Laura Ashe
@lauraashe.bsky.social
Oxford academic. Medievalist. European. Lover of cats. 3am atheist. Easily amused; loud laugh. Never knowingly underdressed. Newish book Chaucer's Ethical Philosophy (OUP, 2025)
Academics *literally have nowhere else to go*, and UK employment law and standard employer expectations do not account for that. You'd need to take 20 years' pay to make it worth quitting. Unless, ofc, they coincidentally also make your job unbearable and undoable. Oh I see
'If they choose to take up the Voluntary Severance Scheme, open to all academic staff in the School of Humanities and the School of Modern Languages, staff essentially make themselves redundant in return for a good pay-out.'
9 months' pay; 3 weeks to decide. 1/3
9 months' pay; 3 weeks to decide. 1/3
University of Bristol asks Humanities and Languages academic staff to voluntarily quit
Certain departments are being run into a ‘managed decline’, says Bristol UCU's co-President, as a new Voluntary Severance Scheme is announced.
epigram.org.uk
February 18, 2026 at 7:15 PM
Academics *literally have nowhere else to go*, and UK employment law and standard employer expectations do not account for that. You'd need to take 20 years' pay to make it worth quitting. Unless, ofc, they coincidentally also make your job unbearable and undoable. Oh I see
Reposted by Laura Ashe
My substack newsletter on Brexit, political folly and the yawning horror of a Reform government.
open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr...
open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr...
The Exterminating Brexit
The British Road to Ruin
open.substack.com
February 15, 2026 at 7:19 PM
My substack newsletter on Brexit, political folly and the yawning horror of a Reform government.
open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr...
open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr...
The cat is relaxed
February 13, 2026 at 8:28 PM
The cat is relaxed
Real fire old fashioned pub crawl
February 11, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Real fire old fashioned pub crawl
"Readers who are looking for a resounding solution to life's problems will be disappointed by what I have to say", says literary critic I am reading
February 10, 2026 at 1:33 PM
"Readers who are looking for a resounding solution to life's problems will be disappointed by what I have to say", says literary critic I am reading
Ok so the American figure skater is evidently Mozart to everybody else's Salieri which is to say he's a mind-blowing genius and I absolutely would never go for a drink with him
February 8, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Ok so the American figure skater is evidently Mozart to everybody else's Salieri which is to say he's a mind-blowing genius and I absolutely would never go for a drink with him
I am SO THRILLED for the Italian figure skater whom I had never previously heard of* whose amazing routine was just SO WONDERFUL that I feel like you could see his whole history and hopes and dreams and buy into them instantly.
*Matteo Rizzo. He's probably tremendously famous. Also a sweetie
*Matteo Rizzo. He's probably tremendously famous. Also a sweetie
February 8, 2026 at 9:18 PM
I am SO THRILLED for the Italian figure skater whom I had never previously heard of* whose amazing routine was just SO WONDERFUL that I feel like you could see his whole history and hopes and dreams and buy into them instantly.
*Matteo Rizzo. He's probably tremendously famous. Also a sweetie
*Matteo Rizzo. He's probably tremendously famous. Also a sweetie
Am I the only person who assumed Morgan McSweeney was a joke name?
February 8, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Am I the only person who assumed Morgan McSweeney was a joke name?
Not content with shooting people, abducting and disappearing people, and depriving people of healthcare, the government is now mandating for as many preventable deaths as possible. I guess this is what happens when the rich decide they no longer need slave labour
February 1, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Not content with shooting people, abducting and disappearing people, and depriving people of healthcare, the government is now mandating for as many preventable deaths as possible. I guess this is what happens when the rich decide they no longer need slave labour
His LITTLE FACE! His MASSIVE PAWS!
February 1, 2026 at 8:11 PM
His LITTLE FACE! His MASSIVE PAWS!
