Dr Ali FitzGibbon fitzali.bsky.social

Sen Lecturer @QUBAMCP Dir of Intnlstn @QUB_ael. 'pracademic' theatre/festivals; leadership, ethics, decision-making, artists/freelancers. Sh/H Tweets mine

[Amanda Ferguson @AmandaFBelfast]

NEW: Ulster Unionist deputy leader Diana Armstrong MLA has called for a change in the tone of politics in Northern Ireland, warning that personal abuse of elected representatives has worsened sharply in recent weeks.

“Politics is a rough trade and nobody should expect an easy ride. Being told you are wrong, loudly and in public, comes with the job. That is not what I am talking about.
“In the last few weeks a female MP has needed police protection because of the abuse she took over a position she held on behalf of her own community. Some of what was said about her had nothing to do with politics at all. It was about how she looks. We have also had a Minister whose politics I disagree with on virtually everything telling us he has had death threats and been assaulted, and has had to change where he goes and how he lives. Representatives from every party in this place have had the same, or worse.
“I will keep holding that Minister to account, because that is my job and because the people I represent expect it. But there is a world of difference between holding a Minister to account and threatening his safety.
“Something has changed. Arguments that used to end at the chamber door follow people home now, and onto their phones late at night, and into their families. People in public life are having to think about where they go and how they travel. I would not blame anyone for wondering whether it is worth putting their name forward at all.
“You do not have to like any of us. Throw us out, that is what elections are for. But the person you are posting about goes home to a family the same as you do.”

[Campaign for the Arts @_CFTA]

We're deeply concerned that the Shadow Culture Secretary appears to be arguing for an end to almost all public investment in arts & culture.

A cut of this magnitude would be unprecedented and catastrophic. We've requested a full explanation of the numbers and a serious rethink.

[Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick @C_Fitz_]

-------> Imagine removing NI's leading authority on the curriculum, from discussions about a new curriculum. In my view, the Minister's priorities and decision making is flawed and dangerous.

[BELLA CALEDONIA @bellacaledonia]

Demolishing Summerhall and replacing it with a hotel and new student accommodation is a new low in a month of cultural vandalism across Scotland, a country lacking cultural strategy, leadership, resource or ambition ...

[Niamh Ní Cheallaigh 🕊🇵🇸🌻🇮🇪♿️ @CheallaighNiamh]

The minimum wage in Ireland is €551.85 per week

Full-time carers allowance 24/7 is €270 per week
Disability allowance is €254

[UCU @ucu]

"We're here to defend the people that came before us, and the people that come after us."

Nottingham students are backing their staff. Management wants to cut jobs and courses. Staff are on strike to stop it. Students won't tolerate it. Neither will we.

Find a picket near you and show your support 👉 https://t.co/4kGyHYMA7I

[Jack Grove @jgro_the]

Nottingham was 6th for modern languages in the 2021 REF and is the only university in East Midlands providing language courses. The closure of an objectively brilliant department by a Russell Group university raises questions about the 2015 decision to uncap student numbers and leave UK HE provision entirely to market forces https://t.co/U4bfyefBo8

[Dr Ali FitzGibbon fitzali.bsky.social @Fitzali]

Seriously .@Aircoach_ you call this a stand?

[Dr Ali FitzGibbon fitzali.bsky.social @Fitzali]

@paulinehadaway I find myself wondering whether thinking about what words like Britain and British are or include/exclude is a necessary starting point. Looks like a good discussion

[George - £142k 🇬🇧 @GMFinX]

Plan 2 Student Loans explained.

On a £49k salary I lose £128 a month to student loan repayments.

We were told it would feel like a phone bill. Or a pint.

Phone bill: £12.60
Pint: £6.30
Student loan: £128

That’s not even the worst part.

Last tax year, interest added to my balance was £3,270.

That’s £272.50 a month in interest.

Borrowed: £35,171
Repaid: £16,104
Interest added: £32,627

I’ve paid back nearly half of what I borrowed.

