I'm looking for colleagues in the UK, #HistSTM, #HistMed, or #STS who work in institutional settings where they find it is difficult to place them in the right Unit of Assessment for REF2029. DM if that's you?
Ah yes the so called “chaos with Ed Milliband” timeline.
As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
Solidarity from all of us at @leedsucu.bsky.social
@ulsteruni.bsky.social - Announces intention to make 450 colleagues redundant
University decimated 🤬😡
@caoimhearchibald.bsky.social @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social
What an incredibly polite rejection letter!
"This pattern raises serious concerns that certain market participants may have had access to material nonpublic information regarding a market-moving geopolitical event..."
www.npr.org/2026/04/10/n...
That framing is SO grim.
Also official figures put disability at about 25% of the UK population, so ~6% of adults having a Blue Badge (and not all disabled people are eligible or necessarily even apply for one) doesn’t look remotely outlandish.
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...
Throughout the last five years, if you ever want to check the truth of a situation- follow the money. The insurance companies haven’t glossed over either COVID or Climate change.
Australian federal and state senate inquiries have generated some useful resources on Nous, including details of how much unis pay for UniForum (and how little they understand it), and some largely underacted copies of a small number of reports Nous prepared for ANU:
www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStor...
Queen's in Canada has done some of the resource-gathering about Nous: qcaa.ca/resources/no...
But yes, we need a list. Because Nous itself has become *very* evasive in whom they're selling their nonsense to, no longer naming even when using 'testimonies' in casestudies: nousgroup.com/case-studies
Any takers? #Journalists
Ooh we used to buy L’Aimant for my very stylish Ganny (great grandma) - it was the very first Coty fragrance I think. I’ve just read about Tweed, it sounds as though it’s been reformulated too, so that vintage bottle is extra precious x
Do you mind me asking which perfume it was?
Sniffing both has led to some lovely conversations and sharing of memories and it’s so interesting revisiting some of these from a different perspective now I’m older (not sure about wiser 😅)
The formulation of that one (La Dolce Vita) had changed so I’d already hunted out a vintage bottle of that, and the smell of it brings back memories of what feels like every comforting cuddle she ever gave me as well as the joy of being taken seriously as a teen to help her choose her new perfume…
How bound up scent and memory are is so amazing. I’m so glad you have those. When we could no longer find Mum’s signature scent (Chantilly) in the 90s we spent a few days in Plymouth going in and out of Dingles and Debenhams perfume sections trying different samples, comparing to choose a new one…
The Debt Came Due Notes From a Crash Fred Rossi Mar 30, 2026 There is a version of my life that exists in my memory like a photograph from a trip I’ll never take again. In that version, I wake up and get out of bed without negotiating with my body first. I drive to work. I talk to people. I solve problems. I go home. I am tired in the way ordinary people are tired, the kind of tired that a night’s sleep fixes. That life is gone. What replaced it has a name. Long COVID. ME/CFS. Post-exertional malaise. The clinical language is clean and distant, which is probably why it fails so completely to describe what it actually feels like to live inside this body right now. Here is what it feels like: I am in a crash. What a Crash Is People who don’t have this illness hear the word “crash” and picture something dramatic. A sudden collapse. A trip to the emergency room. Sirens. A crash is not that. A crash is slower and more total. Post-exertional malaise is the medical term for what happens when someone with ME/CFS or Long COVID exceeds their energy envelope. The body doesn’t just get tired. It breaks down. It stops regulating itself. And unlike ordinary fatigue, which responds to rest, PEM doesn’t resolve with sleep. It compounds. Every small expenditure of energy, whether physical, cognitive, or emotional, costs more than it would in a healthy person, and the debt accumulates in a way that rest can only partially address.
🧵
Thoughtful blog post by someone with #LongCovid & #MEcfs. Initially focuses on describing the PEM effects of working 3 days in a row before discussing how the whole illness(es) & the effect it's having on his life is making him feel emotionally
centerleftstack.substack.com/p/the-debt-c...
#PEM
1/
A lovely thing: I found a small bottle of Mum’s long discontinued perfume from when she was a young woman into the 90s, in good condition on eBay. Gave it to her today and she sniffed it on her wrists with a gorgeous smile and said “it’s me”. Looking for the bright spots where we can really helps.
Wow.
Scrolllllll…. Yes I feel the same way!
Thank you to those who followed the case, watched hearings online, or got in touch. We felt it was important to bring the case. Taking this route as self-represented complainants has been hard, especially in the face of the framing we encountered. Your support and solidarity have meant a lot.
/12
UCU HQ repeatedly framed these complaints in factional terms rather than engaging with the substance, both in documentation to the CO and in commentary to the press. We raised concerns about democratic standards and how union resources are used. That is about accountability and transparency.
/11
Union resources should not be misused, whether by accident or convenience. It creates an unlevel playing field. HQ contested the case with a KC. The GS mentioned the cost in her email to members. Ewan & I represented ourselves throughout, because we felt these issues needed to be tested openly.
/10
The ruling was limited and this mechanism wasn't well suited to responding to the serious concerns that had been raised by whistleblowers. But, having exhausted internal routes, it was what we had and we did our best to push for transparency and establish what good governance should look like.
/9
The CO gave very little weight to how social media actually works in an election. Visibility is cumulative: it spreads, repeats, circulates. If a large union account shares content, it amplifies reach & shapes perceptions of momentum, authority and incumbency. The ruling barely engages with this.
/8
On impact, the ruling largely follows UCU HQ's line on the importance of first-round margin. But STV elections expressly allow for vote transfers, so it is difficult to see how a close 182 vote margin in the final round could simply be treated as irrelevant.
/7
The anonymity issue didn't arise in a vacuum. Members can read the ruling and consider what is already in the public domain about internal communications and workplace culture in UCU, including the ongoing @uniteucu.bsky.social Safe & Professional Workplace dispute.
bsky.app/profile/ewan...
/6
Evidence provided in anonymous witness statements was admitted to the hearings but given "little if any weight" in the ruling. Members should reflect on what it means when staff have not felt able to come forward openly about governance concerns for fear of repercussions.
/5
bsky.app/profile/vick...
Some of the claims already being made about the case and the ruling, particularly about impact and what was or was not established, go further than what is actually written in the ruling. Again I would urge members to read the whole thing themselves and form their own view.
/4
