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For all that it's been barely reported in the UK press, it's still hard to understate the importance of the stance @labourunionsuk.bsky.social has taken on trans and non-binary rights this week. Every single trade union affiliated to the party of government has stood up and said we will not comply.

Joint statement from National TULO

Solidarity with the trans and non-binary community

Labour's 11 affiliated trade unions stand in total solidarity with the trans and non-binary community.

Trans rights are human rights, and trans rights are workers' rights.

We in the trade union movement will do all we can to stand up for our trans members and all our trans siblings, to protect them from persecution, harassment and attack.

The government must act now to protect all trans people, to make sure their rights are protected, expanded and upheld in our workplaces and communities.

Labour Unions

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think we can all agree that the fundamental problem with the adversarial, dog-eat-dog, capitalism-but-make-it-extra-smug model we currently suffer under desperately needed an extra element of random caprice, so very excited by this news.

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FinnMackay @finnfox.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I hear after protestors disrupted his conference speech, Nigel Farage suggested the protestor represented the benefits of a university education and probably studied SOCIOLOGY! Yes! Sociology enables critical thinking, to identify racism & the weaponisation of racism, to identify reactionary lies.

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B heard media 💚🇵🇸 @bheardmedia.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

🚨 Mr Danny Dyer on PM Andy Burnham..."Who is he? Did anyone vote for him? Because I didn't vote for him. I think we've had successive Prime Ministers that are c*nts. End of. Put that on the f*cking BBC" 🤣

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

"To be effective uncivil society actors need to uphold some semblance of legitimacy." That's a quote I'm going to be getting a lot of use from, I'm sure (along with just the term "uncivil society actors", which I'm new to, and is perfect).

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Back when I was a secondary school teacher, four of our year 9 kids stole a car, totalled it during the resulting joyride - because, of course, none of them could drive - and ended up in serious condition in hospital.

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

There has been a noticeable lack of serious reaction over Turkish persecution of LGBTQIA+ community from the global community. As in many other countries, Türkiye tries to mask persecution by claiming being LGBTQIA+ isn't illegal and then using "obscenity laws". www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

theguardian.com

Turkey detains dozens in crackdown on LGBTQ+ activists and journalists

Protesters teargassed as minister claims widespread raids and arrests under obscenity laws were to ‘protect families’

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Casey Johnston @caseyjohnston.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Watching tech people tremble before the awesome power of AI feels like when an actor is “attacked” by a wild animal in a movie but they are just holding a raccoon pelt to their neck and pretending to wrestle with it

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I dunno, lads; I'm just not sure "Fascist violence gangs can operate with impunity" is a viable situation for a country to be in, long term.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Scribbling notes on a paper that I will *definitely* be able to read later.

Gods, I already don't know what this says. A picture of random ink marks on a page; a Rorschach image in which all that can be objectively seen is my own incompetence.

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edeath @edithcharles.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Holy shit, I am pleasantly surprised by the news for once? For friends abroad, that’s the UK’s national federation of unions. It’s about time the beast awakened.

leftfootforward.org

TUC votes to condemn EHRC code of practice and back self-ID for trans people

Delegates backed a motion branding the EHRC guidance 'discriminatory and unworkable'

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Ed Sheeran is the university management of millionaire pop warblers.

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

#Trek turns 60 today! IDFC turns 10 today! I'm celebrating both with an excerpt from my essay on "The Cage", previously available only in the first IDFC book. A birthday present from me to you.

idfc.co.uk

1.1.p "It Literally Is 'Genesis'"

A birthday gift.

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Joel @snufkinlib.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

God have mercy, an old friend of mine was one of Orr’s students who had quit his PhD and can only speak about it now

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 07/09/2026

Yelling "stop the boats!" as I charge in to rob this NatWest at gun point so that I can later call the Home Secretary as a character witness and the BBC will spend two weeks telling all my potential future jurors how legitimate my concerns were.

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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 05/09/2026

My first draft would be something like: "Masked thugs plotting to shut down major infrastructure under the threat of street violence is unacceptable. Those responsible will face the full force of the law". But that's just me, I guess.

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Jack Saundrs @jacksaundrs.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This is, essentially, why I'm anti-capitalist. It is existential to humans as individuals, as a species, that our common treasury, the resources of our home, our collective social labour, be used to establish safe, sustainable life on this planet, not allocated by the whims of private entities

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

New post up at IDFC: Discovery's "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not For The Lamb's Cry". Reflections on reflection. (You're getting this a day early because I have other plans for the month of Trek's 60th anniversary.)

idfc.co.uk

7.1.4 Mirror Moves

I think I think rather too much about mirrors.

