punkacademic
@punkacademic.bsky.social
He/him | Queer | Anarchist | Historian | MS | Everton | Celtics
My latest for @freedompress.bsky.social on the Davie and Turness resignations.
The BBC—despite its best efforts—simply couldn’t give the technofascists enough of what they wanted. Too much fascism in institutions will never be enough for those they are trying to appease.
freedomnews.org.uk/2025/11/10/b...
freedomnews.org.uk/2025/11/10/b...
BBC's "War on Woke" was never enough for the right - Freedom News
Resignations over ‘left-wing bias’ are both bitterly amusing and a dangerous portent of where the state broadcaster is headed ~ punkac…
freedomnews.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:32 PM
My latest for @freedompress.bsky.social on the Davie and Turness resignations.
Have soft-relaunched my website at punkacademic.org
In honour of that, and Rachel Reeves' continued tribulations, I'm resharing my article on the ideological issues of the Labour right from 2021.
punkacademic.org/2021/07/06/s...
In honour of that, and Rachel Reeves' continued tribulations, I'm resharing my article on the ideological issues of the Labour right from 2021.
punkacademic.org/2021/07/06/s...
Sneering at Marx
The context of Rachel Reeves’ failure to read the author of Capital hints at the intellectual bankruptcy of the contemporary Labour right In 1956, Anthony Crosland, revisionist theorist and future …
punkacademic.org
November 10, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Have soft-relaunched my website at punkacademic.org
In honour of that, and Rachel Reeves' continued tribulations, I'm resharing my article on the ideological issues of the Labour right from 2021.
punkacademic.org/2021/07/06/s...
In honour of that, and Rachel Reeves' continued tribulations, I'm resharing my article on the ideological issues of the Labour right from 2021.
punkacademic.org/2021/07/06/s...
We are living in an unreal world.
I stopped appearing on BBC television because of very obvious govt interference in the output.
Was told before one broadcast that 'Downing Street' was unhappy with a particular story, so I shouldn't talk about it.
BBC is fundamentally right-wing in its output /1
I stopped appearing on BBC television because of very obvious govt interference in the output.
Was told before one broadcast that 'Downing Street' was unhappy with a particular story, so I shouldn't talk about it.
BBC is fundamentally right-wing in its output /1
Tim Davie, whose BBC cancelled The Mash Report and went after Lineker as part of a 'war on woke', going for not being right-wing enough speaks volumes about where the BBC will go next.
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
Tim Davie: BBC director general embroiled in Gary Lineker controversy
Critics claim former marketing man at centre of row over impartiality is too close to the government
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM
We are living in an unreal world.
I stopped appearing on BBC television because of very obvious govt interference in the output.
Was told before one broadcast that 'Downing Street' was unhappy with a particular story, so I shouldn't talk about it.
BBC is fundamentally right-wing in its output /1
I stopped appearing on BBC television because of very obvious govt interference in the output.
Was told before one broadcast that 'Downing Street' was unhappy with a particular story, so I shouldn't talk about it.
BBC is fundamentally right-wing in its output /1
Tim Davie, whose BBC cancelled The Mash Report and went after Lineker as part of a 'war on woke', going for not being right-wing enough speaks volumes about where the BBC will go next.
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
Tim Davie: BBC director general embroiled in Gary Lineker controversy
Critics claim former marketing man at centre of row over impartiality is too close to the government
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Tim Davie, whose BBC cancelled The Mash Report and went after Lineker as part of a 'war on woke', going for not being right-wing enough speaks volumes about where the BBC will go next.
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
(Don't remember the DG going when they used the wrong footage to make Johnson look better at the Cenotaph)
Reposted by punkacademic
Thinking of Emma Goldman’s prosecution and subsequent deportation for encouraging people to resist the draft and keeping a “wagonload of anarchist records and propaganda” at the organizing offices, among other things
Different era, same fucking playbook
Different era, same fucking playbook
someone got indicted on the basis of “transporting antifa materials” for allegedly transporting a box of ZINES
THEY’RE PROSECUTING PEOPLE FOR DOMESTIC TERRORISM OVER ZINES
THEY’RE PROSECUTING PEOPLE FOR DOMESTIC TERRORISM OVER ZINES
Alarming criminalization of green card holder based on "Antifa Materials" - another attempt to silence dissent and target people critical of this administration
Release Des and the Prairieland Defendants!
Release Des and the Prairieland Defendants!
November 6, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Thinking of Emma Goldman’s prosecution and subsequent deportation for encouraging people to resist the draft and keeping a “wagonload of anarchist records and propaganda” at the organizing offices, among other things
Different era, same fucking playbook
Different era, same fucking playbook
Reposted by punkacademic
Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
Music and modern languages courses suspended at University of Nottingham
In a statement the institution also says it is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Well this is awful news: tinyurl.com/yr65mjkx
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
'All modern language and music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham.'
Nottingham friends: please be assured that we will join you in protesting against this decision in the strongest possible terms. Solidarity.
Reposted by punkacademic
This is what happened at Coventry; I did not apply to their fire and rehire scheme because I couldn't stomach the changes they were making to our contracts - not only getting us off the pension but totally changing our academic contracts.
