I never would have thought these words would be uttered by a McCain. This is how viciously Israel has conducted this war.

Noticeable that some people are reacting to the winter fuel payment issue on the merits of the policy itself, others in terms of what it signals about Labour's priorities; and these groups don't straightforwardly align with each other or with some conventional political divisions

Interesting reflections here.

Campus getting decked out ready for new arrivals (and the good weather has even made a return for them). However many times you’ve seen it before there’s still a slightly infectious optimism from this bit of the year.

Lots of problems with academia today are deep structural problems, major aspects of which are outside the sector’s direct control, but this really isn’t. This just needs a bit of energy and concerted attention from those in positions to fix it.

An outre theory I think may well be correct is that Trump is unconsciously sabotaging his own campaign because he’s actually ambivalent, though he can’t admit it, about being president again. This is a deeply tired old man, and tired people act oddly out of their need for a rest.

In A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book, she writes that ‘Ford Madox Ford living on a smallholding in Winchelsea, wrote movingly about digging the bones of a buried Viking out of the cliff at Beachy Head.’ Is anyone familiar with the text Byatt is referring to here?

I was shocked to hear you say this David Lammy. #Syria is not a safe country. My friend, a torture survivor, returned there, was immediately arrested by the Assad regime & has been disappeared since. There are many other stories. Over 100,000 ppl are still disappeared, incl kids.

It’s very telling that when arguing for fewer people to attend university, the reference point for those making such arguments is usually what Britain did with education and work in the past, not what comparable countries are doing now.

📢📢📢 Fear Studies in an Age of Fear: The inaugural conference of 'The Fear Network' Abstracts due October 25th. Taking place University of Warwick 31 January 2025 Further details can be found here: warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/…

Fascinating piece on Ealing Studios' wartime plots here.

Very excited to now have the first physical copies of Killing Children in British Fiction. Thanks to Rebecca Colesworthy and the team at SUNY Press for making this a reality. Out on 1st Oct - pre-order here: sunypress.edu/Books/K/Killin…

From Rebekah Sheldon’s blurb: “Dean argues that the child might be pressed to service in diff. kinds of political & ideological projects. Their very intransigence & opacity compel & resist adult knowledge, ultimately posing a problem for all political projects that rely on them.”

Starmer is in Italy to learn from their far right leader Meloni how a reduction in small boat arrivals was achieved. He could have saved the trip. This is how: an expensive deal with a dictatorship to round up migrants & leave them for dead. #r4today aljazeera.com/program/newsfe…

I promise to stop talking abt this BUT the tragedy for knowledge production is not a handful of established names not publishing w/ UPs & going “trade.” We’ll be fine. It’s generations of trained scholars not having the support they need/want to publish “traditional” monographs.

Very proud of my colleague Mark Walters for this contribution to an incredibly significant real-world change. People will be safer and freer because of the work he and others have done.

No country can be allowed to break international law with impunity. The attacks in Lebanon - widely presumed to be by Mossad - are killing civilians. The UK government should condemn them unequivocally, and robustly challenge Gallant's trumpeted 'new phase' in a deadly war.

I should have an interview coming out soon with a very significant figure in contemporary fiction...I'm genuinely extremely excited for this one 👀😉

I think Keir just needs to explain that he's a pretty straight sort of guy, that should do the trick.

Very much enjoyed listening to the first episode of this new podcast featuring Peter Cherry! Looking forward to educating myself on subjects I currently know little about.