For reasons, it would be v. helpful to have information from a broad range of academic and non-academic (incl. GLAM) users of the BBC Written Archives OTHER THAN historians, briefly on: 1) What you've used it for and 2) How the proposed changes would impact on your research. Reposts welcomed.

Amazing theme! (Even if I have spent part of the last half-hour involuntarily singing the Hokey Cokey to myself.)

Exciting news! 🤩

'If the ceasefire holds, this language is an augur of the future. One where there is no reckoning, no addressing of root causes. Only a hurtling into the imperatives of cleanings-up and workings-out. All the while illegal occupation continues'.

something quite brain-melting about the hard right's position apparently now being "we hate all Muslims and distrust Muslim states, aside from that one Muslim place that still has slavery because that sounds fun"

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Also, not the point here of course, but this picture of EB looks eerily like the AI-generated slop I see on websites promising that I can "träffa kvinnor i närheten..."

You think he's joking, but some of us remember the *other place*.

As Argentina’s economy starts to rapidly unravel, let’s never forget the comments by our own politicians. Ta.

It’s Kanelbullens Dag, that’s to say, Cinnamon Bun Day in Sweden. And while I mean no disrespect to Norway and Iceland, who also mark this day, it’s Swedish Cinnamon Buns that are #RecipeOfTheDay! www.nigella.com/recipes/swed...

And not forgetting the divinely funny "Kitty" monologues, written by the (equally much missed) Victoria Wood! (Plus multiple, superb Alan Bennett monologues: A Woman of No Importance, Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet...) www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-iD...

Inevitable I suppose that the headlines reporting the sad news of Patricia Routledge's death describe her as "Keeping Up Appearances star". For me she will always be Kitty from Victoria Wood On TV, and Mrs Schofield in Alan Bennett's precursor to Talking Heads, A Woman Of No Importance. A sad loss.

It can't be said too often. Collective punishment is wrong. Attacking innocent Jewish people because of Netanyahu's actions is wrong. Killing people in Gaza and the West Bank in order to steal their land is also wrong. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

Swedish IKEA Names. www.youtube.com/shorts/xdsvW...

Just baffling to see people whose profiles suggest an awareness of politics & social issues exposing themselves as completely unable to understand a basic point like this.

We're pleased to share this call for papers for our upcoming conference! 📍Online via Zoom 🗓️Thursday 5 - Friday 6 February 2026 ⏱️Abstract deadline Saturday 1 November 2025 See our website for full details 👇 voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk/index.php/news-and-resources/updates-from-the-project

the most important thing to remember when you see eugenicists who don’t believe that autistic people should exist rambling about “the autism epidemic” is not that they’re wrong about the “cause” (although they are absolutely wrong about it); it’s that they are eugenicists

Happy #BisexualVisibilityDay! 🩷💜💙 This year, we spoke to one of our Legal Officers about the unique issues bisexual people seeking asylum in the UK encounter. 💻️Read the full blog now via the link in our bio: buff.ly/H5KDx0w

There should be a high bar for politicians attacking the media, but maybe Ed Davey has half a point here? For example, the first three paragraphs of this BBC story repeat Reform's £243bn figure without saying that the thinktank behind the estimate now disowns it. (This is mentioned in paragraph 35)

As someone who was not a professional academic (fulltime employed as archivist) and did 'hobbyist research' (with some support from employer e.g. research leave): the resulting books got published by scholarly presses, articles passed peer review: and my work is still cited.

'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”' Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.

Yes exactly. Universities can't afford research but they can spend millions on consultants, who give them the same stock solutions they've given everyone else

Problematic (to put it kindly) on so many levels. 1) there isn't really 'unfunded' research. The REF is there to allocate resources so that research is possible without a grant.

The MSNBC commentator saying that most political violence has historically come from the left just once again showed how we suffer from failing to learn history. Lynching, pogroms, race riots, the political violence that ended Reconstruction, and against the Civil Rights Movement. Come on.

A great opportunity, in a great place, with great people (and Gareth).

Supertramp singer and co-writer Rick Davies dies at 81. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I would rather promote the @eahmh.bsky.social account than pay attention in the EAHMH board meeting... so here it is. The conference begins this evening. Feel free to follow/use/mute the #EAHMH25 tag.

