The Certification Officer has issued his decision in Blake & McGaughey v UCU. My initial response is here: vickyblakeucu.uk/2026/03/31/t...
I urge members to read the full ruling rather than relying on the summary emailed to all members by HQ today. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69cbcb...
Workers don’t vote for 5 consecutive bouts of industrial action with a 75% turnout unless something is seriously wrong. Solidarity with all in Unite UCU ✊🔥
11 January 2023, Grady tells UCU senior managers in secret WhatsApp group chat "every single decision we make/thing we do has to be seen through the below lense... Re-elect GS".
11 January 2023, in response to Grady's instruction that everything UCU does has to be "Re-elect GS", a senior manager replies "And has been, hopefully"
🚨🧵The 2024 UCU General Secretary was so corrupt that @vickyblake.bsky.social + I are fighting a Certification Officer case to re-run it, 10 Feb. Grady won by 182 votes from 114,310 members, turnout 15%.
In secret, Grady ordered UCU managers to "Re-elect GS" +said she'd "destroy" her opponents...
Two thirds of UCU staff walk out. I worked for UCU two decades ago. In fact I ran for General Secretary and just lost. There is no way two thirds of the staff would walk out if the story of victimisation isnt true. My sources say its been coming for years.
feweek.co.uk/ucu-staff-to...
Photo of Marie, Unite UCU's health and safety rep, who is being victimised by her trade union employer
📣 Hands off Marie!
Tell @drjogrady.bsky.social and @ucu.org.uk to stop victimising Unite UCU's safety rep.
✍️ jgrady@ucu.org.uk
#HandsOffMarie
#UniteTheUnion @unitetheunion.bsky.social
Solidarity with all @uniteucu.bsky.social workers standing up against trade union victimisation. This is appalling and has crossed a very serious line. @ucu.org.uk must put a stop to this immediately. It brings the whole TU movement into disrepute and makes our jobs as reps a whole lot harder.
New publication on @ipragmatics.bsky.social, out now and available open access:
My work on the digital language ideologies of generative AI, in particular the "AI is here to stay" construction and its connections to presentism, techno-optimism, and tech bro culture
One for the linguists.
the DfE have responded enthusiastically to the curriculum and assessment review, stating that oracy is an 'important vehicle for social justice'. so more reproduction of this flawed theory of change which isolates 'better oracy' as a solution to injustice.
doi.org/10.1080/0305...
After squandering millions on Castle Meadows purchase, University of Nottingham is now axing modern languages & music
It also plans to cut its nursing programme
Leaders of the bungleocracy continue to draw handsome salaries
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I’m quoted in Laura Brown’s excellent article on youth language. I can’t post a link but here’s a screenshot…
Hmm... beyond the headline, this is a bit more complex than kids sounding more American.
archive.ph/2025.11.02-2...
Language not only describes the world. It transforms us alongside the world
We demand and we demand
the spelling bee is... 'a public ritual of linguistic discipline. It doesn't just reward memorisation; it performs a particular vision of language as precise, codified, and rule-bound, and positions that vision as natural, inevitable, and good' compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
On language structures under genocidal violence
There are no new words
but new combinations
Just in case anyone is listening, please note that UK universities cannot operate successfully on the basis of continuous reduction of academic staff and academic staff pay. No amount of staff wellness sessions will change this.
We've been away for a while but episode 75 is finally here. We talk about accent discrimination, attitudes to teachers' accents and about what accent prejudice tells us about wider social attitudes. #Linguistics open.spotify.com/episode/5wnC...
In my latest blog post I delve into the implication of Trump's Compact on the field of educational linguistics--and it is not pretty.
Why Trump’s Compact Poses an Existential Threat to Educational Linguistics educationallinguist.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/w...
Join us for our next LIP talk
We are delighted to welcome Teun A. van Dijk (Centre of Discourse Studies, Barcelona) for the third talk of the term.
Title: Discourse and Ideologies of the Radical Right
Date & Time: Tuesday 28th October, 1-2pm (UK time)
Location: MS Teams
Online link: lnkd.in/eyvGGc7G
Another example of cultural and linguistic imperialism?
BBC News - Welsh-speaking inmates 'told to speak English' in prison
www.bbc.com/news/article...
My 13-year-old granddaughter, Sophia, confirms that randomly yelling “Six-sevvuhnn!” is trending at her school. This sort of thing is nothing new: when her mother was at school, the fashionable standard greeting between teenage boys was “Whassup?”. Mark Newbury Farndale, Yorkshire
A sensible point in Guardian letters about the long tradition of using daft catchphrases like 6-7...
Interested in literacy in multilingual contexts?
Consider joining this new international research network under the auspices of the World Education Research Association
www.languageonthemove.com/literacy-in-...
Italian blasphemy and German ingenuity: how swear words differ around the world
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
🧵
The last month or so in UCU world has left me feeling very concerned.
I’m not a member or fan of any faction, but the recent NEC elections have given the hard-right of the union a majority on our highest council.
Meanwhile, our senior leadership appear to be half heartedly launching our (cont…)
The best piece I have read on the topic of AI use and writing pedagogy.
Just brilliant!
Really interesting discussion of the Teacher Tapp findings - How teachers feel about their accent.
Today in the US is #IndigenousPeoplesDay. Held in opposition to the federal govt holiday Columbus Day and celebrates Native American culture and resistance to colonialism as opposed to the genocide, murder, slavery and torture brought by Columbus shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...
This looks really brilliant 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
#OtD 13 Oct 1909 radical educator, Francesc Ferrer, was executed in Barcelona. Sentenced to death by a military tribunal despite no solid evidence being brought against him, his murder caused protests across the world. This is a collection of his work: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/ana...