Literally nobody who wants to follow a "vocational" route is prevented from doing so in the UK today by the existence of universities. Entire networks of colleges exist to provide such routes. Many universities themselves have a wide range of "vocational" provision.

Reform’s Russia connections are a danger to our national security. It’s time for a public inquiry. 🔥

Read the full story of the incredible medieval finds from excavations at Eilean Donan Castle via the National Museums Scotland website - now in English and Gaelic www.nms.ac.uk/discover-cat...

Cool colleagues doing cool stuff again - that's Dr Blackwell @earlymedieval.bsky.social nearly blurred out back there in this story of cool medieval finds from excavations at Eliean Donan Castle www.thenational.scot/news/2550068...

We worry about Very Online Kids much more than their Very Online Parents, and I'm not sure that's wise

For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nathan Gill is no fringe politician. He was the leader of the Reform Party and before that UKIP in Wales. A Brexit Party MEP. A friend and ally of Nigel Farage, who in 2016 called him: "terrific," and "as honest as the day is long." This is a MASSIVE story www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

British politics was doomed from the day that Gordon Brown was forced by the media to apologize for calling a bigoted woman a bigot *in private*.

On 1 October, We host Dr Nicola Martin from @uhihistory.bsky.social who will discuss: “The British Army and interpretations of the Laws of War in the eighteenth century” Details here: www.linkedin.com/posts/instit... #Skystorians #EarlyModern #17thC #MilHist #LAW @forsvarshogskolan.bsky.social

3. ⁠this is not the moment for an incredibly expensive increase in state surveillance infrastructure to be run for profit by private tech firms just before Labour ushers in an (even more) authoritarian right wing government. FIX THE GODDAMN COST OF LIVING INSTEAD YOU FREAKS.

This week on The Medieval Podcast with @5minmedievalist.bsky.social : Medieval Wills and Testaments with Robert A. Wood www.medievalists.net/2025/09/medi... #medieval

Notification from Brepols of a new OA book: Legitimation of the elites in high medieval Poland and Norway www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...

Sumption rehashing the #naval thread of his multi-volume work: well advocated, as you would expect, but no reference to recent work, which includes my own: see next post.

New open access British Academy Monograph ‘On the Edges of Christendom’ explores the life and thought of Bishop Maurice of Burgos, and through him, what it meant to live on the border between the Latin West and Islamic al-Andalus in the thirteenth century. 👇 https://bit.ly/4gOHerD

A major archaeological project on Ìle (Islay) has revealed the existence of a lost royal castle that was dismantled over 700 years ago 🏰 Dig into the discovery in @socantscot.bsky.social's latest publication, which is also available as a free e-book: books.socantscot.org/digital-book...

Wonderful news. A salutary reminder of the absolute benefits of scientific progress, and the absolute evil of conspiracist bollocks. Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time www.bbc.com/news/article...

The summer has seen anti-trans campaigns across the UK and US, alongside a crisis in healthcare. But what use could trans history have in these time, beyond proving 'we have always been here'? Sam Rutherford @echomikeromeo reflects on Imagining Trans Futures: www.historyworkshop....

We’re launching the results of our research into gender balance in the History curriculum today. The report - The Great History Heist: Reclaiming Women’s Place in the History Curriculum - found only 12% of History lessons feature women as their main focus. 59% featured no women at all.

The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s. Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!

The much-anticipated news is now here. I am very excited to announce that my book, soon out with York Medieval Press, is now available for pre-order! Hats off to @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social and the awesome Mont-Saint-Michel design team for the cover! boydellandbrewer.com/book/robert-...

𝗟𝗮 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝘅 𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗶̂𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗲́𝗿𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗱’𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘀 𝗱𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗲 (𝟭𝟯𝟲𝟯-𝟭𝟱𝟭𝟵) Par Henri Simonneau Plus d'Infos: bit.ly/47QIxUm #History #Medievalsky #MilitaryStudies #Burgundy #Medievalists #Medieval #Historysky

An important counter narrative to the recent headlines — actual journalism about the daily lives of asylum seekers in the UK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

if you're interested, you can read it (for free!) in this new open access book, ed. Christoph Haack, Annette Grabowsky and Steffen Patzold www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/afte...

