bsky.app/profile/alja...

Mumble mumble free speech mumble mumble human rights. So much for Oxford’s much vaunted autonomy and academic freedom!

This avidly trenchant critic of the Thatcherite dream finally has a place she can decorate however she pleases, including stencilling “Milk snatcher,” “Can’t pay, won’t pay,” and “Tory scum” on the walls if she so chooses 😂

Empowering survivors for meaningful inclusion is a recurring theme through the day, with Jane Lasonder setting the tone, a dedicated panel on centring survivors and during a panel on the role of the new Fair Work Agency. Now Sara Thornton’s keynote in dialogue with Julie Etchingham. #PECconference.

V pleased to be at the @modernslaverypec.bsky.social’s conference on “A human rights-centred approach to addressing modern slavery and human trafficking” today. Murray Hunt gives an excellent intro contesting polarizing HR framings that pits the rights of individuals against those of the majority.

“Deciding whether musical expression represents fact or fiction, confession or observation…parsing the literal from the figurative, and generic codes from a track’s unique signatures, requires a detailed, nuanced grasp of the genre’s musical conventions and history.”

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-04...

“Deciding whether musical expression represents fact or fiction, confession or observation…parsing the literal from the figurative, and generic codes from a track’s unique signatures, requires a detailed, nuanced grasp of the genre’s musical conventions and history.”

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-04...

Indeed! The NHS continues to deliver excellent outcomes in a comparative analysis with other systems. No wonder it’s the envy of the world. The underinvestment must be addressed, but not the underlying model.

I was there yesterday and was appalled by elderly ladies who had taken their shoes off while picnicking in a central London square a stone’s throw from Oxford Circus. And the awful youngsters who gave up their seats on the tube for an Indian couple with luggage.

chart showing Unadjusted earnings gap 10 years after graduation, associated with having been in deep poverty at age 16, for all graduates and by demographic group: England

Graduates who grew up in deep poverty face a large pay gap 10 years into their careers.

They earn 13 per cent less than graduates who did not grow up in poverty – equivalent to over £7,590 a year ⤵️
buff.ly/5VfX2Fi

High achieving poor pupils less likely to get top GCSE marks New research by UCL finds a dip in academic performance between ages 11 and 14

schoolsweek.co.uk/high-achievi...
Ladders and ceilings .

Solidarity?

When there’s a responsibility (response-ability even) not to listen

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! May the wonder and love it represents infuse the whole world and transform those in power. Paraphrasing Pope Leo, may they make peace not war, encounter not domination. May there be peace in Palestine where the Incarnation foretold the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Pope Leo's Easter message:

"Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!"

www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

I’d rather put it that the they’re-not-listening hypothesis = the political choices governments have taken in navigating those trade-offs etc. over 40+ years makes it seem “as if” they’re out-of-touch because people are rejecting TINA. Easier to pretend it’s ignorant neglect.

Also an excellent illustration of why philosophical belief is a terrible vector for protecting academic freedom because it militates against its vital core of critical scrutiny (with the implication here that it constitutes discrimination).

And every year Penntrification extends the color line and deepens segregation in schools (& doesn’t pay tax to fund the school district). Having worked there for 6+ years, I can vouch we shouldn’t idolize Pennovation without observing the adverse socio-economic impacts the uni has had on the city.

There are creative solutions to this! I once heard an artist speak about some of hers.

Free Speech in HE 26 Next steps for freedom of speech in higher education institutions in England

This morning I’ll be talking at Westminster HE Forum’s event on “Next steps for freedom of speech in HEIs.” I’ll talk about about how to get from the complexity of legal analysis to nuanced policy principles to promote cultures of disagreeing well.

www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/conference/F...

Academic freedom or lack thereof: Decline of institutional autonomy in the United States compared to its decline in other prominent (former) democracies that have autocratized, namely Hungary, India, and Türkiye

academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

Editorial | Penn has an AI problem The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board argues that Penn’s choice to embrace AI is detrimental to the institution of higher education. 

in which the kids are alright
AND
student newspapers continue to light the way

"In its tireless support for AI, the University has essentially endorsed shortcuts+the outsourcing of academic thinking.

AI cannot coexist with education — it can only degrade it."

www.thedp.com/article/2026...

Could also be: What you choose to study in school reflects aspects of socialization that are linked to later political choices. Or what you choose to study in school is linked to the kind of work you’ll do later which socializes you to more or less socially liberal.

Last night, MPs had their 1st chance to debate plans to restrict the right to jury trial. JUSTICE visited Parliament this week to brief them on our concerns.

This briefing sets out why sidelining juries is a harmful distraction from real solutions to court delays: justice.org.uk/briefings/co...

The government. Never knowingly on the right side of public opinion.

Thinking about my new mortgage offer before the orange madman sent rates up, I was wondering whether I should fix until after he’s out of office!!

Listening? Well, that might depend on the extent to which they implement recommendations.

Good piece, though I worry we’re past the point of these kinds of correctives being effective when even a very rich friend tells me they don’t want their privately educated yet less than intellectually stellar kids to study humanities subjects because of their earning prospects.

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philjobs.org/job/show/30997

More like the Labour Party chanting to the mournful tonus peregrinus (the “wandering tone” to which Ps 114 “In exitu Israel” is set and which has two tenors or reciting tones) to mark the exodus of its core vote.