John Jennings

Yup, I think you're absolutely right on that one. Starmer has a couple of years to row back from his kowtowing to the Reform agenda. I still don't think a few extra Green seats would be the problem, though.

It will be devastating if it comes to pass, but blaming the Greens who have been consistent on policy rather than the Labour party, who frankly are feeding the Reform fire with all the weird nationalism is an odd thing to do in my eyes. If Labour want to get elected again, they need to be electable!

Thing is, a genuine multi-party democracy is better for democratic representation than our broken two-party system. Reform helped Starmer to win, for sure, but the Tories are down and out completely now. Two of the Greens' seats were won from Tories so the transfer of votes is less clear.

I think you'd be hard pushed to suggest a vote for the Greens allowed Starmer to get in (!)

Just a reminder that the West destroyed Iran’s progressive democracy in 1953, deposing a leader beloved of the people, and installed a dictatorship in his place. The US and UK have been terrorising that country for as long as any of us have been alive. It’s sick.

It is sorted by number of seats not vote share , so - Greens take a higher share of the vote than the nationalist parties, but will always pick up fewer seats because of the distribution of the vote 😕

The UK being governed by and for cisheteropatriarchal ableist white nationalists continues!

Adolescence and the Lost Truths: Why save masculinity when you could save men? — Dr Finn Mackay We are barely out of International Women’s History Month and everyone is talking about the crisis of masculinity, yet again. It seems there has never been a time that masculinity has not been in crisi...

Stop focusing on masculinity & start focusing on human rights www.drfinnmackay.co.uk/blog/adolesc...

The fact that the USA has banned visas for trans people but welcomed rapist Andrew Tate shows how all this "defending women" stuff is total bullshit

It is deeply scarred by its history, but SA is also full of radical, brilliant people who believe deeply in liberation and are horrified by the loss of someone who created such an important space. Your comment doesn't help anything when people are grieving

Unless Elon applied to keep his SA citizenship when he applied for his other citizenships, he will have automatically lost his SA citizenship. Ironically the only place to legally send him might be Canada now... Or Mars, yess 🙏

ART is funded by the state in South Africa, although the support staff and services - particularly those for MSM and trans people - are funded by PEPFAR. Some of our neighbours in Southern Africa are entirely reliant on PEPFAR for all medication, so they have it much worse than we do. Unforgivable

Dark Times as MSM and Trans Health Services Shut Down Across South Africa America's shocking suspension of foreign funding has thrown South African organisations serving MSM and transgender communities into chaos.

Our local clinic for MSM called to cancel all appointments, and it's the same across South Africa. Staff are being retrenched. Obviously I'm not pretending this is equivalent to ART being withdrawn in the poorest nations, but the cuts are far-reaching www.mambaonline.com/2025/01/28/d...

Also like pretty much every new build school I've taught in

Regrettably and predictably I suspect it is in the Scottish print edition of the Times, since it is on their website 😕

Yes I was there close to it opening. Dreadful experience - absolutely freezing. You enter through what is clearly still a carpark and it doesn't get better thereafter. Odd shaped rooms. It's not even a 'converted' Ikea, it's just... an empty Ikea. Money grab, as you say.

How a populist think tank is stoking Scotland's culture war MCC Brussels, a think tank funded by Hungary's populist government, is working with academics and campaigners with influence in Scotland.

“They aim to create suspicion and fear and to convince the people that liberal democracy, with its respect for individual human rights, is a less attractive political option than majoritarianism and authoritarian rule”
https://theferret.scot/orban-conservative-think-tank-scotlands-culture-war/

When Kemi Badenoch defends racism, or Wes Streeting defends transphobia, we are reminded that while it is *necessary* for oppressed minorities to see themselves represented in politics, it is not *sufficient*. We have let representation become camouflage for oppression, rather than challenge to it.

This is the best legacy I could hope for to honour my mum’s name. Exciting new areas of dementia research like this give so much hope for the future.

Oh no it’s “disparaging comments about a screenshot of the Grindr grid in your hometown” season for the gays. Comes round quicker every year!

Using the Cass report as justification for banning puberty blockers is simply dishonest. Cass's actual findings, documented in the appendices, found PBs have been used safely for trans kids since 1988 with not a single case of harm documented in thousands of records. Cass did *not* recommend a ban.

On this day lets remember the wise words of the late, great Dawn Foster

It's 86% amongst remain voters. That also seems surprisingly low to me

(For the most part) People who fought for gay rights in the 1980s/90s fight for trans rights now.
Gay men who distanced themselves from gay rights activists in the 80s/90s (they told us we were too camp/too political etc.) oppose trans rights.
If you fought for gay rights you see the connections.
💜

Petition: We call on UWTSD and the Welsh Government to create a viable, sustainable plan for the long-term future of Lampeter campus The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) has announced a plan to end all undergraduate teaching at its Lampeter campus by September 2025, a decision that would sever nearly 200 years of Lam...

Petition: We call on UWTSD and the Welsh Government to create a viable, sustainable plan for the long-term future of Lampeter campus
petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/24...

Letter page 1

Letter page 2

Signatories

A great letter from colleagues at Nottingham in support of the programmes in #Lampeter. Wonderful to see the reference to the value of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre.

Well now we know what to get you for Christmas 😄

My suspicion is that the management have totally underestimated the strength of feeling amongst alumni, but also the amount of goodwill that exists amongst academics throughout the world, and the resolve of the (tiny number of) current students too!