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Prof Bob Davis

@rokewood.bsky.social

1.3K followers 1.3K following 1.8K posts

Prof of Religious & Cultural Education, University of Glasgow. Chair of Philosophy of Education Soc. Religion, Myth, Arts, Humanities, Music, Education, football, birds. We’ve 3 sons—‘the crow makes wing to the rooky wood’—all posts etc personal

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · Feb 23

On the seemingly ruinous 2025 moment in which we live. Walter Benjamin & the Angel of History.
‘Awaken the Dead’

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Jonathan S. Jones @jonathansjones.bsky.social · 21h

Look what came in the mail today, @uncpress.bsky.social @simpsonvos.bsky.social @profsommerville.bsky.social! 🗃️

Printed copy of Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America’s First Opioid Crisis held by the author in the background

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 23h

#31DaysofHalloween #Halloween2025
Here in John Stow's 'A Suruay of London' of 1598, is probably the earliest formation of the word #Halloween: rendered as 'Alhallond Eve', with some fascinating seasonal 'Misrule' context, unusual & intriguing for the urban Protestant context

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 1d

Most interestingly, in view of @cathamclarke.bsky.social treatment of the poem in her inspiring new book, a decent case can be made that ‘The Battle of Maldon’ captures a *clash of virtues*: courage v honour in the decisions of Byrhtnoth. Much hinges on the reading of his ‘Ofermōde’ …

Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 1d

Ann & I never really watched The Good Life, except maybe when it was on at her parents’ house. Quite possibly because we were at the tail-end of a generation who tried living off-grid. Many of them ended up divorced/millionaires/ordained/in witness protection. Or all of it

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 1d

(Watch the misspelling of ‘Rachael’ on the website. For Rachel Wiseman, editor of The Point Magazine, author of a fine book on having children, & present on X, is a quite different person from our guest🙂)

Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 1d

quite splendid BBCFreeThinking BBCRadio4 hour of sparkling philosophical discussion of the universal topic of ‘the good life’. @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social
with Sophie Scott-Brown, @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social, Fergus Butler-Gallie, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Rachael Wiseman
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, What is a good life?

Matthew Sweet and guests explore what it means to live a good life.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

The Onion @theonion.com · 2d

Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back https://theonion.com/health-experts-recommend-standing-up-at-desk-leaving-o-1819577456/

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Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 2d

BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THIS NOW, NORTHERNERS! Who knows when they'll let me out in public again?

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 9d

I am to be let out, and poked until I speak. My first talk in AGES - please do come along, if you're in the north-east. Books, birds, all that sort of thing. www.nhsn.org.uk/events/richa...

Richard Smyth: A Nature Writer at Large

An evening with nature writer Richard Smyth in the NHSN Council RoomRichard Smyth is one of the UK's busiest nature writers. His most recent book, The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell: Finding Wild ...

www.nhsn.org.uk

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Lifetime of earnings not enough for UK workers to join wealthiest 10%, report says

Research finds it would take average worker saving all their earnings for 52 years to match wealth of richest 10th of society It would take the average earner in the UK 52 years’ worth of earnings to become as wealthy as the richest 10%, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation. In a new report, the influential thinktank analyses the Office for National Statistics’ latest wealth and assets survey, which covers the Covid pandemic period of 2020-22. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d

Jenrick being the loudest member of the Conservative party has already been a huge contributor to the poisoning of our politics. We really don't need any four-dimensional chess about him becoming leader. When it happens, it will be a terrible day for our country.

Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 2d

A Tory party under Jenrick might take a few of the racist votes from Reform, but they’d haemorrhage bucketloads to the Lib Dems.

So, on balance…

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2d

All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 2d

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’

Via Sam Leith in the Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 2d

Excellent letter from the Bishop of Birmingham to Robert Jenrick.

At a time when so many other voices have been silent, the bishops have been admirably outspoken against attempts to stir up division.

