Just got on a train for the first time since Monday's debacle. And it's... late! Total confusion about whether we're departing as a five- or ten-car set, platform staff say different to train crew and we all just sit there like lemons. August punctuality: 0%. Sumner punctuality: 0%.

Remember: 90% of reporting about universities is just drivel, and 90% of the rest is either distorted or downright wrong.

The grip of chatter about Oxbridge, and indeed about all residential full-time study at ages 18-21, must be broken if we are to mature as a country and talk about Higher Education as grownups.

Universities cannot make money teaching home undergrads or doing funded research. Indeed, those run at a large loss. Only teaching international students make sense in any way. The logical endpoint is taking only international students, reducing research and moving many ops out of the UK altogether.

Hi, I'm on a train! And it's going to be late! That's three of three late today! And all eight of eight this week! And 100% of all trains this summer! Britain, that great economy. 🇬🇧

First train today... late! Second train today... really late and crawling! Still on my 0% punctuality this summer! That's Britain! 🇬🇧

Between the 1970s and 1990s the UK state made a strategic bet to expand Higher Ed. They poured in untold billions of your money. Now it's been handed over to private creditors to burn in a furnace. Then they just laugh at you: at all the taxes you've ever paid or will ever pay. True story. (2/2)

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

Hey everyone! I'm on a train again! And after last week's debacles it's... late! My 0% punctuality run is still going!

There's now crushing to get into the one train that has appeared in the extreme heat. The gate staff have had to open all the barriers but have still had to shout at everyone in the absolute melee of a crowd. It's horrible.

Guess what? Train's late. Like every single other train in the chaos that is Britain's rail 'network'. Never known it as bad as this year.

My train has been cancelled! As every day and on all days. It's what I always say: you can only physically work in two places in Britain. One: in your house on a screen. Two: within walking distance. Anything else is simply impassable. 🇬🇧

I honestly think most British politicians think everyone outside their immediate acquaintance works in an iron foundry from the 1840s. Their imaginative world is as impoverished as their analytical understanding.

All I can do to help in the present existential crisis of Britain's universities is reiterate my evidence to the Commons Education Committee. There isn't anything else.

Train crew now darkly joking about how the seats have been put in 'at great expense' and how 'occasionally' they get the catering trolley out. The cynicism is corrosive.

Hey, first train late! Second train? Only half has turned up and will be full and standing! Like every single other day. I don't even bother commenting these days, only a few years left of this now thank God.

No, I said that the air of competence as someone who'd run a large organisation was one key to his mild popularity in Opposition in 2020. I just looked up the article cos you reminded me and two of the key extracts are below.

Nigel Farage is one of the most disliked politicians there has ever been - yet another reason it would be a disaster if Reforn somehow got into power on like 25% of the vote. Just imagine these numbers once Nige got rid of the BBC, sucked up to Trump and cratered green energy. 😬

Hivemind! Can anyone help me out? If you like the content on this stream and you agree with me about Higher Ed, is anyone going to be at the UK National Archives now or soon who could photograph a single file for me? I will be eternally grateful/ can pay back in coffee, beer etc.! ☕🍺

'Wrote on X' - thus giving money and succour to the government's chief enemy, who would prefer Darren's friends and colleagues be jailed and/ or deported and millions of his fellow citizens stripped of their rights. You really couldn't make it up.

Just look at this. Was thinking of applying to this govt scheme, helping on rights of way and sense of place. It's waay too long, full of padding, needs cutting down by half. No sense of planning or priorities: 3 'outcomes', 6 'portfolios', 8 'areas of interest', 10 'cross-cutting themes'. 🙄🤷‍♂️ (1/2)

Right, it's too hot, I'm off for a lie down. 🌞🥵

This week from me: a very nice review of my recent book about New Labour, available here in the Political Studies Review. (1/2) 👇 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

As in so many areas, the new administration in No. 10 is going to be surprised by what hits it. Dealing with this mess has made clear to me that the British state hardly exists - there is simply no-one to do stuff on HE. There's nothing there, it's like a paper bag with 'gov.uk' written on it. (2/2)

Think it's now fair to say that Britain's Higher Education system has descended into complete chaos. If it were a nation-state the IMF and the World Bank would be in and politics would be in a clearly pre-revolutionary situation. Instead nothing is done, and no-one even cares really. (1/2)

The reviews are in for my book on New Labour... Maybe humanities subjects are good for something after all! You can buy a half price copy in the link below. 👇 (1/2)

NEW on my New Labour book... Another really nice review, this time in the Political Studies Review. 'New Labour, New Britain?' 'stands out for its analytical rigour, methodological robustness, and contemporary relevance'. (1/3)

My book on New Labour and the Blair years is in the @manchesterup.bsky.social sale for **just a tenner**! Roll up, roll up, you won't get a better bargain than this today: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526146328/

What's happening at the University of Exeter is a disaster for both the region and the country. The way the sector is set up, it is *inevitable* and *unstoppable* that this will continuously happen everywhere. We need to stop, get out a blank sheet of paper and start again.

Not the least of Brexit's disasters, which helped hollow out the state and made it unresponsive and unable to react to citizens' needs and views, has been the schism between the state and the young.