Wyatt has promised to hunt everywhere in the house to help us find the mysterious person who keeps knocking everything onto the floor
February 1, 2026 at 11:46 AM
Wyatt has promised to hunt everywhere in the house to help us find the mysterious person who keeps knocking everything onto the floor
The Jehovah's Witnesses came round to ask me if I thought it possible to have a life without pain and suffering. I said no, but also promised them that I think about this stuff a lot. I may have claimed to have "read" the bible
Anyway they went away, thank the void
Anyway they went away, thank the void
January 30, 2026 at 3:25 PM
The Jehovah's Witnesses came round to ask me if I thought it possible to have a life without pain and suffering. I said no, but also promised them that I think about this stuff a lot. I may have claimed to have "read" the bible
Anyway they went away, thank the void
Anyway they went away, thank the void
My cat is wearing my other cat as a scarf
January 28, 2026 at 9:01 PM
My cat is wearing my other cat as a scarf
As a medievalist reading modern theory and philosophy of love and desire I am frankly MASSIVELY WEIRDED OUT by the authority granted to Denis de Rougemont's utterly bonkers theory
January 28, 2026 at 12:02 PM
As a medievalist reading modern theory and philosophy of love and desire I am frankly MASSIVELY WEIRDED OUT by the authority granted to Denis de Rougemont's utterly bonkers theory
Merrill says whatever you've done, you're still worthy of love
January 27, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Merrill says whatever you've done, you're still worthy of love
The US has become a vast experiment in moral luck (am I a good person? I don't know; I haven't been tested). I don't know what I would do if the gestapo were at my door. I am overwhelmed with admiration at what thousands of Americans are doing.
January 27, 2026 at 7:31 PM
The US has become a vast experiment in moral luck (am I a good person? I don't know; I haven't been tested). I don't know what I would do if the gestapo were at my door. I am overwhelmed with admiration at what thousands of Americans are doing.
A brilliant showing-not-telling-by-telling line in Hollinghurst's Our Evenings: "but there were whole years when I barely thought of him at all"
January 27, 2026 at 5:52 PM
A brilliant showing-not-telling-by-telling line in Hollinghurst's Our Evenings: "but there were whole years when I barely thought of him at all"
Absolutely top level trolling
January 26, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Absolutely top level trolling
So I genuinely in good faith said to a roomful of people "I can't remember how jazz hands go; what are jazz hands?" And I am now determined to do this on every single possible occasion
January 23, 2026 at 10:17 PM
So I genuinely in good faith said to a roomful of people "I can't remember how jazz hands go; what are jazz hands?" And I am now determined to do this on every single possible occasion
The reason lots of people stop outside our window and look in (one bloke even took a picture the other day)
January 23, 2026 at 1:05 PM
The reason lots of people stop outside our window and look in (one bloke even took a picture the other day)
Absolutely inspiring stuff from Carney
January 21, 2026 at 1:43 PM
Absolutely inspiring stuff from Carney
It's surely not *beyond* Keir Starmer to realize that this isn't a Neville Chamberlain moment, it's a Winston Churchill moment
(The irony! How derangedly upset the hard right would be if we took back our moral patriotism!)
(The irony! How derangedly upset the hard right would be if we took back our moral patriotism!)
January 20, 2026 at 6:35 PM
It's surely not *beyond* Keir Starmer to realize that this isn't a Neville Chamberlain moment, it's a Winston Churchill moment
(The irony! How derangedly upset the hard right would be if we took back our moral patriotism!)
(The irony! How derangedly upset the hard right would be if we took back our moral patriotism!)
Reposted by Laura Ashe
This is a fantastic article with a lot of simple explanations in it of everyday counterintuitive bullshit, just as you’d expect from Cory Doctorow.
Yeah AI is a bubble. But what sort of bubble? Who puffed it up? And what do we do?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Yeah AI is a bubble. But what sort of bubble? Who puffed it up? And what do we do?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:02 AM
This is a fantastic article with a lot of simple explanations in it of everyday counterintuitive bullshit, just as you’d expect from Cory Doctorow.
Yeah AI is a bubble. But what sort of bubble? Who puffed it up? And what do we do?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Yeah AI is a bubble. But what sort of bubble? Who puffed it up? And what do we do?
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
"Just a little nibble?"
Guten Morgen, ihr Lieben ✨☕️🫖✨, wünsche euch einen schönen Wochenstart mit vielen Schmunzelmomenten 🫶🏼🍀🤗
January 19, 2026 at 8:00 AM
"Just a little nibble?"