Stephen Baker
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stephenbaker.bsky.social
Stephen Baker
@stephenbaker.bsky.social
Socialist. Trade unionist. Strummer of strings. Co.Down. Researches, writes & teaches. Radical whore of sociology. "...clean living under difficult circumstances." Proudly Paddystinian.
My take-away from this is that "Ireland, awash with cash from a corporation tax bonanza paid by global firms with big operations in the country", is being told it should spend that money defending market assets, like cables under the Atlantic, rather than on housing and health.
When it comes to modern war, Ireland is a high-value target: its waters on the western fringe of Europe contain three-quarters of all undersea cables in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, is unprotected and unprepared.

An #FTEdit 🧵 on why this determinedly neutral nation is Europe's weak link 👇
November 26, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
hey can anyone tell me which country has historically caused ireland the most problems, i was born yesterday
When it comes to modern war, Ireland is a high-value target: its waters on the western fringe of Europe contain three-quarters of all undersea cables in the northern hemisphere. Despite this, is unprotected and unprepared.

An #FTEdit 🧵 on why this determinedly neutral nation is Europe's weak link 👇
November 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I’d like to learn more about this racism that isn’t hurtful or insulting.
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Interesting thread. The final point is crucial. 👇
The Humboldtian research university ideal, as a child of centrist liberals redrafting of the early modern four faculties towards disciplinary specialization, is over.

A product of liberalism as dominant it could not survive liberalism's collapse, even as a revenant.
bsky.app/profile/anna...
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"Wealthy people are shaping higher education…to tilt campuses rightward. The president and his allies have pursued an aggressive campaign to realize their vision. The campaign is accelerating”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/u...
November 24, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
what a surprise, majority of fash "Ireland is full" posts on shitter are from outside Ireland
November 23, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
November 19, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Why not?
On a recent Saturday in a retirement home in the northeastern French village of Kunheim, happy hour started early.

After obtaining a liquor licence, the retirement home has opened a bar to the public, and seniors – many of them in their 90s – say they love the idea jrnl.ie/6879936
'We see things in a more positive light': nursing home pub lifts spirits in France
After obtaining a liquor licence, the retirement home has opened a bar to the public, and seniors – many of them in their 90s – say they love the idea.
jrnl.ie
November 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I like Clive Lewis. Andy Burnham as PM would is preferable to Keir Starmer. But this all feels like too little too late. Labour set a course to hit an iceberg a while ago. Change the captain, sure. But there's a lot of the crew that need to walk the plank.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Norwich MP Clive Lewis offers seat to Burnham for Starmer challenge
Clive Lewis says he would step down to allow Mayor Andy Burnham the chance to become Labour leader.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 19, 2025 at 3:48 PM
“Among the reasons cited by analysts for the Social Democrats’ decline in Copenhagen were voter fatigue over the prime minister’s hardline policies on issues such as integration and immigration”.
Oh.
Social Democrats in Denmark suffer sweeping election losses
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
The obituary on Elspeth King by our Custodian @sorchadallas.bsky.social will be in tomorrow’s @theguardian.com paper if anyone would like to read a physical version
November 18, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
The second best Northern Star behind the original
The first issue of the Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star, appeared #OnThisDay 18 November 1837. Without it, Chartism would have been a far weaker thing.
www.chartistancestors.co.uk/northern-sta...
November 18, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
Spent a few life-affirming hours with Bernadette Devlin McAliskey today. Childhood, inter-generational trauma, Ireland-Palestine and how we can’t lose if we keep on keeping on. Truly an honour. Some of the highlights are available now here: www.patreon.com/posts/patron...
November 17, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Is it too much of a stretch to imagine that after the next general election the UK gets a coalition of Reform and whatever is left of Labour and the Tories, the central plank of which is ‘uniting the country’ around anti-immigration policies and reneging on human rights?
November 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Shabana Mahmood warns Labour MPs ‘dark forces are stirring up anger’ over migration

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
two men sitting on a bus with the words i wonder who that someone might be netflix
ALT: two men sitting on a bus with the words i wonder who that someone might be netflix
media.tenor.com
November 16, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
Labour seem to have decided that to beat Reform they have to get into a cruelty competition with them. But, and let me say this in all caps, YOU DON’T BEAT REFORM BY ENDORSING THEIR ANALYSIS.
November 16, 2025 at 10:28 PM
The UK's political class has wrecked the institutional and civic life of the place. They thought notions of exceptionalism and superiority would be enough to hold a nation together. It wasn't This is what has torn the UK apart, Shabana. Not migrants.
If you're cheering Trump on then you have no right to call yourself a patriot.

You absolute moron.
November 16, 2025 at 6:13 PM
When I was 16, I wrote the the British Labour Party and asked to join. Of course, living in the north of Ireland, I couldn't. But if I could time-travel, I'd go back and save my 16 year old the price of a stamp.
Shabana Mahmood has vowed to end Britain’s “golden ticket” for asylum seekers by forcing people arriving illegally to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement
Shabana Mahmood: ‘Illegal migration is tearing Britain apart’
The home secretary is planning to introduce a 20-year wait for permanent stay to end a ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers
www.thetimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, says, 'illegal migration' is "tearing the country apart", as she prepares to unveil plans to make people granted asylum wait 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently.

How will this policy bring the UK back together again?
November 16, 2025 at 4:50 PM
The Bill Clinton/Donald Trump thing. Is it it true or some sort of metaphor?
November 15, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
Outstanding work over on X 👏 *doffs cap
November 14, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Stephen Baker
The Times Higher Education giving a platform to reactionary voices to complain about there being too much "terminology relating to EDI" or "progressive discourse" in research projects at a time when fascism is at the door...

What is there left to say?

www.timeshighereducation.com/news/rise-ed...
Rise of EDI focus in UKRI grants ‘endangers R&D support’
Increase in projects featuring ‘progressive discourse’ likely to fuel criticism that academia is too left wing, study warns
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 14, 2025 at 8:30 AM
“Almost a quarter of a million people living in the UK applied for an Irish passport last year, the highest number since the UK formally left the European Union.

“More than half of applications, 53%, were from people living in Northern Ireland.”

www.rte.ie/news/world/2...
Post-Brexit record in Irish passport applications from UK
Almost a quarter of a million people living in the UK applied for an Irish passport last year, the highest number since the UK formally left the European Union.
www.rte.ie
November 14, 2025 at 8:50 AM