The Town That Asbestos Built. The Cancer It Left Behind via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/01...

A 2025 round-up -- thanks to everyone who has read/listened this year! 1. Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster. Described by @municipaldreams.bsky.social as a "must read"! hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-Wh

I can't claim it will be a particularly cheerful read, but pls consider buying a copy of Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster this Xmas. The book is a history of a once indomitable industry, and of the movement that rose up to oppose it. www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

I can't claim it will be a particularly cheerful read, but pls consider buying a copy of Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster this Xmas. The book is a history of a once indomitable industry, and of the movement that rose up to oppose it. www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

‘For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant. It connected the declining city of Hull with the empty expanses of North Lincolnshire: nowhere with nowhere.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Rather than an important component in a long-term regional plan, it was now clear that the bridge was the only component in that plan. For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘If the bridge was an electoral bribe, it was one that the people of Humberside would end up paying themselves, in the form of toll charges that increased every year for decades.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Rather than an important component in a long-term regional plan, it was now clear that the Humber Bridge was the only component in that plan. For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant. It connected the declining city of Hull with the empty expanses of North Lincolnshire: nowhere with nowhere.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘If the bridge was an electoral bribe, it was one that the people of Humberside would end up paying themselves, in the form of toll charges that increased every year for decades.’ @tom--white.bsky.social on how the Humber Bridge was built. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

This is terrific - by-election politics (the worst form of electoral politics), regional development, big political personalities ⤵️

‘Rather than an important component in a long-term regional plan, it was now clear that the Humber Bridge was the only component in that plan. For much of the 1980s, it was seen by critics as a white elephant.’ Tom White on how the Humber Bridge was built: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Central to the 2010s Legitimate Concerns discourse that paved the way for our current pre-fascist moment was the refusal to acknowledge that these "concerns" were based on demonstrable fictions, filtered through socially constructed prejudices. I.e. they were not, in fact, "legitimate".

To think some seriously believe this will appease the far right rather than embolden them to demand more Even if it did, it would have been at the cost of implementing its politics, mainstreaming its discourse and emboldening racists Congratulations to everyone who fuelled the immigration panic

Why did the "red-bearded radical" Richard Gott contest the 1966 Hull North byelection? And what does it have to do with the Humber Bridge? Find out in the new @lrb.co.uk! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Why did the "red-bearded radical" Richard Gott contest the 1966 Hull North byelection? And what does it have to do with the Humber Bridge? Find out in the new @lrb.co.uk! www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Last week I spoke with Miranda Melcher from the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster. You can listen via Apple Podcasts or the NBN website: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... #asbestos

Thanks to the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social & Miranda Melcher for the chance to talk about Bad Dust! #asbestos newbooksnetwork.com/bad-dust

It’s still killing people, and the government has yet to act: Britain’s hidden asbestos epidemic | Tom White

I wrote something for today's @theguardian.com on Britain's hidden epidemic: #asbestos www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

In respect of PA at least, I'm convinced that a big factor is an urge to reclaim some kind of moral high ground. These are people who are convinced they are The Good Guys, and the experience of being widely seen to be complicit in genocide will be profoundly disorientating for many of them.

From last week, my piece for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social on asbestos, the overlooked disaster at the heart of the British state: tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/asbe...

I really think there's an argument to be made that over the last 25 yrs, the development of both rugby codes has outstripped the capabilities of the human body: bones, joints, muscles, but brains most of all

Documents obtained by Confront reveal serious issues with how the University of Oxford has managed the thousands of asbestos-containing materials in its buildings. Full story: confrontpower.org/university-o... @ucu.org.uk

From last week, my piece for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social on asbestos, the overlooked disaster at the heart of the British state: tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/asbe...

I wrote something for @tribunemagazine on the asbestos disaster and the best place to start a coordinated removal programme: schools #asbestos #education

A 2019 Department for Education survey found that 81 percent of schools still have asbestos ‘present on their estate’. Read Tom White on the neoliberal poison.

