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Jack McGowan

@jmcgphd.bsky.social
548 followers 1K following 143 posts

Scottish+Irish/EU citizen. Academic on hiatus but forever an actor. History/present, Humanities/humanity. 🇪🇺 #DysguCymraeg drjackmcgowan.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Jack McGowan
Helen Barnard @helenbarnard.bsky.social · 23h
We shouldn't have a Quiet Carriage on the train. We should have a NoisyCcarriage. If you want to watch or listen to the phone without headphones, or have loud and never-ending conversations, you go and sit in the Noisy Carriage. The rest of the train is de facto Quiet. Who's with me?
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A glimmer of hope: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
‘That’s so AI!’ What gen Alpha’s biggest insult tells us
The year’s most popular slang reveals what young people think about artificial intelligence – and it’s not positive
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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It’s time for a zero tolerance crack down on far right thugs. They’re costing the taxpayer, soaking up police resources, intimidating peaceful communities & delaying the measures that are reducing the asylum backlog & its cost. Enough is enough. End the menace. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Far-right activist Daniel Thomas slashes dinghy in Channel with blade while rescue worker onboard
Thomas called followers to protest against arrival of asylum seekers in Gosport, but Border Force instead transported them to Dover
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James O'Flynn @jamesoflynn.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
'Tax Exile' is a stupid phrase. It sounds like defiance in the face of tyranny, or principled martyrdom. The guy moved abroad to avoid paying taxes in Britain. Just call him 'a man who moved abroad to avoid paying taxes in Britain'.
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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
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haversack @hsack121.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
London I love you. By the activist group Everyone Hates Elon, across the tube network
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 09/09/2026
Not to brag, but our product has been foldable since 1828.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: “The word "remigration" is nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color.”
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John Swinney @johnswinney.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It is utterly deplorable that a housing project in Glasgow was deliberately set on fire because of racist misinformation spread online. Those responsible will be fully pursued and will face justice. Let's unite against racism and lies that seek to break our communities apart.
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 08/09/2026
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)
You cannot conduct a fair match when one side is playing with a ball and the other with bombs and, if democracy is to survive, it must be conducted according to definite and recognised rule. One of them is that no political party should resort to any weapon other than reason and argument. The introduction of private armies, as I see it, strikes at the root of democracy. I know it is contended that the Blackshirts are not armed and, therefore, are not an army, but I do not think that argument can be upheld. … Uniformed men in military formation suggest, and are meant to suggest, the idea of force. It is no argument to reply that at this or that demonstration no force is intended. It is an inescapable fact that a uniform in politics symbolises force, to be used either now or in the future.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Nick Robinson on Today is literally talking about ‘legitimate concerns’ after second night of organised men dressed in black - sorry ‘protesters’ - mobilising en masse in another littoral town. This is how street fascism is normalised
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Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Kevin Rowland and Dexy's Midnight Runners are very unhappy that Nigel Farage used their music at the Reform party conference.
Tweet from the official Dexy's Midnight Runners account

I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our song to make his entrance for his party conference. Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics.

