Professor Peter Matthews
@urbaneprofessor.bsky.social
Professor of Social Policy and LGBTQ+ Studies, University of Stirling he/him 🏳️🌈
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2014-1241
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2014-1241
Watching Beaches and getting nostalgic for The Laughing Duck, a gay bar that closed a month after I moved to Edinburgh 🤷🏻♂️ and also The Blue Moon Cafe.
(Very Edinburgh post)
(Very Edinburgh post)
November 27, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Watching Beaches and getting nostalgic for The Laughing Duck, a gay bar that closed a month after I moved to Edinburgh 🤷🏻♂️ and also The Blue Moon Cafe.
(Very Edinburgh post)
(Very Edinburgh post)
Reposted by Professor Peter Matthews
Holy moly - Welsh Government have approved side-road zebras! www.gov.wales/written-stat...
Written Statement: Side Road Zebra Crossings in Wales | GOV.WALES
Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales
www.gov.wales
November 26, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Holy moly - Welsh Government have approved side-road zebras! www.gov.wales/written-stat...
We got celeriac AND parsnips in our organic box yesterday.
*SIGH*
I swear the parsnip months start earlier every year...
*SIGH*
I swear the parsnip months start earlier every year...
November 27, 2025 at 6:29 PM
We got celeriac AND parsnips in our organic box yesterday.
*SIGH*
I swear the parsnip months start earlier every year...
*SIGH*
I swear the parsnip months start earlier every year...
Reposted by Professor Peter Matthews
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
November 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
One of my colleagues went to a seminar at Berkeley and when someone asked a question Derrida brushed it off saying ‘what you ask may be important but it is not interesting’.
Reposted by Professor Peter Matthews
look that may well be right ‘mathematically’ but it’s wrong in all the ways that matter
We are now further away from the theatrical release of Raiders of the Lost Ark (June 12, 1981) than it was from the year it takes place in (1936). We have reached the Indiana Jones event horizon.
November 27, 2025 at 10:18 AM
look that may well be right ‘mathematically’ but it’s wrong in all the ways that matter
They're selling a reformer pilates machine for £150 in the aisle of random shit in Lidl this week!
I think this almost beats the horse saddle as the best random shit they've ever sold.
I think this almost beats the horse saddle as the best random shit they've ever sold.
November 27, 2025 at 8:16 AM
They're selling a reformer pilates machine for £150 in the aisle of random shit in Lidl this week!
I think this almost beats the horse saddle as the best random shit they've ever sold.
I think this almost beats the horse saddle as the best random shit they've ever sold.
Reposted by Professor Peter Matthews
Doubtless the IFS will confirm in the coming days, but unless I'm missing something the student loan threshold changes for Plan 2 will mean that collectively, the subsidy in the long run on student loans for them has now shifted to below zero, ie the gvt is now set to make a profit.
November 26, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Doubtless the IFS will confirm in the coming days, but unless I'm missing something the student loan threshold changes for Plan 2 will mean that collectively, the subsidy in the long run on student loans for them has now shifted to below zero, ie the gvt is now set to make a profit.
It looks like it is just in England. It'll be interesting to see if Wales and Scotland follow suit:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 26, 2025 at 4:26 PM
It looks like it is just in England. It'll be interesting to see if Wales and Scotland follow suit:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A few things I liked in the #Budget - abolishing two-child limit (should've been done a year ago, but they got there!); I don't mind the freezing of tax thresholds - broadening the base of taxation is how you make your mega-bucks; the wee change to energy policy and removing...
November 26, 2025 at 1:42 PM
A few things I liked in the #Budget - abolishing two-child limit (should've been done a year ago, but they got there!); I don't mind the freezing of tax thresholds - broadening the base of taxation is how you make your mega-bucks; the wee change to energy policy and removing...
Why we still teach the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the "less eligibility principle" in Social Policy in the UK...
