Community history suffering 'neglect bordering on vandalism'

Israel remains a divided society. Greater support for those promoting peace, equality & social & environmental justice is required.

Having written about the Ancient Order of Druids I'm tempted to apply...

Why would we want to learn from our pasts, or ponder the power of the written and spoken word, or explore the deep questions of humanity? According to the University of Hertfordshire, we wouldn't. They've just cut all of our undergrad Humanities programmes

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #museums

More than twenty interviews with some of the leading figures in economic history in the last century are now available to watch on our website & YouTube channel. Interview with Professors Margaret & Peter Spufford: ehs.org.uk/multimedia/i... www.youtube.com/@EconomicHis...

#OTD 27 April 1916 a German cloud gas attack with phosgene & chlorine, Loos sector, France. British trenches engulfed by concentration of gas intended to exhaust PH helmet respirators. British casualties in attacks on 27 & 29 1,260 of which 338 died. 100s of Germans also killed & injured by own gas.

Some photos from today's unveiling of a new statue in Colwyn Bay to commemorate the life of Terry Jones. In attendance Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Suzy Eddie Izzard and sculptor Nick Elphick. #photography #baecolwyn #montypython

Another fun little accessibility is performative story for you. Reserved a wheelchair at a big museum recently only to be told when we got there that actually it's not in great condition, the ground isn't really suitable for pushing it over, and 'you'd have to get out and walk up the steps anyway'.

MK city council has transformed Milton Keynes. Even during the dark days of Tory austerity, we not only protected services from cuts, we improved them, and continue to do so. Although Pete is leaving, I know MK City council’s brightest days are still ahead of us 🎈 #miltonkeynes #lovemk

Yesterday I was in York, and popped into Minster Gate bookshop. Scanning the British History shelves, I slowly realised that there were many books on the same themes - radicalism, Chartism, trade unionism, 19th century economy and society, clearly part of a curated collection 1/n

The books on Samuel Smiles gave it away. It was the late Prof Malcolm Chase's collection. If any great scholar could be identified by the range of titles carefully accumulated over the decades, it was Malcolm.

Twentieth Century Communism, 2026, 30 @20thccommunism.bsky.social

Pleased that Milton Keynes now has a statue of Jennie Lee, who said of @openuniversity.bsky.social 'that little bastard that I have hugged to my bosom and cherished, that all the others have tried to kill off, will thrive’. Millions of students say thanks for your faith & bloody-mindedness Jennie.

Good to see new art celebrating 1st Arts Minister &@openuniversity.bsky.social founder Jennie Lee. For more on Jennie & the OU listen to podcast with Martha Lane Fox (ex OU Chancellor) & Gordon Brown (ex OU tutor & PM). Oh & author of 'The OU. A history'. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...

Hurrah! Paths opened to allow people to walk all the way around the coast of England - 2,689 miles. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How Kemi Badenoch's spokesman responded when I asked if she agrees with her Shadow Lord Chancellor that Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square is an "act of domination"

For those of you who remember the radio programme "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" and, indeed, for those of you who don't, he is a wonderful selection of Humphrey Lyttelton's double entendres to entertain you on this lovely spring day: youtu.be/Toi27HQHeI8?...

🚨 NEW POST: The council estate with its own castle - how the London County Council came controversially to build the Kingswood Estate in the 'green heart of Dulwich' in the early post-war years. municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2026/03/10/t...

At first it was difficult to tell just what had changed—it all looked the same and it all smelled the same—but, for some reason, nothing sounded the same. "I wonder what's happened?" said Milo. At least that's what he tried to say, for, although his lips moved, not a sound came from his mouth.

New book. Geoff Andrews, 'Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain'. Launch Waterstones, Gower St 28 April 18.30. In conversation with Richard Johnson. + Blackwells, Oxford 5 May with Tom Buchanan + MK Literary Festival 24 April @richardbaxell.bsky.social

'Teaching-only staff at Sheffield Hallam University are set to be moved into a subsidiary firm, leaving research intensive scholars the only academics still being employed directly by the institution.' Utterly inequitable & betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the teaching/research nexus. 1/3

And of course we retain the 26 Lords Spiritual (CofE archbishops plus 24 bishops), maintaining our distinction with Iran as (arguably) the only legislatures with seats reserved specifically for clerics. (If you count the Guardian Council as part of the legislature - it can and does veto the Majlis.)