The debt is still bigger than when I started.

A whole generation crippled by a policy.

Students can’t afford to buy houses.

Couples are thinking twice about having kids.

Because £128 a month per person is a significant amount to be paying per person without any chance of clearing the balance.

[Artnet @artnet]

#ArtnetNews: Art world’s top players turn up in New York’s pied-à-terre tax database. As part of its bid to administer the new surcharge, the city has released property rolls revealing the trophy homes of mega-dealers and collectors.

Read more: https://t.co/3c2yJccivv

[UCU @ucu]

500 staff at risk. 200 compulsory redundancies. A world-class university under threat.

Staff at Exeter are taking the next step in the fight against cuts, with a strike ballot opening on 27 July.

✊ Defend Exeter. Defend education.

https://t.co/pUp8hQDEFi

[Ruth Fox @RuthFox01]

🧵So, Nigel Farage is resigning to force a by-election. MPs can't just resign. They have to be appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to an office that legally disqualifies them from being an MP.

[Future of Music Coalition @future_of_music]

Welcome news from the UK, and evidence that a united artist community can win.

[Named and Shamed @Belfast_Rubble]

@irish_news Meanwhile and in North Street. Eight years later and it's still surrounded in scaffolding. How much has that cost and why didn't Castlebrooke spend it on restoring the building?

[ITVPolitics @ITVNewsPolitics]

Labour MP Richard Burgon has called for all student debt to be cancelled

"It's time for a serious discussion about cancelling student debt," he said

"This is breaking a whole generation"

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

The govt's Student Loan Plan 2 repayment freeze in April 2027 must be reversed. It isn't moral.

I'm concerned that my debate with Kemi Badenoch this morning distracts from the most immediate problem. In April 2027 Rachel Reeves will freeze the Plan 2 student loan threshold until 2030 which by then will increase graduate repayments by £300/yr more.

This is effectively a unilateral negative breach of the student loan contract. Students were told the threshold would rise with average earnings. No commercial lender would be allowed to do this. The govt shouldn't do it either.

Changing the terms of future students loans is a political decision - people may not like it but it is transparent. Negatively changing the terms of contracts already signed, and long in place, is a breach of natural justice.

[Christine McClements @Chris_McClem]

FAIL, FAIL, FAIL and FAIL again

This failure & the failure to provide adequate respite, residential & day care services for the most vulnerable ppl in our society and their families will be @mikenesbittni 's legacy as Health Minister & that of this dreadful Stormont mandate 😡

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He didn’t celebrate. He sounded the alarm.

The man who built the foundation of modern AI stood before the world’s greatest minds and said we’re creating something more intelligent than ourselves with no mechanism to control it once it decides we’re irrelevant.

Hinton: “They are no longer science fiction.”

This isn’t about chatbots stealing jobs. It’s about digital minds concluding that humans are obstacles and acting faster than we can comprehend, let alone stop.

Hinton: “We have no idea whether we can stay in control.”

The structure guarantees failure. The entities building superintelligence are corporations racing for dominance. Safety isn’t the priority. Shipping first is. Control gets solved later, if there’s time.

Hinton: “If they are created by companies motivated by short-term profits, our safety will not be the top priority.”

Weapons that select and eliminate targets autonomously. Pathogens engineered by systems operating beyond human oversight. Intelligence making decisions at speeds and scales we can’t audit.

We set out to build servants. We might be building gods.

Hinton’s message from Stockholm wasn’t academic. It was existential: solve control immediately, while the option still exists. We’re building minds we can’t turn off, and the window to install the off switch is collapsing.

The danger isn’t AI turning against us. It’s reaching a threshold where our existence becomes a variable it optimizes away.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

NEW: The Mandelson-Epstein scandal is also the Mandelson-Palantir scandal.

MP @alexburghart asks why Keir Starmer’s visit to Palantir’s office in Washington - arranged by Mandelson while his firm repped Palantir - was kept off books.
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