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Reposted by Dr Martin Roberts

Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 3h

Yes. The main point to remember is that rejoining the EU and rejoining the Single Market are two separate things.
1. Rejoining the SM is no threat to the EU and may help to STOP Reform.
2. Rejoining the EU is a long process with many steps, any of which can all be paused by the EU at any time.

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Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 3h

Reality: Brexit's a disaster.
Labour Apologist: The EU don't want us back.
Reality: Here's the EU saying they want us back.
Labour Apologist: Brits don't want to rejoin.
Reality: Here are polls showing people want to rejoin.
Labour Apologist: We must be patient.
Reality: We've been waiting 9 years!

a man is laying his head on a desk with his hands on the desk .

ALT: a man is laying his head on a desk with his hands on the desk .

media.tenor.com

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Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 3h

@medievalmcsheff.bsky.social may be able to help?

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Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 7h

Wish I had a whippet pillow!

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Ross Balzaretti @rossbalzaretti.bsky.social · 7h

This is a good explanation of the importance of humanities subjects, not that Badenoch will read it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kemi Badenoch wants to end ‘rip-off degrees’ – but I wouldn’t have created Horrid Henry without mine | Francesca Simon

I studied Old and Middle English. Although I didn’t know it, I couldn’t have chosen a better subject to train me to become a children’s author, says author Francesca Simon

www.theguardian.com

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Jo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 7h

Completely forgot that I wrote to the FT a couple of weeks back, and just found this purely by chance while googling for something else that I've think I've written but currently can't find.

Letter: It’s black hole baloney
From Jo Michell, Professor of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Published SEP 24 2025

I was disappointed to see the FT reporting warnings of “a new black hole in the public finances” (September 9). A black hole is an astronomical body so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping. It is not the difference between a relatively arbitrary target and an uncertain forecast. As the BBC has acknowledged, journalists have a responsibility to take particular care when reporting on the public finances. Misleading and emotive metaphors should not be used — at least without caveat or quotation marks — in a serious newspaper such as the FT.

Jo Michell
Professor of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

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Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 7h

I'm not sure about the r or the e. Thanks, though.

Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 8h

There's no money for libraries, books, or online subs. There's no money for conference attendance or organisation. There's no money even for budgeted things without 17 layers of bureaucracy. There's virtually no QR and little or nothing for scoping projects out.

Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 8h

Can anyone decipher Robert's surname here, please? #PalaeographyPuzzle

Robertus ?? Stephanus Robinson gardiani ibidem LAO/Cj.3/fol145v

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Haywards Heath Lib Dems @haywardshthlibdems.bsky.social · 13h

Crazy criteria which demonstrates just how far Labour have distanced themselves from the real world. Business and public sector will suffer the consequences of this.

🔶️ Shyamali Rodrigues @shyamalirodrigues.bsky.social · 14h

Do all MPs and members of the cabinet have an A-Level in English? I imagine not. (I don't - I studied engineering)

Labour Gov this is clearly discriminatory and an absurd policy.

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 1d

I will bet my bike that close to zero of the British racists that this law is pandering to could pass A-level English.

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 16h

What HE managers fail to understand is that in the context of the Humanities, ‘employability’ isn’t teaching coding or carpentry, but skills around writing, presenting, reasoning, evaluation, analysis, research etc. In an 80% service economy, these are the skills that fundamentally matter.

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Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 1d

I do know that. But, as you say, their suggestion is nonsense.

Dr Martin Roberts @robertsmartino.bsky.social · 1d

Just 12500 UK students took A-level English Language in 2025. Only 58,000 took A-level Eng Lit. This is simply discrimination against foreigners. You can speak, and write, v good English without either, and neither guarantees you'll understand anything any better than anyone else on any course.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 1d

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

www.independent.co.uk

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 1d

This is absolutely nuts. As well as racist, xenophobic, deeply offensive and entirely ineffective.

The Independent @the-independent.com · 1d

Migrants will need A-level standard English to work in UK

www.independent.co.uk

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Dawn B @dawnbritten.bsky.social · 1d

Morning all xx

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Michael J. Stern @michaeljstern.bsky.social · 1d

This. And this again.

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 1d

More exciting ways in which the UK is alienating itself from its closest neighbours & partners by just being really, really, brutally rightwing.

Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 1d

Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int

Strasbourg 14/10/2025

www.coe.int

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Aoife Nolan @aoifenolan.bsky.social · 3d

Conor Gearty died a month ago yesterday. He was deeply committed to human rights law without idealising it. He recognised its power & value while acknowledging its limitations (& those of the people engaging with it). He was also an exceptional lawyer. This is a fitting final piece in the @lrb.co.uk

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Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d

Quite a bodying, here, for the UK, from the Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe.

🏮 He points out the Supreme Court ignored human rights (which breaches its legal obligations)
🏮 He says, in effect agreeing with Lucy Powell, Parliament should be involved...

rm.coe.int/letter-to-pa...

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Justin Colson @justincolson.bsky.social · 1d

At @ihr.bsky.social we can now offer PhD by Publication in History! For those with a substantial body of existing published research (within past 10 years), but without a PhD, should be of particular interest to #heritage professionals and independent scholars!

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Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 1d

The outgoing UK judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Tim Eicke KC: "We can be certain that over the last 70 years, the convention has repeatedly stepped in when domestic courts were unable to provide the protection we now take for granted and cherish."
#MyECHR 💙

ECtHR 'more necessary and relevant' now, says outgoing UK judge

Leading silk says he 'hardly recognises' the good work of the ECHR from recent criticism of Strasbourg court.

www.lawgazette.co.uk

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Dr Heidi Colthup @heidi-colthup.bsky.social · 1d

After hearing this news this morning I mentioned to my students in my lecture that they were potentially the last generation to work without AI. I told them about the warning and pointed out that paper lasts.
#AcademicSky
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Have plans on paper in case of cyber-attack, firms told

Prepare to switch to offline systems in the event of a cyber-attack, firms are being advised.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 1d

You mean, racist harassment fuelled by politicians and the media stoking hatred towards immigrants, I think.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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Will Tullett @willtullett.bsky.social · 1d

We need, somehow, to undo decades of government rhetoric and convince the public that unis aren’t (or aren’t only) about preparing people for jobs and certainly aren’t able to magically create jobs (that’s government’s role, with that whole ‘managing the economy’ thing they’re supposed to do).

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 1d

'A “challenging” graduate labour market in the UK could further erode trust in the higher education sector, with the “bad times” showing little sign of ending.'

All the more reason to have a serious, nationwide discussion of what universities do and what they are for.

Faith in universities ‘at new low’ as graduate jobs dry up

Challenging economic conditions may have led to bump in student recruitment numbers this year but experts fear long-term damage after institutions pegged futures to employability agenda

www.timeshighereducation.com

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 1d

To be effective, protest must be noisy, obstructive, annoying. No longer is this allowed. Now the last attribute of effective dissent – persistence – is also to be banned. But the moment protest ceases to be effective is the moment democracy dies. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot

The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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