Amerjit Basi
@amerjitbasi.bsky.social
Into books, politics, the arts, SF, urban space. Civil servant, DfE; former Head of Policy,University of Sheffield.Personal views expressed. Same name on Twitter.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Englishness & Britishness have never been fixed concepts. They have been redefined & debated for centuries. Shakespeare did it loads. John of Gaunt’s lament for an imagined glorious past England vs the present crap one from Richard II is like a really well written version of a Tory conference speech
October 2, 2026 at 12:35 PM
Englishness & Britishness have never been fixed concepts. They have been redefined & debated for centuries. Shakespeare did it loads. John of Gaunt’s lament for an imagined glorious past England vs the present crap one from Richard II is like a really well written version of a Tory conference speech
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
The ability to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a loss-making TV channel, bent on wrenching British politics sharply to the right, is yet another of the ways in which extreme wealth is trying to remake UK democracy.
It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.
It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.
New GB News accounts are out. Here are their losses to date. Or "spent political donations" if you prefer
October 2, 2026 at 1:05 PM
The ability to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a loss-making TV channel, bent on wrenching British politics sharply to the right, is yet another of the ways in which extreme wealth is trying to remake UK democracy.
It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.
It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.
Long drive from Sheffield to Broadstairs & back, & can't work out lf there is many more bad drivers or I'm forgetting it's always been like this. Four lane motorways definitely have a huge amount of terrible drivers, endemic lane hogging & no ability or willingness to do proper overtaking.
September 28, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Long drive from Sheffield to Broadstairs & back, & can't work out lf there is many more bad drivers or I'm forgetting it's always been like this. Four lane motorways definitely have a huge amount of terrible drivers, endemic lane hogging & no ability or willingness to do proper overtaking.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Daily bunny no.3455 prefers the classics
September 28, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Daily bunny no.3455 prefers the classics
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
'We thought this time would be different – it hasn't been. Perhaps we need to accept an uncomfortable reality: higher education simply isn't high enough up the government's political priority list.'
If universities aren’t a priority, at least give them certainty
With Labour Party conference underway and universities still well down the queue, Ian Turgoose argues the sector’s most realistic ask is certainty about what government wants it to look like
wonkhe.com
September 28, 2026 at 6:33 AM
'We thought this time would be different – it hasn't been. Perhaps we need to accept an uncomfortable reality: higher education simply isn't high enough up the government's political priority list.'
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Even by the already abysmal standards of Northern Irish "unionism", this is insane
Drumcree: Protests as controversial Orange Order march due to go ahead for first time since 1997
The march down the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road, which in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland's history, will go ahead after a series of courtroom challenges.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 27, 2026 at 7:25 AM
Even by the already abysmal standards of Northern Irish "unionism", this is insane
Pretty certain there is something absolutely enormous missing from this list. I think I am still shocked that the mass murder of Palestinians is something that is seemingly either forgotten or not worth mentioning. But of course in reality I shouldn't be shocked about the worth placed on such lives.
September 26, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Pretty certain there is something absolutely enormous missing from this list. I think I am still shocked that the mass murder of Palestinians is something that is seemingly either forgotten or not worth mentioning. But of course in reality I shouldn't be shocked about the worth placed on such lives.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Racism will not be defeated from above. It will only be defeated by us – ordinary citizens who refuse to look away.
My piece for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My piece for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Britain’s far-right violence comes to us direct from the 1970s. But so does the solution | Taj Ali
Young men punched in the street, mosques attacked: Britain badly needs an anti-racist uprising. Let 70s Asian youth movements provide the inspiration, says Taj Ali, author of Come What May, We’re Here...
www.theguardian.com
September 24, 2026 at 12:02 PM
Racism will not be defeated from above. It will only be defeated by us – ordinary citizens who refuse to look away.
My piece for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My piece for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
This was a striking bit about Rushdie’s upbringing where ‘people would talk about everything’
September 25, 2026 at 11:48 PM
This was a striking bit about Rushdie’s upbringing where ‘people would talk about everything’
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
You know that saying about how the way they treat asylum seekers is the way they’d treat everyone else if they thought they could get away with it? Well,
September 24, 2026 at 1:19 PM
You know that saying about how the way they treat asylum seekers is the way they’d treat everyone else if they thought they could get away with it? Well,
Tell me again how Germany has understood the Holocaust and its Nazi past. Makes me think "remembrance" can be very different to actual understanding and then change built on that understanding.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
Friedrich Merz vows to stay in office after CDU ‘disaster’ in German state elections
Far-right AfD wins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and leftwing Die Linke on course for victory in Berlin
www.theguardian.com
September 21, 2026 at 11:46 AM
Tell me again how Germany has understood the Holocaust and its Nazi past. Makes me think "remembrance" can be very different to actual understanding and then change built on that understanding.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
I wonder if there is anyone not white in that village. The fact that their parish council is welcoming rabid racists must make that place hellish.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Outright racist’ Daniel Thomas will face full force of law over any crimes, says home secretary
Shabana Mahmood says she wants to distinguish between far-right extremism and legitimate local concerns over asylum sites
www.theguardian.com
September 18, 2026 at 8:07 AM
I wonder if there is anyone not white in that village. The fact that their parish council is welcoming rabid racists must make that place hellish.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
‘This should be condemned by any thinking human’: film industry rallies behind NAZA directors
‘This should be condemned by any thinking human’: film industry rallies behind NAZA directors
Backing comes after Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor were threatened with having their citizenship revoked and accused of treason
Film industry heavyweights across the globe have expressed solidarity with Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of documentary NAZA, who have been threatened with having their citizenship revoked by Israel’s culture minister, who accused them of “treason against the state”.
NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym euphemistically used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. It includes interviews with 24 Israeli military or intelligence soldiers and officers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza, resulting in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
September 15, 2026 at 4:59 PM
‘This should be condemned by any thinking human’: film industry rallies behind NAZA directors
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
wtf kind of pets they got in there
September 14, 2026 at 3:19 AM
wtf kind of pets they got in there
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that fuck horses
Are the same that fuck horses
FBI Reportedly Loosens Hiring Rules So ‘Prostitution and Bestiality’ Are No Longer ‘Automatic Disqualifiers’
FBI Reportedly Loosens Hiring Rules So ‘Prostitution and Bestiality’ Are No Longer ‘Automatic Disqualifiers’
The FBI has reportedly relaxed hiring standards that previously automatically disqualified applicants who admitted to hiring prostitutes, engaging in bestiality, or stealing from an employer.
The post FBI Reportedly Loosens Hiring Rules So ‘Prostitution and Bestiality’ Are No Longer ‘Automatic Disqualifiers’ first appeared on Mediaite.
dlvr.it
September 10, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that fuck horses
Are the same that fuck horses
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
My heart melted a bit at this one. His dad was a lorry driver and during his summer holidays as a ten year old he’d go with dad and loved stopping at the Little Chef
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Experience: I’ve visited every motorway service station in Britain
Some people don’t understand my lifelong enthusiasm for roadside stop-offs – now visiting and cataloguing them is what I do for a living
www.theguardian.com
September 12, 2026 at 8:08 PM
My heart melted a bit at this one. His dad was a lorry driver and during his summer holidays as a ten year old he’d go with dad and loved stopping at the Little Chef
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
If an Irish newspaper doesn’t run a “Senior Orangeman Calls For A United Ireland” headline, then the newspapers are dead.
September 12, 2026 at 10:11 AM
If an Irish newspaper doesn’t run a “Senior Orangeman Calls For A United Ireland” headline, then the newspapers are dead.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.
A cheery message from the new minister responsible for research funding for the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences (and the subjects that the majority of UK taught undergraduate and Masters students study).
Science and maths degrees offer most value to the nation, says minister
Chris McDonald told a room full of vice-chancellors that science, engineering and mathematics ‘offer the greatest personal, social and economic value’
www.thetimes.com
September 11, 2026 at 9:00 AM
It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.
The Guardian should have asked someone else to review this book, perhaps someone who didn't feel compelled to be so patronising and sneery about Stephen King & his readers. What smugness to assume King's readers are not interested in the art of his writing.
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks review – the writing secrets of Stephen King
A deep dive into the horror novelist’s archives reveals pedantry, penny-pinching, and a total redraft of Carrie
www.theguardian.com
September 12, 2026 at 12:54 PM
The Guardian should have asked someone else to review this book, perhaps someone who didn't feel compelled to be so patronising and sneery about Stephen King & his readers. What smugness to assume King's readers are not interested in the art of his writing.
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
🚨 NEW BLOGPOST 🚨
The last week has seen multiple incidents of masked mobs trying to subvert the power of the state.
Their actions have been illegal and unpleasant.
But the treatment has been weak.
The police haven't dealt with it, and neither has govt.
open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
The last week has seen multiple incidents of masked mobs trying to subvert the power of the state.
Their actions have been illegal and unpleasant.
But the treatment has been weak.
The police haven't dealt with it, and neither has govt.
open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
Stop the Louts
The tools exist. The will, so far, doesn't.
open.substack.com
September 11, 2026 at 6:15 AM
🚨 NEW BLOGPOST 🚨
The last week has seen multiple incidents of masked mobs trying to subvert the power of the state.
Their actions have been illegal and unpleasant.
But the treatment has been weak.
The police haven't dealt with it, and neither has govt.
open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
The last week has seen multiple incidents of masked mobs trying to subvert the power of the state.
Their actions have been illegal and unpleasant.
But the treatment has been weak.
The police haven't dealt with it, and neither has govt.
open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence
‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence
Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham collected the testimony of 24 insiders who helped remotely target Gazans’ homes. They explain how they got these self-professed ‘small cogs’ to talk about the killing
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2026 at 4:46 PM
‘They know the house they are bombing is full of children’: NAZA’s directors on their devastating film about Israeli intelligence
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Livid that the assisted dying bill being voted down is being painted as religious zealots that all want people to die in agony.
Everyone deserves to die in dignity, but they also deserve a robust bill with safeguards that reduces the chance of being coerced into it. That's what we fought for.
Everyone deserves to die in dignity, but they also deserve a robust bill with safeguards that reduces the chance of being coerced into it. That's what we fought for.
September 11, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Livid that the assisted dying bill being voted down is being painted as religious zealots that all want people to die in agony.
Everyone deserves to die in dignity, but they also deserve a robust bill with safeguards that reduces the chance of being coerced into it. That's what we fought for.
Everyone deserves to die in dignity, but they also deserve a robust bill with safeguards that reduces the chance of being coerced into it. That's what we fought for.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Liars have to have very good memories and he clearly doesn’t.
September 11, 2026 at 1:44 PM
Liars have to have very good memories and he clearly doesn’t.
Reposted by Amerjit Basi
Life’s getting a bit more crap here if you are a person from an ethnic minority 🧵
August 30, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Life’s getting a bit more crap here if you are a person from an ethnic minority 🧵