Louise, Prof/Dr

Centrist D66 beats the far right to win Dutch election, national press agency announces Rob Jetten is in pole position to become the new prime minister.

www.politico.eu/article/rob-...

The word that springs to mind listening to the Today programme is 'lickspittle'
Can they not see that the monarchy is well passed it's sell-by date?

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Log In Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.

If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.

Use the Quick Vote option.

Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them

Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand

secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...

New commentary published 'online first' from Paul Ward & Belinda Lunnay on drawing on sociology of hope in public health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]

If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...

The fundamental problem:

58% of voters want public spending maintained or increased.

67% want taxes to stay at their current level or be cut.

In reality, it’s a binary choice. Taxes go up, or spending is cut. That’s it.

And let's face it, the 'spaces' are so tightly packed together they're hardly 'spaces' at all. I have real difficulty trying to squeeze my bike in and out of the racks already

😬

Head of UK government’s anti-Islamophobia partner ‘refused service in shop for being Muslim’ Akeela Ahmed, of British Muslim Trust, says experience is part of a wider rise in anti-Muslim hatred

In the 1930s businesses refused to serve Jews.

In 2025 businesses are refusing to serve Muslims.

History repeating itself

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Shared Institutions: public opinion on the university sector At a time when trust in many British institutions is strained, our new research with UCL Policy Lab, Shared Institutions, finds that universities remain a source of national pride. Most Britons say un...

Most people in Britain are positive about universities (63%). Just 6% think they have a negative impact. A third of people are neutral. Universities may be struggling more with political elites than with general public, but could broaden their public reach too
www.moreincommon.org.uk/our-work/res...

Rules forcing trans people to use birth-sex facilities delayed The Equality and Human Rights Commission set out statutory guidance on how gyms, clubs and hospitals must judge single-sex spaces based on biology

You'll have to ignore the buckets of anti-trans campaigning commentary in the piece, but the basic news is quite simple. The EHRC has failed to get the government to accept its anti-guidance in haste. Something is holding it up, perhaps for another a year www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I don’t mean to grouse about this but a uniformed RAF sergeant in central London on the British Legion poppy appeal was actually quite shirty to me about “having too Yank of an accent”

There’s been a lot of talk on here about how politicians are becoming X-brained, which is no doubt true, but I think there’s a parallel problem with them becoming billionaire-brained.

Their common person is a racist ranting on X, and their expert is an oligarch. With much too little in between.

The value of public R&D

Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...

Um... Polanski...??

Some maybe not. But absolutely no-one seems to want to be tied to Wilders again

Kemi Badenoch is absolutely right about this.

At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years

My understanding is that even if they get the same number of seats, no-one's going to form a coalition with Wilders

Just catching up with the good news from the Netherlands. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

I've used it before but I genuinely don't think it can keep up with the rapidly changing situation and take account of RefUK and Greens surging

The Uffizi Self-portraits The Uffizi Self-portraits on view in 12 new rooms

In the Uffizi today I spotted a donation from the Pritzker family to help set up the artists' self-portrait section. And it turns out yes, it is the same family as JB Pritzker, Governor of Illinois, taking such a stand against Trump's targeting of Chicago. Interesting. www.uffizi.it/en/news/self...

I was thinking about national, really. But it's all sooo unpredictable. Assessing which way your fellow constituents are likely to jump worked in Caerphilly, but it's a leap of faith.

How the heck are the majority of us who oppose REFUK supposed to calculate the best tactical vote? Which might even be Tory in some poor benighted constituencies.
#PR #MakeVotesMatter #ElectoralReform

The Absolute Units art. Three giant sheep hover over the English countryside.

🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏

Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections.

In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives.

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

Understandable, given that the name Fabian was chosen precisely to represent gradualism, small cautious steps, indirect action! Not exactly revolutionary.

I was a Young Fabian and it was all very earnest and sensible. Radical communists they are not. I mean, look at their publications www.youngfabians.org.uk/pamphlets

Florida Universities to Stop Hiring Foreign H-1B Workers Under DeSantis Plan

This is a bad idea. Recruiting talented people from other countries is a good thing. American universities have been very good at it in particular. Recruiting talented people tends to benefit everyone. We should keep doing it. I am speaking in short sentences for the benefit of the Governor.

Good paper & I’m delighted to confirm that most people are lurkers. I will get an order, with no contact on here & the drawing chosen wasn’t even favourited by the new owner.

Another feature is relatively few ppl communicate. That’s why I think it’s incredibly important to model normal on here.

The reassertion or adoption of this principle is good news & should be welcomed