M Martínez Lucio

Any mediocre relative indicators immediately become more beautiful in absolute numbers when the country is large. And there are many scales to choose from. Does that make a country "great"? Is this a normal question at all, or does the question itself already have a slight psychopathic connotation?

Why Nigel Farage is to blame for the small boats migrant crisis Martin Shipton You wouldn’t know it from the way he is weaponising the issue for his own political ends, but if there’s one person more responsible for the “small boats” migration crisis than anyone e...

Nigel Farage is arguably more to blame than any individual for creating the UK's "small boat crisis".

Yet due to the unwillingness of the Labour govt and Tory opposition to say anything negative about Brexit, Farage not only gets away with it but can weaponise it.

nation.cymru/opinion/why-...

Indeed, and both in the US and UK we seem to want to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the financial meltdown of 07-08 by repeating the same mistakes. Pensions funds are a clear target and it’s the Wild West meets Enron etc all
over again.

Trump planning the next financial crash...

The Russell Group universities will on the whole take whatever they like from non RG universities and pass the problem onto the sector as a whole. The absence of coordination within UK HE, the absence of supportive coherent state policy & a manic short termism is getting worse.

The Russell Group universities will on the whole take whatever they like from non RG universities and pass the problem onto the sector as a whole. The absence of coordination within UK HE, the absence of supportive coherent state policy & a manic short termism is getting worse.

Fascinating thread on the myth of the overspending state

There is also a sort of shared heritage of dealing with western imperialism and of being viewed by the USA especially as inferior and secondary. Finally the chaos of the US & even the EU facilitate this. Diplomatic rituals work better when grounded in these types of ‘shared experiences’.

Radioactive water from UK nuclear bomb base leaked into sea, files show Exclusive: Polluted water was released into loch near Glasgow because Royal Navy failed to maintain 1,500 water pipes, says watchdog

The reckless lack of care at what should be the most secure site in Britain is utterly jaw dropping. Never mind diplomatic talk of “suboptimal” plans & “shortfalls in asset management” - this is a story of unforgivable negligence & cover-up - just shameful

Radioactive water from UK nuclear bomb base leaked into sea, files show Exclusive: Polluted water was released into loch near Glasgow because Royal Navy failed to maintain 1,500 water pipes, says watchdog

Further evidence of meltdown within the state and the ongoing collapse of internal auditing and control. Given the anti-civil service and reduced capacity mentality which the current government has continued it may lead to future failures of a similar nature.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Students ‘becoming anonymous’ to academics as teaching load soars Growing class sizes and expanding workloads blamed as students doubt those teaching them know who they are

I'm quoted in this @timeshighered.bsky.social piece about lecturers' contact with their students. I think what we're doing is diluting and polluting education of internationally-recognised quality. But there you are, that's just life I suppose. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student...

The things about AI and policy opinion even so called leaders like this is that many don’t know what they are talking about. It shows how the question of technology is not systematically studied and read about.

BBC editor to intern: ‘this govt and all its policies sure are unpopular…we’re going to really need to sell this one…get me the friendliest, most warmth exuding picture of Yvette you can find…’

We need a national petition to ask university leadership to half its salaries, pass full control to university senates and reform them so they are wholly elected, move to rotational leadership & generate emergency funding as well as a formal lobby of parliament to support the public funding of HE.

You are right. Universities have been ‘addressing’ their own problems in isolation and without coordination and depending ever more on a model of financing which is unreal and unethical. That’s the issue.

To say that I was disillusioned would be a vast understatement. What can you even say when your own sector leadership comes out immediately with the white flag and shouts 'hands up, we surrender'? It's just unfathomable.

The background image shows two hands clasped in a heart shape overlaid with text which reads PCS union solidarity round-up 28 July to 3 August

Read our round-up of union activity in the UK and around the world, including striking university staff, hotel caterers walking out demanding the Real Living Wage, support for an Orgreave inquiry, action on AI and the RMT opposing state pension rise
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...

Tens of thousands at risk of poverty despite Labour’s benefit U-turn, MPs warn Changes to welfare reforms not enough to protect newly sick and disabled people from financial hardship

About 50,000 people who become disabled or chronically ill will be pushed into poverty by the end of the decade because of cuts to incapacity benefit, despite ministers dropping the bulk of its welfare reform plans, MPs have warned.

I spoke to Times Radio today highlighting some of the challenges around the NHS & Resident Doctors

Pay hasn’t kept up with inflation & working conditions are challenging

NHS has problems normally with 50,000 cancellations daily

Residents are an easy scapegoat

@rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social

🗳️ Los votos de Podemos para los presupuestos solamente estarán si no hay ni un solo céntimo de euro más en aumento de gasto militar, si se rompen relaciones y se decreta un embargo de armas con los genocidas y si se baja por ley un 40% el precio del alquiler.

📽️ @pablofdez1.bsky.social

UK to recognise state of Palestine in September unless Israel holds to ceasefire Cabinet agrees to support Middle East roadmap at emergency meeting called amid humanitarian crisis in Gaza

You have to either think very very hard or just give up on rationale thought when it comes to working out Starmer.
Yes but no but yes but no…
You can see how Britain’s imperial past led to all kinds of conflicts wherever it trod.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I still don't understand why a consortium of university libraries doesn't give a few million bucks to a few university presses to publish journals at cost, and then unsubscribe from the for-profit ones. It would save them money even in the short term, and ... (1/2)

The US got a deal, the EU got the bill. The EU just accepted a trade deal where the US imposes 15% tariffs on most EU goods, keeps 50% on steel and aluminium — while Europe commits to buying $750B in US gas and investing $600B in the US.
The EU’s lack of political unity and vision is despairing.

As Trump's raids ramp up, a Texas region's residents stay inside — even when they need medical care Immigrants in Texas's Rio Grande Valley are avoiding medical care due to intensified deportation efforts under the Trump administration.

Families are staying home and skipping doctor appointments—even U.S. citizens—despite needing medical care. No one should miss critical prescriptions or treatment out of fear. The health of our communities depends on every single one of us. seiu.co/45lPdYP

Sadiq Khan’s spokesperson says “Sadiq is delighted that President Trump wants to come to the greatest city in the world. He’d see how our diversity makes us stronger not weaker; richer, not poorer”

The decline of our once-great universities is nothing to celebrate The AI threat is looming, the graduate premium is fading. But the UK economy needs Higher Education

Even the Telegraph is now advocating for the UK's universities, and pleading with readers who they themselves have poisoned to give Higher Education a chance. But really it's far too late to stop much of the slide. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...

This is shows a side of Starmer in terms of his cowardly & complicit nature. Sadiq Khan has been subjected to the vilest of abuse &ongoing threats as mayor of London. Starmer is facilitating risks to the lives of migrants & their children and it surprises me how many in Labour remain silent.

Good piece outlining the challenges at various levels but the responses vary and the approach by Reeves is high risk and there are alternatives. It’s not just a question of confronting the truth but accepting that redistribution and public intervention is the way ahead.

Water chiefs’ pay rises to average of £1.1m despite ban on bonuses and outrage over pollution Total remuneration at companies in England and Wales – many of them under scrutiny for sewage discharge – was £15m in 2024-25

This is ridiculous. Water chiefs’ pay rises to average of £1.1m despite ban on bonuses and outrage over pollution

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

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