'One of the most consequential changes [in the September 2025 Immigration White Paper] is the reduction of the Graduate Visa route from 24 to 18 months, which directly undermines the ability of international trainees to complete their Early Career Teacher (ECT) induction.'

In 2001, Niall Ferguson made a similar “I told you so” assertion, making the same case for a new American imperialism inspired by the British Empire & surmising that it would be easy to occupy and govern Afghanistan in the West’s interests. www.theguardian.com/world/2001/o...

In 1887, British forces kidnapped & exiled the King of Opobo in today’s Nigeria. British Palm oil traders had persuaded the government that the tariffs he imposed restricted their profits. It was a milestone in the Scramble for Africa and indirect rule by Britain. alanlester.co.uk/blog/antisla...

With other leaders one would never entertain such considerations l, but aside from ideology, oil, drugs & migrants, two plausible factors in Trump’s “thinking”: 1. Machado won my Nobel Prize so I’ll take over her country & deny her the opportunity. 2. I’ve got real soldiers I want to play with.

What a joyous programme (and a far right propaganda myth buster). Good on you Sadiq Khan for overseeing the introduction of wild beavers to London. Wonderful! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Nigel Farage & compliant right wing media are directly responsible for this surge in crime. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Reform and the Tories must be outraged by the two tier health system. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Farage chose Greenwich as the green screen backdrop for his divisive pitch because of its naval and imperial associations. Between 1824 and 1841, 45 Black sailors were admitted to its hospital. From Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, they are an integral part of British history & identity.

Important corrective to self-destructive right wing populist diagnoses and prescriptions: Europe’s recovery depends in part on doing the opposite of what the anti-immigrant nationalists demand: integrating economies and utilising universities’ research capacity. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Probably. It’s part ignorant and part disingenuous anyway: 1. A key subplot is that Caine’s Lt Bromhead starts out as a fop, but transitions to the main hero of the battle. It’s not true that his relationship with Chard remains tense ‘throughout’. They develop mutual admiration.

Chris Mason displays the lack of that critical self-awareness we try to cultivate in our students. It isn’t just turbulent times that make Starmer more vulnerable than he should be. It’s a media ecosystem led by right wing press campaigns, of which Mason is a part. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Brilliant article that not only paints a more honest picture of this human rights defender but puts our right wing press to shame. The arc of this story proves their willingness to foreground racist far right activists’ propaganda. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interesting survey on how the Australian public feels about history. I suspect that in the UK too, there are contradictory desires for a story of national pride and also for truths about colonialism. compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Good to see people whose words and actions have been twisted by pernicious right wing culture warriors recognised. Hilary McGrady and the @nationaltrust.org.uk are not ‘woke’. They just believe in inclusivity & transparency. These used to be seen as virtues. www.thetimes.com/article/new-...

1/2 Although this report suggests a jump in belief that you have to be born in Britain to be British, from 19-36% in 2 years, the 2024 NATCEN survey of actually gave the figure as 39%, so the change isn’t as dramatic. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

1/2 Over the last few decades, most Britons have come to accept a civic rather than ethnic/racial definition of Britishness. Cases like this, so easily manipulated by racists, put that definition under strain. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Let 2026 be the year small ‘c’ social conservatives here realise that the threat to their civilization is not from the ‘woke’ or Islam, but from a resurgent, international fascism whose UK face is Nigel Farage. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dan Wootton & friends lied SO MANY TIMES in their rant about me! "Lucy Connolly never incited riots" Yorkshire police say yes. "Femi didn't join Greens" Did in October "Remainers ruined Brexit" Farage & Boris backed deal "Femi never had job" LinkedIn

It’s not that Trump doesn’t understand that if a ceasefire were to be broken, it would only be by Putin; it’s that he doesn’t care. His motivation isn’t a lasting peace. It’s what resources he can grab and a Nobel Peace Prize. Normal diplomacy doesn’t apply. www.thetimes.com/world/russia...

if they're so concerned perhaps funds can be recovered from the (vast) sums tendered in this exercise? api.parliament.uk/historic-han... www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/

The slightest hint of racial justice sends these people into a tizzy. New archbishop urged to scrap £100m fund over slavery links www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So many comparisons between Britain's 1st industrial revolution and the growth of generative AI are facile. These examples are ripe for comparative analysis by historians who study and understand the IR. (Stand aside, History Reclaimed). A sharing link for 3 non-subscribers. @echistsoc.bsky.social

The Tories King Canute Plan: soldiers on the coast to stop sea level rise. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

So much has happened this year I’d forgotten about Zia Yusuf’s craven, self-interested acceptance of Reform’s anti-Muslim agenda, after all of a couple of days’ resignation. Peter Brookes, The Times.

