Mike Rowe

As journalists working today many of us are taught to recognise disinformation when we see it and fight back against it.

Unfortunately there are some who willingly seek it out and put it on their front pages. A disgrace to the profession.

Anyone listen to the police evidence at the Nottingham Inquiry today?

It was a lesson in how a lack of leadership, training and professional responsibility produces a wilful ignorance that builds risk of untoward events in to the system.

And RCRP makes things like this more, not less likely.

University of Bristol asks Humanities and Languages academic staff to voluntarily quit Certain departments are being run into a ‘managed decline’, says Bristol UCU's co-President, as a new Voluntary Severance Scheme is announced.

'If they choose to take up the Voluntary Severance Scheme, open to all academic staff in the School of Humanities and the School of Modern Languages, staff essentially make themselves redundant in return for a good pay-out.'

9 months' pay; 3 weeks to decide. 1/3

Jim Ratcliffe has my full support. Anyone who lies about population figures, claims £120m in public money for his own company after paying no UK tax at all, while immigrants pay at least £15bn is my kind of guy!

Reminder that "jaywalking" was literally made up by american car manufacturers to shift the blame for accidents from drivers to pedestrians. "Jay" was a slang term meaning "idiot" or "rube".

At this point we learned that Number 10 had wargamed only one good answer to the Mandelson questions. Amazingly, this would turn out not to be enough. “We went through a process,” Starmer replied, offering what might be the most Starmer answer in the history of Starmer answers. “There was a due diligence exercise.” When the prime minister passes on to the great court of appeal in the sky, we will find these words written on his heart. There had, he said, been “vetting by the security services”. Unfortunately, he went on, “Mandelson lied”. Curses! Foiled again! The one thing we weren’t expecting! This is how Kim Philby got away with it for so long: whenever they asked him if he was working for the Russians, he simply denied it. It must be very frustrating working for MI5, with all these people letting you down by lying to you.

There was a "process", there was "due diligence", and yet somehow Peter Mandelson slipped through the net. As it turns out, the notoriously unreliable man simply couldn't be trusted! My SKETCH.
thecritic.co.uk/mand...

Andrew Tate deleted this, but lets keep it for use in court.

**Please share with your networks**
Two free and open online events next week!! Students are particularly welcome so do please let them know. Here's the next instalment on the #SensoryCriminology blog: sensorycriminology.com/2026/02/01/i... #AcademicSky #CrimSky. See below for reg and details.

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

Defenders of high Vice Chancellor pay say it’s irrelevant to the poor state of university finances

At Cambridge University, senior management pay rose from £7m to £32m in 5 years. It's not only the VC whose pay has soared!

This is a surge comparable to university’s annual deficit

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year from @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

It might be that Birmingham have been uniquely foolish in their handling of this situation, but it's worth noting that management failing to take overwork, stress and burnout seriously is a sector-wide problem, and only getting worse as universities slash staff costs.

Birmingham reprimanded over its management of work-related stress Investigation by Health and Safety Executive found institution ‘does not have appropriate arrangements in place’ to manage burnout among staff

Oh hey it finally made the media, only a week after the letter was actually sent.
FWIW despite being legally obliged to share with all staff, he so far hasn't.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/birming...

@profgeoffpearson.bsky.social anything to add?

This was not a particular focus of our search (and it definitely was not systematic!), but we did observe officers going through GO WISELY. Many (even most?) did not ask the question. But more scrutiny of stop forms and BWC footage may have changed that?

Since they're not restructuring, they're putting us all at risk because there may be a diminished need for "teaching and research", which are... the university's missions I guess?

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Day 11 of our current strike at @sheffielducu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk …

The story goes that we can’t afford to keep staff in their jobs but we can afford this 👇

In yet more devastating news, the VC has confirmed her plans to cut 80% of academic staff from Essex Pathways, our foundation year department. This would effectively close down all our existing foundation year programmes through the back door.

But it's not a done deal yet. Please share urgently.

It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.

Please share widely.

UCPI Daily Report, 20 Oct 2025: Dennis ‘Ben’ Gunn evidence A long-read report on the Undercover Policing Inquiry questioning Dennis 'Ben 'Gunn, the Met Special Branch commander of operations 1988-91

Just out: our report on #spycops boss Ben Gunn at the public inquiry. Managers have a lot to cover so reports are very long reads, but well worth it. Incredible admissions from Gunn: 'There was no legal basis for a lot of the work we were doing'
campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2025/12/02/u...

YouTube video by Cops Campaign Spycops inquiry reaction: morning of 1 Dec 2025 - Peter Francis evidence, day 1

Instant reaction from the morning at Undercover Policing Inquiry as we begin a week of questioning the only whistleblower #spycops officer, Peter Francis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjJ_...

YouTube video by Cops Campaign Spycops inquiry reaction: lunchtime of 1 Dec 2025 - Peter Francis evidence, day 1

It's the 1st day of the Undercover Policing Inquiry questioning whistleblower #spycops officer, Peter Francis. So far today we've heard a lot about racism in the squad.

At the lunch break @tombfowler.bsky.social is joined by Heather Mendick.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAB9...

Nigel Farage Is a Racist The media is refusing to state the most bleedingly obvious facts about a man whose entire career has been devoted to pursuing a racist political agenda

On Nigel Farage's racism, of course it is possible that someone can believe one thing when they're a teenager and something completely different when they're an adult.

But where is the evidence that has happened in this case?

Instead all of the evidence points in the complete opposite direction

Reform Council in Chaos as It Prepares to Slash Scrutiny Committees Following Wave of Councillor Suspensions EXCLUSIVE: Reform's flagship Kent administration is planning to shut down multiple council committees as it struggles to fill posts after suspending nine of its own councillors

Nigel Farage said their flagship council in Kent would be a "shop window" for how they would run the country.

Just months after taking over they're now set to slash multiple council committees as they struggle to fill posts after sacking nine of their own councillors
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/12/r...

Heartbroken to share the news that recruitment to Undergraduate Music courses at the University of Nottingham has been suspended.
Please do contact us on protectuonmusic@gmail.com if you would like to support us.

And there goes another racist episode. Soon to be forgotten. Once the phone ins, the denials and the harsh words have ended. But many won’t forget. Yet again they’ll feel unwelcome. Some just accept it, suffer more and spend years fighting it rather than chasing dreams. But, integrate they say.

Events

We've got 2 upcoming events for #PGRs and #ECRs! Hear from experienced #policing researchers about how to get the most from #focusgroups (7 Nov) and using #creativemethods (2 Dec)

Registration below ⬇️

www.n8prp.org.uk/home/events/

Universities of Dundee, Kent, Brunel, Coventry & Swansea defer pay rises

Kent’s “review in the coming months” is temporal evasion at its finest, while Coventry’s “break even position” heroically rebrands “we won’t pay” as “fiscal courage”

The academic austerity opera continues