Nicola Barker
@nicolabarker.bsky.social
Academic interested in LGBT+ rights, family law, UK overseas territories, European Convention on Human Rights
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Please sign. This really bothers me. Green energy, so much cheaper to produce, is being charged at the rate of gas because they can. Are they going to give that up once gas is phased out? We need to ensure fair prices now, and see the benefit in our bills, to keep fair prices for the long term.
Please sign my petition to detach the price of renewable electricity from the wholesale cost of gas - pass the savings back to the people, not shareholder pockets as profit petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...
Petition: Ban cheap renewable energy from being charged at the price of expensive gas
Mandate energy providers to stop charging the same price as expensive gas for much cheaper renewable energy. We think they should pass any savings on to consumers, rather than keeping them as profit.
petition.parliament.uk
October 2, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Please sign. This really bothers me. Green energy, so much cheaper to produce, is being charged at the rate of gas because they can. Are they going to give that up once gas is phased out? We need to ensure fair prices now, and see the benefit in our bills, to keep fair prices for the long term.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Brilliant article by a teacher highlighting the current dire situation for teachers and kids every winter when it comes to infection risk and spread. We continue to fight for our kids to have the right to breathe clean air.
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/d...
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/d...
Dear Bridget Phillipson, Please Can We Talk About Health?
Dear Bridget Phillipson, Please can we talk about health? It’s autumn 2025. We’re one month into the school year, in England. Two of my children are ill, again.With Covid, again.It̵…
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com
October 3, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Brilliant article by a teacher highlighting the current dire situation for teachers and kids every winter when it comes to infection risk and spread. We continue to fight for our kids to have the right to breathe clean air.
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/d...
stevebheadteacher.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/d...
Reposted by Nicola Barker
📣🏳️⚧️ Call for Papers
We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives.
Details below. Please share.
We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives.
Details below. Please share.
September 22, 2025 at 9:35 AM
📣🏳️⚧️ Call for Papers
We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives.
Details below. Please share.
We are inviting papers for our special issue, “Feminist Responses to the Regression of Trans Rights: Strategies, Alliances, Hope.” The issue will be dedicated to trans-inclusive feminist legal analysis that addresses attacks on trans rights & lives.
Details below. Please share.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
August 6, 2025 at 1:01 AM
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
Reposted by Nicola Barker
3/ Lol, even a British judge operating under communist rule managed to state the obvious: that trans people use toilets to pee, and that toilets have cubicles. One can only marvel at how the Ladies and Lords failed to do the same.
July 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
3/ Lol, even a British judge operating under communist rule managed to state the obvious: that trans people use toilets to pee, and that toilets have cubicles. One can only marvel at how the Ladies and Lords failed to do the same.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
🚨How Britain privatised itself into failure.🚨 Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble.
In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.
In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.
How Britain privatised itself into failure
Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
July 15, 2025 at 10:03 AM
🚨How Britain privatised itself into failure.🚨 Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble.
In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.
In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
People on this app get really angry every time I point out that social media manipulation is a real phenomenon that we are all stewing in and that’s having real world consequences and I’m sure part of that is engagement farmers who do that manipulation not liking people talking about it
July 4, 2025 at 9:42 PM
I cannot emphasize enough how true & real this is.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
In almost anywhere on the political spectrum you ID with or major issue, there’s probably a bot/troll operation to encourage your rage and vitriol.
And how/where that rage gets directed, esp understandable rage, is what they are out to influence.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
🌍 Applications open: Funded International Visiting Research Fellowships (2025–2026)
As part of our commitment to global collaboration, we invite scholars outside the UK to build or expand research ties with our staff and research clusters.
📅 Apply by 31 Aug 2025
🔗 bit.ly/internationa...
As part of our commitment to global collaboration, we invite scholars outside the UK to build or expand research ties with our staff and research clusters.
📅 Apply by 31 Aug 2025
🔗 bit.ly/internationa...
July 3, 2025 at 10:54 AM
🌍 Applications open: Funded International Visiting Research Fellowships (2025–2026)
As part of our commitment to global collaboration, we invite scholars outside the UK to build or expand research ties with our staff and research clusters.
📅 Apply by 31 Aug 2025
🔗 bit.ly/internationa...
As part of our commitment to global collaboration, we invite scholars outside the UK to build or expand research ties with our staff and research clusters.