The churches do a lot of community cohesion work & do not want to see this trashed for party gain.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 2d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 2d

#31DaysofHalloween #Halloween #HarvestMoon #HarvestFullMoon #supermoon2025

Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Jeremy Millar @jeremymillar.bsky.social · 12d

From when Channel 4 was my education, my art school, my university

RIP Tony Harrison

Harrison V Part 1

YouTube video by realthedeal33

youtu.be

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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 2d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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The Herald @heraldscotland.bsky.social · 2d

"All the headlines called her a 'tycoon', but a closer look at her company accounts revealed only her ego was supersized"

www.heraldscotland.com/poli...

@danigaravelli.bsky.social

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 2d

This is what it's come to in Mr #Trump's America:
Even basic trust is haemorrhaging away 🤔

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 2d

I recall a question being asked once of whether it was possible that Kemi Badenoch as Trade Secretary did not know the details of mobility discussions with India, and well, evidence like this suggests it was very likely (some of those working around her confirmed this also)

LBC @lbc.co.uk · 2d

"So you're laying waste to people's jobs, but you don't know how many?"

Kemi Badenoch plans to get rid of 'quite a lot' of civil servants.

She doesn't have the exact figure, but she assures Nick that she's 'looked at it'.

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 2d

Robert Jenrick is another person who has cooked his brain on Twitter (“Activist judges” is a very American-brained phrase, and I’m also sceptical that 30 judges and mags are really in favour of “open borders”, as opposed to a slightly more liberal regime, or just helping immigrants get their rights)

Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 2d

More in the breathless, breaking stop-the-presses, and not at all confected story, that judges, before they were judges, were involved in practising law. Take 5 seconds to appreciate just how hard into "swivel-eyed loon" Robert Jenrick is being allowed to lean:

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 2d

GOOD NEWS !
"A team of musicologists has unearthed the printed score of a previously unknown Purcell song, as well as the original manuscript for various keyboard compositions."
#baroque #music
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

‘Almost unheard of’: experts find more music by English composer Henry Purcell

Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and Norfolk

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Jeff Hubbell @humbledore.bsky.social · 2d

The last known surviving veteran of Canada's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment from the Second World War has passed away. Lance Corporal Tony Mastromatteo was 104.#Cdnhistory #WW2Veterans #Canadianhistory www.chch.com/chch-news/se...

Second World War veteran of Hamilton-based regiment dies at 104

The last-known surviving Second World War veteran of a Hamilton-based regiment has died at the age of 104.

www.chch.com

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Chris Giles @chrisgiles.ft.com · 2d

Food prices have risen a lot more than other stuff since Covid...

My newsletter asks whether they are now a leading indicator of inflation

www.ft.com/content/de31...

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Reposted by Prof Bob Davis

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 3d

The state we're in

UK full-time employee median wage, £30,816.
4.5m jobs pay less than the real Living Wage.
1.17m workers on zero-hour contracts.
34% of Universal Credit claimants are in work.
16m Britons live in poverty.

Can't build economy on poverty.

Must increase worker share of GDP.

The government must ensure fair distribution of income

'The average real wage of workers has hardly moved from the 2008 level whilst bosses never had it so good.'

leftfootforward.org

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Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 2d

Now I have evinced some scepticism towards @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social endlessly stimulating ‘river’ hypothesis. But this BBCRadio3 Essay programme is soooo much for him. Totally hypnotic
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Multitrack, 'Life Blood' - If a river could speak, what would it say?

Georgie Styles follows the Afon Teifi, or River Teifi, from source to sea.

www.bbc.co.uk

Prof Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 3d

#31DaysOfHalloween #Uncanny #UncannyCommunity a great new sequence of micro episodes for the month of October. @dannyrobins.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Uncanny - Halloween Countdown 2025 - Case 1: Mrs Murphy Says Hello - BBC Sounds

A brand-new daily tale of terror for the Halloween season

www.bbc.co.uk

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