Peter C

A person removes a book from a library shelf. Text overlay: "Books are being challenged in Scottish schools. Librarians fear a 'chilling effect' on freedom of speech."

LGBTQ+ organisations stressed that “there is nothing age inappropriate about being LGBTQ+” and warn that moving books to senior sections or making them harder to access is “deeply concerning”
https://www.theferret.scot/books-scottish-schools-librarians/

Top UK advertiser is UK Gov. That's your tax money going to Meta.

At Council today Lib Dems asked that Edinburgh Council @edinburghcouncil.bsky.social consider moving the hugely popular travel and helpdesk accounts over from X to Bluesky. Hope this can happen soon!

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

And yet, in the House of Lords, we still have Lebedev - a national security risk if ever there was one; Mone - who defrauded all of us of tens of millions - and countless other unsavoury characters elevated by Johnson, Cameron and all the rest of their corrupt ilk.

Major funder of the Tonty Blair's there, which in turn is a major driver of the techno-state here

Different coloured speech bubbles on a teal coloured background.

Should FOI apply to private and third sector care providers? 🤔The Scottish Government is calling for views. Our recent newsletter goes into more detail. Find out more and have your say here 👉 tinyurl.com/JanNews2026
#newsletter #foi #scottishinformationcommissioner

A week later, her poetry collection arrived in the mail.

Are you a journalist, media/ communication professional and worried about #mis/disinformation in #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿?
📣Join us in Edinburgh on 13 February 2026 for an interactive workshop.
Get in touch via DM or email to register

Organized by @abdnpolir.bsky.social
Funded by @scga.bsky.social

This is at 97%! If you enjoy the work I do here on BBS - and appreciate the fact I've spent basically my whole lunch break pulling together the figures for today's poll and updating it throughout the website - consider chipping in to help make up that last tiny little bit, would be much appreciated.

Pay-off spend up by two-thirds as universities shed 13,000 jobs Analysis of UK sector accounts shows number of job losses well above predictions, with experts warning cuts are not over yet

There should be grave national concern about one of Britain’s leading economic sectors and chief export earners shedding tens of thousands of often skilled relatively well paid jobs. Universities are also key to local and regional economies across the country.

🚨 Shocking Stats on Speeding Near Edinburgh Schools! 🚨

I’ve been exploring this fascinating tool: speeding.hasp.ac.uk

It uses GPS data to show how often goods vehicles are speeding in Edinburgh (and beyond). The results? Honestly worrying.

More>>

Donate to Ballot Box Scotland SP26 Fundraiser, organized by Allan Faulds This funding will support Ballot Box Scotland's reporting ahead of the 2026 Scottish … Allan Faulds needs your support for Ballot Box Scotland SP26 Fundraiser

Now at just about 90% of the way on the Holyrood crowdfunder! I appreciate bank accounts will be rather depleted after the festive season, but so close to the goal and I have to keep telling myself that the thing with social media is you should be sharing regularly, so..!
gofund.me/fc7aaca52

How newsrooms, scientific institutions & governments can best use Bluesky Large organisations need dedicated tools and processes to manage their Bluesky presence and get the most out of ATproto.

Good resource for anyone looking to manage the switch from X/Grok
mathewlowry.medium.com/how-newsroom...

Come for the chart of shifting party support, stay for the fury at the fact we're going to have one of the most consequential Scottish (and definitely most consequential Welsh) elections since devolution, yet the Westminster media can't stop speculating about PM Farage in 2029 long enough to care.

Ah, HR. Lovely, competent people.

Important point: university isn't just for posh kids; Erasmus+ gives non-posh kids same chance as posh kids to study abroad, which they otherwise wdn't have; & covers vocational & other non-university training & education exchanges. And if more students come to the UK, that increases UK soft power.

‘Strengthening Political & Information Literacy’ event, 10 December 2025 I was delighted to take part in this event run by Young Scot (YS) and the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP). Here, I say a little about the event but more about my thoughts and contributions. I look …

Blogged: 'strengthening political information literacy' event

bruceryan.info/2025/12/11/s...

@youngscot.bsky.social @cilipscotland.bsky.social

Far-right agitators stand accused of stirring up trouble at asylum hotel protests. But anti-racists are standing firm. Following a sharp rise in far right activity, we’ve spent the last three months attending protests, speaking to activists under threat, and tracking anti-asylum seeker demonstrations across Scotland.

Read in full at - www.theferret.scot/far-right-ag...

I say this as a PhD student who is also in work: there is little reason to put the effort in to pursue an academic career, now. The job market was already extremely competitive, for very low pay vs. comparable private sector jobs.

The deteriorating state of HE is the final nail in that coffin.

Axing Scottish Music Programming Stephen McAll, Constant Follower on the catastrophic cuts to BBC Radio Scotland’s Music Programme content. This is a long but important read if you value Scottish music and don’t want to see …

Axing Scottish Music Programming bellacaledonia.org.uk/2025/11/28/a...

BBC Newsnight mock-up of Jeremy Corbyn as a Bolshevik revolutionary, in the style of a Soviet propaganda poster.

Let's stop pretending that the billionaire media, endlessly attacking the BBC, has the slightest interest in balance, impartiality and accuracy. They won't be happy until the BBC is more rightwing than Vlad the Impaler. And then it still won't be enough.

Now, if only the schools had the budgets to employ the teachers they need...

Study hub learning resources logo. Teal lettering and yellow cog wheels.

Edinburgh University is closing the Institute for Academic Development. Download these student resources while you can. Making notes, reading strategies, time management, dissertations and so on.
CC licenses. Pdf and text only versions. #HE 🗃️
institute-academic-development.ed.ac.uk/study-hub/le...

Sky News’ data and forensics team spent nine months investigating whether X's algorithm amplifies far right and extremist content. Their research has definitively proved that it does. Great work @kaitlintosh.bsky.social @michelleinezsimon.bsky.social and other Sky News journalists.

Scots have ‘critically low’ democratic well-being staying in UK but are ‘twice as likely to have high trust’ in SNP Government even after 18 years – How did BBC Scotland cope with this? Professor John Robertson OBA From a large survey by Paris-based Ipsos for Carnegie UK, into wellbeing index for Scotland in 2025, highlighting collective wellbeing scores across various domains and…

Scots have ‘critically low’ democratic well-being staying in UK but are ‘twice as likely to have high trust’ in SNP Government even after 18 years – How did BBC Scotland cope with this? talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/11/03/s...

Minority representation on TV causes outrage There has been widespread way of life and their strange support for prominent Reform MP customs, but Reform MPs Sarah Pochin after she complained about the over-representation of comprise only 0.7 percent of the minorities on television. House of Commons. Yet Nigel Farage is on Question Time Said one angry viewer, "She's more than Fiona Bruce. right. Every time you turn on "I'm not prejudiced. Some of the telly there's another Reform MP being interviewed by Laura my best friends are swivel-eyed loons, but enough is enough. Kuenssberg." There are too many people with She added, "I respect their angry red faces on television."

Private Eye.

It didn't have four lanes of car traffic back then. Does it need to now?

#cityofedinburgh proud of their freshly painted #northbridge. For context, here is a picture of the last time it was fully open to traffic.

Have plans on paper in case of cyber-attack, firms told Prepare to switch to offline systems in the event of a cyber-attack, firms are being advised.

love that this "resilience engineering" is basically: write things on paper www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...