Jon Dean

"Unfortunately it's not in our strategic interests to say the racist part out loud" is quite the advice.

I do think this sort of open, gutter racism becoming normal enough that they feel comfortable saying it on TV is probably the most damning indictment of the last 5 years.

There are art history classes about this and, spoiler alert, this type of rhetoric doesn't usually end well

Chris Mason once again writing like he’s narrating a children’s book where the protagonist is a bear wearing a little hat.

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results:

- AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2%
- ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1%
- ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

people voted for a guy who in the last couple of days posted a video fantasy of himself shitting on americans, torn down the fucking east wing, and declared that the treasury has to pay him $230 million for reasons.

And Lemon, it's Tuesday.

On top of his crypto grifts, real estate deals, and other corrupt ways he profits from the presidency, Trump now literally wants his own DOJ to pay him $230M.

He does this all while his tariffs raise prices on Americans.

An insane, unprecedented level of blatant corruption.

There’s been no effort to prove they were drug traffickers, some were demonstrably innocent fishermen, and the strikes are illegal either way, but please do go on

Orr sneered at British people who support a democratic ally invaded by fascists as suffering from 'Ukraine brain'. And he did so in autocratic Hungary, whose approach to the war he praised.

www.desmog.com/2025/08/07/j...

Absolutely none of this makes sense. The experience of her refugee parents taught her to be anti-immigrant? The post-war order was built on the assumption of human niceness?

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay

In the end, it's Jenrick's deep inauthenticity that is so striking. Literally no-one who went to football matches in the 1980s will recognise what he describes. They know only a total charlatan would have said it.

A *Conservative Party politician* calling 80s hooliganism “largely good natured fun” is absolutely fucking incredible

I genuinely don’t know how to deal with the constant drip drip effect of feeling like the world has gone stark raving mad. It’s like water torture.

Poster for an online launch 'charity and children's hospitals - exceptionalism, experiences and welfare', 23 October, 3PM, https://bmj.zoom.us/j/89920901259

New Topic Collection for @bmj.com journal, Medical Humanities, on 'Charity and children's hospitals', is live:

mh.bmj.com/pages/topic-...

Join myself, authors, and editors (Francesca Vaghi and @profellenstu.bsky.social) to discuss at a launch next week. . .

bmj.zoom.us/j/89920901259

The thing that fucks me off about this is the 12,000 job losses that have been announced in the sector. This openness about not doing your actual job is a spit in the face to those who now can't.

I sang Jerusalem with Robert Jenrick at school — he’s wrong about race The Conservative MP has complained that, visiting Handsworth in Birmingham, he didn’t see ‘another white face’. You can’t judge whether someone is integrated by skin colour, argues fellow Wulfrunian S...

I've responded to Robert Jenrick's vile comments in @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

Dylan Riley, Contra Arendt — Sidecar On civil society.

Interesting claim from Dylan Riley: by attacking the politically ‘irrelevant’ civic nodes of academia and NGOs, MAGA could unwittingly unleash a more truly potent Left newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

What company to keep. What a journey.

It's really something to read Goodwin's 'impact case study' from REF2014. Far right extremism: against it before he was for it.
impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/...

Quite bizarre to think there was a co-ordinated campaign to vandalise ULEZ cameras with like 5,000 incidents and people getting criminal records all because Sadiq Khan introduced a policy that's reduced pollution and saved people's lives.

The Boring Fund - Open Collective We support small non-profit organisations (UK) by only funding the really boring (but essential) stuff like insurance, accountancy or admin

The Boring Fund will be open for applications in November.

If your small UK charity needs (up to) £200 to cover something boring like insurance or web hosting, take a look.

They welcome donations too.

It's not volunteering if it's compulsory

Two anti-immigration protestors came down from Scotland to take part in today’s UKIP Mass Deportation rally in Newcastle and were told to go back to where they came from… by their own side.

The Starmer loyalists - a small but noisy group which seems, against all rational expectations, to exist - told me off for this, and demanded I wait til Friday when he would obviously be doing this. "The right was correct, immigration IS bad," was not quite the line I was looking for, if I'm honest.

I am living groundhog decade today. NPR delayed, Andy Burnham can’t understand why his pre conference leadership platforming is being reported as pre platform leadership platforming, why hasn’t this tram been built, levelling up announcement

The consistent theme in Chotiner seems to be that a lot of important, well-regarded public figures either have horrifying views, or that they are so dim and unused to being challenged that as little as one follow-up question makes them look absurd, or both of these things.

I know we've worked hard to move history ed away from names and dates but I think we might need to swing back to chronology a bit because "who was president on january 8 2021?" and "which came first, the clinical description of autism or tylenol?" shouldn't be this hard, especially for reporters.

Just protecting women.

"Absolutely shocking that this would even be considered." 💬

RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Prof Nicola Ranger spoke to ITV news this evening about Reform UK's plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain for migrants.