We're so proud of our candidate in these casual vacancy elections, @matthewbarnard.phd. Please vote Matt for UK-elected representative when you receive your ballot paper: and if you are in the Northern or Yorkshire and Humber regions, please also vote for Adam Hansen. #ucu
I sent my vote for @matthewbarnard.phd for UCU’s NEC! Please vote for the causal vacancies you are able to vote for. If you are in the NE, I can also recommend Adam Hansen.
If we're down to such a small number of days where solar and wind aren't plentiful, that's plausibly a good point to mop up the last bit of slack very cheaply using behavioural interventions - Demand-Side Response, i.e. turning stuff off www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Hi #UCU folks. In advance of Monday's HEC meeting, I've finally finish my massive post about how I approach (in part) the decision to go to ballot. It focuses on how to interpret the 3 consultation events we'e had over the past year. bparsia.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/i...
BEST WIKIPEDIA PAGE EVER: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Thanks for the plug! The link to our very nefarious and bad intentioned survey is here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
The consultative ballot response unfortunately has not given HEC a clear steer. To inform our decision, we are asking @ucu.org.uk members' views on the questions below. If you are a UCU member in HE, we want to hear from you! Please respond to the form below by 5 pm on Friday, 29 August
Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine 🇺🇦
Despite the horror that was inflicted on this family, their strength of conviction in ensuring that the tragedy of their daughter's senseless murder is not hijacked for spreading more hate and poison in our communities is awe-inspiring.
This is the kind of hate and poison that Reform are spreading in our communities. Targeting children based on the colour of their skin is vile. Anyone who participated in or incited this incident should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. news.sky.com/story/angry-...
#UCU members please vote in the consultative ballot, the unique voting link is in your inboxes I voted to reject the offer and voted NO on industrial action, for the reasons mentioned by Bijan Also, as a branch balloting locally on jobs, a simultaneous UK-wide ballot will impede our local ballot
NEW: Our report from the first HEC of the 2025–26 formation, held on 4 July 2025, is now on our blog. ucucommons.org/2025/07/16/h...
No amount of obsequious bootlicking is going to help you win with Trump. If you want to win, you need to win through strength, like China did a few months ago. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
We also will not stand for what appear to be pre-determined decisions being rushed through under the guise of a "consultation" nation.cymru/news/staff-a...
Staff and students at Bangor University deserve better than a chaotic and rushed consultation that was full of mistakes 88% of staff voted YES to strike, because our members know a joke of a process when they see one, with decisions having been made long beforehand nation.cymru/news/staff-a...
If they were MAGA voters, they would react badly to this post, and at the next election, they would still reliably vote Republican. That is the sad truth that some people refuse to vote in their best interests.
Listening to my amazing friend @choochod.bsky.social giving his first ever update to UCU's HEC as @ucuscotpresident.bsky.social. So proud of this amazing human.
@electionmaps.uk nowcast is even better for the far right. Nothing to take comfort from.
Deform will get close enough and the far right rump Tory party will take them over the line
While the world's focus is on Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran, here's a reminder that the genocide in Gaza is still underway. news.sky.com/story/at-lea...
THREAD: Reform are as happy as can be. Why? Because Labour have chosen to fight them on their preferred battlefield - immigration - rather than on Brexit, something that would be very awkward for Reform to defend given the prevailing negative mood in the country about our decision to leave the EU.
I can't even put into words my absolute contempt for the bloodthirsty violent genocidal imperialists of Israel and the United States and our hypocritical, guilty, pathetic British running dogs. I mean what else to say? The situation is just a mire of grotesque hypocrisy and you feel so powerless
i think these professional antivaxxers are literally demonic www.bbc.com/news/article...
Just a reminder that the Edinburgh redundancies are, to all evidence, ones purely of choice. They are not cash strapped or likely to be. They just aren’t making as much surplus as they’d like.
Look, Britain is always going to support the US but this is an absolutely nonsense statement. Iran didn't leave the negotiation table. Israel launched an unprovoked attack which America has now joined.
I'm no fan of the Iranian regime but it's a bit comical to see David Lammy calling on Iran to show restraint Was it Iran that just dropped a dozen 15 tonne bombs in an unprovoked act of aggression against another nation? The West always seems to have one rule for us, another rule for everyone else
I don't see how representative democracy can work if representatives live in permanent fear of violence against themselves and their families.
Don't let all the news distract you from the ongoing starvation and killing of Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli govt is deliberately trying to prevent news getting out . It dismisses what news there is as Hamas propaganda while refusing to let international journalists in. An information war too.
100% this. Saw there was a blue Labour MP saying he "didn't care" if universities went bankrupt so long as immigration went down. He might want to look at some of the basic demographics of Labour support (and also look at who the largest employers are in large Labour seats).
Also known as the UK Labour Government
Fantastic turnout at our rally in Bangor yesterday! The message has been delivered well & clear to university management. All three campus trade unions are united on this. Compulsory redundancies are an absolute red line for us & we will mobilise to defend our members! www.itv.com/watch/news/b...
