Richard Carr
@richardcarr.bsky.social
https://www.routledge.com/Britain-and-Ireland-from-the-Treaty-to-the-Troubles-Independence-and-Interdependence-c-1921-1973/Carr/p/book/9781032879871
History/politics lecturer. My views only.
Books about British-Irish relations, Blair/Clinton, Chaplin etc
History/politics lecturer. My views only.
Books about British-Irish relations, Blair/Clinton, Chaplin etc
Pinned
Richard Carr
@richardcarr.bsky.social
· Feb 14
Britain and Ireland from the Treaty to the Troubles: Independence and Interdependence, c. 1921-1973
Using extensive and fresh archival material, this book places the relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland after 1921 in a new light, encouraging us to rethink the dominant narrative of con...
www.routledge.com
My book on Britain and Ireland from the 1920s to the early 1970s is now available to pre-order (sure, given the price, very likely for an institutional library - but hey, flag it up).
Trade, tariffs, and sovereignty - so very current. Also marriage and migration.
www.routledge.com/Britain-and-...
Trade, tariffs, and sovereignty - so very current. Also marriage and migration.
www.routledge.com/Britain-and-...
Judging by twitter’s unhinged reaction to the proposed lifting of the child benefit cap there’ll be an army of babies around 2026/27 from right wing commentators eager to look after a kid for the absolute bonanza of £26/£17 a week
November 10, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Judging by twitter’s unhinged reaction to the proposed lifting of the child benefit cap there’ll be an army of babies around 2026/27 from right wing commentators eager to look after a kid for the absolute bonanza of £26/£17 a week
Niche hypothesis: the rise of AI has increased the number of students rocking up to a supervision with new material the lecturer is supposed to I guess speed read live and kick out five recommendations (rather than emailing a draft in advance)
November 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Niche hypothesis: the rise of AI has increased the number of students rocking up to a supervision with new material the lecturer is supposed to I guess speed read live and kick out five recommendations (rather than emailing a draft in advance)
Reposted by Richard Carr
'If both sides are criticising me, I must be doing something right,' I warble, as I run babytalk opinion on the BBC News website.
November 9, 2025 at 11:39 PM
'If both sides are criticising me, I must be doing something right,' I warble, as I run babytalk opinion on the BBC News website.
Reposted by Richard Carr
![Cartoon by Stephen Collins for The Guardian. Script as follows:
[scene is Winston Churchill in a bbc studio, giving his 'finest hour' speech]
1
CHURCHILL:
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.
2
CHURCHILL:
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.
3
CHURCHILL:
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free
and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sun-
BBC PRESENTER:
Thank you prime minister
4
BBC PRESENTER:
Mr hitler, your response?
5
HITLER [in the studio]:
Vell zis is hysterical woke nonsense as usual from mr Churchill
6
HITLER:
What we are proposing -
CHURCHILL:
Hang on
7
HITLER:
Let me finish - what we are proposing eez a simple power-sharing arrangement -
8
CHURCHILL:
What's he doing here
BBC PRESENTER:
It's important we hear both sides of the debate
9
CHURCHILL:
This isn't a debate
You don't debate fascists
10
HITLER:
Oh here we go with ze Godwins law!
11
HITLER:
Why must you people always compare ze things you don't like to 'fascists, Nazis, Hitler'...
CHURCHILL:
Because you are a fascist Nazi Hit-
12
HITLER [standing up, saluting]:
RAUSS!
BBC PRESENTER:
*Please* Mr Churchill let him speak
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreibw4ldc3fhslbvxgy2oqrof2oys5kpgh7zu6a5f3usmx3lf4547qm@jpeg)
Started the week with a trip to the dental hygienist. I've been good with my teeth for about a decade but it turns out that if you just don't do anything beyond brushing and grind your teeth at night without preventative action for the previous thirty years then you're fighting a losing battle.
November 10, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Started the week with a trip to the dental hygienist. I've been good with my teeth for about a decade but it turns out that if you just don't do anything beyond brushing and grind your teeth at night without preventative action for the previous thirty years then you're fighting a losing battle.
I'll be honest, example one sucks.
1) why are we doing this again? I reckon the student working out what modules they want to do on their own is kind of a minimum bar
2) in the current and evolving financial landscape, what module choices and complementary extra-curricular activities anyways?
1) why are we doing this again? I reckon the student working out what modules they want to do on their own is kind of a minimum bar
2) in the current and evolving financial landscape, what module choices and complementary extra-curricular activities anyways?
November 10, 2025 at 9:47 AM
I'll be honest, example one sucks.
