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Reposted by Tim Bale

Sharon O'Dea @sharonodea.com · 2h

This stuff is so tiresome. In a world where hard skills like coding are getting replaced faster than they can be taught, it’s the soft skills that arts degrees teach you that remain valuable.

Me for the i Paper when Sunak tried this very same nonsense last year: inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...

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Reposted by Tim Bale

John Andrews @jkaconductor.bsky.social · 2h

An English degree might help you to spell ‘Britain’ properly…

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 2h

She's nothing if not predictable, is she? I know the Tories aren't keen on anything Green these days, but pretty much all they've done this week is recycle stuff they've been banging on about--for the most part fruitlessly--for the last decade and a half. And today it's "Mickey Mouse" degrees. 🙄

Badenoch: Curb students taking 'rip-off' degrees such as English

The performing arts, sociology and anthropology are among the subjects the Conservatives would like to cut

inews.co.uk

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 16h

What was that Sooty? The children can't hear you!

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 3h

As Vic said to Bob, "You wouldn't let it lie".

The regions hit hardest by VAT on private schools, revealed

Private schools have seen thousands of pupils leave since Labour took power - with the Education Secretary's home region seeing the sharpest drop

inews.co.uk

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Reposted by Tim Bale

John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 3h

Think an underpriced 2029 scenario is "ungovernable mess".

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 23h

Four parties within a 5 point swing of first place and five parties on 12% plus.

This would be pure chaos under first past the post.

Election Maps UK @electionmaps.uk · 1d

Westminster Voting Intention:

RFM: 27% (-2)
LAB: 20% (-2)
CON: 17% (+1)
LDM: 17% (+2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
SNP: 4% (+1)

Via @yougov.co.uk, 5-6 Oct.
Changes w/ 28-29 Sep.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 3h

Constant, morale-sapping, self-doubting rejection throughout their careers is one thing that all but the luckiest/most talented academics, no matter how supposedly senior they are, share with each other! I rather liked this advice about staying positive regardless - I just wish I could follow it!

‘Stay true to yourself – and fly closer to the sun’: what I’ve learned from 50 years of rejection

As a writer, I have been rejected thousands of times, and it initially led to shock, denial and anger. Then I accepted it. Here’s what you can gain from doing so too

www.theguardian.com

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 12h

Showing my age....

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 16h

What was that Sooty? The children can't hear you!

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Reposted by Tim Bale

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 14h

As a historian, I'm all for parties trying to learn from their past.

But living traditions, that are engaged in the present and optimistic about the future, do not spend this much time at the political ouija-board.

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

"Thatcher theatre" - pretty much sums up cul-de-sac into which the Conservative Party has driven itself in the decades since her defenestration. And now it too, risks becoming a museum piece, fit only for two or three glass display cases rather than a return to office.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 16h

You'll love 'Shadow home Secretary Chris Philp, delivered a series of jokes to a hall so empty and unenthused that he gave a new meaning to “assisted dying".' But it's @roberthutton.co.uk's last line's that's a gut-punch rather than a belly laugh.

Rob whistle | Robert Hutton | The Critic Magazine

The day had begun with Robert Jenrick accused of racism. This is of course quite unfair. Racists believe in something. Some of us remember Jenrick as a chubby-cheeked fan of David Cameron fighting the...

thecritic.co.uk

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 16h

What was that Sooty? The children can't hear you!

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Reposted by Tim Bale

Dr Andrew S. Roe-Crines 🏳️‍🌈 @andrewcrines.bsky.social · 16h

Delighted to contribute a chapter on Theresa May & her leadership of the #Conservatives for the new second edition of 'British Conservative Leaders' (eds. Charles Clarke, Toby James, Tim Bale, & Patrick Diamond). @livunipol.bsky.social @timbale.bsky.social www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/britis...

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22h

I'm guessing Robert Jenrick might be hard-pressed to see a black face if he walked round his own constituency of Newark for 90 minutes, given the ethnic minority population of its main town looks to be smaller than the white population of Handsworth. (Source: citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmi...)

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 17h

And the winner of the world's worst ventriloquist act is....

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 18h

The politician's go-to euphemism for 'God, s/he really is an absolute tw*t sometimes, but I can't say that out loud because s/he's a (shadow) cabinet colleague.'

Andrew Sparrow @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social · 18h

'Not words that I would have used' - Mel Stride refuses to back Jenrick's no white faces comment about Handsworth - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Jenrick accused of racism over ‘no white faces’ comments and his attack on judges labelled ‘serious mistake’ – UK politics live

Labour mayor of the West Midlands says Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were racist

www.theguardian.com

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 18h

Wait, what? Did Jenrick actually say "mulattos"?

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 18h

I'll bite. What is the benefit we gain from politicians being able to 'thoughtfully' say in private 'blacks, British Bangladeshis, British Pakistanis, British Indians, mulattos....all the same, and clearly from the look of them not-integrated?'

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 18h

Shadow DEFRA SoS, Victoria Atkins MP, bemoans those trying to score points off Jenrick's "private" remarks: "These are conversation we must have thoughtfully away from the clickbait of social media that, sadly, is so often the case."

And here is Victoria Thoughtful-Atkins at a farmers' protest. ~AA

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 18h

Intrigued to see how the Observer's food-writer is going to segue seamlessly into political commentary as the piece goes on....

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 18h

Excellent.

Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 1d

Dispatch from Manchester: cargo cults and effigies of Margaret Thatcher

www.newstatesman.com/uncategorize...

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 19h

Today's off-the-shelf Britpol exam question. Just bolt on a "Discuss." (The He, btw, is Robert Jenrick).

Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 22h

He wants mixed communities in the same way Conservative MPs want to reduce how many young people to go to University.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22h

I'm guessing Robert Jenrick might be hard-pressed to see a black face if he walked round his own constituency of Newark for 90 minutes, given the ethnic minority population of its main town looks to be smaller than the white population of Handsworth. (Source: citypopulation.de/en/uk/eastmi...)

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Reposted by Tim Bale

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

"Thatcher theatre" - pretty much sums up cul-de-sac into which the Conservative Party has driven itself in the decades since her defenestration. And now it too, risks becoming a museum piece, fit only for two or three glass display cases rather than a return to office.

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Tim Haughton @timhaughton.bsky.social · 23h

A quick take on the Czech elections 🇨🇿 written with one of my PhD students, Marek Prsin: views-from-central-and-balkan-countries.eu/motorists-pi... @sarahobolt.bsky.social @filipkostelka.bsky.social @petraguasti.bsky.social @zsolt.bsky.social @timbale.bsky.social @catherinedevries.bsky.social

Motorists, Pirates and Dissatisfied Citizens: Recipes for Electoral Success in the Czech Republic – Views from Central Europe and the Balkans

views-from-central-and-balkan-countries.eu

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22h

Wonder if it includes "No more f*cking lockdowns - let the bodies pile high in their thousands!" 🙄

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

"When the mainstream right loses its confidence, when it starts to chase the buzzwords and symbolic politics of the far right, it hands them the steering wheel." Top piece from @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social, referencing @dziblatt.bsky.social's excellent book.

Enjoying the implosion of the Tories? That’s understandable – but completely wrong | Zoe Williams

The world’s most successful democratic party is in a death spiral of its own making – leaving no moderate bulwark between the moderate and truly far right, writes Zoe Williams

www.theguardian.com

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

Postcard from @stephenkb.bsky.social (via his @financialtimes.com newsletter) from Manchester.

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