@ByDonkeys .
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Re-upping this...
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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Ladybird wisdom ‘Sounds’ (1975) Artist: BH Robinson
In a suburban back garden, two people on deck chairs try to relax but next door a neighbour is mowing the lawn, someone upstairs is listening to music with the window open and overhead a jet flies by  
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Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 @reshetz.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
If I had a nickel every time a European far right party was exposed for ties to russia and attempts to destabilize Europe from within I’d have a lot of nickels and I’d buy Patriot batteries for Ukraine
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Briony Neilson @brionyneilson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Allen Lane, co-founder of Penguin Books, extracts a book from the brand new "Penguincubator" – a vending machine with a range of Penguin titles available for sixpence, placed outside Collet's bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road in July 1937 🗃️
b&w page with a photo of a man in a suit extracting a book from a vending machine
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 27/08/2026
how long until google renames the lake but only for americans?
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Dr Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾 @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Gonna start an open letter against academics signing open letters.
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Andrew Brook @andrewbrook.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
What is Lisa Nandy up to? Is she so afraid of her own electorate that she can’t do her job, and what on earth made Andy Burnham leave her in place? Neighbourly friendship?
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
The most effective second place result in a by-election since Roy Jenkins at Warrington in 1981?
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Nostalgic Things @nostalgicthing.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
At least Bobby Sands had a legitimate reason to not turn up to his declaration
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Ah yes, Clearing, the process by which eight to twelve Big Universities simply eat all the other unis. (1/2)
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Private Eye Magazine @privateeyenews.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
It's Clacton by-election day. Or, if you prefer, Farage-Commons-standards-inquiry-reopening-eve.
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
'Could you put that in, like, American political terms?' 👏👏👏
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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This. Our recent survey found that 70% of people felt they would find it difficult or impossible to avoid AI even if they wanted to. We cannot meaningfully consent to something that is baked into everything by default, whether it's used by us or on us. www.kcl.ac.uk/news/over-40...
kcl.ac.uk
Over 40% of people are limiting AI use, as popularity starts to wane | King's College London
People are increasingly choosing to limit or reject the use of AI tools, according to a new report published today by the Digital Futures Institute at King’s College London and Responsible AI UK.
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
We’ve gone from wondering which universities might fail to wondering who might buy them
ft.com
European education group eyes takeovers of UK universities
Britain ‘an appealing market’ for long-term investment, says Galileo chief
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The continued political silence over the spread of these anti-migrant, anti-refugee pogroms in the UK is a disgrace. This one has been going on for three nights in a row now and the Home Secretary and Prime Minister haven't said a single word about it www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Norfolk police arrest two men after officers injured during unrest over asylum plans
Homes of people believed to be asylum seekers attacked during two nights of violence in Thetford
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This is what happens when anti-racism norms erode, and elites bear a lot of the responsibility for norm erosion, as they have disproportionate power to set and enforce norms
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.
ft.com
Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says
LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
👇
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I've just signed "Open University, stop advertising on Rupert Murdoch's Talk Radio" - Will you support the campaign too? actionstorm.org/petitions/op... @StopFundingHate
actionstorm.org
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Satire is dead. Non-action Nandy, 'promotion' for Sarwar, and now this:
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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I'm not sorry to see Anas Sarwar stand down as Scottish Labour leader; I think he should have done so immediately following the disastrous loss in May. But doing it now to take up a junior ministerial job in Westminster sends a terrible message about what Labour thinks of Scotland. Really terrible.
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Minister for AI 'to attend Cabinet'. Jeez. If only Callaghan had made Hattersley Sec of State for 8-Track Cartridges, or Blair had appointed Hazel Blears Minister for MiniDiscs.
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Has she glued herself to a painting?
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Rewiring the British state? Circuit-breaker moment? Why not not give anyone the ridiculous title Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster? In fact, just pass the Duchy. On the left-hand side.
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I seem to be seeing and hearing more of Neil Kinnock than at any time since 1992. Does he have a new agent?
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Congratulations to the government on saving 2700 jobs by nationalising British Steel. Now, about the 18,000 university jobs lost in the last 18 months, with more coming…
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I've had negative feelings about the Burnham coronation from the outset. Every day they get worse. I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell - but time is a luxury they/we do not have.
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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
“nearly 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone”
theguardian.com
Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities
Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
👇
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Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · 27/10/2025
Farage: epic grifter
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Good letter.
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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
It's exhausting.
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Lauri Donahue @lauridonahue.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
futurism.com/future-socie... lol
As one New York financier told Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett, new hires who were seen as “AI natives” are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so, the anonymous finance worker admitted, that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead.
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
I feel very uncomfortable about all of this. Even contemplating hiring Everton stadium (if true) would confirm the negative 'Kinnock at Sheffield' vibes. Dignified conduct and intellectual maturity seem finally to have been defeated. It doesn't bode well.
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Absolutely this, and for several years. The biggest difference north and south of the border is that HE destruction has been making national front pages and TV in Scotland for some time while being wilfully ignored in England:
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
c.org/5BcvyzQ2cp
c.org
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
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Jack McGowan @jmcgphd.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
👏👏👏👏
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