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Doug Gay

@douggay.bsky.social
751 followers 348 following 633 posts

Theology Lecturer Glasgow Uni, Kirk Minister, Nat. Interests in art, music, ethics, politics, economics; public/political theology. From Galloway now in Govan. Ministry work at Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church

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Reposted by Doug Gay
The New Statesman @newstatesman1913.bsky.social · 17h
The Greens have never been so popular. But a by-election defeat compounded by a chaotic conference might undo it all
newstatesman.com
Zack Polanski’s year of magical thinking
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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 16h
FAO anyone at a loose end in London next Monday evening: I’m excited to be joining Anna Louie Sussman at the Frontine Club to discuss her new book on how uncertainty and instability among young adults are contributing to falling birth rates www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/panel-disc... A few tickets left 👇
eventbrite.co.uk
Panel discussion: Who Gets to Have Kids?
Baby Doomers and Who Gets to Have Kids? Creating a Family in an Age of Uncertainty.
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SCM Press @scmpress.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Introducing our October title, Mad Practical Theology: Unearthing voices from the psychiatric wards by Sparrow Panton, which you can order at 20% off until the end of the month on the SCM Press and Church House Bookshop websites. #theology #scmpress
Endorsement quote: this book ruptures conventions in every arena of practical theology including pastoral care, pedagogy, supervision, research and theological reflection. It provokes active resistance to things as they are while still offering respite and relief. - heather walton, professor of theology and creative practice, university of Glasgow
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 01/10/2026
Read the new research in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
doi.org
A major monastic centre? Rethinking Lismore’s place in the ecclesiastical landscapes of early medieval Britain | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
A major monastic centre? Rethinking Lismore’s place in the ecclesiastical landscapes of early medieval Britain - Volume 100 Issue 413
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Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is a significant moment in UK foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine. Standing for once on the right side: against oppression & occupation & with the occupied. Not enough for many but still hugely important.
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Tim White @twmcltd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A woman has been killed and three others injured in Russia's attack on a university in the heart of Kyiv. bsky.app/profile/twmc...
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The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A Scottish university should be international. It should be ambitious. It should be intellectually restless. But it should also know where it is. It should know whose songs are in its archives. Whose stories have been collected. Whose languages are spoken, writes Jim Mackintosh ✍️
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Then we might have a chance of policy-making that reflects the public interest, of the dog wagging the tail, of discussion and argument leading to better outcomes, rather than being used as a distraction from the real nature of power. Thank you.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
While listening to council meetings in Montreal, local mayor Sue Montgomery decided to knit in red when men spoke and in green when women spoke, when similar numbers of both attended. Day 1 results.... #WomensArt
Photo of uneven knitting with much larger amounts of red yarn than green
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The Policy Institute @policyatkings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: The public significantly underestimate the likelihood of ever becoming an unpaid carer, guessing 38% of people in the UK ever will – far below the reality of 65% Men underestimate the most, guessing 27% will, whereas Women guess 50% ➡️ www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-... 🧵⬇️
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When I was told that our tech oligarchs took their morality from science fiction, I never quite expected it to be from Spaceballs: The Movie.
static.klipy.com
Space Evil Triumphs Over Good
Alt: Now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
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Duille @duille.com · 26/09/2026
ITC Willow Typeface. Tony Forster. 1990. Possibly one of the most influential uses of Charles Rennie Mackintosh's letterforms; it adapted and standardised numerous hand-lettered sources for the digital age. NB: Mackintosh never actually designed a 'font'.
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Armando Iannucci @aiannucci.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Though we make shows for the fun and hell of it, I’m delighted to be included in this lovely list ( #ThickOfIt, #Veep) though it’s really our audiences that matter and not some list we shouldn’t take too seriously but #Barry should have been way way higher!
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Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A moving day for Kirkcudbright, RNLI & our active local RNLI branch. The official launch & dedication of the new RNLI lifeboat, the George D Dow, along with a new lifeboat station in Kirkcudbright Bay. A fitting ceremony to an important service & tradition saving lives.
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Lottie @sellottie.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The price of cocaine has roughly halved in the last couple of years, whilst purity has increased massively. Price is going up again a little bit in the last year but it’s a very different market now — and here are (some) of the corollary social effects.
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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Exactly, and the list of guests dining with Xi is why the risk of a US-China conflict is exaggerated. US-China corporatism shares common cause. The 65 wars currently going on are bigger problems. www.npr.org/2026/06/09/n...
npr.org
Conflicts are on the rise globally, at the highest level since WWII, data shows
Global conflicts surged to the highest number tallied by Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Fatalities were the highest on record since 1994, with approximately 244,600 people killed in conflict in 2025.
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Ben Fulford @benmfulford.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you’ve seen or shared news about programme closures at Edinburgh (not least in Theology & Religious Studies) please see this appeal from Prof Rachel Muers. The reports are misleading.
Text reads: ‘Appeal to anyone who has seen or shared the news reports about programme closures at Edinburgh, including in TRS: Please stop circulating them. They are very misleading, and are causing actual damage to our otherwise healthy department. (And for what it's worth, colleagues in Scottish Literature are saying something similar). I am now fed up with responding to anxious prospective students who think we, or some of our areas of teaching and research, are being closed down. We aren't. There are institutions where our subject is at risk but Edinburgh is not one of them. Please don't try to fit us into a narrative of "attack on the humanities" or "secularisation gone mad". Thank you.’
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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 23/09/2026
A lot of reporting on drinks spiking today because it‘s freshers‘ week across most universities. Sadly, the reporting is dodging the key social issue: that it‘s overwhelmingly men spiking drinks. The root problem is male violence & male entitlement, & the social forces that promotes those things.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 23/09/2026
Yestreen I heard a birdie sing Inbye a bonnie beech tree hedge As if it didnae ken nor care Autumn wis hidin in the sedge… —Sheena Blackhall, “Autumn XI” #poem #poetry www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/autumn-...
Autumn IX
Sheena Blackhall

