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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 37m

I'm always surprised by people who regard themselves of a liberal disposition and intelligent, arguing for a diminution of the arts, humanities and social sciences. After all we've been through, and are going through politically, they prescribe thinking less.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 1h

Astounding what universities think is appropriate these days.

"Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails."

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests

www.theguardian.com

Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 1d

Nigel Farage's Reform UK party could be a "threat to the union" between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the chair of the NI Conservatives has warned.

Puts Nigel's "UP THE RA!" salute into fresh perspective.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nigel Farage's Reform a threat to the union - NI Conservatives

Paul Leeman questioned Reform's commitment to Northern Ireland following remarks by Nigel Farage over the summer.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 3d

Well, maybe that’s an argument for more philosophers, and a greater diversity of them. In fact, maybe what England needs at this moment is to shake off anti-intellectualism and get serious about thinking deeply and critically about the future, because the standard of public debate is woeful.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 3d

I look at Starmer, Farage and Badenoch. You could make a case for each of them being fortunate in their political opponents, but Farage, despite low public approval, is the only one capitalising on his good fortune. Surely that's because the other two keep conceding political ground to him.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 3d

Just read a comment in the FT, commiserating with Argentina's President Javier Milei. "[He] isn't a magician: he still has to work within the confines of reality and elections." Yeah. That was a chainsaw he wielded, not a wand, I suppose.

Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 4d

Labour, Reform and the Tories offer a vision of the UK that is hopeless. It is without hope. A future so seemingly bleak and oppressive I find it hard to imagine who it appeals to, except people who wager that their own future felicity depends upon the immiseration and persecution of others.

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Reposted by Stephen Baker

UCU Ulster @ucu-ulster.bsky.social · 7d

@nujofficial.bsky.social and BDTC meeting on the surveillance of Journalists and why this matters to us all

forms.gle/wr5EB8cuNTMq...

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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 7d

Hey Netanyahu,

Release the hostages.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 7d

“Hidden” you say.

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MAREcus 👻/ 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 8d

Some great reporting here: “One of the most prominent YouTubers, Anthony Styles, 59, has since deleted his AJ Audits channel after it was revealed he is a convicted paedophile. He was known to frequent protests… where demonstrators claimed to stand for the “protection of women and children”

Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 9d

Hotels housing migrants are now YouTube content farms. Outrage = clicks. Clicks = cash: £10k–£20k a month, just for filming cruelty. Division is the business model.

Details here ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk @owensennitt.bsky.social

Lucrative hate: YouTubers target migrant hotels for clicks

YouTubers are cashing in by harassing asylum seekers at hotels, turning human misery into profitable, divisive entertainment

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 8d

I’ve encountered ‘citizen journalists’. They are, in fact, YouTube content providers. Despite their protestations, they are the ‘mainstream media’ these days, working for a huge media platform. I mean, how much money does YouTube make annually, aided by racist ghouls?

Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 9d

Hotels housing migrants are now YouTube content farms. Outrage = clicks. Clicks = cash: £10k–£20k a month, just for filming cruelty. Division is the business model.

Details here ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk @owensennitt.bsky.social

Lucrative hate: YouTubers target migrant hotels for clicks

YouTubers are cashing in by harassing asylum seekers at hotels, turning human misery into profitable, divisive entertainment

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 8d

a man is sitting in a chair holding a cup and pointing at something

ALT: a man is sitting in a chair holding a cup and pointing at something

media.tenor.com

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UCU Ulster @ucu-ulster.bsky.social · 8d

If the shark in Jaws was a university manager 👇

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History at Queen's University Belfast @qubhistory.bsky.social · 9d

Another great project developed by the Centre for Public History at QUB

Lisa Rea Currie appointed AHRC Community Innovation Practitioner on BeHere Project

Queen’s has been awarded a Community Innovation Practitioner (CIP) Award for 2025-26, as part of the Creative Communities programme, funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and ...

www.qub.ac.uk

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 14d

We've been here before. In 2003 The Sun published a story that claimed "Callous asylum seekers are barbecuing the queen’s swans. East European poachers lure the protected Royal birds into baited traps.." It was bollocks.

pressgazette.co.uk/archive-cont...

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 16d

Farage says he's going to throw people out of the UK. There's a lot of people in Scotland, Wales and the north of Ireland will leave willingly... and I suspect those numbers will only swell if Reform win the next election.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 16d

Ah! Cava nights in Coleraine. Now, that takes me back. Enjoy.

Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 16d

How it started and how it's going.

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Claire Mitchell @clairemitchell.bsky.social · 16d

@stephenbaker.bsky.social and I are doing a Zoom tonight with English based Anti-Capitalist Resistance. A bit about the book, the Irish unity debate, and the wider struggle for democratisation across these islands.

Tickets here -

A*CR @anticapitalistresistance.org · 26d

Online meeting: A new Irish Republic?
22 September 7pm

A new Irish republic is possible. Introduced by @clairemitchell.bsky.social, author of the Ghost Limb (2022) and Stephen Baker a socialist and trade unionist from County Down.

Get tickets here anticapitalistresistance.org/events/a-new...

anticapitalistresistance.org

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 18d

Loved it. I always thought it’s warm humour was rooted in a working class solidarity and a celebration of free time, away from domestic drudgery and alienating work. Who wouldn’t want to idle and socialise in The Grapes.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 18d

It’s not really “legitimate concerns” about immigration, is it. It’s racism. It’s bigotry and prejudice, and it’s all to familiar in the north of Ireland.

Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 18d

“Immigrants have trickled into Northern Ireland since 1998 but ethnic minorities still account for just 3.4% of the population, far below the rest of the UK. Even so, a campaign of vandalism and intimidation has for years targeted non-white families, especially in loyalist areas of County Antrim.”

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 18d

“Immigrants have trickled into Northern Ireland since 1998 but ethnic minorities still account for just 3.4% of the population, far below the rest of the UK. Even so, a campaign of vandalism and intimidation has for years targeted non-white families, especially in loyalist areas of County Antrim.”

Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 21d

Hope he didn’t let the door slap him on the arse on the way out.

Brendan May @brendanmay.bsky.social · 21d

I’m not saying Britain has gone entirely batshit crazy but a Reform councillor in Wales has just stormed out of a local Torfaen Council meeting in Gwent because it failed to acknowledge the killing of a man in America.

In other news, Britain has gone entirely batshit crazy.

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Stephen Baker @stephenbaker.bsky.social · 22d

… and another Tory is confirmed as having joined (rebranded them self as) Reform.

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