📅 Apply by 31 Aug 2025
🔗 bit.ly/internationa...
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Behind the ruling: how ‘Sex Matters’ is shaping UK policy on trans rights
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
By ST Williams
@yorkshirebylines.co.uk
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
By ST Williams
@yorkshirebylines.co.uk
Behind the ruling: how ‘Sex Matters’ is shaping UK policy on trans rights
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
June 27, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Behind the ruling: how ‘Sex Matters’ is shaping UK policy on trans rights
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
By ST Williams
@yorkshirebylines.co.uk
The UK Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘sex’ – but for trans people, it’s the start of something far more sweeping and exclusionary
By ST Williams
@yorkshirebylines.co.uk
Reposted by Nicola Barker
It's all just so amazingly wonderfully brilliant for women, isn't it? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Labour to cancel its women’s conference after supreme court gender ruling
Trans rights and gender critical campaigners criticise decision after party told it risks legal challenge if conference goes ahead
www.theguardian.com
May 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
It's all just so amazingly wonderfully brilliant for women, isn't it? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Nicola Barker
We have this already - it's called the cross-subsidy from international fees to underfunded home students
On universities the white paper only reduces the graduate visa from two years to 18 months (which is a win for the DfE).
The bigger thing universities will be worrying about is this little timebomb.
The bigger thing universities will be worrying about is this little timebomb.
May 12, 2025 at 9:22 AM
We have this already - it's called the cross-subsidy from international fees to underfunded home students
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around.
They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.
It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing
They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.
It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing
May 12, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Labour has a whopping great majority and four years left to turn this country around.
They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.
It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing
They should be setting the agenda, not chasing about trying to placate voters of a party with five MPs who will never vote for them anyway.
It's not only disappointing... it's embarrassing
This is a serious problem for all gender non-conforming women (especially the butch lesbians who ‘the lesbian intervenors’ are purportedly concerned about). The SC decision was a victory only for heteropatriarchy. Monique Wittig once said “lesbians are not women”. This is not what she meant.
May 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
This is a serious problem for all gender non-conforming women (especially the butch lesbians who ‘the lesbian intervenors’ are purportedly concerned about). The SC decision was a victory only for heteropatriarchy. Monique Wittig once said “lesbians are not women”. This is not what she meant.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
By defining “sex” in the Equality Act as “biological,” it ignored key case law, EHRC guidance, and even Parliament’s intent.
This isn’t just a reinterpretation. It’s a rollback.
We broke down what the Court left out.
gender-matters.org/law/ignored-...
This isn’t just a reinterpretation. It’s a rollback.
We broke down what the Court left out.
gender-matters.org/law/ignored-...
Ignored Legal Authorities, Principles and Precedents in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2025] – Gender Matters
gender-matters.org
May 7, 2025 at 12:29 PM
By defining “sex” in the Equality Act as “biological,” it ignored key case law, EHRC guidance, and even Parliament’s intent.
This isn’t just a reinterpretation. It’s a rollback.
We broke down what the Court left out.
gender-matters.org/law/ignored-...
This isn’t just a reinterpretation. It’s a rollback.
We broke down what the Court left out.
gender-matters.org/law/ignored-...
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Dr Victoria McLeod outlines how the Supreme Court’s reading of “sex” within the Equality Act to mean sex assigned at birth only places the UK now at serious risk of breaching its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
We need our courts to give space and listen to trans people.
We need our courts to give space and listen to trans people.
The trans judge who will be heard, even if she has to take the UK to the European Court of Human Rights
In a video address released for Trans+ History Week shared exclusively with QueerAF, the Trans+ judge who is set to make history in Europe, speaks out
www.wearequeeraf.com
May 3, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Dr Victoria McLeod outlines how the Supreme Court’s reading of “sex” within the Equality Act to mean sex assigned at birth only places the UK now at serious risk of breaching its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
We need our courts to give space and listen to trans people.
We need our courts to give space and listen to trans people.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
“We reject the proper functioning of sex, sexual orientation, lesbian-only spaces and associations, fair participation in sport. The absence of coherence is the only correct reading.”
Emily Grabham has written a searing parodic judgment exposing the UK Supreme Court’s non-sense of “biological sex.”
Emily Grabham has written a searing parodic judgment exposing the UK Supreme Court’s non-sense of “biological sex.”