British society remains in permanent quasi-Dickensian thrall to the ideal of the Deserving Poor, and sufficiently paranoid as to read any undermining of this ideal as trickery.
If you are eligible for the mobility component of PIP and you want to spend *your own money on top of that* on having a nicer modified car, why shouldn't you? Should screen readers only work on Chromebooks?
November 26, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Why we still teach the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the "less eligibility principle" in Social Policy in the UK...
The return of in-person assessments for PIP. In our research project, one person's PIP assessment was done by a *vet*
November 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
The return of in-person assessments for PIP. In our research project, one person's PIP assessment was done by a *vet*
Will the surcharge on expensive properties apply outside England? #ItsDevolved
November 26, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Will the surcharge on expensive properties apply outside England? #ItsDevolved
Anyway, given the budget was leaked by the OBR, so you'll no longer be excited about it, here's some exciting news: I JUST WATCHED SURANNE JONES FILMING A SCENE!!!
November 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Anyway, given the budget was leaked by the OBR, so you'll no longer be excited about it, here's some exciting news: I JUST WATCHED SURANNE JONES FILMING A SCENE!!!
I appreciated the "plague on all your houses" message of the first lecture, but the tone was slightly hectoring and smug... But I'll be interested in what he says in the other lectures.
November 26, 2025 at 8:50 AM
I appreciated the "plague on all your houses" message of the first lecture, but the tone was slightly hectoring and smug... But I'll be interested in what he says in the other lectures.
Just listened to this on the cycle to the station the cut is pretty egregious. It's actually almost mid-sentence and you can hear it. In the context of a lecture where he rails about *everyone* it is even worse
The BBC's has responded in The Guardian that this was a routine editorial decision, but also that it was made on legal advice. Those two explanations don’t fit together. /1
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 26, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Just listened to this on the cycle to the station the cut is pretty egregious. It's actually almost mid-sentence and you can hear it. In the context of a lecture where he rails about *everyone* it is even worse
Reposted by Professor Peter Matthews
will your research involve living participants?
not after we’re done with them lol 🧛♂️
not after we’re done with them lol 🧛♂️
November 25, 2025 at 9:09 PM
will your research involve living participants?
not after we’re done with them lol 🧛♂️
not after we’re done with them lol 🧛♂️
Will there be anything left to announce in the budget?!
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Will there be anything left to announce in the budget?!
FFS
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 11:06 AM
FFS
This is an absolutely cracking job for someone:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN334/q...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN334/q...
Qualitative Researcher at The Ada Lovelace Institute
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Qualitative Researcher opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
www.jobs.ac.uk
November 25, 2025 at 10:41 AM
This is an absolutely cracking job for someone:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN334/q...
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN334/q...
I think the Guardian shouldn't correct that TV review, but double-down on it to drive the clicks for the LOLz
November 25, 2025 at 9:02 AM
I think the Guardian shouldn't correct that TV review, but double-down on it to drive the clicks for the LOLz
I've popped on Martha Wainwright's eponymous first album and I'd forgotten how it's one of the best albums ever recorded in the world ever. I saw her touring it in Edinburgh 21 years ago, in the venue that used to be that soft-play place everyone of a certain age had been to in Fountainbridge
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 AM
I've popped on Martha Wainwright's eponymous first album and I'd forgotten how it's one of the best albums ever recorded in the world ever. I saw her touring it in Edinburgh 21 years ago, in the venue that used to be that soft-play place everyone of a certain age had been to in Fountainbridge
With the announcement of Jimmy Cliff's death, I had to look up this classic, from when adverts were 60 second feature films:
youtu.be/sWnTWNDPTJo?...
youtu.be/sWnTWNDPTJo?...
Nescafé - Sunrise (1988, UK)
YouTube video by The Hall of Advertising
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
With the announcement of Jimmy Cliff's death, I had to look up this classic, from when adverts were 60 second feature films:
youtu.be/sWnTWNDPTJo?...
youtu.be/sWnTWNDPTJo?...