Consider how sordid and squalid it is, to take people fleeing the hellhole that 20 years of vainglorious, stupid Western intervention created - people literally fleeing from our worst, most ruthlessly wicked enemies, that we failed to keep them safe from - and make those refugees into "invaders".

Policy entrepreneurs and writers who built their university funding model on grad wages that always rose strongly are now confounded that they didn't - which was always a risk. So instead of looking in a mirror, they blame the unis on which they imposed their assumptions. (1/2)

All solidarity with Sacha. It's a side note but I am so struck by the way that 'orchestration' has become an accusation. When did it become a crime to talk to your colleagues and friends, share your views, express opinions on what's right and useful to do, and work together on a shared goal?

What makes this a perfect summary of English self-image is that there's a piece of genuinely radical social history here and it's easily overlooked because (a) it has a silly name and (b) everyone notices the Monkey World Tank Museum first.

Seriously, if you’re accepting the DWP and UK Labour’s narrative on “disability claims have increased since 2020 and the only reason that can be is because people liked being at home too much during the lockdowns” and thus “can’t be bothered to work so we need to cut benefits to below starvation

Excellent YouTube comment: “There are two UK TV films of this era unmatched for their horror: the nuclear apocalypse ‘Threads’ and this advert for British Pork” youtu.be/r0wDjWOnHcY

why would you want a team of PhD level experts in your pocket, they’re just going to hold a conference in there and then they’ll want snacks and at some point there’s going to be a rules committee that votes against you ever washing your pants again, and we haven’t even gotten to the presentations

Eddie Palmieri has died at 88. The legendary pianist and bandleader was “our most vital link between the mambo and salsa generations, a devotee of Afro-Caribbean musical traditions, and a visionary innovator across genres,” Carina del Valle Schorske wrote, in 2024.

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

This is not caused primarily by "screen time". It's been caused by the mass eradication of third places for young people in basically every city over the past three decades - and a society that's hostile to the concept of teens socialising in public spaces. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

New #DigitalHistory site: South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories "explores the links among South Asians across the United Kingdom, as well as the connections between South Asians and other groups in Britain, from the 1830s to the present day." southasianbritain.org/about-databa... #History 🗃️

Absolutely. They should only be oppressed by *their own* governments.

Overheard a bunch of kids on a London train complaining about the driving test: "They want you to drive like an NPC!" I mean, that's one way of looking at it...

The idea that "it's only genocide if there are gas chambers" is contradicted by the literal wording of the UN genocide convention. Just one of the below conditions need to be met in order to satisfy the legal definition of genocide and, quite clearly, every singe condition is being met in Gaza.

🇳🇴: Det er kaldt. 🇸🇪: Klimatet är inte optimalt, men vi håller ut. 🇩🇰: REND MIG I RØVEN, TORBEN, JEG FRYSER MIN LITTLE MAN AF, HOLD DA KÆFT,,, ER DET IKKE VARMT,, STIK MIG EN HOT BOY, OG,, LUK DØREN, FOR FANDEN MAND

Today is the 10th anniversary of Ireland's gender recognition act. Ireland's gender recognition is through self-declaration without the need for permission from a doctor, panel or judge etc. In the past decade nothing bad happened. youtu.be/1f8OxezAqTk?...

A sign in the gents' loo at Arlanda Airport offering insights at the intersection of labour, gender and hygiene histories.

so chuffed to see this out in the world! I have a piece on 'Race, Sexuality, and South Asian AIDS Activism in Britain, 1990–2000' muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/artic...

New digitised resource! Yorkshire Miners, 1811-1945: 98 documents online in full at wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll... Includes leaflets, pamphlets, photographs and our earliest surviving branch membership records. More to be added in the next 12 months!

I think politicians ought to stop demanding heads should roll for "catastrophic failures", if only because people might start demanding that they apply the same standards to themselves. And, yes, I'm thinking of Lords Dave, Eric and Michael.

There are many British commentators who have made several posts showing deep concern for Rachel Reeves over the last 24 hours but apparently lost their phones whilst hundreds of thousands of disabled people were terrified of losing the benefits they need to live.