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Nicola Barker

@nicolabarker.bsky.social
152 followers 307 following 10 posts

Academic interested in LGBT+ rights, family law, UK overseas territories, European Convention on Human Rights

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Reposted by Nicola Barker
Ben Guilfoy @bkguilfoy.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
"Remember to always check the output," they tell me. If I have to read the original document to make sure the summary is accurate, then the AI is a *useless and pointless* extra step, and I can never seem to convince anyone at work of this.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Despite all the noise today I'd really like you to read this, as I think it's crucial. The government's in the process of p*ssing up to £264 billion into the ground, at the behest of the fossil fuel industry. Yes, £264 *billion*. It's utterly mad, and has to stop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot
There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Perry Barber @umpireplb.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Some thoughtful person provided a link to a non-paywalled version of this article: gcaptain.com/drowning/
gcaptain.com
Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing, call for help that most people expect. In this article, Mario explains what drowning really looks like and how to recognize it when its happening.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Feminist Legal Studies @flsjournal.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
📢 Publishing with FLS Online workshop for early-career feminist legal scholars from the Global South. Submit CV + 300-word abstract. Selected participants submit an 8,000-word draft by 31 Aug 2026. 📅 Apply by 22 June 2026 📅 Workshop: 24 Sept 2026 📩 workshop.fls2026@gmail.com #FeministLegalStudies
link.springer.com
Feminist Legal Studies
Feminist Legal Studies is committed to an international perspective and to the promotion of feminist work in all areas of law, legal theory and legal ...
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Oh wow our @38degrees.bsky.social petition to cap political donations in the UK has over 94k signatures!! 💥 There's still lots of time for amendments to Elections Bill. Would be so powerful to get it over 100k Can you help? Please sign and share! Thanks! 😀 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Take Big Money Out of Our Politics
British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...
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LEX Network @lexnetwork.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Open now! @flsjournal.bsky.social @fdelond.bsky.social @jonathanherring.bsky.social @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social @ials.bsky.social @florarenz.bsky.social @mlafineman.bsky.social @sssh-research.bsky.social @sorchamcc.bsky.social
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Joanna Hastings @joannahastings.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Please sign. This really bothers me. Green energy, so much cheaper to produce, is being charged at the rate of gas because they can. Are they going to give that up once gas is phased out? We need to ensure fair prices now, and see the benefit in our bills, to keep fair prices for the long term.
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Binita Kane @binitakane.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Brilliant article by a teacher highlighting the current dire situation for teachers and kids every winter when it comes to infection risk and spread. We continue to fight for our kids to have the right to breathe clean air. stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/d...
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com
Dear Bridget Phillipson, Please Can We Talk About Health?
Dear Bridget Phillipson, Please can we talk about health? It’s autumn 2025. We’re one month into the school year, in England. Two of my children are ill, again.With Covid, again.It&#821…
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Feminist Legal Studies @flsjournal.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
📣🏳️‍⚧️ Call for Papers We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives. Details below. Please share.
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Feminist Legal Studies 

Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope

Amidst continuing backlash against trans rights, recognition and inclusion, two recent decisions from the UK have substantially impacted not only trans people’s legal status but also legal and social narratives of sex, gender and identity. The narrative that trans inclusion has a chilling effect on the rights of others, particularly women, has been adopted uncritically by both the UK Supreme Court in For Women Scotland and the Office for Students in its finding that the University of Sussex’s trans-inclusion policy had a chilling effect on free speech. These cases highlight a backlash that has been ongoing for some time, and sparks debates and fear of what may lie in the near future for trans people and kin, as well as other gender-variant persons, not only in the UK, but across jurisdictions and in a global perspective. The discourse of the ‘gender critical’ movement is splintering both the feminist and LGBT+ movements globally, with some aligning politically with the Far- and Christian Right against trans rights, adopting their terminology of ‘gender ideology’ and potentially posing a wider threat to sexual and reproductive rights.  

While this a difficult situation for trans people, kin and allies, this special issue seeks to emphasise that legal battles – including battles (temporarily) lost – are also an opportunity to seek to reinforce old alliances and to form new ones, to find new legal frontiers and imaginaries, to reinforce the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of legal arguments as well as intergenerational memory of what feminist legal work is, has been and should be about. How, we ask, do these decisions (and those like them globally) reflect and reproduce structures of coloniality, heteronormativity and cisnormativity? What do these decisions add to critiques of legal feminism? What would be construct…
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Daniel José Older @djolder.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
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Ashleeee 🌊🪭 @reactiveashley.cat · 23/07/2025
3/ Lol, even a British judge operating under communist rule managed to state the obvious: that trans people use toilets to pee, and that toilets have cubicles. One can only marvel at how the Ladies and Lords failed to do the same.
Para 102, quote, As to the Government’s main justification relying on the claimed need to protect the privacy interests of other bathroom users, Mr Parker submitted that the PCCBR in fact make little if any contribution to user privacy, and actually would be counter-productive:

