Adopted Brummie. University wonkery. "Moral arbitrator (sic) of my own womanhood." Show me the evidence. Stubbornly resistant to control. Views personal etc.
Birmingham
Joined April 2010
- Tweets4.4K
- Following138
- Followers239
- Likes1K
Could not agree more. The lack of understanding of how universities (even the 'small' ones are big & complex organisations) are run has been a massive detriment to the past few years.
Labour could do far worse than appoint a current or former Vice-Chancellor as Chair.
One of OfS's big challenges has been failing to understand the burden which it is putting on the sector.
Having a Chair who has run a uni would help a lot here.
timeshighereducation.com/new…
Evidence-based policy and practice, that is what is needed here. (In news that will surprise few, I also think it's needed in 'gender' social policy and the infringement of women's rights). I am so glad to see the Health Secretary say this loud and clear.
Puberty Blockers. A 🧵
Children’s healthcare must always be led by evidence.
Medicine given to children must always be proven safe and effective first.
I know there’s lots of fear and anxiety.
Let me explain why this decision was taken.
1/9
2
130
It is a niche HE factoid that @SpatialityJones has never been known to eat dinner without turning over the tableware.
51
Alison Torrens retweeted
Woman of the Day Julia Pirie born OTD 1918 Warwickshire, MI5 agent for 20 years. Cover story: typist. Her unassuming demeanour and matronly appearance masked a sharp intellect. When Barcelona police raided her flat in the 1970s (she was keeping tabs on the IRA at the time), she convinced them she was just a harmless English spinster.
In WW2, Julia joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry which provided women agents for the Special Operations Executive.
After the war, MI5 asked her to infiltrate the Communist Party of Great Britain as a typist. She became personal assistant to the General Secretary, accompanying him to regular meetings behind the Iron Curtain. The fact that she usually tried to avoid these "dreary" visits to the Eastern Bloc only reinforced her cover. Julia would pass regular reports and photocopies to her MI5 handlers during cricket matches at The Oval. It wasn’t a hardship; she enjoyed cricket.
In the 1970s, she was instructed to resign her Communist Party post and take on a new mission: collecting intelligence on the Provisional IRA during several missions in Europe.
Posing as a modest, elderly English spinster sightseeing abroad, Julia followed the Provisional IRA through several European countries collecting information about them, before renting a flat in Barcelona immediately below the one used as an IRA safe house and temporary storage for gold bullion supplied by Gaddafi. The whole operation was put at risk when Barcelona armed police mistakenly raided her flat, but she coolly maintained her cover and persuaded them they had the wrong person.
In the 1990s, after retiring from active operations, Julia lectured to groups of MI5 trainees and the police.
And the best bit? Until her death in September 2008 at the age of 90, the Communist Party continued to pay her pension each month from a bank in Italy.
There’s no known photo of her. Did you really think there would be?
Alison Torrens retweeted
The best advice for all new MPs is not to sign up for anything - new pledges, caucuses, campaigns - in the immediate aftermath of election. Hold lobbyists of all sort - including the "nice" ones - at arms' length. Listen, but don't subscribe. Don't splurge on social media.
This is a marker of how serious the new govt takes post-16 education & how the PM will approach governing. HE will give @Jacqui_Smith1 a warm welcome, she will do an impressive job & she needs to. We should give thanks also to @MattWestern_ for all he gave to the shadow role 👏.
Welcome to Rt Hon Jacqui Smith @Jacqui_Smith1 who has been appointed as Minister of State in the Department for Education
125
Now we're talking.
Sir Patrick Vallance KCB has been appointed Minister of State (Minister for Science) in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology @SciTechgovuk.
ALT Sir Patrick Vallance KCB appointed Minister of State (Minister for Science) in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
56
I'm curious to learn just how much oil was used in the transport and construction of Stonehenge.
1
36
I'm really sorry to see @steve_mccabe stand down. I left @UKLabour a while ago but I could not rate Steve higher and was always happy to do my very small bit of campaigning for him. Never has a strapline fitted so well, he really is hard working and straight talking.
Everyone has something meaningful in their life that they are putting off. Start here.
Do what you love doing, even if you must do what you love less for most of the time. Click on image for this week’s article. theguardian.com/lifeandstyle…
54
Alison Torrens retweeted
But the argument *is not* that students shouldn’t be counted - sorry for the double negative.