Bangor university gives its vice chancellor a 13% pay rise then cuts dozens of jobs. Handing out massive pay rises while frontline staff face the sack is indefensible. @bangorucu.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Os ydyn ni'n colli capasiti, mi fydd y brifysgol yn mynd yn llai ac yn llai nes mae'n diflannu," www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/ert...
Hello, I am interested in a massive tank that is terrible for the environment, that doesn't fit in a parking space, that is deadly to pedestrians, and that makes me look a complete tw*t Do you have anything in that line? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
VCs' salaries rank at about 12 on my top 10 list of what's wrong with UKHE, but this 13% rise could readily be fitted into 3/10: The radical, and accelerating, disconnect between senior managers and 'their' staff, esp. academic staff.
If staff are asked to propose reduced working hours & job sharing in order to save money & keep their jobs, it is only fair the same applies to the university executive. According to the annual report, 13 "key management personnel" earned a staggering £2,820,000. 🤯 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
That's far too modern a concept for Britain. They'd rather make a much more meagre income by threatening pensioners with cutting off their TVs if they don't pay the annual licence fee.
When a boat carrying humanitarian aid to a population being subjected to genocide is labelled as a "hate" flotilla, that tells you all you need to know about the fascist genocidal government of Israel news.sky.com/story/israel...
TIL. And this is why you are the King of POOs 🙏
Great to see UK gov announce £86bn for RnD, but how about they paid even the slightest bit of attention to the collapsing UK universities sector which underpins that research and development, through research and teaching the next generation of research professionals?
I'm not sure that's true. Doesn't that use make a double negative and the phrase becomes "all men are the enemy"? And of course, I'm sure you didn't mean that. So back to the drawing board for finding a correct use of that phrase, for which there probably isn’t one …
That said, they weren't that far from a 3rd place finish. 1500 fewer votes that went to a combination of the SNP & Reform would have indeed left Labour in 3rd place.
Few Hamilton by-election thoughts: 1. Expectations matter - this was an area where Labour won a Westminster by-election on a massive swing less than two years ago and won in a general election less than one year ago get Labour’s victory yesterday is a massive shock given poling woes.
The university sector is in turmoil 1 in 2 universities are making cuts 10,000 jobs are at risk Value of pay keeps falling Staff are on their knees And here we have a university boss who is paid so much he doesn’t even check his wage slip 😡
Elon Musk, the genius visionary who could not predict that the guy who has betrayed every person he has ever met would betray him
This is exactly why we at Bangor UCU brought a motion to @ucu.org.uk Higher Education Sector Conference calling for divestment of our pension funds from Tesla The motion was overwhelmingly carried. Our members' pensions should not be wagered on what is effectively a meme stock run by a man-child
Tesla 🔻📉 Don't mess with us woke people, Elon 👋🏾
Once again, I am so proud to have @drjogrady.bsky.social as the General Secretary of our union! 🔥👑 Fearlessly speaking truth when the ruling Labour political class fecklessly spread poisonous rhetoric & pander to the far right.
There's a word for people who kill civilians waiting at food distribution points. The word is terrorist. The State of Israel is a terrorist state. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Also, because of all the virtue signalling motions clogging the agenda, the motions actually related to UCU work, like the Migrant Member Standing Committee motion on ensuring that UCU advice on industrial action is regularly updated in line with the latest immigration guidance fell off the agenda.
UCU Congress is mostly performative virtue signalling.
Let's call X for what it is. The Nazi site.
Also UCU Congress delegates: at UCU Congress last week, we passed motions demanding campaigns for virtually every noble cause under the sun @bparsia.bsky.social asked what existing campaigns we should divert resources from to fund all these new campaigns. Crickets. Delegates voted for them anyway 🤷♂️
Hauntingly beautiful tune from this talented family as always, but you can feel the anger behind this one. For good reason. When the world once said "never again", it should really mean never again! #endthegenocidenow
We know we've reached peak crisis when we're the topic of a @tldrnews.bsky.social video youtu.be/W5vDDZmRj_o
Any wholesale restructure to HE funding in England would come to the devolved nations through Barnett consequentials. The political block here is clearly England, so makes sense to focus a potential dispute there.
Labour are behaving with intense and profound arrogance. They are basking in the false belief that, faced with a stark choice of Reform or Labour, non-Labour voters will lend their votes to Labour again no matter what. So Labour can ignore their interests completely. GE 2029 will be a bloodbath.
The Head of UCU Democratic Services laid out the steps by which this motion would be implementable and legal, which was helpful UCU Left tried to amend this motion, which were opposed by the movers, & HESC voted down the amendments That got me to support this motion. Something new & out of the box
Yeah, any wholesale restructure of HE funding in England would filter through to the devolved nations through Barnett consequentials. So it's not a direct link to the dispute, but the money would flow. I don't see any of the devolved nations failing to fund HE adequately if they had the money.
"The enemy isn't arriving on a dinghy. These days, they're more likely to be seen in a Tesla Cybertruck" - @drjogrady.bsky.social at @ucu.org.uk Congress 2025 👏👏👏
Nigel Farage and Reform UK should never be allowed to weasel away from the disaster that is Brexit
The latest government cuts to higher education are catastrophic. Over £180 million is being slashed from vital funding in the middle of a growing crisis. “Unless Keir Starmer shows leadership, the sector will crumble.” @drjogrady.bsky.social
I always thought pilates was pronounced the same was that the word late is pronounced.
