iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ben Phillips

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵

technosphere.earth

The bonfire of the humanities

150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences

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Dr Imogen Knox (she/her) @imogenknox.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Heartbreaking and infuriating to see this proposed at the institution which I attended as an UG a decade ago (and chose for its stellar research reputation) and recently returned to on a temporary contract.

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Unis as critical parts of national infrastructure have been passed over to ill-equipped management teams with very narrow remits - to smash and ruin. Is that a good idea in the era of national competition, economic stagnation and Cold War 2.0? 🤔 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

researchprofessionalnews.com

University of Exeter plans to cut 150 jobs - Research Professional News

Staff consultation underway, with UCU claiming 14 per cent of academic workforce is at risk

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Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

The University of Exeter has become the latest Russell Group university to announce major job cuts, insisting it “must” take action to reduce financial pressures. Juliette Rowsell reports #highered #jobcuts ow.ly/K8bq50ZfYlY

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

'The University of Exeter is proposing to cut about 150 staff roles. A spokesperson for the university said it was "consulting with colleagues over limited and specific potential changes across some areas of our academic faculties".' 1/4

bbc.co.uk

University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff

The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".

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UCU Commons @ucucommons.org · 23/06/2026

Despicable: Uni of Exeter putting over 500 staff at risk of compulsory redundancy. Thoughts are with all Exeter branch comrades. #UCU #UKHE

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Dr Laura Sangha @lsangha.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Along with almost all of my colleagues in history, this afternoon I got an email telling me that I am at risk of redundancy. It looks like the University of Exeter sent this email to the vast majority of people in Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty. Bit hard to breath right now.

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A grim day in a grim week in a grim month for UK higher education, with Dundee, Exeter and Hertfordshire all making major announcements of planned redundancies. Shrinkage of the research & teaching base by the invisible hand's visible fist is not an 'us' or 'them', SHAPE or STEM phenomenon. 1/2

Photo of an open hand, with part of 4 fingers showing.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

These cuts are terrible for all impacted, but they will be an absolute death blow for humanities and social sciences teaching and research. (If anyone has kids planning to come to Exeter for one of these subjects next year, you might want to know about this.)

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

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Gav Maclean @gavmaclean.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

If I hear one more university leader say they're making "tough decisions" about redundancies or worsening our employment conditions, I will scream. They are not making tough choices, they're making the easiest decisions in the world. Tough decisions would be fighting the inevitability of job losses

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Mollie Goodfellow @hansmollman.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Wes Streeting has resigned to take the job he was born to do…regional sales manager for Moss Bros

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Good to see Chelsea back to winning ways, no doubt re-energised from taking the last month off.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

An ancient curse upon the inventor of the box hedge

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

They should have stopped the Top Gun reboot with Maverick, this looks shit

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 02/03/2026

Who up hating the Great Satan and its wretched imperialist running dogs

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Even the Spoons coffee machine is happy the Greens won

A Wetherspoons self-service coffee machine displaying a glowing green light.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 27/02/2026

MATTHEW BADLOSS IS IT

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

This does seem like the obvious conclusion with the UKHE Covid class action. If students didn't get the teaching they paid for, their degrees are academically invalid and that's what needs fixing. (You'd hope their current employers would agree.)

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Yeah, quite key: it's not £21 million that is going directly to those 6500 students... The only ones winning anything (other than maybe £2000 per student) are the firm raking in the £7 million and the people keen to crash universities. Grim day for #UKHE.

The amount each student is set to receive in the settlement will vary and is due to be determined by a committee of claimants, the email said.

Legal costs and payouts to litigation funders are not specified in the email seen by the FT. Thirty-five per cent of any payout was due to pay legal fees and litigation funders financing the case under a “no win, no fee” arrangement, the FT has previously reported.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

I see Starmer had a productive weekend grappling with his conscience then

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Your tiniest violin please, garçon

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Always enjoy when you follow the advice and put your local radio station on because there's an extreme weather event in progress and they're just playing eighties dance classics as if nothing's happened

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a rare photo of sean connery signed by roger moore @steamedhamms.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

you can’t kill an ideology: manchesterism lives!! the people demand burnham thought

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

If shock troops were firing tear gas at random people in Walthamstow all day then, yes, I do think I'd find it within myself to deploy the five or six clicks of a mouse that would be necessary to order a gas mask online, yeah.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Teignmouth and Dawlish after the storm yesterday, one missing part of its pier, the other with newly acquired holes in the sea wall. Thankfully the damage was superficial, the new sea defences held up, and the trains will be running again later today.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 03/01/2026

Just remembered when I transcribed something @ahjohnson.bsky.social said in the context of North Korea on precisely this phenomenon

I want to start off with a disclaimer. So, today's episode is about the media's coverage of North Korea, and there's a habit, in a lot of liberal or maybe even lefty circles, that whenever you talk about official US enemies you have to throw in this kind of perfunctory thing where we talk about how evil the regime is. This is very common. We're not going to do that on the show in general, and it may offend some people, or off-put some people, but there's a very good reason why I don't think we should do it.

