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Mark Robinson

@thinkingpractice.bsky.social
184 followers 381 following 348 posts

Writer, researcher, adviser, coach etc. cultural sector and intersections. Thinking Practice. / www.thinkingpractice.co.uk

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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Back on the blog... Committing to a post every week, so long as i get at least one comment on each. (The void and I are consciously uncoupling.) tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com/p/lets-go-on...
tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com
Let’s go on
Bewildered and driven: back to blogging like it’s 2008
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I really want every applicant to ACE's NPO tombola to say they may pose existential risks to humanity.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Just on the off chance there's anyone out there, I'm doing this in October with @wahwncymru.bsky.social, introducing recent report for Baring Foundation on Creatively minded and Resourceful. Do join us! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wahwn-octo...
eventbrite.co.uk
WAHWN October Network Meeting
Join us for our October Network Meeting exploring some ideas and practical approaches that enable creative health work to thrive.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If it's meant literally - and I hear it as a govt meme - will need v. different models/resourcing in a society that can no longer service a postbox in every postcode, let alone a nearby post office. Anyway, my poetry library has TS16 0BA covered, so that's one down. Just knock and say the password
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Launched books, been 100 gigs at Waiting Room, 10 mins walk. Different postcode. Success or failure? As the annoying q goes: what would 'wwciep' actually look like? Maybe it needs a verb. Reaching? Enjoyed? Reflecting? Created?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Coming out of a cold so may be tetchy and literal but isn't "world class culture in every postcode" an example of taking a decent impulse and stretching it so far it frays like soft blutack as it turns to a slogan? I live across the road from a very fine museum, but it's not in the same postcode.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Tom Watson has always been a cynical man. A story not without relevance to arts and creative industries here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics | Clive Lewis
When a former Labour deputy leader joins a firm built on surveillance and military targeting, it deepens public cynicism – and democracy depends on trust, says Labour MP Clive Lewis
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Black Brown and Beige, with Mahalia Jackson is beautiful
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is true.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I'm on it.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Soul Train Dance Party
ALT: Soul Train Dance Party
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Go on...
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
It seems inappropriate to add a laughing emoji to this chat but I am laughing at that last bit. But of course just give me a shout when you’re up this way, very happy to er think about that practice.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Maybe once when in Australia so totally out of my usual network?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Ah man. Really sorry to see this on a whole number of levels. Commiserations and best wishes to everyone there.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Was thinking about this risk yesterday re broader failure of funders and govt to support backbone organisations after closure news from Reach Volunteering, which connect charities and volunteers including trustees. Value of backbone organisations to sectors proven but no one wants to fund them.
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David Quantick @quantick.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
New slogan for AI: THIS MACHINE THRILLS FASCISTS.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I really enjoy the way he talks about and introduces poetry - it's both detailed and welcoming. As if poetry was both important and a pleasure!
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
So far these are the two most positive signings of the day for me...
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Longton?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Who decided to have transfer deadline day on my first day back to work? Distracted by PNE's inability to do anything - literally anything - to stave off what I fear is an inevitable return to League 1. Which would be deserved after years of (mis)managed decline. Happy to be proved wrong obv.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I'm back at my work desk trying to recall what it is I do. More news as it breaks.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"Though they were surrounded by the marks and leavings of a bad year, they were surrounded also by the marks and leavings of good work, which for that year and any other proposed an end and a new beginning." RIP Wendell Berry. Longer quote here tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com/p/the-marks-...
tacticsforthetightrope.substack.com
"The marks and leavings of good work..."
"Good work was on that place in a way that granted and collaborated in its own endurance, that had carried them thus far, and would carry them on" (Wendell Berry)
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
(I mean, each trip, one direction was cancelled.)
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Holiday In the UK we thought. By train. Been to London, Glasgow, Liverpool. no less than three train cancellations meaning delays and scenic routes home. All cities great, mind, though Liverpool still the greatest, maintains its grip on our hearts. Even in the rain.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Indeed.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Saturday night Wilco at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Sunday night Martin Stephenson and 'some Daintees' at the Waiting Room Eaglescliffe. Both fantastic and epic in their different ways.