Yestreen I heard a birdie sing
Inbye a bonnie beech tree hedge
As if it didnae ken nor care
Autumn wis hidin in the sedge

The daith o leaves is roon the neuk
It peints them yalla, reid an broon
An doon they’ll drap like faain rain
In waesome Autumn’s dowie croon

Sic cheenges cam tae great an sma
First ae grey hair, a nippin knee
The stert o auld age: clawin cleuks
That herald yer mortality

Autumn draws near, like cat wi moose
It winna stop, nor else devaul
A jeelin in a body’s banes
A cheenge, the turn frae warm tae caul

Noo blawin in the win, dry leaves
Like Simmer’s ghaists, ethereal
This is the Sizzen o the scythe
The nichts draw in, a mournin pall
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What this says to me is that the wheels are falling off Reform. Rather than being able to stick to THE BOATS they have gone after legal migrants, permanent migrants and now non-white citizens. It’s a revolutionary spiral that they can’t escape and will chew them up.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“In Hackney, eight primary schools have closed in the past two years.”
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
fascinating piece on how 90 schools in London have closed since 2019 as a result of shrinking birth rates www.ft.com/content/5b01...
ft.com
London’s schools are running out of children
Councils want more powers to repurpose buildings and fend off academies
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Jersey, a UK Crown Dependency, leads the race-to-the-bottom for shady dealings. A fiddle-factory named in the Panama/Paradise papers, global scams. Refuses to publicly reveal who ultimately owns companies. Senator Stuart Syvret exposed abuse of children in care, had to flee for his life.
theguardian.com
‘It’s unrecognisable’: How being a tax haven has changed Jersey
While global billionaires and multinational companies have been lured to its shores, many islanders feel left behind and priced out, with food bank use increasing
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The Ferret @theferret.scot · 20/09/2026
🔴 NEW: Rules were tightened after Scottish Limited Partnerships were exploited for financial crime. But Moscow firms and a man accused of facilitating child sex abuse are still selling them for your “financial privacy”. Our latest: www.theferret.scot/p/a36c9a0d-fcd4-…
Photo of a modern Glasgow building with large reflective windows. Headline reads: “The unremarkable Glasgow building where a fake news-peddler sells business schemes beloved by money launderers.”
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Anna Clarke @annaclarke.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
This is a really stark graph. And strongly suggests that the cost of housing is the main factor causing young people to remain with their parents (not choice, culture, lack of partner or online living - all of which I've heard suggested as alternative explanations)
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Gerry Hassan @gerryhassan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Farage and Reform despise the characteristics that make a civilised society. The RNLI have a mission to save lives irrespective of who the person is, their background & where they are from. The RNLI saved enemy forces in the seas around the UK in WW1 & WW2 but such humanitarianism is beyond Farage.
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Mark McGeoghegan @markmcgeoghegan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Since the death of Donald Dewar, Scottish Labour have had nine elected leaders, with Marra tenth. Just four have survived long enough to lead them into a Holyrood election, all of which have seen their worst results to that point. A fifth led them to catastrophic defeat in the 2015 GE.
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StephMac @stephaniemac.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Scottish Labour reminds me of the UUP, decades of dominance by default, disintegrated when they finally had a credible opponent, and then a succession of short lived leaders none of whom has any actual strategy…
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Mark McGeoghegan @markmcgeoghegan.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Scottish Labour's ills appear to be structural, if not systemic. As a party they don't seem to be able to generate the solution from within. Nothing about this leadership contest or its conclusion suggests otherwise.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 19/09/2026
Sir David Lyndsay’s masterpiece of #Renaissance #theatre 𝘈𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘺𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘦 𝘌𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴 was first performed for James V in 1540, & is “probably the most dramatically & politically radical piece of theatre produced in 16th-century Britain” #BookWormSat doinghistoryinpublic.org/2025/08/12/d...
doinghistoryinpublic.org
David Lyndsay’s Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estatis
By Kate McGregor (@ks_mcgregor) David Lyndsay is perhaps Scotland’s best, but least well known, poet and playwright.[1] Yet his work both reflects the vibrant culture of early modern Scotland and t…
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 19/09/2026
Students scramble for accommodation after provider goes bust in Dundee
theguardian.com
Students scramble for accommodation after provider goes bust in Dundee
Case highlights severe financial strain on sector across UK as string of university housing schemes fail * Are you having problems with your accommodation provider? Nearly 70 students in Dundee have been left scrambling to find accommodation for this academic year after the latest in a string of university housing schemes went bust amid severe financial strain on the sector. Students in the city have been forced to find alternative housing and rapidly move their possessions as term begins this month after the collapse of the owner of Marketgait Apartments, a city centre block. Continue reading...
