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Lucy Burke

@lucyburkemcr.bsky.social
1.9K followers 2K following 229 posts

Academic (literary & cultural disability studies/medical humanities), Green New Deal podcast www.gndmedia.co.uk Wellcome Trust Advisory Committee, North Manchester & Kreiz Breizh.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Lucy Burke
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Solidarity with all at University of Nottingham combatting this violent dismantling of their university
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Onni Gust @onnigust.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
41% staffing cuts in the Faculty of Arts at UoN. We're entering a wilderness of creativity and critical thinking.
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
youtu.be/BufB5SUdNbo This is a really interesting discussion about AI with the always brilliant @ketanjoshi.co - first in a new monthly series hosted by the Working Class Climate Alliance @gndmedia.bsky.social
youtu.be
WCCA & Ketan Joshi
YouTube video by GND Media
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Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is good & it should challenge the @ucu.org.uk leadership @drjogrady.bsky.social @dyfrigjones.bsky.social @markpendleton.bsky.social to explain why a new website is a better strategy than a national dispute. Would also be good if they followed congress mandates tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/brit...
tribunemag.co.uk
British Academia is Dying. It’s Time for a National Industrial Response
Workers in higher education are fighting atomised struggles to save their jobs. A rank-and-file strategy is needed to unite them.
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Marta Zboralska @marta-zboralska.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My guess is that you could convince quite a few people to join the union if… they saw effective action from the union. Not sure a podcast is going to do it.
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Gribouilleuse 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 @gribouilleuse.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Exemple du désastre en cours pour des cultures... et ici c'est la Bretagne Nord on sent bien qu'on a pas tout à fait eu les mêmes canicules et sécheresses alors pensez aux autres régions. Les dégâts à venir vont être immenses dans les productions. actu.fr/bretagne/plu...
actu.fr
« Je n’ai jamais vu ma terre aussi sèche » : chez ce maraîcher en Bretagne, aucun légume n'est épargné
À Pluzunet (Bretagne), Didier Le Lann fait partie des maraîchers qui fournissent les marchés locaux. Il lutte pour sauver sa production et fournir ses clients face à la sécheresse.
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Gribouilleuse 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 @gribouilleuse.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Et on entend toujours des technosolutionnistes aveuglés par leur croyances... Faudrait leur rappeler qu'on ne peut pas climatiser les champs, les forêts, les vignes, etc. Normalement ces espaces sont déjà dans des régions climatisées mais justement on a cassé la climatisation naturelle.
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
We all need and deserve more than a breezy podcast right now - vanity projects aren’t really adequate to the catastrophic razing of UK higher education - it is time for a serious national industrial and political campaign. tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/brit...
tribunemag.co.uk
British Academia is Dying. It’s Time for a National Industrial Response
Workers in higher education are fighting atomised struggles to save their jobs. A rank-and-file strategy is needed to unite them.
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UNISON @unison.org.uk · 17/09/2026
⚖️💷 Women shouldn't have to spend years fighting for pay they were due long ago. A major UNISON report says the equal pay system is not fit for purpose and calls for regular compulsory pay audits to help prevent discrimination. Read full report here ⬇️ buff.ly/zWY6R0q
Fixing Equal Pay Law: New UNISON report says that the current system of pay, dating back to 1970, fails to deliver for many women.
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Madhu Pai, MD, PhD @madhupai.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
“As one of the world's most profitable publishers, Elsevier can and should do better by all their editorial staff and scientists. Not as an act of charity, but as a matter of fairness and justice.” This is what I wrote, in support of Lancet staff going on strike www.nuj.org.uk/resource/wor...
nuj.org.uk
Workers to strike for first time in The Lancet's 200-year history
NUJ members working at The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, are set to go on strike next week following a long-running dispute over pay.
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
'The University and College Union (UCU)’s Edinburgh branch said staff had been called into “informal meetings at less than 24 hours' notice” and told not to bring union representatives.'
heraldscotland.com
Fear and anger as university set to announce 'massive course and programme closures'
Asked to respond, a university spokesperson said that staff and students were recently informed of changes to “our future academic offering across…
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This is where we are: we’re not only encouraged to dehumanise and hate other human beings we’re actively compelled to enjoy their suffering, to mock and laugh at their pain. We’ve always known who he is - but he’s giving permission for a lot of people to show us who they are too.
