rob witts
@robwitts.bsky.social
a guy who hangs around universities and opera houses
created July 31, 2023
451 followers 1,057 following 854 posts
view profile on Bluesky Posts
Mariana Mazzucato (@mazzucatom.bsky.social) reposted
Speaking today with @KateRaworth at #WorldDesignCongress. We'll explore how to redesign economic systems for planetary and social wellbeing. I'll be speaking about my new paper, just published today, on the Public Value of Arts and Culture–and why they are fundamental for economic transformation 1/2
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
fab, thank you! I'm not currently a subscriber BUT THAT COULD CHANGE...
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
ooh that sounds like it might be up their street! thanks for the tips, much appreciated
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you, will check it out 🙂
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
thanks stuart!
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
Does anyone on here know of any good (short) overviews of the Cold War that might help provide some structure for a bright 15yo who is currently drowning in a sea of unrelated events? #history
flyingrodent (@flyingrodent.bsky.social) reposted
If you want a comparison for this war - one side with total dominance over the battlefield, attacking civilians and infrastructure at will with devastating weaponry, while sweeping thousands into detention, and the other side is forced underground - then the closest to it is The War of the Worlds.
unraveled (@unraveledpress.com) reposted
Holy fuck, NO. THIS FOOTAGE IS THREE MONTHS OLD. Stop. Doing This!!
Dr Phoenix CS Andrews (@thatdocphoenix.com) reposted
It’s right to support immigration whether or not it benefits us economically or socially
Midge (@midgiepie.bsky.social) reposted
a friend and I went downtown this evening to scream in the streets with thousands of our neighbors. @theonion.com was also at the protest this evening and they were pulling no punches
Prof Bill McGuire (@profbillmcguire.bsky.social) reposted
Note to the rest of the world: This is now how the British state deals with blind, disabled, citizens protesting peacefully against genocide www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Skot Armstrong (@skot.bsky.social) reposted
John Cage performing "Water Walk" in January, 1960 on the popular TV show I've Got A Secret. At the time, Cage was teaching Experimental Composition at New York City's New School.
flyingrodent (@flyingrodent.bsky.social) reposted
I am 48 and if I can impart one single insight to the species, it is that the best thing you will ever experience in this life is having a family that loves you and enjoys spending time with you. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social) reposted
Jane (@localnotail.bsky.social) reposted
On the same day in the Telegraph:
C. Buckthorn (@cbuckthorn.bsky.social) reposted
Being surveyed about your girlfriend
David Wearing (@davidwearing.bsky.social) reposted
When people tell you that Israel is a democracy, they are also telling you that they don't view Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as disqualifying it from that classification. In other words, they are effectively telling you that they view Palestinians as sub-human.
David Hendy (@davidhendy.bsky.social) reposted
Sounds like an extraordinary and vital film www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...
Rosie Holt (@rosieisaholt.bsky.social) reposted
Graham Linehan once took issue with a sketch I did and tweeted about me referring to me not by name but only as to who my boyfriend was and called me an NPC ( non player character.) It was misogynistic and his “standing up for women” schtick is baloney.
Daniel Sohn (@danielsohn.bsky.social) reposted
I’m sorry now, what activism? Can you point to when he argued for equal pay or protection from spousal abuse? Ooooh, you mean gender bigotry. Probably should change that headline then.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
This is now a Torino Porta Susa fan account
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Cursed Marionette Fortepiano Recital
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
if you get back to his place and it's decorated as an undersea grotto, wyd
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
Poking around the Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella, proof that generational wealth sends people mad
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
3) a proper espresso machine in the buffet car
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Things you don't get flying on holiday: 1) awesome Alpine vistas, 2) a cute dog in your carriage
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
However, 😬
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Hot take: being on vacation is good
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
We walked up the Coulée Verte towards Bastille with bats flitting overhead. There was a jazz brass band practising under the Pont Charles de Gaulle
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Stayed in Bercy last night because a) cheaper and b) close to Gare de Lyon and it was delightful, a very pleasant neighbourhood
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
Currently on a Trenitalia service from Paris to Milan and feeling pretty good about it
Matthew Sweet (@drmatthewsweet.bsky.social) reposted
Amazing how such small numbers have been identified as the voice of the nation when, for comparison, 100,000 turned out for trans pride last month in London.
Rachel Maddow (@maddow.msnbc.com) reposted
kutv.com/news/local/u...
Jo Edge 🏴 (@hagenilda.bsky.social) reposted
@timeshighered.bsky.social wearing a hotdog suit having crashed a hotdog car here
Jen Wang (@jenwang.com) reposted
Hey, friends. You might remember that my kids' school PTA morphed into a mutual aid group after the Eaton Fire, & I'm writing in that capacity rn. Our community was already hard hit before the ICE escalation in LA, and now a dad was disappeared on Friday. www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-j...