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Doug Gay @douggay.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
My mate Neil gathering. Chanterelles in the Cally Woods today
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
‘More than a third of the $2.8bn raised for the current 2025-26 election cycle comes from the 20 biggest mega-donors, according to an FT analysis’ And guess which industry is all over MAGA/GOP Yep, crypto Can think of £72m reasons why this sounds familiar…. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
US billionaires line up to bankroll Republicans’ election push
Ultra-wealthy overwhelmingly back Donald Trump’s party over Democrats as money floods into midterms race
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 16/09/2026
Von der Leyen opens door for Canada to become EU’s first associate member
theguardian.com
Von der Leyen opens door for Canada to become EU’s first associate member
Commission president says partnership will create ‘common prosperity’ based on shared democratic values * Europe live – latest updates The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, on Wednesday that she wants to open the door for his country to become the EU’s first associate member. The overture comes as Trump’s tariffs and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have pushed Ottawa to seek closer economic and security ties with Europe. Carney has called for a “unique alliance” with the EU as Canada seeks to reduce its heavy dependence on US trade. Continue reading...
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UofG Centre for Public Policy @uofgpolicy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New: @profnicolamcewen.bsky.social writes it is unclear what Prime Minister Andy Burnham's 'devolution revolution' means for devolved nations in the UK, and that there are unresolved constitutional challenges ahead, in new report from @ukandeu.bsky.social 📝 Read: www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/...
Professor Nicola McEwen examines challenges ahead for devolution in the UK. News. University of Glasgow, Centre for Public Policy.
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
£72m for Reform over the weekend could be just the tip of the iceberg There's nothing to stop Elon Musk giving, via a UK X subsidiary, £300m to Restore Britain today Or a Trump ally giving £500m to Farage via a UK-registered firm There's a v narrow window to tackle big money in the elections bill
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Gordon Guthrie @foundationsofthedigitalstate.com · 14/09/2026
The first fruits of the 4 nations election cc @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social
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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Our Director, @alanrenwick.bsky.social, has responded to the news over the weekend that Reform UK has received £72 million from two donors. He suggests a wider review of political finance rules.
A picture of Professor Alan Renwick, Director of the UCL Constitution Unit, and the quote: 'It has long been clear that donations to political parties ought to be capped. Democracy is based on the idea that we are all equal. Allowing the richest people in our society to give unlimited sums violates that principle. Political parties do need to be able to communicate their message to voters, and that costs money. So a cap might be set relatively high – perhaps at £1 million – at least initially, while a wider review of political finance rules is conducted.'
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The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will discuss the 'pursuit of a different attitude' from the UK Government around the constitutional question when they meet on Monday, Rhun ap Iorwerth has said
thenational.scot
First Ministers to discuss 'pursuit of different attitude from UK on constitution'
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
oh look it's that exact issue that a whole bunch of people kept saying would never happen
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
That challenge comes from malign foreign interference in British politics and society, direct challenges on the street to authority of the state, and an unprecedented influx of finance that significantly erodes democratic pluralism.
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Mark Lazarowicz @marklazarowicz.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I've just received an 'URGENT' email from Labour Party HQ responding to the £72 cryptomillion donations to Reform. I would like it to have said that Labour is now, at last, going to cap political donations, both domestic and foreign. Unfortunately, that's not the response. Instead, the...
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
UK chancellor urged to remove ‘hidden taxes’ from energy bills to lower bills, pay from general taxation. Money should not be handed out without the govt taking a stake. Must end profiteering. Public ownership of energy is common in the EU countries. Same needed in the UK.
theguardian.com
UK chancellor urged to remove ‘hidden taxes’ from energy bills
Businesses, charities and other groups sign letter calling for levies to be paid by the government
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
NEW Why holding a placard is a terrorist act, while causing disruption in a balaclava is not The mess caused by ministers and the police not taking terrorism law seriously By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Recent events in England now reveal the practical difference between terrorists and protesters. It would seem that terrorists peacefully hold placards and get immediately arrested, while protesters wear black uniforms and balaclavas and disrupt infrastructure and do not get arrested.