Parody Alternative Judgment: For Women Scotland [2025]
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in the For Women case last week, colleagues thought it would help to have a case summary for use in
criticallegalthinking.com
May 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM
“We reject the proper functioning of sex, sexual orientation, lesbian-only spaces and associations, fair participation in sport. The absence of coherence is the only correct reading.”
Emily Grabham has written a searing parodic judgment exposing the UK Supreme Court’s non-sense of “biological sex.”
Emily Grabham has written a searing parodic judgment exposing the UK Supreme Court’s non-sense of “biological sex.”
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Sign of the day…
April 19, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Sign of the day…
💯 the Southern Poverty Law Centre reported the same tactic outlined at a right-wing US conference as well.
At a 2013 conference (‘Restoring the Natural Order: An Agenda for Europe’), they outlined a new tactic: targeting trans as the perceived weakest link, a way of dividing LGBT people.
April 20, 2025 at 9:32 AM
💯 the Southern Poverty Law Centre reported the same tactic outlined at a right-wing US conference as well.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?
April 19, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Your periodic reminder that one way to think about privilege is: who's allowed to make mistakes?
Reposted by Nicola Barker
I'm really sorry, but we just need to stop doing this. Your wood-burning hygge leads directly to people's deaths - other people's and perhaps your own.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Map reveals residential wood-burning hotspots in England and Wales
Researchers analyse energy performance certificate data to identify areas with potentially high particle pollution
www.theguardian.com
April 18, 2025 at 8:16 AM
I'm really sorry, but we just need to stop doing this. Your wood-burning hygge leads directly to people's deaths - other people's and perhaps your own.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I’m delighted to have jointly won the 2025 impact prize - thank you very much to the SLSA and congratulations to fellow winner Mark Walters, as well as all the nominees and winners across the categories. This prize is for my work challenging the revocation of same-sex marriage in Bermuda so…
This year we have joint winners 🙌🙌 for the Impact Prize
Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social University of Liverpool
for Challenging the Revocation of Same-Sex Marriage in Bermuda
Mark Walters, @markawalters.bsky.social for
Establishing a new framework of hate crime legislation for Seychelles
Nicola Barker @nicolabarker.bsky.social University of Liverpool
for Challenging the Revocation of Same-Sex Marriage in Bermuda
Mark Walters, @markawalters.bsky.social for
Establishing a new framework of hate crime legislation for Seychelles
April 18, 2025 at 7:51 AM
I’m delighted to have jointly won the 2025 impact prize - thank you very much to the SLSA and congratulations to fellow winner Mark Walters, as well as all the nominees and winners across the categories. This prize is for my work challenging the revocation of same-sex marriage in Bermuda so…
Interesting blog by Sasha Roseneil, Sussex VC, clearly right about the impact of the recent OfS decision finding that its trans-inclusive policy violated free speech. I’ll be talking about the decision in light of ECHR jurisprudence at #SLSA2025 next week
OfS free-speech absolutism allows abuse, harassment, and bullying - HEPI
The OfS’s £585,000 fine on Sussex sets a damaging precedent, undermining university autonomy and protections for marginalised groups.
www.hepi.ac.uk
April 9, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Interesting blog by Sasha Roseneil, Sussex VC, clearly right about the impact of the recent OfS decision finding that its trans-inclusive policy violated free speech. I’ll be talking about the decision in light of ECHR jurisprudence at #SLSA2025 next week
Reposted by Nicola Barker
Sometimes politics is simple. A man who speaks like an idiot will do idiotic things. That's really the sum total of the political analysis you need to understand what's happening today. But political commentators and investment advisers sought to make it more complicated.
April 3, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Sometimes politics is simple. A man who speaks like an idiot will do idiotic things. That's really the sum total of the political analysis you need to understand what's happening today. But political commentators and investment advisers sought to make it more complicated.
Reposted by Nicola Barker
“There is this terrible misconception that disabled people just take, but actually by taking from us, you prevent us from being able to give – we want to be able to participate in life equally the same as anyone else, and that includes going to work.” Disability campaigner Tanni Gray-Thompson
March 19, 2025 at 8:01 AM
“There is this terrible misconception that disabled people just take, but actually by taking from us, you prevent us from being able to give – we want to be able to participate in life equally the same as anyone else, and that includes going to work.” Disability campaigner Tanni Gray-Thompson