I wrote something for @tribunemagazine on the asbestos disaster and the best place to start a coordinated removal programme: schools #asbestos #education

Roaring denunciation for anyone stating publicly that the Palestinians are human beings with rights who shouldn’t be slaughtered with total impunity; polite applause for swearing friendship to the fascist government that’s been handing out machine guns to civilians, for use on its subject population

A party that continues to address its bleeding of support to the left with calls to 'attack' them while maintaining its failed strategy of appealing to the right is not a party that is engaging with reality. It is one that has been taken over by ideological fanatics and should be treated as such.

The ban on asbestos in 1999 was never accompanied by a coordinated removal programme. We're all living through the consequences. Order Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster via @hivestores.bsky.social: hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-... #asbestos

Cooper understands very well that it's not a question of "whatever words", as if words are arbitrary. Acknowledging the fact of the genocide would mean acknowledging her legal obligation to act meaningfully to prevent it. Her performance of concern for Palestinian children in this context is ugly.

Excellent article on the 1966 merchant seamen strike. The Hull University academic who helped John Prescott write Not Wanted On Voyage was Tony Topham. His papers are held at @Hullhistorynews & are full of amazing stuff catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/catalogue/U-...

Yolande Knell reports that Israel has bombed a marketplace in Gaza City, with women and children among those killed. She then says shes contacted the Israeli military to ask what was being targeted. Knell implying they weren't targeting a marketplace full of women & kids.

I recall that saying this stuff in 2018, saying that members of the Labour party were actively working to smash everything to bits and deliberately lose the election, would mark you out as a deranged conspiracist unworthy of even speaking to. Will mea culpas be forthcoming?

The suppression of dissent is yet another form of collusion with the genocide, alongside arms supplies, military cooperation, and the refusal to impose meaningful sanctions. All this likely puts the UK in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Bad Dust "has earned its place on the bookshelf of anyone interested not only in the history of the asbestos tragedy but also in the unending struggle for a sustainable future, corporate accountability and environmental justice."

Very grateful to Laurie Kazan-Allen for this review of Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster. Laurie has played an absolutely vital role in anti-asbestos organising over the last few decades, so if she thinks it's good, then I'm happy! ibasecretariat.org/lka-review-b...

Very grateful to Laurie Kazan-Allen for this review of Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster. Laurie has played an absolutely vital role in anti-asbestos organising over the last few decades, so if she thinks it's good, then I'm happy! ibasecretariat.org/lka-review-b...

I wonder why far-right leaders and their mainstream enablers are not targeting this minority which plays a key part in deciding the plight of the left behind... It is a real mystery... www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Weekly local journalism long read is out. New subscribers- free or paid - always welcome. aqyoung61.substack.com/p/the-forgot...

Some reading for a cold, wet Sunday evening. Excellent piece on Richard Jackson, Hull's anti-asbestos pioneer, by @angusyoung61.bsky.social. Also includes some v kind words about my book, Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster t.co/zaJYmwMKUs

Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster is out now! Order via @hivestores.bsky.social to save a couple of quid & support your local bookshops www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

My thanks to Tom White for his contribution to the weekly read. His new book Bad Dust is highly recommended. repeaterbooks.com/product/bad-...

Bad Dust: A History of the Asbestos Disaster is out now! Order via @hivestores.bsky.social to save a couple of quid & support your local bookshops www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

The Israeli ambassador to the UN: "6 innocent people were murdered" A reminder that people like Danon don't see Palestinians as human beings. Which is of course a pre-requisite to genocide.

Bad Dust: A History of the Disaster is out now. Order here: hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

Bad Dust: A History of the Disaster is out now. Order here: hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-...

On this day in 1973, Salvador Allende’s democratically-elected socialist government was overthrown in a military coup led by the US-backed fascist Augusto Pinochet.

52 years since the CIA-backed coup in #Chile deposed Salvador Allende's democratic socialist government & installed a military dictatorship t.co/7P2GU5Y5Jw