Vile stuff. At my own university all new staff are employed via a subsidiary company to avoid the TPS pension (remember: pensions are pay) and we all fear the costing staff will be next. Management think staff are so desperate that they’ll accept anything.
Remember: university managements are so…
Remember: university managements are so…
Unprecedented, potentially unlawful retrograde proposals made by @solentuniversity.bsky.social
If you have a vested interest in HE, this concerns you.
We must stand together to resist these outrageous proposals.
#HE #TPS #LGPS #Pension #post-92
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423...
If you have a vested interest in HE, this concerns you.
We must stand together to resist these outrageous proposals.
#HE #TPS #LGPS #Pension #post-92
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423...
October 23, 2025 at 7:55 AM
This is what happened at Coventry; I did not apply to their fire and rehire scheme because I couldn't stomach the changes they were making to our contracts - not only getting us off the pension but totally changing our academic contracts.
Reposted by punkacademic
Vile stuff. At my own university all new staff are employed via a subsidiary company to avoid the TPS pension (remember: pensions are pay) and we all fear the costing staff will be next. Management think staff are so desperate that they’ll accept anything.
Remember: university managements are so…
Remember: university managements are so…
Unprecedented, potentially unlawful retrograde proposals made by @solentuniversity.bsky.social
If you have a vested interest in HE, this concerns you.
We must stand together to resist these outrageous proposals.
#HE #TPS #LGPS #Pension #post-92
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423...
If you have a vested interest in HE, this concerns you.
We must stand together to resist these outrageous proposals.
#HE #TPS #LGPS #Pension #post-92
www.ucu.org.uk/article/1423...
Solent University threatens P&O-style 'Fire & Rehire' with pension cuts
UCU today announced that it has entered a formal trade dispute with Southampton Solent University over plans to force all its staff onto inferior pension schemes, paving the way for a strike ballot if...
www.ucu.org.uk
October 23, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Vile stuff. At my own university all new staff are employed via a subsidiary company to avoid the TPS pension (remember: pensions are pay) and we all fear the costing staff will be next. Management think staff are so desperate that they’ll accept anything.
Remember: university managements are so…
Remember: university managements are so…
Reposted by punkacademic
'At pace' is this government's Choose Life.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
October 21, 2025 at 9:46 AM
'At pace' is this government's Choose Life.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Reposted by punkacademic
This is deranged and dangerous from the Conservatives, and similarly from Reform. If they could enact it, it would rip British society apart, destroy the economy & NHS, & make the UK an international pariah. Every decent politician & political journalist/commentator needs to push back hard.
The draft legislation is crackers. It would fail immediately if we stayed in the ECHR but it disappears the human rights act. if passed after that it would involve mandatory loss of ILR for up to 400,000 people + refusal of 2-3 million others, though without no credible means to identify or remove
Here Lam explicitly sets out her proposal - which is official Conservative Party policy - to deport long-standing legal permanent residents who have *ever* claimed any benefit, including the state pension or child benefit (even if the child is British), or who earn less than £39K.
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 AM
This is deranged and dangerous from the Conservatives, and similarly from Reform. If they could enact it, it would rip British society apart, destroy the economy & NHS, & make the UK an international pariah. Every decent politician & political journalist/commentator needs to push back hard.
Reposted by punkacademic
“How did we end up with concentration camps on British soil?”, well ask ourselves in a few years. “Dunno guv, it’s a mystery, I don’t remember reading anything much about it in the papers…”
October 21, 2025 at 9:47 AM
“How did we end up with concentration camps on British soil?”, well ask ourselves in a few years. “Dunno guv, it’s a mystery, I don’t remember reading anything much about it in the papers…”
'At pace' is this government's Choose Life.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
October 21, 2025 at 9:46 AM
'At pace' is this government's Choose Life.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Get a LinkedIn profile, at pace.
Hold a consultation, at pace.
Engage key stakeholders, at pace.
Schedule some activations, at pace.
Ban the right to protest, at pace.
Reposted by punkacademic
Yarvin is a full-blown techno-fascist and the fact that the University of Oxford sees fit not only to platform him but to give him the floor entirely should sound the loudest alarm bell it's possible to sound about the number of elite fascist sympathizers in the UK right now.
“Following his lecture, Yarvin will debate the legendary British historian David Starkey on history and the future of conservatism.” Everything about this is so cursed. Masks off at the University of Oxford.
October 20, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Yarvin is a full-blown techno-fascist and the fact that the University of Oxford sees fit not only to platform him but to give him the floor entirely should sound the loudest alarm bell it's possible to sound about the number of elite fascist sympathizers in the UK right now.
Reposted by punkacademic
The entire "free speech on campus" moral panic was manufactured to blackmail us into making space in intellectual life for bigots and charlatans who couldn't get there on their own merits. Its a DEI scheme for fascism. Congratulations to everyone who took it at face value.
“Following his lecture, Yarvin will debate the legendary British historian David Starkey on history and the future of conservatism.” Everything about this is so cursed. Masks off at the University of Oxford.