the rock band wilco, playing infront of their nameMartin Stephenson and some daintees
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Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
UK Quakers commit to continued, explicit trans inclusion. "...toilet facilities labelled with a 'female' sign remain available to cisgender women, trans women, and others for whom those facilities best align with their lived experience."
quaker.org.uk
Quakers reaffirm commitment to trans inclusion in the wake of EHRC Code of Practice
Quakers in Britain has refreshed and reaffirmed its commitment to providing trans-inclusive facilities across its buildings.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Pretty though
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This. Also: people can ring me without warning without causing panic. Especially if I've forgotten an online meeting. I will always give it three and a bit rings before answering, mind, in case it's just my mum's ghost letting me know she's home safe.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
If you asked 10 year old me who my favourite footballer was he’d sat Kevin Keegan. He scored a penalty in the first game I ever went to. I was 10 & on the Kop so I didn’t see it so much as experience it. For some reason I’m also remembering him on Superstars… (A show Id like to see revived btw). RIP
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This game is everything that’s dull about so much so called world class football. It’d be more fun watching kids in the park.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Just before Argentina‘s first our cat brought a mouse into the front room. I blame her. Too soon Meg too soon!
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Pet peeve: forms that ask for your bank’s address. There is no conceivable reason for this information being required any more.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
To celebrate Stockton making the shortlist for Town of Culture here’s a couple of photos of my poem The Infinite Town being put to good use on the High Street During SIRF and the Stockton Flyer emerging. Onwards ‘and train ourselves to dream’!
People of a mix of races leaning on a plinth with a poem carved into itStockton Flyer emerging from a big plinth on Stockton High Street, poems The Infinite Towncarbed on it.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Govt cutting funding for arts subjects is madness. Ditto languages. Double ditto with knobs on cutting grants for nursing. As this from Nov 24 says we need loan forgiveness for nurses not more debt. (Yes, my daughter studied nursing, work in NHS, has debt!) www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-eve...
rcn.org.uk
Tuition fee increase is ‘bad news for patient care’ | News | Royal College of Nursing
A loan forgiveness model for nursing staff who commit to working in the NHS and public services must be introduced.
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No Score Draws ✍🏻⚽ @noscoredraws.com · 07/07/2026
Sorry sorry sorry am trying to delete
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
My embourgoisement would have been severely hampered if I’d not studied French. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Cutting language courses puts social mobility at risk, say UK experts
Exclusive: University moves and falling exam entries fuel concerns about opportunities for working-class pupils
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
If Burnham is ok with Mahmood's latest shabby, cruel (and politically pointless as the right will just want more) moves all the devo-plus in the world is not going to redeem him in my eyes.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Adaptive resilience from the adaptive Brazilians.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I really liked it when I visited a few years ago. We rode the Minotaur here: www.halledelamachine.fr
halledelamachine.fr
Halle de la machine
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Again, if Burnham keeps Mahmood at the Home Office, his whole coup will have been pointless.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Stockton still buzzing from the newly opened park. FAR busier than usual(so felt safe and friendly, urban life is not rocket science.) Bought a book in an independent bookshop. Bought some records in an independent record shop. Bumped into some people. Vegan sausage rolls. What more do you want?
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
very fine poet - his first Bloodaxe book esp. also influential editor in the 1990s of The Wide Skirt. Part of the Yorkshire wave at the time - McMillan Snr, the Sansoms, Simon Armitage et al.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Sounds really good way into it. I always read the work of poet Geoff Hattersley (from Wombwell IIRC) as the great illustration/exploration of social PTSD post miners strike.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Had cause to go through a lot of community engagement reports recently and concluded many towns and cities would benefit from more trauma- or grief-informed place making.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Lot of talk of anniversaries today. This is a happier one.
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Fantastic to see Stockton’s new park (opens onto High St one side, the riverside the other) open today. Fantastic atmosphere to match the achievement. Ambition and blueprint to more than match any other aspirant town of culture.
Open square with steps in sunshine Stockton on tees
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Just sharing this new report for the Baring Foundation again for those who like to spend their Friday afternoons catching up on reading. baringfoundation.org.uk/resource/cre...
baringfoundation.org.uk
Creatively Minded and Resourceful - The Baring Foundation
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Mark Robinson @thinkingpractice.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I exchanged a few emails and stories with John after coming across his book and the connection, and hoped to meet up as he lived near Grosmont but sadly he died before we could make it happen.
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