Gregk Foley (@gregk.co.uk) reposted reply parent
Niemöller was a Nazi. He fought in the Freikorps. He was a willing participant in the Third Reich because he had sought and received assurances from Hitler himself that the Nazis would not go after Protestants. Then he ended up in a Camp. He was wrong. That’s why he wrote the poem.
Dan Sohege (@danielsohege.bsky.social) reposted
Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".
Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social) reposted
The BBC doing better here by consistently citing numbers of protests and counter-protests, which does convey both the modest size of these protest events and the balance in different places of this patchwork of two sets of protests www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Prof Tracey Hill (@tracelarkhall.bsky.social) reposted
Fuck off
Pete Fraser (@petefrasermusic.bsky.social) reposted
I suspect from here on in, counter protests will largely outnumber anti refugee protests. I’m sure the headlines will reflect that.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
yes bc it's amazing but prepared to be infuriated
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Thanks for the link - just ordered mine
Phil McDuff (@mcduff.bsky.social) reposted
Again: looking at the below, do you think it is great that "blame the rich" have zero representation and are routinely referred to as deranged traitors, while "blame the migrants" is effectively the mainstream position of every newspaper and political party?
Sarah Churchwell (@sarahchurchwell.bsky.social) reposted
One of the best pieces I’ve read in ages about where we are now. Does that brilliant and impossibly difficult thing of articulating core truths that you know and have even shouted across tables at people but reframing them so you see them with a different clarity & can redefine your own argument.
Normal Guy (@guy-normal.bsky.social) reposted
Welcome to my festival of music 😌 (crowd cheers) And of ideas 😏 (crowd screams, blast doors slam shut, Rory Stewart jogs on stage)
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
this too shall pass
Saskia Daniel (@saskiadanielceramics.com) reposted
Everyone is looking at the wrong end of the problem. It's not where people are going to, it's what's making them leave. And it's only going to get worse with climate change. The sooner we get the public used to the idea, the better.
Jon of The North (@krauza.bsky.social) reposted
The trolley, simplified but the only answer that works.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
*in you
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
amazing moment to be doing a victory lap
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
big congrats!
Caspar Henderson (@casparhenderson.bsky.social) reposted
"Temperature, salinity, distribution of prey, oceanic heatwaves – the pattern is moving, and we need to be better at working out where these animals are, and when. This is the new normal, and we must tread as softly as we can.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
10/10 no notes
Samira Shackle (@samirashackle.bsky.social) reposted
This is terrible. It sort of beggars belief that no government has properly got to grips with libel and hate spreading on online platforms, even as those platforms displace traditional media www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Saul Staniforth (@saulstaniforth.bsky.social) reposted
"We have documented that 1,857 Palestinians were killed while seeking food... most of these killings appear to have been committed by the Israeli military" UN human rights office spokesperson
Zoe Gardner (@zoejardiniere.bsky.social) reposted
Call from a producer this morning: Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice? We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.
Naomi McAuliffe (@naomimc.bsky.social) reposted
Ooh ooh, I've got an alternative!! Hire more people to process claims in the manufactured backlog, stop bad decision-making w lengthy appeals processes (going back to 2000s New Labour tactic). Swift, efficient processing completely removes the need for hotels! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Tom Reagan’s Hat (@rufustsuperfly.bsky.social) reposted
It would be Ian McShane on how he came to be narrator on Grace Jones’ Slave To The Rhythm: ‘I was in a chip shop with my wife Gwen, and Trevor Horn came in, who I’d known forever. He said ‘Ian, what are you doing after supper?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Well, I need a voice & Orson Welles is dead.’
Hagen Blix (@hagenblix.bsky.social) reposted
They know that capitalism won't solve climate change. They're genuinely scared shitless. But they do absolutely not want to give up a single ounce of their power, which depends on capitalism. AI is the billionaire's way of addressing capitalist cognitive dissonance
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
but on the plus side, nick clegg
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
thank you, i hope the conference was worth it
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
excuse me dr macaskill, i have a child from a future generation on the line who is asserting his moral right to the enormous amounts of energy and water you just used to rip off george rr martin
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you for this clarity!
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Thank you both, I'm getting a clear steer from the responses! I quite like the hostel, we have used family rooms in the past and it's been good but I've never done the shared dorm thing so this is really helpful
HappyToast (@happytoast.co.uk) reposted
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
I have to stay overnight in York because of colliding family responsibility and work meeting. Should I, a 46-year old man, even be thinking of saving 30 quid by staying in a shared dorm at the youth hostel, y/n
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
heartbreaking: the worst person you know is also very transphobic
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
posting this for no particular reason holocaustcentrenorth.org.uk/blog/the-pro...