Of course we need to know how many people are in the country. Of course we should keep to international norms.
The argument *is* about whether they should be in Government targets.
There’s going to be a lot of stuff this week about international students, and why they should be taken out of the migration figures (see eg @JoJohnsonUK). Here’s why that’s wrong (1/?)
Alison Torrens retweeted
UK ministers urged not to axe graduate visa programme ft.com/content/f3768fc0-ef4a… via @ft
I'm not bothered at all about one or other brand of Conservativism but @andy4wm deserves to be proud of the enormous part he has played in the West Midlands. He is all the things people say about him, dedicated, full of integrity & loves where we live. Thank you Andy.
Q - You must be disappointed?
Andy Street: Well, of course. I mean, disappointed is a soft word, but we'll go with it
Q - You say that disappointed is a soft word. What word would you choose then?
Andy Street: I suppose I am personally devastated
1
100
Alison Torrens retweeted
Dr John Armstrong, a maths academic at @KingsCollegeLon, asked for our help. He was applying for promotion and was being asked to sign up to KCL's EDI policy – which conflicted with his gender-critical beliefs.
sex-matters.org/posts/update…
Alison Torrens retweeted
🚨 NEW MUSIC ALERT 🚨
RRR is available on all streaming platforms, please go listen, save, share and get locked in to some heavy riddim courtesy of your KIOKO mandem.
songwhip.com/KIOKO/RRR
#KIOKO #kiokomusicuk #revolutionaryreggaerockers #birmingham #reggae #newmusicfriday – at Birmingham, England
Alison Torrens retweeted
After 28,674 nautical miles and 154 days at sea, our girl Maiden is home with her inspirational all-female crew, including the first women of colour to race around the world and our camerawoman who escaped the Taliban in Afghanistan. This truly international crew has changed the face of sailing and they stand for women and girls everywhere. They have made history and we could not be more proud of them! @maidenfactor #GirlPower
Alison Torrens retweeted
Birmingham New Street Station had 30.7m passengers last year.
Why is our most famous musical venue and beautiful 149 yr old pub The Crown closed and on the corner of a road used as a rat run by cars when it sits directly outside a venue with 30.7 million passengers annually?
Professionals with a duty of care for children have been wearing blinkers for 20 years. TWENTY! What damage has been done?
I'm going to just have a moment.... 2004 I immediately knew something was wrong at GIDS Tavi when I saw a child sent for hormones after only 4 assessment sessions. Wind forward 20 years - Thank you to Dr Cass and team for your thorough report. @Hilary_Cass
...More to do though!
57
Alison Torrens retweeted
🎉🌼🌸April Fools! 🌸🌼🎉
Only kidding. Obviously, the people mentioned in the above tweets aren't women at all, but men, every last one of them.
In passing the Scottish Hate Crime Act, Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls. The new legislation is wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women's and girls’ single-sex spaces, the nonsense made of crime data if violent and sexual assaults committed by men are recorded as female crimes, the grotesque unfairness of allowing males to compete in female sports, the injustice of women’s jobs, honours and opportunities being taken by trans-identified men, and the reality and immutability of biological sex.
For several years now, Scottish women have been pressured by their government and members of the police force to deny the evidence of their eyes and ears, repudiate biological facts and embrace a neo-religious concept of gender that is unprovable and untestable. The re-definition of 'woman' to include every man who declares himself one has already had serious consequences for women's and girls’ rights and safety in Scotland, with the strongest impact felt, as ever, by the most vulnerable, including female prisoners and rape survivors.
It is impossible to accurately describe or tackle the reality of violence and sexual violence committed against women and girls, or address the current assault on women’s and girls’ rights, unless we are allowed to call a man a man. Freedom of speech and belief are at an end in Scotland if the accurate description of biological sex is deemed criminal.
I'm currently out of the country, but if what I've written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment.
If you agree with the views set out in this tweet, please retweet it.
#ArrestMe #AprilFools #HateCrimeActScotland
11/X
I would rather see the central library close than ALL Birmingham local libraries close. (Obviously would prefer that none did.) Birmingham City Council has got this badly wrong.
Some of the over 200 residents at Acocks Green Library for the Read-In this afternoon #SaveourLibraries