1/3 Great account of state of play with reparations demands from Kenneth Mohammed: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The closer the Epstein net draws in around Trump, the more prolifically he launches the US military against other countries. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Happy Christmas

Excellent analysis from @dirkmoses.bsky.social of the implications of Western leaders devaluing Holocaust memory by invoking it to justify another genocide in Gaza: thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...

Britain is not immune. The links between the AfD, MAGA and Reform are clear. They even inform US government strategy. www.theguardian.com/world/commen...

1/2 Trump’s “war on drugs” in South America clearly echoes the British war on ”slavery” that precipitated the Scramble for Africa in the C19: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Surely anyone campaigning against child sexual exploitation on either side of the Atlantic can no longer support Donald Trump? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Two posts available at UCL’s groundbreaking Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

I gave two main public lectures this semester. One on the reparations debate in Britain and one on British antislavery and the ‘pre-scramble’ for Africa. Both available to read over Christmas for free here: alanlester.co.uk/blog/british... And here: alanlester.co.uk/blog/antisla...

Very good news. About time this completely unnecessary,cruel practice on behalf of over-privileged, de-sensitised gourmands was ended.

1/3. Netanyahu has far more in common with the Bondi Beach attackers than Albanese. Netanyahu and the terrorists both dehumanise innocent people who “represent”, but who are not, their enemy. Furthermore… www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Notice how the Murdoch media has started calling illegal settlements "Jewish settlements". The ultimate conflation between Judaism and Zionism.

1/2 Trevor Phillips on Farage in @thetimes.com. Single-handedly?

Netanyahu’s extremist government continues to colonise the West Bank, while his Western supporters and ‘peacemakers’ continue to treat him as if he isn’t a war criminal. www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Looking for a New Year's resolution that is good for your mind and (relatively) easy to keep? Check out the Institute of Historical Research seminars for January 2026. Fourteen seminars in week 1 alone. Free, broad-ranging, open to the public and usually available both in person and online.

'A new, illustrated adaptation of her novel, called Las aventuras del caballero Cristalián (The Adventures of Cristalián the Knight), aims to redress the balance and introduce Bernal’s work to younger readers.' 2/2

'Though completely eclipsed by Don Quixote, Cristalián de España, which was first published in 1545, has a unique claim to fame. Its 800 pages, bristling with swords, sorcerers, dragons and damsels, make up the earliest known work by a female Spanish novelist.' 1/2

Giles Coren (in The Times) is wrong on two counts. 1. You do have to be racist to vote Reform. Racist scapegoating is the essence of the party’s politics. You don’t vote for that if you’re antiracist. 2. Since Johnson & Badenoch led the party down the same path, other racists will vote Tory.

A mad detail tucked away in this story: provision to rename the opera theatre the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House is already tucked into a Congressional spending bill.

So much about this serves as a gentle and kind riposte to the hateful far right propaganda, about both the BBC and London. Sir David Attenborough's London - why he wouldn't live anywhere else www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This man’s ego is a Black Hole. It has to absorb every particle surrounding it. His narcissism is insatiable. Every attempt to satisfy it only fuels his overwhelming need for yet more flattery. Kennedy Center to be renamed Trump-Kennedy Center, White House says www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At Policy Exchange Walton writes reports advocating for greater legal repression against protestors. Including climate change groups; questions have been asked as to who funds PE - fossil fuel corporations?

Policy Exchange are among other roles pretty much the political wing of the repressive tendencies of UK police. They hired ex-Met Police/ Counter Terrorism Command cop Richard Walton, notorious for plotting with #spycops to undermine the Stephen Lawrence Enquiry powerbase.info/index.php/Ri...

Appallingly irresponsibly, and shows just how compromised certain police forces - like other British institutions - can be on this issue.