Patrick WJ Thompson

University of Strathclyde announces plans to cut 70 jobs The university says it needs to save £35m but a union is calling for no compulsory redundancies.

Strathclyde seeks 'to save £35m over the next two years.'

'Details of which jobs may be at risk have not been made public by the university.

It is thought they could include roles at Strathclyde Business School and the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.' Industrial policy anyone?

Goodbye Martin Parr Serious photographs, disguised as entertainment

"Each socio-economic group – and viewers from any other category – could adopt Parr as their own, the chronicler of an inherently ridiculous people: that is, not them."

Michael Prodger is so brilliant on Martin Parr:

Glad to learn that tomorrow is 100 years since one of the finest bits of inter-government-relations-handling ever, when the UK, NI and Free State governments got together and said ‘We all hate this Boundary Commission report, albeit for completely different reasons. Let’s suppress it!’

How do democracies respond to extremist attacks? Selen A Ercan, Jordan McSwiney, Emily Beausoleil, Claire Fitzpatrick & @andreafelicetti.bsky.social explore 2 approaches to resilience- ‘bouncing back’ & deepening democracy. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/ituNUoP

@polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Pragmatism’s limits? Following secret negotiations between business confederations and GMB, CWU, Prospect, Unite, USDAW, UNISON, and the TUC, the government has U-turned on its manifesto commitment to introduce day-one ri...

Wrote my take on the retreat on day one rights against unfair dismissal, for Renewal. Basically Labour made a promise it turned out it couldn't deliver, a small group of serious trade unions then decided to try to salvage this, but this isn't without severe trade offs renewal.org.uk/blog/pragmat...

PROMOTE YOUR BOOKS! EVERYONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PUBLISHED BOOKS!

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/

“Dangit I hate gift shopping for my family, they’re so hard to buy f—“

Needs more naval guns

Noise and Nuance: What the public really thinks about immigration

Read the new report from @britishfuture.bsky.social on public attitudes to immigration, asylum, settlement + the contested politics of the issue

www.britishfuture.org/publication/...

The longer we have a political class that refuses to tell the truth about immigration, because it is easier to embrace populist misconceptions, the further down the road to disaster we go...

The Easter 1916 rebellion occasioned significant civilian casualties. Having initially resisted the idea of compensating bereaved or injured civilians, the British government relented by establishing the Rebellion (Victims’) Committee (RVC) which assessed 550 compensation applications for death and injury. Utilizing these applications as well as Dublin Castle, Treasury, press, and parliamentary records, this article examines five aspects of the state’s treatment of civilian casualties: why the government’s initial opposition to compensation was eventually reversed; the establishment of the RVC, the bureaucratic compensation process, and the surveillance of working-class claimants; what the compensation claims reveal about the nature and circumstances of civilian casualties during the rebellion; how the Workmen’s Compensation Act (1906) was used to determine compensation awards and, consequently, how this minimized the state’s financial liabilities by treating civilian casualties not as victims of war but on a par with injured workers; and, lastly, why the workmen’s compensation legislation was an inadequate means of treating civilian war casualties. The RVC compensation records enable a unique case study of how the 1916 rebellion adversely affected the lives of ordinary men, women and children, and how the British state endeavoured to limit its obligations to make reparations to them.

📢Out now on #firstview!

Daithí Ó Corráin (@dublincityuni.bsky.social) on 'The British Government, Workmen’s Compensation, and the Civilian War Casualties of the Easter 1916 Irish Rebellion'

#Compensation #Civilian #Casualties #Injury 20thc 🗃️

👉Read open access: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.

International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.

Had a brilliant time sharing my work at the @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social seminar last week at @ihr.bsky.social. Really great discussion as well, facilitated by @colmpm.bsky.social, with lots of interesting questions. Thanks for having me!

The organisers of a recent witness seminar @ihr.bsky.social on Conservatism and Unionism reflect in this new opinion article on the tensions that emerged in the final third of the twentieth century and their implications for the present. historyandpolicy.org/opinion-arti...

