommaso Sabbatini

In most of Europe, and certainly in the UK, that position is cross-party consensus. They've even come up with ‘curiosity-driven research’ 🙄 for anything that's neither publicly subsidised corporate R&D nor defence technology. And yes, we're witnessing the end of British universities under Labour.

Exactly. These two stories were on the news the same day!
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sigh

New Post: WEEKEND READING: What if, in trying to ‘fix’ universities, we are quietly unmaking them? www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/10/w...

I mean, for all their signalling that they're better than Trump, the European political class is mostly neolib managerial types who are unlikely to fund ‘curiosity-driven’ research in the sciences, let alone the humanities.

It's just that (generally speaking) they're less likely to admit that their opinions are the product of their experiences and they think they are capable of a purely rational view from nowhere. Sorry, but that view from nowhere doesn't exist.

Well, if those angry at minorities and those angry at injustice are equally problematic to you, I question your moral judgment. But also: it's not that those within the mainstream are less driven by emotion.

Si t'es au Québec, stp stp stp rends-moi un énorme service et signe (et vérifie ton courriel après n'oublies pas!) cette pétition auprès de l'assemblée nationale, l'élimination du PEQ touche directement ma vie et la vie d'un énorme paquet de gens autour de moi: www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/exprimez-...

Are you serious?! Are you one of those people who go ‘oh, Great Replacement rhetoric and 1% rhetoric are both simplistic’ 🧐 while losing sight of the fact that, I dunno, the 1% is real and the Great Replacement is not?

Sorry if this sounds cryptic, what I mean is that Labour hopefully might not be able to morph into one of those Continental ‘social democratic’ parties that are just rightwing parties for pensioners who were in a union.

Yeah, it hurts. It's the third time for me (see below) and it still hurts. Silver lining is maybe this time Labour's collapse will be so complete that they won't manage to keep boomers hostage.
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Everything you need to know about Starmer's relation to his erstwhle profession is summarised in this passage: A pursuit of a hallowed credentialism with which he could swat down any and all critiques through recourse to a meticulous technocratic method belied by his obvious partisanship and malice.

5. Forgive my cynicism, but what we have before us does not look to me like a glowing paragon of consistent values and selfless behaviour. It looks like someone who will stop at very little to gain power, even if he hasn’t the faintest idea what to do with it when it arrives.

Il giornalismo di inchiesta indipendente in America esiste e sarebbe il caso di sostenere Type Media Center, CIR, ProPublica, The Nation, Mother Jones… Ma i corsivisti della destra chic italiana che si svegliano adesso quel giornalismo non lo conoscono, o lo considerano non abbastanza chic.

HMS Pinafore!

🤦🏻‍♂️

Ban on asylum seekers using taxis for medical appointments comes into force https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2peyj1vdgo

Starmer: ‘We must unite this country, understand that to be British is to be tolerant, reasonable, compassionate and diverse, and fight for it against the toxic division of Reform’.
Meanwhile:

It's a recognition of the fact that most of the research and teaching is done on fixed-term contracts, PhDs being just one type of such fixed-term contracts.

Any reporting about how the outgoing MP (now a peer) conveniently forgot a GE was coming? Or about how AC used his maiden speech to praise the Victorian paternalistic capitalism of the Cadburys, possibly the only time he ever gave a hint of any political belief?

Same day.

Oh dear, are pundits hyping my MP again? 🙄 The Marine the Starmerite NEC parachuted into Birmingham Selly Oak?

Just to offer the counterpoint here, as I think it is very very important we do so: this is absolutely anticipatory obedience 101.
Much as university leaders might see it as their responsibility to “plan” for this possibility, in effect REF are getting to set the agenda without winning any election

Shocking! Turns out Hermann Bovary might be a bit of an antisemite.

Growing up in Italy, I remember the dissonance between the recollections of a great-aunt, whose most indelible memory of the Liberation was troops from the Raj, and public discourse, where everybody casually referred to the Allies as ‘the Americans’.

No, but building social housing at scale, rent controls and prioritising tenants’ right to a home over landlords’ pockets might.

Tipping my hat at the final iambic pentameter.

Guess the strategy of being best friends with a bully has been working as well for the Labour soft left as it has for Denmark!

Been there for a conference (IMS 2022, anyone?). Incredible building.

French people are similarly disappointed when they go to Quebec and are offered breuvages…