Summary 👇 1/21
Our paper builds on an early piece I coauthored w/ @McCormack_Tara for @tfbrexit.
As before I argue Britain's poor response to COVID-19 reflects not simply Tory incompetence or bad leadership, but rather deep transformations in Britain's state.
1/23
This report takes on a view propagated by think tanks and senior Western policymakers: that China's #BeltandRoad Initiative involves "debt trap diplomacy": deliberately luring developing countries into contracting unsustainable debt to finance infrastructure projects.
2/23
Aug 11, 2020 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
My new report is out today: Saving Britain's Universities: Academic Freedom, Democracy and Renewal.
It identifies massification (over-expansion) and marketisation as the twin evils plaguing the sector and calls for the reversal of both.
This report is the culmination of >10yrs working in UK universities & struggling in many organisations, from @UCU to @HEconvention, to try to improve them.
It builds on this long essay on marketisation, written last year, which >35k ppl read.
Does the Intelligence & Security Committee's Russia report suggest the EU referendum was "rigged", as many are now tweeting?
Not at all.
Read it for yourself, pp.12-15. docs.google.com/a/independent.…
1/6
What the report actually says is: we didn't try to assess the efficacy of any Russian influence attempts (p.12), nor do we actually have any additional evidence of them (pp.12-15).
2/6
Jun 30, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
UK govt has quietly announced a quasi-"bailout" of UK universities.
£280m extra research funding (£180m of it new) + grants (25%) and loans (75%) to cover up to 80% of lost overseas student fee income.
But there is a LOT of devil in the detail.
1/11
gov.uk/government/pub…
Funds will "be used to mostly support STEM" at "research-active universities". Teaching-intensive universities can get stuffed, apparently. As can Humanities and Social Sciences. An incredibly narrow and foolish vision of what society needs post-COVID.
2/11
Apr 17, 2020 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
Let's be clear about what the #lockdown is and isn't achieving, and at what cost.
It *is* preventing the NHS from collapsing under the strain of #COVID19. Evidence mostly suggests ICUs/wards are strained, but coping. PPE is insufficient, but it's not carnage. 1/14
The #lockdown does seem to be "flattening the curve", so that the peak of serious cases remains below the total capacity of acute hospitals. That's what "protect the NHS means", in the govt's slogan.
2/14
Mar 12, 2020 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Why containment of #COVID19 has already failed in the UK: a thread.
My partner comes home with flu-like symptoms. Calls 111. They say: you're not old or in contact with diagnosed cases; you'll be fine.
This implies that those diagnosed with COVID19 have the virus. Wrong. 1/16
c.80% of #COVID19 victims have mild symptoms. Many are asymptomatic. If you only test those with severe symptoms/ close to known cases, you'll miss these people, who will nonetheless be able to spread the virus to others.
2/16
Jan 24, 2020 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Having researched pandemic disease and its governance for my book with @ShaharHameiri, I'm usually v sceptical of hysteria around pandemic disease. Here's a thread on the Chinese #CoronaVirusOutbreak. 1/18 books.google.com/books/about/Go…
Pandemic viruses often originate in animals. They are dangerous to us when they become "zoonotic" - they mutate to cross the species barrier between animals and humans. Scientists think #CoronaVirus may originate in snakes/ bats. Others came from bats, civets, chickens, etc. 2/18
Nov 25, 2019 • 16 tweets • 9 min read
You'll get nothing from me for the next 8 days except #UCUstrike. I'll explain why I and thousands of other university staff are striking here. Long thread, because there are a lot of grievances. /1
Universities are at breaking point after years of marketisation.
Many ppl think unis are great places to work. Not really.
We're overworked to the point of collapse. Academics work 2 unpaid days per week to cope with insane workloads. ucu.org.uk/media/8195/Wor…#UCUstrike /2
Apr 5, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
You can't read too much into any one by-election, but Newport (56% Leave) is interesting. The Brexit fiasco may have two broad effects on Leave voters in particular: 1) resigned collapse into disengagement 2) ferocious backlash. What happened here? Both, but 1>2.
Turnout was way down: 37% (2017: 64.5%). Normal for by-elections, but also suggests limited popular backlash, which would surely show up right now if ever. "A plague on all your houses" is the unsurprising response of many voters, who are used to being ignored.
2/5
Jan 3, 2019 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
A report by @Beaking_News on @R4today explored possible EU #sanctions on #Myanmar's garment exports, in response to the #Rohingya atrocities. Here's a thread on why I think sanctions would be misguided.
/1
CC @ecfr@eucopresident@FedericaMog
As I argued in my 2015 @OUPpolitics book, Societies Under Siege, where Myanmar was a case study, it's crucial to consider HOW sanctions are supposed to achieve one's desired goals. HOW exactly will economic pain translate into political gain? global.oup.com/academic/produ…
/2
Apr 5, 2018 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD. This blog is apparently the best that the IBL can do on the UUK offer. So let me explain why it is wrong. I focus here on the blatant factual inaccuracies rather than judgement calls, on which reasonable disagreement is possible. ucuagenda.com/2018/04/04/the… /1 #RejectUUKdeal
7.2: "the 2017 valuation would effectively, be put on hold while an independent expert panel reviews USS’s valuation methodology and its claims that there is a deficit." /2
Mar 18, 2018 • 18 tweets • 6 min read
Alistair Jarvis of @UniversitiesUK embarrassing himself AGAIN. @MikeOtsuka has a detailed take-down of one key point: employers dont' need to pay more; they just need to accept slightly higher risk, which most probably do. But there's more...
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"Employers are trying to deal with a tough set of financial circumstances". Uhuh, uhuh. Tell me more.
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