Alison Clapham

“this £85 billion represents a direct transfer of value from the public to private owners — a sum extracted while storm overflows proliferated, leakage targets were missed, and river health declined”

Hundreds of scientists are set to take part in the first performance of a new Scottish country dance inspired by the ripples in spacetime whose existence was first theorised by Albert Einstein.

More: gla.ac/3ICip4Q

#GR24Amaldi16 #GravitationalWaves #Glasgow
@uofgravity.bsky.social

Ah - I wonder if it’s being rolled out by 365 Family sub renewal date? 🤔 If so, I may be similarly frustrated in a month’s time…

Can you switch it off on a laptop/desktop? - I’ve just done it with Excel on my laptop then restarted the app there & on the iPad, and now on iPad it just gives option to ‘Try Copilot Pro’… Am hoping that means it’s now gone away!🤞

Like the OP above I’m quick to block anti-copyright extremists. It makes me incredibly angry that they think their desire to just have stuff for free completely overrides creative workers’ rights to earn a living from their labour, to protect the integrity of their work, & to care for their families

Any report that treats Unbound’s folding as a natural part of the to-and-fro of regular business in the chancy world of the creative industries is missing the story.

Anyway, like and subscribe, etc. open.substack.com/pub/franklin...

This is not just an American story. It’s a preview.
And the question for every other democracy is simple:
Do you adapt now, or do nothing and slide into authoritarianism?

The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world.
They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.

Thing is, it feels on Bluesky like EVERYONE knows about this Unbound scandal now. But they don't. In the grand scheme of things - the grand scheme of UK book lovers, even - what this publisher has done to its authors is still relatively little-known. Coverage like this is an important step.

It’s like Zuckerberg insisting that each piece of work he steals has no value on its own. Yeah, if you’re a billionaire, you can’t see the tapestry of £50 payments that make up a creative’s annual income. It’s still real money. Don’t be a dick.

Also, these are small print run books in the main. Nobody is going to be looking at a shortfall of six figures or even five figures. Most of us are now down a few month’s bills or so. But we’re authors, we survive on marginal incomes. That money is our livelihoods.

>> I’ll probably regret posting this. I’ve been advised not to speak publicly.

Fuck that. You stole money off me and off people I like and people who trusted me, and who trusted you.

I’m glad it’s a game for you, that the creative industries are full of people who can work for nothing.

I can’t.

>> This doesn’t work. It doesn’t calm us down. Because the idea of not being paid, or not taking money owed, appears to be a noble option for these people. Something they can choose to do, out of some sort of moral stance. Money’s a game.

Most working people don’t get that option. >>

When you receive the email you’ve been dreading, about how your outstanding royalties will now *not* be honoured by your ex-publisher’s new shiny identity, they try to reassure you by saying this person or that person on the board is “working for free” and “not taking a salary”… >>

If this publisher - formerly Unbound, now Boundless - gave me all the money they actually owed me, it would amount to over £20,000. Now, I suspect there will be nothing. Not for me and not for the large number of other authors who have received promise after promise that Unbound have reneged on.

Unbound authors will not receive unpaid royalty payments until new publisher Boundless 'is cash stable' As founder John Mitchinson leaves, Unbound authors learn they will not receive historic royalty payments for sales of their books unless Boundless "survives and thrives".

So there you have it. My ex-publishers who last year stopped paying me for the seven books I'd written for them, have today gone back on their promise that some of the money that they owe me and their other authors would come through. I should have guessed.. www.thebookseller.com/news/unbound...

This is incredible. The biggest, worst theft I’ve seen so far.

Making any money as a writer is almost impossible these days, but if someone’s dipping into your earnings like this - and almost no writers earn at this level - that’s basically a heist.

Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules Case came to supreme court after court of appeal determined the term ‘open-air recreation’ included camping Wild camping will be allowed on Dartmoor after the supreme court ruled that a multimillionaire landowner was wrong to ban it on his land. Dartmoor was – until the legal action – the only place in England where wild camping without the permission of the landowner was enshrined in law. In Scotland, people have enjoyed this right since 2003. Continue reading...

Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules

Sir Elton John describes govt as "absolute losers" and says he feels "incredibly betrayed" over plans to exempt technology firms from copyright laws - telling @bbclaurak.bsky.social if plans go ahead to allow AI firms to use artists' content without paying they would be committing theft.

If a loved one ends up in care then you want them to receive the best available... the one thing you do not lie awake at night worrying about is where those care workers were born.

Why the Labour Party is targeting these vital members of our community is genuinely beyond my understanding.

Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around.

They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.

It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing

Company That Supplied Hundreds of Millions of Pounds of Unusable COVID Tests Saw Profits Skyrocket to £178 Million After Lobbying Conservative Peer for Contract Primer Design’s turnover jumped by 6,800% after supplying tests that were later deemed “unfit for public use”

A company that supplied hundreds of millions of pounds of unusable COVID tests saw their profits surge to £178 million after lobbying a Conservative peer for contracts

Their turnover jumped by 6800% after supplying tests which were later deemed “unfit for public use”
bylinetimes.com/2025/04/28/v...

META BOOK THIEVES - They Must Do The Write Thing The Society of Authors are protesting Meta’s HQ today This image shows illustrations of authors holding placards saying “make it fair” and “do the write thing”

Today UK authors are protesting against Meta for stealing our work to train their AI model. Authors earn an average of £7000 per year, we are not rich, and yet a trillion dollar company decided it didn’t want to license our work fairly as it was “too expensive”

Theft is not a valid alternative.

The thing about all these pieces complaining about Marine Le Pen's conviction is that not a single one of them bothers to explain why someone found guilty of embezzling millions of Euros from public funds should be allowed to get away with it

Corruption; fraud, embezzlement, theft - none of these are good for freedom. Wake up fourth estate - your job is to hold the powerful to account not to work for them by suggesting that the application of the law is “a political stitch up”. Crooks are not the victims here; we, the public are.

It’s all so deeply childish… tearing up agreements, rejecting teamwork, going back on your word, flouncing out of international trade, cooperation and human rights frameworks… Basically having a series of prejudice-soaked, foot-stamping tantrums at the world, rather than collaborating on solutions.

A big pile of Notebook paperbacks.

The back cover of my book Notebook.

Decided to give away this entire pile of my 2022 book Notebook for the price of postage today. If you can pay more, great. If not, no problem. Pop a reply below if you'd like one. It's a short, silly book, but sometimes a bit serious, too, and people tell me it's a good easy gateway to my writing.

As a postscript to this, I have now found out Unbound - or the company that has been spawned from their ashes - will not be refunding the readers who pledged for my last book, having previously, only very recently, said they would.

I'm sorry.

And I'm furious.

Senior TV producers take shelf-stacking jobs as UK industry remains in crisis Experienced figures doing entry-level roles amid prolonged work drought since Covid and rise of online content

"I see articles about factory closures when 100 people lose their jobs, and it makes national news. It’s 40 times worse for the film and TV industry, and nobody seems to notice.”

Same thing came up in a WGGB town-hall meeting this week. Politicians assume we're all rich, or forget we exist.