There are so many differences unaccounted for that this is beyond oversimplification. Off the top of my head, 4 deeper factors are key. 1) The Dutch pay high taxes & that makes everything possible. Investment is made for decades ahead, which pays off for individuals & society 1/?

We are profoundly saddened to share that our Honorary President, Maureen Duffy, has passed away. Maureen was extraordinary: a novelist, poet, playwright and critic of incredible range, and one of the founding figures of ALCS. Learn more about her legacy and impact: https://ow.ly/yHWs50Z52Ye

Ahead of next week's #MBS26 conference, our website is now live! Check out our new blog series, Histories from Here, and our plans for prizes and conferences in Modern British Studies modbritstud.org.uk

We're currently up to just under 500 12th May diaries 😅 So far 156 have come in the post, but only ONE has had a wax seal

Andy Burnham, the People's Saviour, more wrong than Tony Blair about something. I swear to god, you could drag these people to any one of over two hundred colleges nationwide delivering post-16 technical education, & they'd tell you they couldn't see anything.

I've joked about being uncomfortable about the the way Tech Bro's have pushed me into Team Pope v's Team Tech. The papal encyclical is a good reminder that I'm not team pope. This is a deeply conservative document. It is a well designed trap for liberals who are pissed off with AI boosting 1/

if you're cis and you are asked by your management to police bathrooms, "can you confirm in writing that you are ordering me to approach customers to discuss their sex?" is an email no manager wants to reply to

My new blog for the Social History Society on the loss of adult education centres in universities, with particular focus on history and the closure of the Centre for Lifelong Learning at York. 🗃️

Balls is of course sprouting barely literate reactionary nonsense here. But, as I argued in a piece in 2019, Stalinism with a British accent rings true in complicated historical ways... A shared history of ruthless imperialism followed by structural unravelling. www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...

Once again I am begging people to remember that senior politicians being *verbally heckled* at public events is a) harmless to them as people; b) a proud part of our longstanding democratic traditions; c) infinitely preferrable to many alternatives; *even if* you think the heckler is a ****.

I still think these two paragraphs from Ganz are the most important contemporary political writing

Or should VCs and the academic members of their senior teams instead be required to lead and teach 1 undergraduate module per term/semester, including all module admin and marking? Non-academic members of SMTs could all annually take a module, completing all assessments. Serious counterproposal. 3/3

Following that article on the new 'low-testosterone' thing and another one today about penis enlargement, have committed a blogpost about the old old story of sex-quackery scams (though Voronoff e.g. maybe believed in his monkey-glands??) collating various instances that sprang to mind.

Stop! It is necessary for you to see graphic designer extraordinaire Margaret Calvert’s 90th birthday cake. Perfection.

A fellow Labour Party member once described Wes Streeting to me as Zippy from Rainbow if he'd been radicalized by Mumsnet. which is a very specific set of references but also disturbingly accurate.

There once was a man it was said, who wore a streetlamp on his head. But he found it too light when he laid down at night and his head wouldn't fit in his bed. #NationalLimerickDay

These pictures come from Natalie, a PhD student in social anthropology at @manchester.ac.uk conducting 12-months ethnographic fieldwork in the tourist and entertainment industry in Blackpool. Natalie has been out and about promoting our 12th May diary day as part of her research!

Labour MPs calling for an orderly transition but unfortunately their government needs to be at least 18 years old with four doctors to sign off first

This response is understandable, and feels compassionate. I said very similar things about the area that I grew up, which voted heavily for Brexit. But the thing is: these people have been indulged in their ideas — which are racist, and also simply incoherent — for over a decade.

God between us and English left-liberals willfully misunderstanding what "nationalist" signifies in wal/scot/irl nationalist parties.

My friend (<- they don't get to deny this) @sexhistorian.bsky.social is advertising for a PhD stipend. It's an amazing project at an amazing department with amazing supervisors, and if you know anyone suitable, let them know. www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/...

Kinda tired of the "historians will say they're close friends" meme. Babe, we've been screaming about how gay everyone is for *decades*. Funding for history keeps getting cut as a result. There are entire moral panics about it. You just haven't read any history since highschool.

