claire levy

Great new post by @_tanjabb on a Deptford Docklands development project and community push back on Streetsigns from @thecucr @sociologygold streetsigns.online/DEPTFORD-DOCKY…

@clairelevy @AcademicDiary @thecucr @SociologyGold Must check this out. Anita is talking about her work, in Charlton House this afternoon.

Nigerian students at Swansea University claim they have been thrown off their courses and told to return home after their tuition fees were paid "hours late" during a banking crisis in their country. #Echobox=1691423809" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">itv.com/news/wales/202…

Get to Know the Bibby Stockholm... - 500+ single adult men crammed onto a barge with a capacity of 222 in normal use (e.g. as accommodation for oil workers) Single rooms: - 2 strangers, sharing an austere metal bunk bed - TV (as mocking and useless as a paperweight: they've been deliberately detuned so they won't pick up anything, to "encourage socialising" apparently) - 1 chair, 1 desk, 1 wardrobe - A window (it's supposed to be able to open; this is touted as a major plus by the barge's owners) - Shower and toilet Slightly larger rooms: - 4 strangers, in 2 bunk beds Communal areas: (Most of the larger ones have been repurposed into dormitories. The thin list below is pretty much all that's left.) - Narrow corridors - TV room with sofas, seating up to 12 people max - Tiny gym - Classroom with seating for perhaps 20, some sort of laptops, and "wifi access" - Bar (off-limits to asylum seekers, and reserved as a "staff lounge") - Multi-faith prayer room - Games room with a pool table and a few chairs - "Outdoor" space surrounded on all four sides by massive walls made up of the 3-storeys of cabins, so you can't see anything other than sky - Canteen dining area (not nearly big enough for 500 people) Other facilities: - Basic meals 3x a day (but note that the canteen seems far too small to seat everyone at once, so presumably there will be shifts coming and going all the time) - Laundry service - On-site nurse 5 days a week - Access to GP if referred by the nurse Beyond the ship: - Airport-style security (metal detectors etc.) - 24/7 guards conducting "robust security checks" - 15ft high fence all around - No pedestrian access to the port or the wider area - Only way to get to Weymouth and beyond is on the occasional shuttle buses - Have to sign register every time they leave The asylum seekers on board are likely to be there between six months and a year or more. They can't work. They will be fed and their clothes washed, but they will have just over a pound a day for absolutely everything else they need. They are expected to spend the overwhelming majority of their time on the barge, where as we've seen there are leisure and learning facilities for maybe 1/10th of people if we're being extremely generous with how we estimate it. It is truly, truly disgusting.

@TheSocReview @BenHCarrington @gladlib I took part in this last year. Highly recommend!

THE PHOTOGRAPH An old friend of mine came in to my hospital room with an envelope of photographs. He pulled one out, it was of me, taken in Cork in or around 1993. I am at a book signing, handing a paperback copy of my first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, to someone. I am wearing a Levis jacket and a Paul Smith scarf, which I still have. My hair is long and black and tucked behind my ears. The light is on my face, which is smooth and pixie-like. I guess I am in my late thirties. My friend pins the photograph to the wall opposite me without asking. I am not sure I want it there. But there is it, I am looking at it now. People come in and they say, in amazement, “is that you?” Now I am gaunt and unshaven with straggly hair, and, like all of us, barely resemble the person I once was. The picture reminds me, of course, of all that I have lost and I wonder if it is good for me to have it there. I am mainly in bed at the moment rather than my wheelchair, since I have a huge pain, as I mentioned before, in my arse, due to a fissure which the clinical nurse identified after looking up there with a torch and a camera. I am taking liquid morphine to alleviate it, I’m trying to find a position that is less painful than others. When you are in pain, all you can think about is that pain; it is insistent, it doesn’t want you to forget about it. The whole thing is depressing as hell. I stare at this picture and realise there is no going back. The kids come in and say that all of this, what I’m going through now, my suffering, is only temporary - that is a good reminder. This morning, in the unit’s kitchen, I took part in a physical therapy group with four other patients. Since I am in a single side room, I rarely see the other patients, and I certainly don’t spend time with them. We gathered around the table, playing with blocks and children’s toys. One of the women was young, around thirty, and was stunningly beautiful, looking like the young Jackie Kennedy. She could barely speak or use her hands. The physiotherapists were all very cheerful, often exaggeratedly so, speaking to us slowly and with a forced brightness, as if they are presenting a children’s programme. In contrast, the patients looked dazed, as if they couldn’t believe their misfortune. Their sadness was palpable. I was glad to be with them, though none of us spoke to each other. The woman who looks like Jackie Kennedy inexplicably started to weep and had to be taken out by a physiotherapist.