1) why are we doing this again? I reckon the student working out what modules they want to do on their own is kind of a minimum bar
2) in the current and evolving financial landscape, what module choices and complementary extra-curricular activities anyways?
1) why are we doing this again? I reckon the student working out what modules they want to do on their own is kind of a minimum bar
2) in the current and evolving financial landscape, what module choices and complementary extra-curricular activities anyways?
Always a rules for life type schema for these folk
Rage against group think, writes Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times, by reading out a paragraph of what *I* think at the beginning of every BBC editorial meeting.
November 9, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Always a rules for life type schema for these folk
Six year old party bag fillers: it’s on
November 8, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Six year old party bag fillers: it’s on
Lecturing 2025 is thirty eight people from different arms of the university each making from their own perspective semi or fully reasonable requests until the straw breaks the camel’s back
November 8, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Lecturing 2025 is thirty eight people from different arms of the university each making from their own perspective semi or fully reasonable requests until the straw breaks the camel’s back
If people are going to straight steal from my REF impact statement they should at least say
‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2
percentage points’
Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are
on.ft.com/4qMMkJd
percentage points’
Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are
on.ft.com/4qMMkJd
November 8, 2025 at 10:02 AM
If people are going to straight steal from my REF impact statement they should at least say
Completely agree.
As previously discussed, I'll #don a tweed jacket or knitted jumper if it helps for visual academic style shorthand for any invites.
The trade press is also really bad at representing these voices though I guess this is it's own thing.
As previously discussed, I'll #don a tweed jacket or knitted jumper if it helps for visual academic style shorthand for any invites.
The trade press is also really bad at representing these voices though I guess this is it's own thing.
Nearly two years of showing the realities of the gambles taken by these managers, ministers, and their consultants on the people who do the work of keeping the sector afloat: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo....
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
🚨OUT NOW🚨 Are unis about to collapse? 🎓
Ex-minister Jo Johnson, UUK's Vivienne Stern, Public First's Jess Lister and Russell Group's Sarah Stevens join PolHome's @matildamartin.bsky.social & @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the strain on higher education
Listen: podfollow.com/politicshome...
Ex-minister Jo Johnson, UUK's Vivienne Stern, Public First's Jess Lister and Russell Group's Sarah Stevens join PolHome's @matildamartin.bsky.social & @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the strain on higher education
Listen: podfollow.com/politicshome...
November 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Completely agree.
As previously discussed, I'll #don a tweed jacket or knitted jumper if it helps for visual academic style shorthand for any invites.
The trade press is also really bad at representing these voices though I guess this is it's own thing.
As previously discussed, I'll #don a tweed jacket or knitted jumper if it helps for visual academic style shorthand for any invites.
The trade press is also really bad at representing these voices though I guess this is it's own thing.
Reposted by Richard Carr
Nearly two years of showing the realities of the gambles taken by these managers, ministers, and their consultants on the people who do the work of keeping the sector afloat: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo....
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
🚨OUT NOW🚨 Are unis about to collapse? 🎓
Ex-minister Jo Johnson, UUK's Vivienne Stern, Public First's Jess Lister and Russell Group's Sarah Stevens join PolHome's @matildamartin.bsky.social & @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the strain on higher education
Listen: podfollow.com/politicshome...
Ex-minister Jo Johnson, UUK's Vivienne Stern, Public First's Jess Lister and Russell Group's Sarah Stevens join PolHome's @matildamartin.bsky.social & @alaintolhurst.bsky.social to discuss the strain on higher education
Listen: podfollow.com/politicshome...
November 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Nearly two years of showing the realities of the gambles taken by these managers, ministers, and their consultants on the people who do the work of keeping the sector afloat: qmucu.org/qmul-transfo....
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
Yet outlets still fail to even consider that they might need to include staff in their coverage?
ChatGPT again not huge on facts
November 7, 2025 at 12:17 PM
ChatGPT again not huge on facts
Reposted by Richard Carr
Educators are being made to feel inadequate for not realising AI’s potential. They must submit, adapt, augment themselves, and become ‘AI literate’ or risk obsolescence.
This is what supposed "educationalists" are currently raking in money for suggesting we force-feed to millions of students at a stressful time in their young lives.
I wanted ChatGPT to help me. So why did it advise me how to kill myself?
ChatGPT wrote a woman a suicide note and another AI chatbot role-played sexual acts with children, BBC finds.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Educators are being made to feel inadequate for not realising AI’s potential. They must submit, adapt, augment themselves, and become ‘AI literate’ or risk obsolescence.
No deal! I’m doing this all for the logo or not at all!
REF 2029 branding ban baffles research offices.
