Luke 8:32-33 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
Herding
There is on twitter a thread of tweets which follows a similar herding – not of pigs but of decent people who are behaving with similarly disastrous intent. They are of course the people who run the Universities of this country, who have got it into their heads that what is needed is steep bank, a large herd and a lake.
We have Felicity Callard to thank for the following blog which curates what she has delivered to twitter yesterday.
Here is her thread’
In case you haven’t yet read @gailfdavies‘ fantastic tweets on the role of consultants in embedding a particular vision of ‘flexible retirement’ as the norm in universities, start with tweet below & then follow the tweets — & links — to the present #ucustrike #ussstrike https://t.co/2KUFjxixSX
— Felicity Callard (@felicitycallard) March 5, 2018
We have a lot to thanks Gail and Felicity for. As a pension consultant myself, I know how easy it has been to chase down the bank into the lake and I fear that once in that lake, many of us will find ourselves struggling.
Hopefully, Gail and Felicity’s comments won’t be lost on the participants at ACAS. UUK and UCU are locking horns over the very issues that these tweets address. Let’s hope that the historical perspective they bring , may lead to a happy resolution of an unhappy dispute.
The archived thread.
In case this thread is removed from twitter, I have recorded it here as a series of screenshots. You won’t get the live links by reading what Felicity has to say, but you may find it easier to navigate.
Mark 5:11-13 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
