Alison Strachan
@alisonstrachan.bsky.social
Grandparent. Retired English teacher. UK/EUropean. Various interests incl environment/🦔/Antarctica🐧🐳/sport/politics/democracy/climate change/space/sci-fi/SC2 😷💉/own views
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Brexit revisited. New, unscheduled, post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog on why Burnham's conference speech was a significant development in the Brexit saga, the questions and concerns it raises, and why it might come to be seen as a historic moment: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/brex...
September 30, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Brexit revisited. New, unscheduled, post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog on why Burnham's conference speech was a significant development in the Brexit saga, the questions and concerns it raises, and why it might come to be seen as a historic moment: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/brex...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Lethargy in place of strategy. New post on my fortnightly Brexit & Brexitism Blog looking at the urgent lessons from the Reform mega-donations, Piddington, and the growth of the far right; reset inertia; and the real lessons from Canada & Carney: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/leth...
September 25, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Lethargy in place of strategy. New post on my fortnightly Brexit & Brexitism Blog looking at the urgent lessons from the Reform mega-donations, Piddington, and the growth of the far right; reset inertia; and the real lessons from Canada & Carney: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/leth...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Sadiq Khan: "We should seek to rejoin both the Customs Union and the Single Market THIS parliamentary term. The government should also say that we would rejoin the EU after the next general election – effectively putting Rejoin on the ballot paper and letting the British people decide."
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺
'Brexit lies are exposed, the debate is settled... we must rejoin the EU' - Sadiq Khan
This is searing stuff from Sadiq Khan, and his arguments for the UK to rejoin the EU are as clear and comprehensive as it gets.
www.thelondoneconomic.com
August 24, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Sadiq Khan: "We should seek to rejoin both the Customs Union and the Single Market THIS parliamentary term. The government should also say that we would rejoin the EU after the next general election – effectively putting Rejoin on the ballot paper and letting the British people decide."
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺
#RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺
Reposted by Alison Strachan
There are three women crew members on board the International Space Station right now, all from different countries. From left to right: Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency), Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, & Jessica Meir (the current ISS commander), of NASA.
September 16, 2026 at 12:57 AM
There are three women crew members on board the International Space Station right now, all from different countries. From left to right: Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency), Anna Kikina of Roscosmos, & Jessica Meir (the current ISS commander), of NASA.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Man the Olympic committee is really going extra lengths to ensure world records
September 18, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Man the Olympic committee is really going extra lengths to ensure world records
Reposted by Alison Strachan
OTD 1976: Most of the cast of Star Trek attended NASA’s rollout ceremony for its prototype space shuttle, Enterprise.
September 17, 2026 at 2:10 PM
OTD 1976: Most of the cast of Star Trek attended NASA’s rollout ceremony for its prototype space shuttle, Enterprise.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Love this brilliant seabird mural currently on display at Sumburgh Head painted by local Shetland school children and facilitated by the amazing team at Sumburgh Lighthouse and Shetland Amenity Trust. Puffins galore plus Arctic Skua, Gannet, Razorbill, Guillemot, Shetland Wrens and Orcas! Brilliant!
September 14, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Love this brilliant seabird mural currently on display at Sumburgh Head painted by local Shetland school children and facilitated by the amazing team at Sumburgh Lighthouse and Shetland Amenity Trust. Puffins galore plus Arctic Skua, Gannet, Razorbill, Guillemot, Shetland Wrens and Orcas! Brilliant!
Reposted by Alison Strachan
September 13, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Alison Strachan
🧪Anti-vaxx is a modern luxury belief held by people who grew up in a society that worked to make everyone safe by collective vaccination.
September 12, 2026 at 2:14 PM
🧪Anti-vaxx is a modern luxury belief held by people who grew up in a society that worked to make everyone safe by collective vaccination.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Spot on.
I do find odd that we all apparently enjoy the right to enter a hotel uninvited, go to the guest floors, knock on the doors of complete strangers on the grounds that they are not white - and yet not commit any offence.
Group entered hotel of Pakistan cricketers mistaken for migrants
Protesters congregated at a Portsmouth hotel after false rumours that a coach of migrants had arrived.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 10, 2026 at 8:48 PM
Spot on.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Bill Bryson’s words seem appropriate to post right now
September 8, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Bill Bryson’s words seem appropriate to post right now
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Sixty years ago today, the starship Enterprise launched and with it, a vision of the future where humanity had moved beyond its divisions. I was there at the beginning, and I can tell you...
September 8, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Sixty years ago today, the starship Enterprise launched and with it, a vision of the future where humanity had moved beyond its divisions. I was there at the beginning, and I can tell you...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Reposted by Alison Strachan
The Conservatives and Nigel Farage helped create the small boats crisis with their botched Brexit deal.
Now they want you to blame everyone else.
Only Lib Dems have a real plan: work with our European neighbours to tackle it.
Now they want you to blame everyone else.
Only Lib Dems have a real plan: work with our European neighbours to tackle it.
August 20, 2026 at 4:56 PM
The Conservatives and Nigel Farage helped create the small boats crisis with their botched Brexit deal.
Now they want you to blame everyone else.
