vivdunstan

This has been announced today, aiming for a much lower cut in jobs - 300 full-time equivalent, rather than the 632 proposed last month. And managed via voluntary severance, rather than a mix of that plus compulsory redundancies. Savings will need to be made elsewhere too, and there is presumably going to be a hefty further financial injection from the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council. But it's better.

Dundee University was potentially going to crash into bankruptcy as soon as June. And the originally proposed recovery plan was taking a sledgehammer approach to the university, losing 1/5 of all academic jobs, as well as cutting courses and institutions, and gutting the staff needed to deliver a high quality education. This is better. It's a shame it's been so catastrophically managed though, both to get us into this mess (the previous Principal has an awful lot to answer for, as do other executive members, including current ones), and also after the financial disaster became clear in November. It has been a phenomenally stressful time for staff and students. The Scottish Government was also hands off for too long. But we are getting there. Fingers crossed.

I'm writing this as long-term honorary research staff at the university (for 15 years now), a double alumna, and married to a salaried staff member of 24 years standing.

Bumped this up my viewing list, because the play is going off streaming through National Theatre at Home at the end of this month. It can be viewed before then by people like me who subscribe to the service (I was lucky to nab a reduced price offer before Christmas), or on a short-term rental view.

The play was staged in early 2024 and is a dramatisation of the life of Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, who spearheaded the launch of the National Health Service in the UK in 1948. The play tells Bevan's life, looking back from his final days in hospital, as sedated he dreams back to his youth as a miner's son in Wales, early political life, his courtship of his wife, Westminster politics of WW2, and then the fight to found the NHS.

The staging is creative, being set largely in a hospital ward, but repurposing the props - including beds - as well as patients and staff to take on the various roles of people Nye encountered in his life. This staging took a little getting used to, and the play runs briskly along. But it certainly grabs the viewer's attention.

The central performance of Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan is riveting, and ably matched by Sharon Small as his Scottish wife and fellow Labour politician Jenny Lee. Their relationship feels vital to the play as a whole, but is surprisingly underdeveloped after their first striking meeting.

The foundation of the NHS happens near the end of the play, and feels surprisingly rushed, and a story only partly told. There is very effective staging of a group of doctors seen above, debating whether to join the new NHS. The toing and froing here between Bevan and the doctors is gripping. But then it's over, the NHS is founded, and the play finishes soon after.

An admirable theatre experience, though I think the play script could have balanced some aspects of the story better. However the performances are gripping, and the staging held my attention throughout. Recommended.

Surprised but pleased at today's vote on assisted dying in England and Wales. Which does not apply in Scotland where I live. Having watched my dad die from a cruel and agonising terminal lung disease, I'm painfully aware how insufficient palliative care is in the UK now. And people rarely get the hospice care that they need. This needs to improve dramatically. But in the meantime, if this new legislation goes through, some people may be spared the terrible suffering that my dad experienced, and many others with particularly cruel and agonising terminal diseases currently suffer.

Ooh that's a bit of a car crash interview with John Swinney on BBC Scotland just now. I'm a SNP supporter, but he seriously sounds as though he hasn't a clue about the public perception problems here. Still waiting anxiously to see my constituency result ...

Reminder about today’s best hashtag on social media #dogsatpollingstations - there are also some other animals showing up, including cats.

Which to be fair is missing the marvellous soundtrack that accompanied the announcement of "Things Can Only Get Better" blaring out from protestors in the background. It could hardly have been more comedic.

I've recently been reading much more about climate change. And it is the most horrifying thing ever. The planet is facing an existential crisis. Without rapid huge changes it will be barely liveable in for future generations. Watering down hugely net zero policies is not responsible politics. Nor is pretending that doing so can still deliver the required results. Shame on Sunak. Shame on the Tories. We need to act decisively now.