The list goes on. Even for a government with - at best - an incredibly cynical view of both higher education and post-92 institutions, this should be the stuff of basic policy making. What do they think is going to replace this?

Was talking to a friend the other day who is from Plymouth, about the impact of the growth of the University there. Nearly 19,000 students and 2,500 staff.

My go-to example of this is the University of Lancashire, which has over 25,000 students and 3,000 staff primarily in Preston and Burnley. What happens if institutions like that go under, do we think?

Alongside mooted restrictions on salary sacrifice - which universities make a lot of use of to pay for pensions - this is not shaping up to be a great budget for a sector already mired in cutbacks and redundancies.

'It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise the Department of American Studies at Nottingham was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham.' 1/2

'the home office is inhabited by an ancient spirit of malice that possesses all who take up the role' is a pretty good thesis tbh

‘Out of sight and out of mind?’: British Perceptions of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement

My talk at @ihr.bsky.social / @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social on British perceptions of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement is this Thursday! Come along in person, or join online!

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Truly a battle of wits

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what the fuck are we DOING here

Gary Neville voice: "Aaaaaaaaoooaaaaaaaaaoooooh"

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Daisy Edgar-Jones And Emilia Jones To Star In ‘Bad Bridgets’ From LuckyChap Daisy Edgar Jones and Emilia Jones are set to star in 'Bad Bridgets', from 'Kneecap' director Rich Peppiatt.

Exciting news! Filming will soon start on a Bad Bridgets film, inspired by Elaine Farrell & Leanne McCormick's great book. We're delighted to have both Elaine & Leanne on our USIHS Committee (for many reasons, this is just today's extra one) @badbridgetbook.bsky.social
deadline.com/2025/10/dais...

Nice to have a write-up of my recent @royalhistsoc.org article featured in this month's Mitchell Institute @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social newsletter. I did not, however, realise how much my shirt needs an iron in this photo...!

www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI...

Friends in Common How might we reassess friendship as a transformative, even revolutionary, political resource?

What if friendship were understood not just on an individual, personal level, but as something political – a radical practice capable of upending hierarchies and producing revolutionary social change?

Laura C. Forster and Joel White reflect on radical friendship and everyday solidarities.

Last week, I wrote about Doublespeed, essentially a click farm that sells “synthetic influencers” to astroturf whatever product or service you want across social media, despite it being a clear violation of every social media platform's policy on inauthentic behavior. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. a16z’s Speedrun is also backing: Creed: An AI company “rooted in Christian Values” which produces Lenny, a “Bible-based AI buddy who's always got your back with wise words, scripture-inspired guidance, and a listening ear whenever you need it.” Zingroll: The “world’s largest Netflix-quality AI streaming platform,” which is another way of saying it’s a Netflix populated exclusively with AI Slop. Vega: which is building “AI-powered social orbits.” What does that mean? Not entirely clear, but the company has produced one of the most beautiful Mad Libs paragraphs I’ve ever seen: “We’re building the largest textual data moat on human relationships by gamifying the way people leave notes for each other. For the first time, LLMs can analyze millions of raw, human-written notes at scale and turn them into structured meaning, powering the most annotated social graph ever created.” Moona Health: an AI-powered Sleep care app the company says is covered by insurance. “Our AI-powered platform automates insurance claims and scheduling and analyzes sleep data – providing personalized session guidelines to therapists,” Moona says. Jooba: “The world’s first autonomous recruiting firm.” Margin: “The World’s first AI powered credit card.” Margin says “Customers earn points, with dynamic rewards that adapt to their preferences in real time.” First Voyage: A wellness app that gives you AI “mythological pets that turn wellness into play.” Axon Capital: billed as “DeepMind for Finance,” Axon says it has “pioneered brain-inspired, low-latency AI for financial markets.”

This is so bleak:

www.404media.co/a16z-is-fund...

Really excellent and thorough review by @katyhayward.bsky.social of ‘For and Against a United Ireland’ this morn. Too often IT book reviews actually fail to review the book itself! This was an impressive critique informed by Katy’s own formidable expertise:

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...