Inflation in Spain has fallen to 2% - here’s why bit.ly/3Oo4KxK “Spain capped energy prices by more than the UK, lowered the cost of public transport, taxed excess profits and put in place limits on how much landlords can raise rents”.

The police statement issued later (which I will also post) makes clear that the woman had paid her fare.

I think Iain means "subject area in a provider" here - these are not "courses" in the sense of things you can apply to. But he has a point - some of this data looks quite bad, doesn't it. Let's dive in.

@cupofassam I think this a key factor in the Tory attack on arts and humanities degrees. Bring critical means not voting Tory! And finding voice to dissent on what is not working about our world.

Critical judgement: the ability to find, compare, filter and respond to a variety of texts, inputs, data, experiences, and assert relative values among them.

I’m a professor of theatre and performance. I have been teaching ‘rip-off’ degrees all my adult life. Let me summarise the pointless skills and experiences my students have accumulated: 🧵

This weekend 65 years ago #AltheaGibson, the first Black woman to win @Wimbledon, retained her title. Althea repeatedly applied for membership of the #AllEnglandClub but, unlike other winners, was never accepted. Her Jewish doubles partner #AngelaBuxton faced a similar struggle

Once again for those who wonder why we're on MAB. In Ireland, you can earn more as a Lecturer than as a full Professor in the UK/NI. And they don't have to do REF 🫠. Looking at this I can't help feeling ucu are actually being far too reasonable. #ucuRISING #SettleTheDispute

Announcing the Barbican Cinema screening of my Channel 4 film ‘Living with the Bunker’, in this, the 30th anniversary year of Stephen Lawrence’s death. The film explores how the far-right BNP, impacted on London’s communities in the early 1990s. barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2023/…

🚨It’s Horror Show after Horror Show, as management have tried to respond to the MAB. It’s been carnage at Exam Boards across the University and, unfortunately, the victims are mainly professional standards and academic rigour. Stories from across the University include: 1/11

For the first time since lockdown PUC students from @SociologyGold travelled to Paris for a symposium of photography, walking & discussion with their peers @univ_paris_cite led by @PcolesPeter & @CarolinaBoe - great potential collaborations! @thecucr streetsigns.online/SEVENTH-PUC-UN…

Govt prepares to take over water firm amid Thames Water '£10bn blackhole' in finances… Also Thames Water: Financial Times reported earlier this year that the largest water monopoly paid £37m of “internal dividends” to its parent company in the year to March 31, 2022.

Graduating is a privilege I never thought I’d be able to achieve and despite not graduating with a classification I was at least able to take a stand and protest the decisions the uni and UCEA have taken. Universities need to #settlethedispute and renegotiate with @ucu now.

I am a dutch, widowed parent, of a British child. I live in the UK on a parent visa and my daughter is happily growing up here, near my late wife's family and our friends. Last week @ukhomeoffice cancelled my right to be here. In error. A thread to put the record straight.

This remarkably talented man is about to announce a tour of his family show, I have it on good authority. My own authority. I would expect it as soon as tomorrow, in fact.

Tomorrow @bbcquestiontime is coming from my home town Clacton and its audience features purely Brexit voters. Social media will no doubt be full of negative comments about gammons and xenophobes. But that doesn't tell the full story... (short thread)