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Plashing Vole

@plashingvole.bsky.social

4.6K followers 3.2K following 4K posts

Mild-mannered lecturer by day…mild-mannered lecturer by night. Welsh lit, politicians’ fictions. Fencer, cyclist, UCU. Dysgwr Cymraeg; tá gaeilge agam. Barnau fy hun. Read books; join unions; block cookies.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 1m

One of my (very slow) projects is on politicians who've written creatively. The downside of this is that I have several hundred of their novels/plays/poetry collections and many of them are somewhat devoid of literary worth.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 1h

Lots more of that stuff from the Cupboard of Tory Fiction.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 1h

I wonder what a previous generation of Tory MPs think of Jenrick’s race-baiting.

Let’s ask Gyles Brandreth… (warning for offensive image).

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Reposted by Plashing Vole

dr joshua phillips @woolfianjosh.bsky.social · 1h

Not to be outdone, Sir Keir Starmer announces that he will go harder and faster in delivering patriotic renewal by detonating tactical nukes underneath every university library library’s 800 shelfmark section.

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 4h

UK Tory Party Conference: Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch declares war on English degrees.
#literature #language #English #HigherEd #University

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2h

Tired: stealing is wrong
Wired: we should buy a bunch of politicians to ensure that stealing isn’t wrong *for us*.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2h

I don’t think so.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2h

Tories: get out of your ghetto and integrate!
BME people: we’re moving to Wiltshire/Cotswolds/etc!
Tories: NOT LIKE THAT.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 2h

Same in English. We’re being forced to replace subject content with employability modules despite not having an employability problem.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

No, I totally got what you meant and was maintaining the satirical tone!

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

How on earth has one badly-run industry been allowed to become a structural threat to the world’s biggest economy?

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

So true!

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

Riding or something even more tasteless?

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

Belated applause. Magnificent work.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

More power to Weird Al’s elbow. He’s great.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

I always wonder what they all go and do afterwards. If it’s the same graduate jobs everyone else gets, why not study something fun? I also suspect the critical elements that make a degree are absent on a lot of these courses.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

In theory…but I suspect not in practice.

Reposted by Plashing Vole

Trudging Spineripper @grudgingsignup.bsky.social · 3h

Well yeah, but also the shovel guys will go bankrupt immediately if the demand for shovels drops, so they're lending people money to buy shovels against a share of the gold they find

but so far there's almost no gold and they just keep making more and bigger shovels, and at some point... 😬

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

I’m genuinely looking forward to this crash. The world will be a better place.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

What’s propping up expensive courses are cheap law and business ones designed to appeal to students paying international fees. Managements have abandoned any commitment to what local communities or the country need and chase the easy money. The sciences will go next. Too much effort.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

I’m not sure that’s true outside the 10 universities that take virtually all the English Literature students. The damage done to A-level English has reduced applications massively, and the Russell Group now hoovers up students they’d never have looked at before. The numbers on my course are awful.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

True story: some guy has to fill up 35 illegal kerosene/powered generators in a black community in Memphis every time you ask Grok to do something. AI is racist and poisonous in content and execution.

wordinblack.com/2025/04/grok...

Grok, What Happens in Memphis When You’re Asked a Question?

100,000 servers powered by 35 unpermitted generators provide an answer.

wordinblack.com

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

It’s the 19thC Gold Rush all over again. The gold miners aren’t finding any good, but the people selling them shovels are making out like bandits. The new twist is that your pension depends on the bubble staying unburst.

thealexholden.bsky.social @thealexholden.bsky.social · May 27

Nvidia doesn’t make an AI product they make the stuff that AI companies need to operate that’s a bit different

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

Oh no, some poor communities might not be poisoned by kerosene-fuelled servers every time a racist wants a meme…

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

My VC made a whole speech about how we’re only a commercial entity, not public sector. There’s literally no way to regulate for the public good when universities are told to compete by any means necessary. Of course they’ll dive to the bottom. The sad thing is their enthusiasm for doing so.

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 3h

We’re all mocking, but vice-chancellors across the country are way ahead of Badenoch. Why teach people to be smartarses as they see it when they’ll pay big money to be taught obedience on Business courses?

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3h

Studying the language and literature that has helped to define our nation at home and around the world for centuries is a "rip-off" apparently

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