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
that is a next-level self-own
Sussex Researcher School - Postgraduate Researchers (@sussexpgrs.bsky.social) reposted
🟡 Spotlight on Researchers We chatted with Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu about her research into the implementation of international legal systems for the return of proceeds of crime. Juliet has an extensive career - including working for the former Nigerian president! Read more here tinyurl.com/4mpd2sbf
Specific Allie 🏳️⚧️🇦🇺 (@grissallia.bsky.social) reposted
“If you strike me down, I will become more transphobic than you can possibly imagine.”
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
lol
Kathy O'Donnell (@kathyodonnell.bsky.social) reposted
www.reddit.com/r/transgende... Guess what? The story about the trans M&S employee and the bra fitting is a pack of lies and distortions. Want to know what really happened and how colleagues stood up for her? Read her own account here.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
too good an opportunity to miss!
Mark Thomas (@markthomasinfo.bsky.social) reposted
Is it the Lord Walney paid for by arms companies who supply Israel? That Lord Walney?
Prof Bill McGuire (@profbillmcguire.bsky.social) reposted
Almost 46C in Cadiz Only a matter of time before 50C mark is smashed for the first time in Europe And the heat won't stop there.... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
@katewagner.wehwalt.net should share the fun
The Author, Séamas O'Reilly (@seamas.bsky.social) reposted
Can't quite believe the pro-Israel consensus is now that "starvation doesn't count if the starving are already seriously ill". I absolutely believe they think this, to be clear, I just can't believe that, optically, they see this is as a rhetorical silver bullet they should all be saying publicly.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
the eldest turns 18 today, so i am the parent of an adult human child
Madeley (@madeley.bsky.social) reposted
Can't wait for the wall-to-wall media coverage of What This Means, the endless thinkpieces about Green Party dominance in a working class community meaning Labour has to take their concerns seriously and pivot towards them, you know like we'd get if Reform had won.
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
bringing moustache-wearing into disrepute
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
a pleasure on both counts
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
Great piece. I was working at the Dartington Summer School in 2002 when Gavin Henderson programmed Hiawatha as part of a celebration of Black composers, which was very moving - I'm so glad SC-T's music is being taken up again
Dr. Garrett Schumann (@garrt.bsky.social) reposted
I'm so excited to share my new piece for @npr.org about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the intricacies of his legacy - today is his actual 150th birthday! I'm so grateful to my interview subjects: Samantha Ege, Curtis Stewart, Leah Broad, Michael Repper, and Sam Reenan www.npr.org/2025/08/14/n...
Sacha Coward (@sachacoward.bsky.social) reposted
I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/
Tom Roberts (@tpgroberts.bsky.social) reposted
Genuinely, I still don't have full range of movement in my left shoulder from a van driver coming off the road, over the curb and clipping me when I was 16. Dislocated the shoulder, massive ligament damage, and ended my swimming career.
András Forgács W (@andraswf.bsky.social) reposted
Immigrants don't take away your housing Data centres do
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
that Simon Jenkins article in full:
Caroline Dodds Pennock (@carolinepennock.bsky.social) reposted
I see Simon Jenkins has done his annual incoherent jeremiad on the decline of education & how only privileged people (like him obv) should be allowed to go to universities. (NB I actually agree with him about a graduate tax & HE clearly needs reform. But ‘bring back the two-tier system’ is not it.)
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social) reply parent
good luck, you do have the advantage of literally all the evidence
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
'why fewer teenagers should go to university' is always, ALWAYS, 'why other peoples' teenagers shouldn't go to university'
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
Intrigued to know where struggling universities are supposed to get their money from?
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
boo sucks to the Wetherspoons in Brighton that kicked my eldest out at 8pm on A level results day because they are two whole days shy of their eighteenth birthday
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
Another triumph for the concept of privatised utilities, that we are apparently sticking with for some reason!
Refugees (@refugees.skyfleet.blue) reposted
Italy: At least 26 migrants die in shipwreck off Lampedusa #Refugees
rob witts (@robwitts.bsky.social)
All airports suck, unfortunately, because air travel is incompatible with a habitable climate. Flying is bad!
kate wagner (@katewagner.wehwalt.net) reposted
Jesus FUCKING Christ
David Wearing (@davidwearing.bsky.social) reposted
It is inherently absurd to proscribe a group as terrorists based on acts the public doesn't know about. Terrorism *by definition* involves violence intended to intimidate a civilian population. How can the target population be terrorised by acts they know nothing about? www.bbc.com/news/article...