Labour MPs just voted to expand free school meals to half a million more children, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty. The Tories and Reform UK voted against. Only Labour will give children growing up in our country the best start in life.

VC B'ham Uni fails to spot over half a century of open access at @openuniversity.bsky.social. Claims students without A levels 'are not really capable of graduating'. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

May local elections. Farage's business (not really a party) generic leaflet (2 photos of F-word, lies about undocumented humans) nothing local, or positive, about it vs Labour Council listening to locals, regenerating city & MP @chriscurtis94.bsky.social trying to make financing of education fair.

In 1995 Betty became 1st woman Chancellor of the @openuniversity.bsky.social and said, in 2002, that being associated with OU was 'next best thing which happened to me after being speaker'

UPDATE: We’re delighted that the Eduardo Paolozzi mosaics at Kingfisher Shopping Centre in Redditch (1981-83) have now been Grade II listed, following support from C20. They're the first Paolozzi murals and only the second post-war shopping centre to be partially listed, after Milton Keynes (1979)

Wilson called @openuniversity.bsky.social his monument. If you seek his monument, look around you at the millions, your mum, auntie, neighbour, who have benefitted from its teaching, learning and research labourlist.org/2026/02/the-...

HAPPY OU ANNIVERSARY! Today marks 60 years since the ‘University of the Air’ White Paper paved the way for the @OpenUniversity - and I am proud, with Milton Keynes as host city, to celebrate Jennie Lee and Harold Wilson’s vision for access to learning. labourlist.org/2026/02/the-...

His work on philanthropy was so important to my PhD. And I was lucky enough to be on a pub quiz team with Frank at a conference - the quiz was obviously about the history of philanthropy!

If you missed the news about Elsevier and Wiley (and doubtless the rest to follow) remaking themselves as AI companies with plans to profit from selling AI summaries of academic work back to the institutions that produced the original work: bsky.app/profile/benp...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Many of these huts are marvellous and this initiative is to be welcomed www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

Aged 22. Sent to the front days after enlisting.

I just voted to lift 450,000 children out of poverty. That’s a Labour government in action

Good that my Labour MP @chriscurtis94.bsky.social marked 60 years from Labour's White Paper on The University of the Air by telling OU staff and students that the OU's open policy remains 'vital'. Contrast with Reform which wants to cut educational opportunities.

*Most support staff move from frontline to centre *Central 'pools' for any support *Faculties now merge *Middle management stripped out, centre grows again *Compulsory redundancies (a) *Degree numbers radically slimmed down *Pension moved to much worse scheme *Compulsory redundancies (b) (4/4)

*Early retirement encouragement *New degrees chasing novelty, but with no new resource *Whole subject areas slimmed via... *Voluntary severance (b) *Travel and research funds abolished entirely *Whole subject areas abolished via... *Voluntary severance (c) (3/4)

*Special meetings with top brass guests *Lecture on 'no alternative' *Recruitment freeze *More topslice of income from centre *'Restructure' and loss of department *Talk of 'cross cutting synergies' *'Lower recruiting' courses cut *Course mergers *Module choices cut *Voluntary Severance (a) (2/4)

Beyond a tiny hardcore of rich universities, if you are an employee in UK Higher Ed you will be somewhere on the treadmill/ slippery slope below. You'll recognise exactly which step you are on at this moment. Take a look. 👇

Opportunity to see some marvellous banners and learn about context

#Chartism #C19th #History It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that I am busy trying to flog copies of Chartist Lives. It’s full of amazing stories and it’s £19.99 in hardback, £9.99 in paperback and just £8.99 for kindle. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y

The response from the Marsh family to attacks by ICE, perhaps acts as a reminder that, while Stephen Miller wants to provoke a riot and then invoke the Insurrection Act, many citizens prefer to fight fire with water www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHx...

When writing about recent developments in the USA, hannaheve.com manages to neither swear nor despair.

Their choice of ‘Ordinary World’ foregrounds how far the US has descended into authoritarian chaos while the videos of the shooting of Renee Good would have made 'Girls on Film' edgy in a horrible way.

Precursor to Sommerfield’s 1935 novel Mayday? observer.co.uk/style/featur... @20thccommunism.bsky.social #20s30s