S.E.MacRae

ICYMI: Who Makes the Far Right?

@booklearning.bsky.social and I used membership application forms for the National Front of Australia (secretly copied by ASIO in 1980/1) to analyse who supported the far right in Australia in 1970s-80s.

Open access article!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Nurses’ families fear being torn apart in UK immigration crackdown, survey says Exclusive: Most people in charity’s study say they worry about being separated from relatives under Mahmood plans

3 in 5 fear family separation

absolutely monstrous

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

Genuinely, if you live in the UK you should so the consultation just to find out some of the unbelievable details of what's being proposed. Even with their spin and obfuscation it's shocking

Thanks Elinor - All the best, hope things are good with you!

The Real Cost of the UK’s ‘Free AI Training for All’ is Democracy Researchers argue the UK's 'AI Skills Hub' should be re-thought with input from civil society groups and public interest organizations.

📢NEW OP-ED! Together with the brilliant @taniaduarte.bsky.social, @markwong.bsky.social, @suoman.bsky.social & @timdavies.org.uk we wrote for @techpolicypress.bsky.social why the new UK Government AI Skills Hub is undermining our democracy.

Our 🔑 points are->🧵
www.techpolicy.press/the-real-cos...

Happy to sign.

Assetizing academic content and the emergence of the ‘assetizen’: education platforms, publisher databases, and AI model training - Higher Education Higher Education - Academic content, such as teaching materials and academic publications, has become an economic resource. This has occurred through assetization as the key economic regime in...

New OA article just out on "assetizing academic content" led by @jkom.bsky.social with me, @keanbirch.bsky.social & Klaus Beiter, exploring how academic materials are turned into value-generating digital assets by HE institutions, edtech platforms, and AI companies link.springer.com/article/10.1...

“If America’s university presidents believe that their foremost responsibility is simply to keep their institutions operational — collecting tuition and protecting endowments — they are mistaken… presidents and chancellors are stewards of intellectual freedom and democratic norms.”

My commute is 2.5 hours each way. Unsurprisingly, I am much more productive on wfh days when I have those hours in my home office.

Hilarious self-own from a man whose conspicuous absence from parliamentary debates is frequently noted.

This consultation closes at 11:59 pm tomorrow.

Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Do... When arts education is dismissed as a waste of time it damages us as a society. The focus of learning is not just to enrich our economy but also to enrich our souls

'Cutting off funding for culture and knowledge has social and political consequences. If you want a healthy and harmonious civil society, invest in the humanities and the arts, for they foster understanding, knowledge and empathy.'

PLATFORM POWER AND EDINBURGH'S GIG ECONOMY
Sat 21 Mar 2026 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Round The World Studios, EH6 6RS

www.tickettailor.com/events/scotl...

Although this type of thinking (along w/ banning abortion) is what pulled my other-wise Catholic/Dem mother towards Fox News years ago. I think we overlook the spiritual warfare beliefs at our own peril. It's not insanity, but a very different metaphysics for understanding a starkly "split" world.

YouTube video by Stand Up Gags 👀😂 Professor Stanley Unwin - Deep Joy - Just For Fun 😂

Your neighbour has strong Stanley Unwin vibes! 😂

Farage was banging on about Turkish barbers, so these lads in Glasgow did this.

It's in Dumbarton Road, if you fancy a trim.

Once again, RFK Jr has appointed a panel stacked with kooks & anti-vaxxers (see also: his ACIP appointees & ACIP chairs)

I spoke with @davidgilbert.bsky.social for this superb news feature, and, um, I did not hold back

It‘s a horror show; RFK Jr is such a dangerous menace

“First Monday will cease publication, after 30 years…”

Sad news about one of the first open access truly independent interdisciplinary journals out there.

firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

Lol

Hashtag Streisand Effect.

YouTube video by Associated Press What if chatbots were run by humans? A Chilean town tried

I mean, AI is already "powered" by real humans, but you will never see these people-- they work around the globe cleaning and labelling data and being the "eyes" for facial recognition systems.

Still, this project is interesting. Just grousing about the reporting.
www.youtube.com/shorts/W5rZZ...

Dinner with Mr Brexit: Bannon’s European Revolution – Planned with Farage, Backed by Epstein Nigel Farage was the figurehead and his partner Laure Ferrari started it. Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were providing almost daily support

Epstein managed different networks. The UK media has rightly centred the powerful pedophile ring. It has maintained an uncanny silence about the global, anti-democratic, far right political network. Farage is up to his neck in it. If it weren’t for unprecedented double standards it’d be career over.

My lovely friend Debbie was on Look North tonight talking about the snowdrop garden she designed at Goldsborough Hall 🍀

Sound on, hats off.

Committing this to memory for the next pious outburst from the 'Judeo-Christian values' brigade.

We have untrained ourselves of interrogating the core problems of border migration because we have allowed the media di divest from good reporting from the front.

We only get to this conversation when tragedies like this happen, but it is not enough.

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/4RXS9...

Despite Kuenssberg’s rationale at the start it was pretty much as feared. The BBC doesn’t just reflect opinion, it also shapes it. If you give fascists a platform they will use it to spread the disinformation that fuels them.

I had seen ‘we used to tell stories’ this morning before I read the piece, so was really pleased to see him get the credit. We definitely need more people with the ability to run their mouth like he does!

The guy who owns Amazon shutting down the books section of the Washington Post is beyond parody

CAHSS Network for the Study of Work With funding from the CAHSS Interdisciplinary Fund, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Network for the Study of Work (NSW).

With many thanks to @uoe-cahss.bsky.social for funding, I'm delighted that the Network for the Study of Work (NSW) is launching in February:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cahss-netw...

With help from @haylesben.bsky.social, @ibalilebali.bsky.social and @tomoshea.org

A great example here of the kind of voices we should hearing from more of, referenced by @robtoes.bsky.social in his article