David Clover

Have made Xmas cake today. Does it count for my stockpiling collection?

'Imagine the book that sat proudly on a shelf for years, only to wind up in the charity shop [...]. The pamphlet carefully preserved in someone’s desk until death and house clearance led it to an antiquarian bookseller.' @kamackinnon on radical print history in Glasgow.

6th form open days continue. Two very different choices now!

No, I still don't want to go to Radisson Blu, Heathrow... your emails are starting to have a whiff of desperation.

Carole is understandably annoyed.

A lovely read on the changing life of the library within the building that houses it - complete with some great archival items and photos 📚

In the richest Country in The Known Universe There's Plenty Enough for Everyone

Global historians are fascinated by mobility and exchange, with good reason - but as Joya Chatterji points out, we also need a history of the people who didn't move. I loved editing this article, which sheds fascinating light on the farmers who made botanical exchange possible.

UNT Removes LGBTQ Archive Amid Lawmaker Criticism www.dailysignal.com/2026/09/25/u... What a #snowflake. Happy to see UNT didn't remove all the other LGBTQ+ content I was able to still find on their site(s)!

Mr15 walked out of the house at 3.45 this morning. With a bag containing clothes and one of my debit cards. All OK, he was off to be at school on time for coach to airport and science trip to Geneva, with my global money card in hand.

Dover is one of the most heavily policed places in the UK. It's a two hour's drive from London, where the Met has more significant anti-crowd capacity than any other force in the UK. Letting a group of fascists act as they see fit is a choice they have made One they don't make for peaceful protest

British Academy Small Grants scheme is open. it has been using partial randomisation for a while. Researchers whose proposals meet the quality threshold for £££ but miss out in the draw are told this. Increasingly, I'm seeing these good-quality-bad-luck outcomes shared on LinkedIn. (1)

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of the City part of @citystgeorges.bsky.social Known for years as the Northampton Institute, after the Marquess of Northampton, who donated the land on which it is built If you like this image, I’d really appreciate a repost - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

This is set up for laughs, but it’s actually one of the best demonstrations I’ve seen of how being capable of producing convincing sounding language and understanding meaning are two completely different things. A chatbot does not understand you, it just has automated responses based on your words.

Narrator: it has not. One anonymous gender critical “lesbian” and one gay from Reform do not a backlash make. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Second provider closure this week...

This is bracing, remarkable reading by Will Self about Jason Arday, naming names in blistering terms, including several prominent TERFs who joined the kicking of Arday. May Kathleen Stock and Sarah Ditum and everyone else involved never live this down.

Latest blog - Paying Too Much For Regulation The Office for Students is planning to modify how it charges fees to the institutions it regulates. But the real issue is that the regulation itself is excessive and costly. Much more radical change is required. wonderfulhighered.com/2026/08/01/_...

Stepping off the plane to a comfortable outside temperature. Welcome home.

Dear London colleagues, I understand it is currently 35 degrees there and feels like 35. Here it is 31 and feels like 34. I have just got out of the swimming pool but drying out before I return to my air-conditioned hotel room.

The dialectical materialist position on disposable barbecues is that banning them is good, but *only* banning them and not investing in parks infrastructure to provide appropriate areas including free-to-use barbecue pits, picnic benches and accessible public toilets is bad.

Call for chapters: Made Municipal: the LCC through its everyday objects. All reposts much appreciated. x

Some fascinating collections and lovely working areas and colleagues

Rod Liddle called his ex-wife a “slut and a slattern” in print before marrying a 22-year old Spectator receptionist who he was cautioned by the police after assaulting her when she was 20 weeks pregnant. But he was anti-trans, so these “protectors of women” overlook everything.

This from @damianbarr.bsky.social is really good. It manages to raise so many important points. Especially important in the the historically transphobic Observer

Am so embarrassed by my professional association right now.

Talking about height of rugby flyhalfs, so I googled and read out first result. Mr15 responds, "that's so AI"... think we underestimate critical thinking skills in young people.

España por siempre! 🇪🇸 🙌

Wesley Streeting being Defence Secretary makes sense as he’s trained to a kill, given the number of trans kids who died under his watch as Health Secretary

I hadn't realised Chris Martin was responsible for that World Cup half time horror. He should immediately have his British citizenship revoked (especially for the weird creepy Michael Jackson Earth Song vibes of the last bit), his soul has clearly become corrupted by the worst of American hubris.

Nice view, and very well air-conditioned

'The decision to slash funding for creative subjects comes despite the field being named as one of the UK’s “highest potential sectors” in the government’s industrial strategy.' 1/2

We’ve unbelievably been ranked No.1 in the UK in the National Student NSS Survey 🫶 (*based on question 21, part-time female students studying Maths from Denbighshire aged 41-42 only)

Personally, I prefer a work environment where sick people stay home, because of this thing known as "the germ theory of disease." It's a cutting-edge radical understanding of disease that says you catch it from microbial organisms, rather than a lack of God's favor and insufficient morals.

Reform UK councillors have introduced a motion to rescind King's Lynn and West Norfolk's climate emergency declaration and deprioritise decarbonisation efforts The council were going to vote on it on Thursday But the meeting has been postponed due to extreme heat

When I see tankie dickheads making excuses for Putin's Russia, I think of stuff like this. Ukraine is fighting this war on all of our behalfs.

Today was largely about travelling to Twickenham and back and watching some rugby.

The @esmeefairbairn.bsky.social Foundation is looking for new trustees. Apply by 20th July saxtonbampfylde.maglr.com/esmee-fairba...