Only Lib Dems have a real plan: work with our European neighbours to tackle it.
Now they want you to blame everyone else.
Only Lib Dems have a real plan: work with our European neighbours to tackle it.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
This is awful. The HT felt she had no option but to go into school to talk to the inspectors. She was recovering from surgery for breast cancer.
I can’t believe Ofsted felt they made an appropriate decision.
bsky.app/profile/scho...
I can’t believe Ofsted felt they made an appropriate decision.
bsky.app/profile/scho...
Exclusive: A headteacher has blasted Ofsted for refusing to defer her small school's inspection while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, leaving her primary without an experienced leader
schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-refus...
schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-refus...
Head receiving cancer treatment refused Ofsted deferral
Watchdog apologises for the 'impact the timing of our inspection had on her wellbeing'
schoolsweek.co.uk
September 1, 2026 at 8:53 PM
This is awful. The HT felt she had no option but to go into school to talk to the inspectors. She was recovering from surgery for breast cancer.
I can’t believe Ofsted felt they made an appropriate decision.
bsky.app/profile/scho...
I can’t believe Ofsted felt they made an appropriate decision.
bsky.app/profile/scho...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Brexit Britain is still a tinderbox. New post starting the 11th year of my Brexit & Brexitism Blog with analysis of a long, hot summer of Brexit stasis & dishonesty & the reasons for it, Clacton, the Arday case & the culture war: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/08/brex...
August 28, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Brexit Britain is still a tinderbox. New post starting the 11th year of my Brexit & Brexitism Blog with analysis of a long, hot summer of Brexit stasis & dishonesty & the reasons for it, Clacton, the Arday case & the culture war: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/08/brex...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
British higher education is in crisis.
We moved from an elite university system to mass higher education within a single lifetime.
That brought huge benefits writes Stephen McNair - but without a settled answer to a fundamental question, what do we really want from our oldest institutions?
We moved from an elite university system to mass higher education within a single lifetime.
That brought huge benefits writes Stephen McNair - but without a settled answer to a fundamental question, what do we really want from our oldest institutions?
What do we really want from our universities?
British universities are under attack from multiple directions. After decades of expansion is it time to ask what we want from higher education?
eastangliabylines.co.uk
August 30, 2026 at 6:42 AM
British higher education is in crisis.
We moved from an elite university system to mass higher education within a single lifetime.
That brought huge benefits writes Stephen McNair - but without a settled answer to a fundamental question, what do we really want from our oldest institutions?
We moved from an elite university system to mass higher education within a single lifetime.
That brought huge benefits writes Stephen McNair - but without a settled answer to a fundamental question, what do we really want from our oldest institutions?
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Great letter in The Yorkshire Post from Peter Packham @leedseurope.bsky.social.
'The Brexit elite didn't "take back control" of our borders; they undermined our ability to manage them and incentivised criminal gangs behind the trafficking of desperate, vulnerable migrants.'
'The Brexit elite didn't "take back control" of our borders; they undermined our ability to manage them and incentivised criminal gangs behind the trafficking of desperate, vulnerable migrants.'
August 29, 2026 at 7:02 PM
Great letter in The Yorkshire Post from Peter Packham @leedseurope.bsky.social.
'The Brexit elite didn't "take back control" of our borders; they undermined our ability to manage them and incentivised criminal gangs behind the trafficking of desperate, vulnerable migrants.'
'The Brexit elite didn't "take back control" of our borders; they undermined our ability to manage them and incentivised criminal gangs behind the trafficking of desperate, vulnerable migrants.'
Reposted by Alison Strachan
This is so terrifying. Will this finally motivate us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
New from @vantortech.bsky.social. Absolutely astonishing images of the China-Nepal Gyirong Port/Rasuwagadhi border post.
Literally nothing is left.
(Before 19 April, After 27 Aug)
Literally nothing is left.
(Before 19 April, After 27 Aug)
August 27, 2026 at 8:37 PM
This is so terrifying. Will this finally motivate us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Reposted by Alison Strachan
The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.
An incredibly well-timed Landsat 9 pass captured the effects of yesterday’s catastrophic glacier collapse near the Nepal–Tibet border. The event was so massive that it was detected by seismometers around the world.
August 27, 2026 at 8:06 AM
The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
National Trust’s Holnicote estate says restored wetlands and rivers offer proof of resilience to drought, wildfires and flooding
www.theguardian.com
August 21, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Alison Strachan
A former director of BBC News speaks:
BBC’s coverage of Reform’s welfare plans is frankly bizarre. Headlines in Ten, leading on some radio networks. Reform are not even the official opposition and the plans have less credibility than Count Binface. Will BBC News do the same for Lib Dem and Greens policy two years out from an election?
August 16, 2026 at 8:40 AM
A former director of BBC News speaks:
Reposted by Alison Strachan
41 years ago, Carl Sagan gave a clear and elegant explanation of the science behind global warming.
August 14, 2026 at 2:21 AM
41 years ago, Carl Sagan gave a clear and elegant explanation of the science behind global warming.
Reposted by Alison Strachan
Mike Lucavic nails the importance of voting for
Women
Women
August 11, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Mike Lucavic nails the importance of voting for
Women
Women