Nothing particularly interesting

The fuck you up, the electorate. They may not mean to, but they do. They vote for things in ignorance, And drag us out of the EU. But they were fucked up in their turn, By ignorant self-serving twits, Who sold us lies and false concerns: The myths of this Brexit. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens, with terminal velocity. Move to Scotland as quick as you can, Before the end of our economy.

I can't sleep.  I have managed to wind myself up over the amount of seemingly ill-considered demands that keep flying the way of teaching staff in my College (the latest arriving at about 8pm this evening). The first was a grand announcement that in order to save money on actual teaching time, we were all expected to create online activities instead - which would replace teaching hours, thereby freeing us all up to teach more modules.  Like a kind of MOOCAC (Massively Open Online Course At Cost). Ok. But they were more specific than that.  It was to take the form of an hour's online activity each week for each module.  Since we are currently teaching the equivalent of around 8-10 modules per semester (likely to go up to 12 or more with the hours freed up by this wheeze), this means we could be developing around 144 different hour-long online activities per semester. Starting this September. Oh and there is no money to pay for any preparation time ...

My letter to MP Dame Angela Watkinson

My friend Ellie doesn't have a telly, So to talk to her is rather tough. Because we can't have a chat about Nigella's Jack-Fruit Jelly Or the BBC 2 coverage of Crufts. She doesn't know the show where they buy antiques on the cheap, Or the merits of Bo Derrick's cha-cha-cha. And we cannot really natter about Veep or Shawn the Sheep Or that she looks a little bit like She-Rah. I guess I'll have to focus on some other conversation; Something that we both might care about. Like our feelings, health, religion, or some corrupt politician, Or if the referendum's in or out. So to be more amenable, we talk of things more meaningful, And overall it's working quite well. We know more about each other, and less about Big Brother. Do I miss it? Do I hell.

Just a wee detour - a small coffee-break from my current obsession with marking, moderating and doing endless piles of paperwork - to flag up Jo Johnson's speech in which he outlined his plans for the future of higher education . I don't think this necessarily contained many surprises - except a personal one for me, in that I am struggling to find anything that I particularly disagree with.  Perhaps I am just not informed enough, but from what I can see these are the highlights:

We understand that these are trying times: The money's tight, and profit margins low. We've lost, investing product on sub-primes. So painful as it is, you'll have to go. We'd like to thank you for the work you've done, But can't because your research isn't great. And even though this benefits no one, It's a sacrifice that we're willing to make. http://wlv.web.ucu.org.uk/2015/06/16/ucu-at-the-university-of-wolverhampton-denounce-the-threat-of-compulsory-redundancy/