I thought this until like last year!
Still the Labour Party can’t say this, but instead has to go down the awful, squalid route of following Farage…
Keir Starmer is my MP. This is the letter I wrote to him today. Subject: Island of Strangers? Mr Starmer, Let me tell you about this ‘stranger’.
Very poor reporting by @bbcwales.bsky.social indeed I told BBC Wales 1. 149 FTE worth of posts have already been lost through VS, translating to 200+ jobs 2. Even for staff who stay now, their workloads will be through the roof To not quote the trade unions at all in this piece is very poor form
There's a link between Labour preferring Reform voters to the younger, educated, socially liberal ones it actually has (for now!) and its support for manufacturing over HE. Both suggest it prefers the world that has gone to the world we actually have.
It looks awfully like the government intends to raise the costs of care provision councils are legally required to organise, but fail to fully fund the increased costs. Which will mean voters again paying more in council tax for worse (non-care) local govt. Which will again encourage Reform voting.
Hard to disagree with this esp as it echoes what many have been saying since even before Starmer became Labour leader. Then he defined himself against who he wasn’t ie Corbyn & Blair but refused to say who he was. We know he hates ‘politics’, words over action .. wwwtheguardian.com/commentisfre...
Second year in a row that I will not be watching @eurovision.tv Blatant double standard in rightly banning Russia from participating, but Israel and their genocide is a-ok. The EBU is like 🤷♂️ when it comes to genocide against brown people. The EBU and Eurovision can fuck off & keep fucking off.
Voted 5 times for the Tories. You forgot the 2024 election.
Given the way Labour are governing, they'll probably be in a distant 5th place by then
Also, in my constituency, voting for Labour means I'm letting Reform get in. And this is true for literally 100+ constituencies across the UK where Labour is helping Reform get in on current polling.
Vote for progressive parties and having Labour run a minority government is the best outcome. Labour should have no more than 200 seats with another 150 being with the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, and Plaid Cymru.
Why would progressive voters coalesce behind an economically centre-right, socially right-wing party?
US-Russia should be green, US-EU should be red.
The person who stamped it must not be German, as part of the stamp is outside of the area reserved for the stamp.
For decades, the international community failed to hold Pakistan to account for its violent indoctrination of children in terror training camps. This failure has resulted in a cycle of violence that has time and again claimed the lives of innocent people on all sides. news.sky.com/story/terror...
So proud to have @drjogrady.bsky.social as the General Secretary of our union! 🔥👑 She eloquently but devastatingly laid out the case for why Reform are conmen who offer nothing for working people, and also put Labour on notice for moving further and further away from what would help working people.
She was utterly fantastic, wasn't she? Make this woman Prime Minister already!
Keir Starmer seems intent on making sure that this Labour government is a seamless continuation of the Sunak Tory government, in tone as well as policy If Labour MPs don't realise that this is electoral suicide, then their political instincts are equally as bad as their leader's
Do unionist Scots not care about anything other than unionism? They move from the Tories to Labour to Farage freely and fluidly. Perhaps it's because in terms of policies, there's not much separating the Tories, Starmer's Labour, and Farage.
🏴🏴🏴
Why are these people willing to risk their lives & leave their friends & family to go to a far away land? Because the exploitation that began with enslavement & colonisation is still ongoing. If Europeans want to "stop the boats", we need to first stop exploiting their resources youtu.be/Mfg5eknr08M
I am not convinced it's a huge positive. Especially in the age of social media, I worry that uniformed voters who wouldn't normally vote are more likely to fall for simplistic solutions to complex problems, and these are overwhelmingly peddled by the far right.
Sadly, this is false. The majority voted for him. The American electorate is neither intelligent nor worthy of respect.
Let me guess. Any stat that doesn't fit in with your view is a "twisted/skewed stat"? GTFOH
This is what happens when the Labour Party is too chickenshit to call attention to the last big fraud perpetrated by Farage - Brexit. By allowing Brexit to be memoryholed, Labour are giving Reform a free pass from being held accountable for the only thing they have a record for.
This is what happens when the Labour Party is too chickenshit to call attention to the last big fraud perpetrated by Farage - Brexit. By allowing Brexit to be memoryholed, Labour are giving Reform a free pass from being held accountable for the only thing they have a record for.
We've written a blog post full of steps everyone can take, right now, to support trans people following the Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC interim guidance. Thanks especially to @hagenilda.bsky.social for all her work on it! 🏳️⚧️ open.substack.com/pub/ucucommo...
Love it. Bye bye, Skippy. Don't let the door slam you on the rear end on the way out.
Well done 🇨🇦 #ElbowsUp
Remember, Whole Foods is owned by Bezos and nothing that he gets his billionaire mitts on is worthy of support.
He's 100% correct.
Disgusting that they keep cheering about freezing fuel duty when rail, bus, and tube fares go up every year. Talk about a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Those Range Rover drivers have a lot to thank Labour for. Everyone else, not so much.
Roy Williams 