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Jana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Also: the country is a racist hellhole so most people who can exercise a degree of choice are choosing to go elsewhere

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Mama weer all ree-uppin' now.

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Elizabeth Taylor @elizabethtaylor47.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

And actually moves back to this bsky.app/profile/eliz... Helen Lewis' axe against the Good Law Project is sharp enough to slice concrete. She doesn't seem to have many words for the bizarre fact that the most prominent GC activists in the country are defending Cofnas

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Matthew Hodson @matthewhodson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

At a time when there was little that was queer on our screens, and less that celebrated queerness, The Rocky Horror Show was a revelation. I know I’m far from the only teen who felt empowered by it to dress up queer for the first time. Tim Curry had talent and charisma to burn. We’ve lost an icon.

Tim Curry in a still from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, striding towards the camera (actually toward Rocky, who’s out of frame).

Me doing up my suspenders preparing to go see the Rocky Horror Show when I was about 17.

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Mark Janello @markjanello.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

You fuckers made me do it. The Racist Academicals Patter Song.

[RACIST ACADEMICAL]
I am the very model of a racist academical,
With footnotes and citations to make bigotry seem credible,

I traffic in ideas that have long since been discredited,
Like human races being real and IQ is inherited!

I’ll sign an open letter that legitimates my bigotry,
My gender ideology is thuggery and piggery,

If criticized it’s academic freedom I will hide behind,
My high and mighty principles shan’t be questioned by your tiny mind!

[CHORUS OF CHUDS]
His high and mighty principles shan’t be questioned by your tiny mind!

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I place a lot of value on viewpoint diversity (the real one) and on free speech (the real one). It sucks how both concepts have been hijacked to mean “everyone is under a moral obligation to elevate and disseminate discredited claims if today’s political right is into them.”

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noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

'hey, has anyone tried refuting race science on theoretical and empirical grounds?'—guy who just woke up from a 100 year coma, presumably

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Notable how a not-insignificant number of the signatories on the letters supporting a racist signed on to letters supporting anti-trans extremists in 2018 or are high-profile anti-trans extremists themselves, almost as if there’s a connection between ‘everything is gender’ and ‘everything is race’

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Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

It should be career ending to say one race is inferior to another race. For fucks sake!! These people should be pariahs!

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wordloc 🏳️‍⚧️ @wordloc.net · 21/08/2026

He never should have been hired to begin with and the fact that he could is because the guy who did so has lifetime tenure and very little oversight because of that I need folks to realise that students, staff and even some residents here have been protesting this guy getting hired since FEBRUARY

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Jana Bacevic 🌲🌳✊🏴 @unsocialtheory.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Courtesy of travelling in the country™ I occasionally pass TV screens so have learned that Harry and Meghan are coming back, and the discourse seems to focus on cost of security!? It's really something to see that BBC's racism and hatred of foreigners even trumps their mandatory royal sycophantism.

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Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

‘Thus there has never been, in England, anything remotely approaching a “common” or “comprehensive” school experience for all classes of children. Each kind of school has been absorbed into its socio-geographic segment, and taken on something of that imprint.' Stuart Hall on schools

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Petra Boynton @petraboynton.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Decades of research on bullying in academia tells us abusers are usually known in HEIs (including to HR). They typically stay in post, or are promoted. Their victims (within and outside the uni) are the ones who quit, step down, or are hurt. HEIs generally only act when their reputations are hit /1

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Ric Crossman @riccrossman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Between Channel 4, The Guardian, and Radio 4, this has been a goddamn awful week for academics with ADHD. Been struggling what to say on this, because all of it (particularly R4 platforming Stock) has made me so furious I've been worried I'll say something actionable. But it's getting BAD out there.

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Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I am happy to announce that I have become a patron of @transactualuk.bsky.social

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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

After Stock professed extremist ideology twice this past week (e.g. disabled women are faking; autistic people and people with ADHD are 'unsuited' for academia) and being billed as an expert during the Arday plagiarism scandal, I forgot until now that Stock was involved in her own plagiarism scandal

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

FFS, You don’t even have to look *outside Cambridge* for examples of white professors who have behaved far, far worse and not only kept their jobs, but have been protected and celebrated by both their institution and the media.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 14/08/2026

also bonus, as I mentioned elsewhere of course, there is weaponised "I don't understand women in science" (on many levels too tho):

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