How did we get into this mess? How have we placed ourselves in the position where terrorism legislation is used to detain and prosecute peaceful protesters, while those adopting the terror tactics of private armies seem to be free to do as they wish?

The reason is that for some time British politicians have not taken terrorism legislation seriously, and that ministers have got into the habit of misusing terror laws for easy targets.
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Reform is the richest party in Britain. Its leaders are almost all millionaires. It is funded almost exclusively by billionaires. It has a supportive TV station and widespread media backing. So naturally, this donation comes with the usual attack on "elites". www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Reform UK given record £36m donation by British crypto billionaire
Ben Delo was convicted in US for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls but pardoned by Trump
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Melissa Terras @melissaterras.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I grieved for the Internet, I grieved for Social Media, now I grieve for universities, and their communities. This is all part of a mass-dismantling of social connection (and university leaders have been blithe to their part). What does that leave? We all become selfish? Not why I work at a uni…
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
UK PM urged to target banks' bumper profits with windfall tax to ease cost-of-living pain. Half-year pre-tax profits of more than £29bn, expected to hit £55.3bn for the year. Made from high charges, low interest on savings, speculation. Many town centres, villages have no bank branches.
independent.co.uk
‘There might be a few less Porsches’: TUC boss urges Burnham to bring in bank tax
The general secretary of the TUC Paul Nowak called on the Labour leader to go ‘further and faster’ on cutting bills
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Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 10/09/2026
We do not have to accept childhoods shaped by algorithms. We do not have to accept a system that fails our children. Europe has the power to act. To give children the time they need in the real world. I will detail our proposal in my upcoming State of the Union address.
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Scottish Currency Group @scg1.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
SCG PROPOSALS FOR A SCOTTISH CENTRAL BANK Our proposals for the design and remit of the SCB will be published on our website asap. Comments welcome
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