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Plashing Vole

@plashingvole

Mild-mannered lecturer by day…mild-mannered lecturer by night. Welsh lit, politicians’ fictions. Fencer, cyclist, UCU. Dysgwr Cymraeg; tá gaeilge agam. Barnau fy hun. Read books; join unions; block cookies. University of Mordor.

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Latest posts by Plashing Vole @plashingvole

Maybe.

08.03.2026 00:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Same for me. They’re a joy and good for the younger students to be around.

07.03.2026 16:09 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I encourage my students to do this too. Hopefully some have a go.

07.03.2026 12:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Book: A Very Vexing Murder by Lucy Andrew.

Book: A Very Vexing Murder by Lucy Andrew.

I’ve had so little time for private reading this week that all I’ve managed is Lucy Andrew’s Austen-world crime thriller A Very Vexing Murder. Enormously good fun, a bit cheeky, deeply knowledgeable about JA’s work and a great character in Harriet Smith. Perhaps a tad lengthy.

07.03.2026 12:24 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I feel for those students’ successors at UoB now, knowing their VC thinks they shouldn’t be there.

07.03.2026 11:53 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The more of them the better for everyone.

07.03.2026 11:24 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I’m sure you can plead something in micturation.

07.03.2026 10:09 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No longer wanted on board.

07.03.2026 08:20 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Anyone remember the news stories about Trump meeting oil companies, demanding massive donations and promising them whatever they wanted?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...

06.03.2026 23:06 👍 3 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

Very glad you are. I wanted an Ireland win but not a walkover.

06.03.2026 22:02 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tells you a lot about their imagined audience.

06.03.2026 21:41 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

An in-game ad. About PDFs. With a faux-soul song about PDFs.

Never mind the wokies, the hipsters or whomever else has been accused of hastening the end of civilisation. *This* is the low point.

#IREvWAL.

06.03.2026 21:38 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

Admirable work.

06.03.2026 21:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I always fancied teaching there. We scattered my old English teacher’s ashes in the garden of the law school - he had a heart attack just after starting a PhD in children’s human rights.

06.03.2026 18:31 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I suspect lots of the staff do. It’s just him and his team not wanting to do enough work.

06.03.2026 16:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Very relieved on your behalf.

06.03.2026 14:09 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Ha ha ha no.

06.03.2026 14:08 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
a painting of a nun holding a llama with a cross around her neck ALT: a painting of a nun holding a llama with a cross around her neck

It’s difficult but good for my soul.

06.03.2026 13:19 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Agreed.

06.03.2026 13:17 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Absolutely. He probably hasn’t noticed the existence of the several widening participation universities near his campus either.

06.03.2026 13:17 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Actually that was a wise decision.

06.03.2026 13:16 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Damn right.

06.03.2026 13:14 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Absolutely. Having them in the room is great for everyone.

06.03.2026 13:14 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Good idea. I’m hoping the Guild of Students have a stern word with him on behalf of people who’ve been publicly written off as undeserving of a place.

06.03.2026 13:14 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I am not feeling a scintilla of schadenfreude at the news that the senior manager who passionately defended doing business in dictatorships is stuck in one dictatorship while another dictatorship’s drones rain down explosives on his location. That would be deeply uncharitable and unworthy.

06.03.2026 13:10 👍 37 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0

You’ll never get to be a VC with that attitude.

06.03.2026 12:36 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

And they’re the ones who actually meet prospective students. He’ll never have an uncomfortable conversation for the rest of his career.

06.03.2026 12:35 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

That’s him.

06.03.2026 12:33 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I do feel sorry for UoB staff, saddled with this embarrassment as the public face of the institution. Mind you, that could be said of a number of universities.

06.03.2026 12:32 👍 24 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0

FFS. Idiots.

06.03.2026 12:27 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0