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Vicky Blake UCU (she/her) @vickyblake.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Thank you to the #TUC26 President Steve Gillan for such a clear expression of solidarity with Brighton UCU from the chair of conference and especially for asking that delegates who are able show their support for the demo. @ucu.org.uk delegates are on our way 🪧🪧🪧
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is completely unhinged decision by senior managers at the University of Brighton but says everything about the collapse of our sector. I hope everyone at #TUC26 steps up and turns out at 1.15 today
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Dr Andrew McInnes @drbeard79.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This list of things the University of Brighton has de-recognised is insane 🤯🤯🤯
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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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covucu.bsky.social @covucu.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
CU's VC celebrates his nomination for the University Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award, despite his “dynamic, future-focused” transformation involving 2,788 staff moved to subsidiaries, hundreds of redundancies & stripping of national agreements and collective bargaining. Quite an achievement #UCU
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M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧🇬🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
St Paul’s school - up to £60k a year today
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Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
And add to the pile: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2622404... A perfect storm is wiping out the sector.
heraldscotland.com
University bosses to press on with £140m cuts bid despite projected budget surplus
In an email sent to staff last week, principal Sir Peter Mathieson and provost Kim Graham said that the university has an operating surplus of…
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts
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Nick Gray @path-dependent.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Looking at this week's news, we (certainly I) talk a lot about Northern England, but Exeter University's big cuts are very bad news for a peripheral regional economy with its own productivity challenges.
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Andrew Livingstone @andrewlivingstone.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
From what we're hearing it'll also affect large, v popular courses b/c of imaginary workload surplus. So horrible but also self-defeating - hurts student experience in a manner that will legitimise further funding cuts via TEF, so won't even safeguard the budget in the long run
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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I don’t know the details but they may well targeting modules with lower registration, where a world expert gets to teach their research to a relatively small number of the keenest students. You know. Those modules that stick in the students’ minds for the rest of their lives.
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Hannah Barker @historyhannahb.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Hey @andyburnham.bsky.social I know you’ll have a lot on your plate I the coming weeks but could you take a look at what’s going on in one of the UK’s most successful sectors? UK universities are world leading, a major source of overseas funding as well as crucial to local economies nationwide.
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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
It’s important to remember that the current #UKHE funding model goes back ONLY to the #Cameron & #Osborne austerity of the 2010 coalition years. Shifting the burden from the state via taxes to the students themselves.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
the media and voter messaging should be this: the current government and the government in waiting do not want your children to be able to go to university, they will not support people in the UK to do original research, they do not care about job losses in one of the largest sectors in the economy
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
It’s wild that politicians don’t seem to grasp the degree to which universities contribute to the economy- local, regional, national. The failure to intervene is a stain on this govt - a shocking dereliction of duty to every worker, every local business, every student, every area that is suffering
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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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Dr Corinne Painter @corinnepainter.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
None of us is safe until all of us are safe
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This is devastating. I think everyone thought that this rampant destruction of UK H.E would abate with a Labour Government. If anything it is getting worse. Shame on every single senior manager engaged in destroying education, careers, expertise, subject areas and livelihoods.
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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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Sam Kinsley @samkinsley.uk · 23/06/2026
153 academic jobs are proposed to be cut at Exeter. Just had the news. Process is going to be quick too. We will be told if we are part of those considered later today
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Please consider supporting this crowd funder. Independent journalism is so important and New Internationalist deserves to survive and carry on its work. Just needs a lot of us to give a little to keep going.
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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
I’m so delighted to announce my new Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Re-knowing Self-harm’. I’m deeply grateful to my collaborators, including SIFT & @makespaceco.bsky.social, and the @durham.ac.uk Dept of Sociology & @durhamimh.bsky.social who will host the project ✨ www.durham.ac.uk/research/ins...
durham.ac.uk
Veronica Heney to shed new light on self-harm - Durham University
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Mickaël Wilmart @mickaelwilmart.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Carlo Ginzburg est mort, annonce la presse italienne. Immense historien, il a su construire une oeuvre originale entre micro-histoire et anthropologie historique qui a considérablement renouvelé la discipline. www.repubblica.it/cultura/2026...