Instruction to remove Research Excellence Framework logo from university materials prompts confusion.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Instruction to remove Research Excellence Framework logo from university materials prompts confusion.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
REF 2029 branding ban baffles research offices - Research Professional News
Instruction to remove Research Excellence Framework logo from university materials prompts confusion
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
No deal! I’m doing this all for the logo or not at all!
Living on the edge by seeing if this is spicy or mild
November 6, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Living on the edge by seeing if this is spicy or mild
Reposted by Richard Carr
Or you can marvel once again at Patrick, who lived at Ballarat Wildlife Park in Australia, becoming both the oldest captive wombat ever recorded, and – to use the correct naturalists’ term – an absolute fucking whopper
November 6, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Or you can marvel once again at Patrick, who lived at Ballarat Wildlife Park in Australia, becoming both the oldest captive wombat ever recorded, and – to use the correct naturalists’ term – an absolute fucking whopper
Honestly teaching these modules is horrendous as a lecturer and so I can only imagine what the experience is like for students trying to get to grips with (when we're talking about cross-subject generic modules) horrendous X 4 or whatever
Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
November 6, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Honestly teaching these modules is horrendous as a lecturer and so I can only imagine what the experience is like for students trying to get to grips with (when we're talking about cross-subject generic modules) horrendous X 4 or whatever
Reposted by Richard Carr
Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
November 6, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
Ballon d’Orange
What is the best slogan against this Fifa-Trump charade of a pretend peace prize? Could one be based around the acronym FIFA or FPP (Fifa Peace Prize)? Or something else
November 6, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Ballon d’Orange
British press reaction to the end of the “war” also interesting.
Initially: “we’ve won. We’ve easily won this!”
Calm sober analysis (along the O’Rourke line) begins to filter through that, well, maybe not.
Pro-Chamberlain press: “this only proves how magnanimous the PM has been here!”
Initially: “we’ve won. We’ve easily won this!”
Calm sober analysis (along the O’Rourke line) begins to filter through that, well, maybe not.
Pro-Chamberlain press: “this only proves how magnanimous the PM has been here!”
Trade wars are never solely about economics, as the Anglo-Irish tariff war of the 1930s reminds us.
Ireland’s David and the British Goliath | @duncanweldon.bsky.social
engelsbergideas.com/essays/irela...
Ireland’s David and the British Goliath | @duncanweldon.bsky.social
engelsbergideas.com/essays/irela...
Ireland's David and the British Goliath
Trade wars are never solely about economics, as the Anglo-Irish tariff war of the 1930s reminds us.
engelsbergideas.com
November 5, 2025 at 5:58 PM
British press reaction to the end of the “war” also interesting.
Initially: “we’ve won. We’ve easily won this!”
Calm sober analysis (along the O’Rourke line) begins to filter through that, well, maybe not.
Pro-Chamberlain press: “this only proves how magnanimous the PM has been here!”
Initially: “we’ve won. We’ve easily won this!”
Calm sober analysis (along the O’Rourke line) begins to filter through that, well, maybe not.
Pro-Chamberlain press: “this only proves how magnanimous the PM has been here!”
One of those motivational high performancey and ideally non-right wing but I'll take what I can get podcasters but for really simple #lifehacks that students now don't do as much.
That Tom Odell song but with
1. Pen and pad; take notes please. 2. Phones away 3. Journal articles are great etc etc
That Tom Odell song but with
1. Pen and pad; take notes please. 2. Phones away 3. Journal articles are great etc etc
November 5, 2025 at 2:29 PM
One of those motivational high performancey and ideally non-right wing but I'll take what I can get podcasters but for really simple #lifehacks that students now don't do as much.
That Tom Odell song but with
1. Pen and pad; take notes please. 2. Phones away 3. Journal articles are great etc etc
That Tom Odell song but with
1. Pen and pad; take notes please. 2. Phones away 3. Journal articles are great etc etc
We all fumble live interviews I guess but BBC, Guardian, Times etc front page does feel one of the big stories tbqh
November 5, 2025 at 11:07 AM
We all fumble live interviews I guess but BBC, Guardian, Times etc front page does feel one of the big stories tbqh
"I'll be honest, 10/20/30/40 etc % of the way through I just got bored and switched to rapid skim mode." All read throughs of other people's work should have this option for feedback and I very much include my own in this.
November 4, 2025 at 9:20 PM
"I'll be honest, 10/20/30/40 etc % of the way through I just got bored and switched to rapid skim mode." All read throughs of other people's work should have this option for feedback and I very much include my own in this.
Martin Tyler voice: “LABOUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
November 4, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Martin Tyler voice: “LABOUROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”