And the reason is is that it's extortive. It's a performative thing people do to kind of cover their bases; they'll say, oh well, you know, the evil regime does do this to be fair, right? This is something you throw out. And we're not gonna do that, because, a) I think it's totally superfluous, and b) it is performative, and c) you know, 99.99% of all media is negative towards, you know, North Korea, Iran, Syria, name your regime, and I don't really see the moral or intellectual utility in being the 875th person in the pile-on.

Yeah, so just take for granted that we're not supporting any governments when we criticise the media coverage of them. I assume we're all adults, but we're also not going to do that thing where we have to go out of our way to condemn governments for which we have no standing, so that's just a little disclaimer, moving forward, thank you.

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November Kelly @postoctobrist.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

oomf who is a librarian had to take down the David Walliams poster at work today and said it felt like pulling down the big Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad in 2003

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Stephanie 🍉 @ageofoddish.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread

My hand holding a shortbread cookie in the shape of an airplane. There are red sprinkles in the pattern of the survivorship bias plane.

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sadvil 😎 @sadvil.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

TRUMP [after spending 5 minutes with Zohran]: surplus value, it’s a very wonderful thing, very wonderful, and they’re stealing it. Can you believe that? We’re going to be looking very strongly at the bourgeoisie, what they’re up to

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Elizabeth Harrison @corardens.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

It’s giving

Russian painting of a snow scene and peasants with a woman being carted off to prison

Russian painting of a snow scene and winter festivities

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

A few weeks ago there was a flag waving guy regularly stationed on an overbridge right by the A38/A380 split just outside Exeter, one of the biggest accident blackspots in Devon and exactly where you want more distractions

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Steven Wilson @profstevenwilson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Please sign the petition below in support of colleagues at Nottingham, where courses in the highly respected Dept of Modern Languages & Cultures have been earmarked for suspension.

c.org

We Can Make an Impact.

Stop the removal of Modern Languages courses at the University of Nottingham!

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Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

Totally unserious comment from a totally unserious minister. Every bit as bad as her Tory predecessors. Except, perhaps, they might have acknowledged the huge job losses we're seeing across universities.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

British carbohydrates are the best

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William French @wtfrench76.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Presumably David Cameron will be writing a furious letter of complaint to Nuno Espírito Santo about the Maccabi Tel Aviv decision.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

A reminder that it took UEFA less than a week to ban Russian clubs from European competitions back in February 2022.

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

Counting down the days until I can once again start inflicting the Nigel Hess Christmas piano classics album on my friends and family

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Respect to EE for following up the obligatory 'calls may be recorded for training purposes' message with Dua's Training Season as hold music

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Settling down in front of the telly to watch Chelsea do some competent defending, can't wait

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Elizabeth Harrison @corardens.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

It is the last day of my autumn sale, if you want to pick up a bargain! #embroidery www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Comm...

An embroidery hoop with hand embroidery of hawthorn with berries, held against a background of a hawthorn hedge covered in berries

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

First day of term and I just tried to sign into the office printer with my British Library readers ticket. Start as you mean to go on.

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Elizabeth Harrison @corardens.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

'I was glad it was a very hot, sunny day with bright blue skies, because otherwise the deserted, ruined church with legends connected to it of fiends and black dogs breathing fire might have spooked me a little.' open.substack.com/pub/deepdown...

An empty, ruined church on a sunny day with blue skies. The church is filled with weeds.

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Elizabeth Harrison @corardens.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I've written about Church Going (in the Larkin sense) and tenuous literary connections in Devon and beyond. Warning: contains pictures of churches open.substack.com/pub/deepdown...

open.substack.com

Church Going

A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies. - Philip Larkin

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Ben Phillips @benphillips1989.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I'm not sure I fully agree with this but it does raise an important point: a) there are a lot of people, mostly very disengaged politically, who would be up for voting for a Corbyn-branded party (but would not be actively engaged otherwise); b) any new left party needs to mobilise these people.

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