Excited to see this published! It's OA. academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

If rain promotes culture why are the English so stupid.

Every time I see someone talk about Claude I think about how they switched from female to male names as soon as they wanted the robots to seem like experts vs personal assistants.

Absolute dereliction of duty by an MP: a major employer and driving force of local and national economy is not their ‘industrial focus’. Apparently the educating and training of doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, scientists, engineers, researchers…IS. NOT. THEIR. INUDSTRIAL. FOCUS.

The Easter Rising started #OTD in 1916 Our digitised collection 'From Easter Rising to Civil War: Ireland, 1916-1922' includes pamphlets, reports, leaflets and postcards on the Easter Rising, Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War - free online at cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

So, some reflections prompted by the combination of the launch tonight of the 1926 Irish Census exhibition at the British Academy and Suella Braverman's comments earlier in the Telegraph on the teaching of a 'patriotic curriculum' under a prospective Reform government. 1/6 #Skystorians

I have already seen the idea out in the wild that uniform is about 'belonging' to a school and I just *knew* that this concept would be interpreted in the wrong way. A sense of belonging requires agency. We choose to belong; we don't get told that we belong.

Little known fact: if nobody will pay £850,000 for your house, it's not worth £850,000.

Plenty of us make work that tries to engage with white working-class men and hear their pain but when these men open their phones they are force-fed hate. That's just a fact (www.theguardian.com/technology/a...) and it's also an oddly understated one. You can't mute us then say we don't care.

"A spokesperson for Reform added: "Too often some public spaces are presenting divisive views of history that are designed to make people feel guilty." On this point, too: The past doesn't owe you comfort, and it doesn't owe you a life without reflection. The past doesn't owe you anything.

Raging insanity. If you were born in 2009, there will now be things it's illegal for you to do that it remains perfectly legal for someone born in 2008 to do. Forever, apparently. Textbook second-class citizenship. EVEN IF it's "in a good cause".

You love to see it!

I didn't get to where I am today by having ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Worse than limited opening hours, it's the withdrawal of 2/3 of the archive for curiosity-driven research that is the real scandal for what is supposed to be a public-service organization.

In 1953 Iran had a functioning democracy. A free press. Seven political parties. Women in universities. Women granted voting rights in municipal councils in 1952. A secular prime minister named Mosaddegh who believed Iran's oil belonged to Iran. The US and Britain decided he had to go.

Today the two-child limit is gone. Parents have told us what this will mean for their kids: - A first-ever birthday party for a 10-year-old - Better quality food - Clothes that aren't completely worn out - Going on the school trip without getting into debt - A new mattress - Swimming lessons

we’ve got human beings on the dark side of the moon but microsoft word will still not let me add a comment to a footnote

Translation: “I don’t want to help the UK by paying tax”. I am really growing very tired of hearing advice from super-wealthy people who so obviously put themselves first but pretend otherwise.

"If you wanted to build a list of books that reveal the difference between an open mind and a panicked committee..."

"Oh sod it, the bloody astronaut's stuck again."

Meanwhile, on the moon...

Staff declare the need for reasonable 'workplace adjustments' or opt to go slow to avoid entering data into Palantir systems for ethical reasons. Actions that would have warmed the cockles of James C. Scott's heart.

It’s nearly time for our national diary day! Every 12th May we ask people to write down what they got up to. This year we’re also really interested in experiences of nature and wellbeing, as well as what else you get up to on the day! #diary #journal #nature #skystorians #write #Archive

Think we've had enough bananas now. Still wondering where all those KitKats came from though.

Asking for precariously employed academics to constantly undertake services to the profession (peer reviewing, etc) without any prospect of compensation or reward is unsustainable

Employers should cover work-related travel and other expenses directly rather than require employees to float their employer an interest-free loan while subjecting them to a byzantine reimbursement process that will take at least a month and entail multiple rounds of paperwork.

New 1926 General Strike map online! Using early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, the online resource shows strike events (through archive sources) in their contemporary landscape. Explore the map, digitised sources and more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

In her new article Tracey Loughran uses MO to see how five women narrate their experiences fertility problems prior to development of IVF. It's a fascinating read! Find it here: academic.oup.com/shm/advance-...