repubblica.it
Carlo Ginzburg è morto, addio al grande storico italiano
Aveva 87 anni. Era famoso in tutto il mondo per le sue ricerche sulla stregoneria e le credenze popolari
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
It's hard to convey just how monstrous the privatisation of children's care homes has become. Highly vulnerable children have been turned into cash machines, with devastating impacts on their wellbeing. Please sit down before reading this week's column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Horrific, unregulated, and very profitable. The companies making cash from England’s children in care | George Monbiot
Councils are sending vulnerable kids to homes ran by money-grabbing cowboys and private-equity vultures, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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david-s.bsky.social @david-s.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Supreme Court ruling set to remove vital safeguards for hundreds of thousands of disabled people. www.disabilitynewsservice.com/supreme-cour... Via Disability News Service @johnpring.bsky.social
disabilitynewsservice.com
Supreme Court ruling set to remove vital safeguards for hundreds of thousands of disabled people
Campaigners have expressed “deep concern” over a ruling by the Supreme Court that could “fundamentally” alter the lives of hundreds of thousands of disabled people who rely on the health and social…
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/news/supreme...
challengingbehaviour.org.uk
Supreme Court judgement on Deprivation of Liberty: CBF statement
Following hearings last October, the UK Supreme Court has today overturned the 2014 ‘Cheshire West’ definition of deprivation of liberty - CBF statement
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Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Govt minister Lucy Rigby is asked about Darren Jones's tweet & she says its not great but Jones has been clear about how he feels about Epsteins victims. So in public he says one thing (for our consumption) and in private he says what he really thinks. Got it.
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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Breaking: Government set to cut strategic priorities grant. The government is on the cusp of cutting public funding for higher education teaching, the head of Universities UK has told MPs, placing institutions under even more financial pressure. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
researchprofessionalnews.com
Government ‘to cut strategic priorities grant’, says UUK leader - Research Professional News
Vivienne Stern says letter confirming cut to teaching funds will be sent out “in days”
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
It would take about 30 seconds to remind news audiences of the basic facts of the Stephen Lawrence case
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Lucy Burke @lucyburkemcr.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
youtu.be/sEeNX8Wiigs - This is why I carry the fear of what will happen to Danny when I die like a giant stone in my heart - it’s a pain I live with constantly. Such casual brutality. This is about systemic abuse woven into those “services” that are supposed to care.
youtu.be
Winterbourne View - the abuse exposed. 15 years later. Ann and Colin’s story
YouTube video by Mencap
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
This is unfortunately how it’s going to stay because if we militantly resist change for the better, then we will only ever get change for much worse.
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Simon Duffy @simonduffy.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Really pleased to see this. For decades the education system has been subject to increasing commodification and centralised control. The result has been increased exclusions and reduced mental health for children.
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HWUCU @hwucu.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Universities spend £££ to attract & retain what they allege are the best senior managers who then spend more on paying consultants. Those consultants sell the same solutions to multiple institutions. = cuts to staff who make universities work Spend the money on staff www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
abc.net.au
As universities cut courses, spending on consultants and contractors nears $2b
Consultancies have been accused of infiltrating universities and wasting scarce public funds on questionable advice about cutting courses and jobs.
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Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
"Twelve of the 14 universities had council members, who had substantive roles as consultants from firms such as Ernst & Young, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, McKinsey, and Boston Consulting
Group," she said.
Senator Sheldon said this was not a coincidence.
"I believe that there's an intended infiltration of our governing boards by consultancy firms. It's all the mates looking after each other and seeing these consultancy costs balloon right across the university sector," he said.
One governing board even appointed a consultant to run its university.
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
This also shows up the disingenuous nature of Labour's bogus "safe routes" using work and study visas, which will take a year and a half at least for people to reach UK. Not to mention that this "crackdown on abuse" also includes trapping even Chevening Scholars in situations of extreme persecution.
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Catherine Pope @cjpope.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Mum hospitalised in 1st wave, Dad died; she never came home, got decanted to care home, put in solitary confinement. Unspeakable misery. Boris and crew made terrible decisions, fuelled by hubris and a desire to party. I'm incandescent with rage. (Thank you Christina for making sure we don't forget).
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Of course no one from *checks notes* Sudan or Afghanistan could be in genuine danger.
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