what is becoming clear is that the means are the ends. The weapons aren't being used in pursuit of anything; Hegseth's goal is to be using the weapons, a far more deliverable objective than 'regime change'.
Chart showing real median salaries by graduate status. Postgrads have declined 17%, grads 12% and non-grads by 3%
Since 2007, real median postgrad salaries have declined by 17% and 12% for undergrads (*before* accounting for student loans!). The narrative of the 2010s was dominated by the status-loss of industrial workers, the 2020s might be the decade of disappointed grads
Ha! The original Lancet article on the dangers of reading in bed is here: doi.org/10.1016/S014...
This thought is brought to you by that really bad substack on AI in academia that's doing the rounds right now.
Question: Has any post, article or presentation that uses the term "workflow" ever been worth reading?
*Academics of Bluesky:* Do you know a great UG/PG student with excellent quants skills?
@nspmartin.bsky.social and I are advertising a great fully-funded PhD on MRP and minority voting with our friends at Ipsos, so send them our way! ✌️
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reform win a seat: The true Volk have spoken and we all must listen.
Greens win a seat: Early reports that Muslims may have ‘voted’ (an ancient Islamic practice designed to steal elections). How severely should the franchise be limited in response?
Ouch.
Opinion: Going forward this behaviour should be penalised in the same way we penalise clubs for fans' racist abuse.
Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.
I mean, I am white British with no ancestry outside England as far as I'm aware. And I know plenty of successful people whose lives would have been utterly ruined by these proposed policies. For 2nd gen migrants, I imagine that appears far more starkly.
bsky.app/profile/sund...
The more I think about it, the more the sectarianism line makes me cross. Not just because it's obvious cobblers, but because, if you are South Asian Muslim, why shouldn't you strategically vote against parties that directly threaten your legal residence and basic rights?
Oh wow, that is really sad news. Connolly's book Why I Am Not A Secularist is one of my favourites, a very clever critique of the inconsistencies and evasions of much left liberal politics.
Bloody hell. This is completely scathing but there's not much to disagree with.
A good overview. Also includes sound advice for Labour should it wish to revive its fortunes.
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...
"We have to learn the lessons from that", says Starmer, in a letter that amply demonstrates he has not, in fact, learned the lessons from that.
Lancaster's @imogentyler.bsky.social defines the term ‘grand theory’ for listeners of BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed 💭
Red Dwarf star Chris Barrie looking fed up in a silly hat.
THIS ISN'T EVEN THE BEST RED DWARF DEATH QUOTE! My favourite is probably:
"At least he gets 24 hours notice. All the notice most of us get is 'Mind that bus. What bus? Splat!..."
"Black Border. Begins: To Dave Lister, condolences on your passing away. What's that poem? Now, weary traveler, rest your head, for just like me you are utterly dead."
RIP Rob Grant.
The UK university sector is world-leading but it’s also tangentially connected to immigration so i guess we’d better kill it
Start your Tuesday cheerful with this evidence of the life-changing work of @londoncentric.media. Incredible stuff.
Awesome new book by my awesome colleague!
It’s on Google, even though it is making search worse. It’s on WhatsApp, even though I absolutely do not want “homework help” or “relationship advice” from my messaging app. In the year of our lord 2026, it is everywhere.
And it *doesn’t work*.
Really fun thread and piece at the end!
London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...
None of the coverage of this - none of it - bothers to consider the vital question, namely, what the f*** were universities supposed to do? Teach in person? Close entirely? How exactly would that have benefitted the students taking action?
If Starmer 2.0 means nothing else, perhaps it can mean this…