Happy to see the provisional programme for this conference I am presenting at as part of a two-conference trip! Looks like a fascinating line-up of papers. And now that I've booked my complex travel to Tartu and Oslo, I just need to write the papers! #medievalsky

Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...

Morrisons definitely wanted me to get caffeinated this morning...

David Fiasson - Le Mont Saint-Michel dans la guerre de Cent Ans Abbaye, ville et forteresse À paraître en janvier aux PUR

Anyway well done to the BBC for laundering the leader of a movement which in no substantial way differs from the 1970s-style National Front into our living rooms

💯. Progressives have to stop franchising out their consciences to the courts. Politics is about moral choices. The problem with Reform's proposal isn't that "the courts won't allow it". It's that it's grotesque and inhuman. If we're democrats, we must believe that this argument can be won.

Reform will apparently pledge today that they'd abolish indefinite leave to remain - including retrospectively, to people already granted it. Obviously this is a moral abomination but it is also a practical and legal impossibility.

What's effectively happening here (in the British media at large, too) is the construction of "anti-racism" as somehow a "political alternative" to racism, rather than as a minimal civilisational standard, which in turn (further) vindicates racism as *also* an acceptable political position.

A pope died in the year 2025 and I don't think I heard as much about it in the media as I'm hearing about the death of Charlie Kirk.

Was in Stirling today and Pride was on. Lots of young people - and their parents - out having a good time. Particularly enjoyed the older parent wandering through the shopping centre, calling over to say hi to someone they knew, while wearing rainbow diddlyboppers. But there was also a God-botherer.

An excellent talk well worth listening to given by Dr Paul Dryburgh, Medieval Records Specialist at The National Archives (UK), on the history of the medieval English colony in Ireland and the surviving documentary record: vimeo.com/event/510578...

Dutch late night TV has its take

Have a good weekend

Reminder: The existence of these in most Scottish supermarkets and corner shops is proof that anyone shilling for the notion that multiculturalism can't work on this island is a charlatan

Right. My students working two part time jobs and/or having an hour and a half commute to uni because they have to live at home due to the cost of student accommodation lack drive and vigour. Sure thing, Peter. The UK Govt still haven't a clue about the realities of universities today.

For some inexplicable reason, this brilliant 1938 anti-Appeasement cartoon by the great David Low came to mind when I looked at the list of the Mega-Powerful / Hyper-Rich at yesterday’s Windsor Castle nosh up for our superhuman masters.

The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration on.ft.com/46p3BPl

“You used to be able to say anything” comedians never been more quiet in their lives

“Cataclysmically bad” This new series of ECR blog posts on the French History Network makes for grim reading, perhaps grimmer even than some in UK #FrenchHistory might have realised. 1st post, anon ECRs in French History on what it’s like right now out there: frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/6691/ 🗃️

Private Eye

A new #OpenAccess resource for teaching world/global history is almost ready. The module "The Black Death: The Medieval Plague Pandemic through the Eyes of Ibn Battuta," is in final editing & should be "live" by the beginning of September. A preview here: www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2025/07...

Exciting looking new release, pulling together the work of decades, although the framing of the "forgotten medieval kingdom" is perhaps a bit odd... #medievalsky

This Fri, 19 September: Join Paul Dryburgh, medieval collections specialist @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy, for "England's first colony: medieval Ireland, 1171-1500". An overview of English intervention in Ireland and its role in the political development of the British and Irish isles.

Cumaibh 14mh–16mh Iuchar 2026 airson Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig aig Oilthigh Ghlaschu. Gairm phàipearan & fiosrachadh clàraidh uile ri thighinn. Hold 14th–16th July 2026 for the Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig conference at the University of Glasgow. Call for Papers & Registration information all to follow.

“The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of ‘corrosive ideology.’”

TLDR: Make racism shameful again. While you’re at it add fascism too.