Jack McGowan
@jmcgphd.bsky.social
Scottish+Irish/EU citizen in Essex. In academia but forever an actor. History/present, Humanities/humanity. 🇪🇺 #DysguCymraeg https://drjackmcgowan.wordpress.com
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.
‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?
When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...
www.theguardian.com
February 4, 2026 at 7:25 AM
Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.
Is 'Thank you for reaching out' AI slop or just annoying mid-Atlantic bollocks? I've never 'reached out' in my life, although numerous recent emails suggest I have.
January 27, 2026 at 8:49 AM
Is 'Thank you for reaching out' AI slop or just annoying mid-Atlantic bollocks? I've never 'reached out' in my life, although numerous recent emails suggest I have.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
I just thought everyone should see this
January 22, 2026 at 11:02 PM
I just thought everyone should see this
Reposted by Jack McGowan
🚨🇪🇺 Brexit WOW moment 🇪🇺🚨
The Brexitgraph Telegraph published a full-blown obituary for Brexit:
📉 GDP down 8%
📉 Investment down 18%
📉 Productivity down 4%
📉 Employment down 4%
❌ No trade benefits
❌ No regulatory freedom
❌ No upside whatsoever
Do you agree it’s time to end Brexit?
The Brexitgraph Telegraph published a full-blown obituary for Brexit:
📉 GDP down 8%
📉 Investment down 18%
📉 Productivity down 4%
📉 Employment down 4%
❌ No trade benefits
❌ No regulatory freedom
❌ No upside whatsoever
Do you agree it’s time to end Brexit?
January 14, 2026 at 8:06 AM
🚨🇪🇺 Brexit WOW moment 🇪🇺🚨
The Brexitgraph Telegraph published a full-blown obituary for Brexit:
📉 GDP down 8%
📉 Investment down 18%
📉 Productivity down 4%
📉 Employment down 4%
❌ No trade benefits
❌ No regulatory freedom
❌ No upside whatsoever
Do you agree it’s time to end Brexit?
The Brexitgraph Telegraph published a full-blown obituary for Brexit:
📉 GDP down 8%
📉 Investment down 18%
📉 Productivity down 4%
📉 Employment down 4%
❌ No trade benefits
❌ No regulatory freedom
❌ No upside whatsoever
Do you agree it’s time to end Brexit?
Jenrick? 'Chancer', 'charlatan' and other words which start with c. For god's sake stop giving these utter nonentities the 'oxygen of publicity'.
January 15, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Jenrick? 'Chancer', 'charlatan' and other words which start with c. For god's sake stop giving these utter nonentities the 'oxygen of publicity'.
It's good to see what looks like a fairly active Erasmus presence here 👇
The Future is Erasmus Gathering - 27 January, where higher education stakeholders meet in Brussels to discuss the future of Erasmus+
👉Ful information about the event: bit.ly/4qVPHgu
📝Register by 23 January:
bit.ly/4pQww7G
Live agenda: bit.ly/49RqqOx
#TheFutureIsErasmus #ESN
👉Ful information about the event: bit.ly/4qVPHgu
📝Register by 23 January:
bit.ly/4pQww7G
Live agenda: bit.ly/49RqqOx
#TheFutureIsErasmus #ESN
January 13, 2026 at 8:49 PM
It's good to see what looks like a fairly active Erasmus presence here 👇
Reposted by Jack McGowan
I, I will be twix
And you, you will be the creme egg one
And you, you will be the creme egg one
January 9, 2026 at 3:40 PM
I, I will be twix
And you, you will be the creme egg one
And you, you will be the creme egg one
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Y’all might not appreciate it, but it took him 87 moves and 14 hours to get here
December 26, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Y’all might not appreciate it, but it took him 87 moves and 14 hours to get here
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Your library card is the most priceless card you will ever own.
December 18, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Your library card is the most priceless card you will ever own.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
December 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.
So the Gang of 2 adopt the Oor Wullie as well as the Mickey Mouse stance: "Oor Party! Your Party! Naebody with a brain's Party!". But you can be in the SWP too, if your like. Dearie me. They're not Roy and Shirley, are they?
November 30, 2025 at 7:20 PM
So the Gang of 2 adopt the Oor Wullie as well as the Mickey Mouse stance: "Oor Party! Your Party! Naebody with a brain's Party!". But you can be in the SWP too, if your like. Dearie me. They're not Roy and Shirley, are they?
These 'senior BBC figures' all seem cut from the same very odd, supremely confident yet profoundly unimpressive cloth. The MPs are little better. Who is on which side? The stench of 'good chaps' joshing rather reminds me of my years at a Russell Group university.
November 24, 2025 at 6:06 PM
These 'senior BBC figures' all seem cut from the same very odd, supremely confident yet profoundly unimpressive cloth. The MPs are little better. Who is on which side? The stench of 'good chaps' joshing rather reminds me of my years at a Russell Group university.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 3:38 PM
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
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Nathan Gill has been sentenced to 10.5 years for endangering national security and taking Russian bribes.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
Nigel Farage and Reform are a danger to national security, the Liberal Democrats will continue to hold them to account and defend our democracy.
November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
👍
Reposted by Jack McGowan
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
November 19, 2025 at 12:12 PM
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
The main question I have for Labour is, what will you do when the polls don’t improve for you after this?
November 17, 2025 at 8:11 PM
#FPTP has forced me to vote #Labour (often very reluctantly) in most GEs in my lifetime. After the last week (particularly #Reeves & #Mahmood): never, ever again. Immoral & incompetent. Do what you need to do: @libdems.org.uk @greenparty.org.uk @snp.org @plaidcymru.bsky.social @getprdone.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 11:40 AM
#FPTP has forced me to vote #Labour (often very reluctantly) in most GEs in my lifetime. After the last week (particularly #Reeves & #Mahmood): never, ever again. Immoral & incompetent. Do what you need to do: @libdems.org.uk @greenparty.org.uk @snp.org @plaidcymru.bsky.social @getprdone.bsky.social
Reposted by Jack McGowan
What the husband @mjowen174.bsky.social says is true.
It’s been a bit quiet in my shop lately.
If you’re looking for #Christmas cards and gifts please have a look at my website.
gailmyerscough.co.uk
A repost would be lovely too.
It’s been a bit quiet in my shop lately.
If you’re looking for #Christmas cards and gifts please have a look at my website.
gailmyerscough.co.uk
A repost would be lovely too.
November 12, 2025 at 9:52 AM
What the husband @mjowen174.bsky.social says is true.
It’s been a bit quiet in my shop lately.
If you’re looking for #Christmas cards and gifts please have a look at my website.
gailmyerscough.co.uk
A repost would be lovely too.
It’s been a bit quiet in my shop lately.
If you’re looking for #Christmas cards and gifts please have a look at my website.
gailmyerscough.co.uk
A repost would be lovely too.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
Reposted by Jack McGowan
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
November 10, 2025 at 6:40 PM
SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA
In the current 'crisis' I think of two women: Lady Brenda Hale and Kirsty Wark.
November 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
In the current 'crisis' I think of two women: Lady Brenda Hale and Kirsty Wark.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Billie Piper announced as the new BBC Director General but we've got to wait until next Christmas to find out why.
November 9, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Billie Piper announced as the new BBC Director General but we've got to wait until next Christmas to find out why.
Reposted by Jack McGowan
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
November 5, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.
👇
X is a cesspit led by an unhinged billionaire who is desperately trying to stir up civil war in Britain.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
Nobody with any sense or decency should be there.
No organisations, government departments, or politicians should be there.
Everyone who is, is enabling this monster.
October 29, 2025 at 8:55 AM
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