Item 1, The Government’s privacy argument takes as its premise the proposition that K is to be treated as a woman for the purpose of bathroom use based on his biological sex at birth and/or HKID sex marker, but whether he should be treated as a male or female for this purpose is what is in issue.
Item 2, The argument ignores the reality of what trans people actually do when they use the bathroom.  As K does not possess male genitalia, he does not use urinals, and K uses a cubicle where he can neither see others nor be seen.  (The same would be true of a trans woman visiting a female bathroom, which has only cubicles.)
Item 3, Hence, given a male appearance, it is difficult to see how other male bathroom users would be affected by K’s mere presence, not least when fully clothed outside the cubicle or shower compartment.
Item 4, K’s male appearance would likely cause more consternation if he were forced to use the female toilets, as he would appear to be – and K’s evidence was that he had in fact sometimes been accused of being – in the “wrong” bathroom.  Forcing K to use female public conveniences would create an even greater privacy harm both to him and to female bathroom users.
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
🚨How Britain privatised itself into failure.🚨 Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
How Britain privatised itself into failure
Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is. In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol. And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
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School of Law & Social Justice at University of Liverpool @livunislsj.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
🌍 Applications open: Funded International Visiting Research Fellowships (2025–2026) As part of our commitment to global collaboration, we invite scholars outside the UK to build or expand research ties with our staff and research clusters. 📅 Apply by 31 Aug 2025 🔗 bit.ly/internationa...
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Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 27/06/2025
Behind the ruling: how ‘Sex Matters’ is shaping UK policy on trans rights The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary By ST Williams @yorkshirebylines.co.uk
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
Behind the ruling: how ‘Sex Matters’ is shaping UK policy on trans rights
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
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Professor Peter Matthews @urbaneprofessor.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
We have this already - it's called the cross-subsidy from international fees to underfunded home students
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around. They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway. It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing
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Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
This is a serious problem for all gender non-conforming women (especially the butch lesbians who ‘the lesbian intervenors’ are purportedly concerned about). The SC decision was a victory only for heteropatriarchy. Monique Wittig once said “lesbians are not women”. This is not what she meant.
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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Dr Victoria McLeod outlines how the Supreme Court’s reading of “sex” within the Equality Act to mean sex assigned at birth only places the UK now at serious risk of breaching its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. We need our courts to give space and listen to trans people.
wearequeeraf.com
The trans judge who will be heard, even if she has to take the UK to the European Court of Human Rights
In a video address released for Trans+ History Week shared exclusively with QueerAF, the Trans+ judge who is set to make history in Europe, speaks out
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Senthorun S. Raj @senthorun.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
“We reject the proper functioning of sex, sexual orientation, lesbian-only spaces and associations, fair participation in sport. The absence of coherence is the only correct reading.” Emily Grabham has written a searing parodic judgment exposing the UK Supreme Court’s non-sense of “biological sex.”
criticallegalthinking.com
Parody Alternative Judgment: For Women Scotland [2025]
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in the For Women case last week, colleagues thought it would help to have a case summary for use in
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Physicians for a Healthy Democracy @physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 19/04/2025
Sign of the day…
The wrong ICE is melting 
The wrong Amazon is burning
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Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
💯 the Southern Poverty Law Centre reported the same tactic outlined at a right-wing US conference as well.
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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I'm really sorry, but we just need to stop doing this. Your wood-burning hygge leads directly to people's deaths - other people's and perhaps your own. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Map reveals residential wood-burning hotspots in England and Wales
Researchers analyse energy performance certificate data to identify areas with potentially high particle pollution
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Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
I’m delighted to have jointly won the 2025 impact prize - thank you very much to the SLSA and congratulations to fellow winner Mark Walters, as well as all the nominees and winners across the categories. This prize is for my work challenging the revocation of same-sex marriage in Bermuda so…
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Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Interesting blog by Sasha Roseneil, Sussex VC, clearly right about the impact of the recent OfS decision finding that its trans-inclusive policy violated free speech. I’ll be talking about the decision in light of ECHR jurisprudence at #SLSA2025 next week
hepi.ac.uk
OfS free-speech absolutism allows abuse, harassment, and bullying - HEPI
The OfS’s £585,000 fine on Sussex sets a damaging precedent, undermining university autonomy and protections for marginalised groups.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Sometimes politics is simple. A man who speaks like an idiot will do idiotic things. That's really the sum total of the political analysis you need to understand what's happening today. But political commentators and investment advisers sought to make it more complicated.
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Armando Iannucci @aiannucci.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
“There is this terrible misconception that disabled people just take, but actually by taking from us, you prevent us from being able to give – we want to be able to participate in life equally the same as anyone else, and that includes going to work.” Disability campaigner Tanni Gray-Thompson
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Gender and Justice Journal @genderandjustice.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
We are absolutely delighted to bring you the 1st issue of Gender and Justice! bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal... A HUGE thank you to all of the Authors, Reviewers & Editors who contributed to this issue #GenderSky #GenderStudies @sharronfitz.bsky.social @lexnetwork.bsky.social
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
The Covid pandemic accelerated this. It supercharged the idea that there are entire groups of people who are not worthy of protection. Not worthy of life. Acceptable losses. If we don’t start acknowledging that and changing the narrative, the hate and division will only continue to grow.
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
It's really fucking clear that Trump and his cronies are out to break everything and everyone as much as they can, their 'enemies' within and without. The more cruel, the more mean, the more unfair - the better. and convert the tears of others into gold in their pockets.
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9
This is a venn diagram showing how 69 Trump actions map onto domains covering: undermining democratic institutions; suppressing dissent and media; dismantling social protections; attacking science and education; destabilising the global order. A table version is available here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZN7QnbSyFfUZJG8Sn1MWpK0VnfBtb0OSyZ1jxP3xBk/edit?usp=sharing
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
I actually wish the media would stop using "DEI" and "diversity hiring" and just get to the essence of the thing and ask: "Are you saying that this crash was caused by desegregating the races?" And see what happens.
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Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Remember the Cass Report, which supposedly "followed the science" on trans kids health? The huge York University epidemiology study on which it was based has finally been published, and it contradicts many of the report's conclusions. By @gidmk.bsky.social. gidmk.substack.com/p/gender-dys...
gidmk.substack.com
Gender Dysphoria, Children, And Moral Panics
What new data from the UK shows about trans children
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Morten Morland @mortenmorland.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Friday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...
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