October 20, 2025 at 2:13 PM
The entire "free speech on campus" moral panic was manufactured to blackmail us into making space in intellectual life for bigots and charlatans who couldn't get there on their own merits. Its a DEI scheme for fascism. Congratulations to everyone who took it at face value.
He's younger than me. I didn't start regularly going to Goodison until 1991 when I was 12. Fair enough people started going younger, but I doubt very much there were shedloads of five and six year olds in the away end at Villa at the height of terrace warfare in the 80s.
The chances that Robert Jenrick *literally* went to "more than a few football matches in the away end" at Villa Park *in the 1980s* (ie, before his 8th birthday on 8.1.1990) are vanishingly small to non-existent. (He may have been in the away end at Villa Park as a child or teenager in the 1990s)
October 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
He's younger than me. I didn't start regularly going to Goodison until 1991 when I was 12. Fair enough people started going younger, but I doubt very much there were shedloads of five and six year olds in the away end at Villa at the height of terrace warfare in the 80s.
But...they said they were going to enhance A2W in 'exchange' for PIP cuts...
Almost like everything the government says is bullshit, as we disabled people said at the time.
Almost like everything the government says is bullshit, as we disabled people said at the time.
Government figures show first signs of ‘perverse’ cuts to Access to Work
#AccessToWork #DWP
@AoDisability @CampaignFDJ
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/government-f...
#AccessToWork #DWP
@AoDisability @CampaignFDJ
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/government-f...
Government figures show first signs of ‘perverse’ cuts to Access to Work
Official government figures have shown the first signs that ministers have been engaged in a “perverse” programme to secretly restrict grants made by the Access to Work disability employment scheme…
www.disabilitynewsservice.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:42 PM
But...they said they were going to enhance A2W in 'exchange' for PIP cuts...
Almost like everything the government says is bullshit, as we disabled people said at the time.
Almost like everything the government says is bullshit, as we disabled people said at the time.
There is a bit of a thread here. In Liddle & Mandelson's 'Blair Revolution' (1996) there's a potted history of the labour movement from their perpective where they have a go at the unions in the Edwardian period for being a pain in the arse.
Part of that 'pain' was establishing the Labour Party.
Part of that 'pain' was establishing the Labour Party.
“This Labour government would have banned the labour movement.”
Excellent column by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on the striking illiberalism of the Starmer government.
Excellent column by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on the striking illiberalism of the Starmer government.
Here’s what you need to know about Starmer’s illiberal protest curbs: they would have killed the Labour party at birth | George Monbiot
The rights we enjoy in the UK, and the movement the PM purports to lead, were built on protest. Those rights are in dire peril, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:13 PM
There is a bit of a thread here. In Liddle & Mandelson's 'Blair Revolution' (1996) there's a potted history of the labour movement from their perpective where they have a go at the unions in the Edwardian period for being a pain in the arse.
Part of that 'pain' was establishing the Labour Party.
Part of that 'pain' was establishing the Labour Party.
Reposted by punkacademic
Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder
Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!
www.freefunder.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.
Thank you for your consideration.
Reposted by punkacademic
Was on the Freedom Anarchist News Review talking about Starmer's war on protest...
Livestreaming now: The Anarchist News Review! With Starmer threatening to police both how many protests we have and what we can say while doing them, what other Faragist measures might there be on the Labour Party docket for 2025?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztA...
Anarchist News Review: Labour hammers protest and the Tories hammer each other
YouTube video by Freedom
www.youtube.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Was on the Freedom Anarchist News Review talking about Starmer's war on protest...
Was on the Freedom Anarchist News Review talking about Starmer's war on protest...
Livestreaming now: The Anarchist News Review! With Starmer threatening to police both how many protests we have and what we can say while doing them, what other Faragist measures might there be on the Labour Party docket for 2025?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztA...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NztA...
Anarchist News Review: Labour hammers protest and the Tories hammer each other
YouTube video by Freedom
www.youtube.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Was on the Freedom Anarchist News Review talking about Starmer's war on protest...
Reposted by punkacademic
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
This. It goes to the whole range of issues of course.
Reminiscent of the oft-repeated Brecht quote - Labour would 'dissolve the people and elect another'.
Reminiscent of the oft-repeated Brecht quote - Labour would 'dissolve the people and elect another'.
To a certain extent, though, this is how it is always going to be. The situation is getting more obvious, more desperate, the government less connected from the problems and any mechanisms that might fix them. It's more insulting, more gross. But it's just laying it out the same it's always been.
Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again...
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.'
October 5, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This. It goes to the whole range of issues of course.
Reminiscent of the oft-repeated Brecht quote - Labour would 'dissolve the people and elect another'.
Reminiscent of the oft-repeated Brecht quote - Labour would 'dissolve the people and elect another'.
Reposted by punkacademic
Unfortunately the billionaire funded online radicalisation of white people in the UK is growing and instead of getting to the root cause that endangers us all we’re being told they have legitimate concerns and government trying to give them what they want with every policy announcement
October 5, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Unfortunately the billionaire funded online radicalisation of white people in the UK is growing and instead of getting to the root cause that endangers us all we’re being told they have legitimate concerns and government trying to give them what they want with every policy announcement