Have just listened to Bregman’s excellent first lecture (questions still going) and am deeply disappointed (but sadly not surprised) that the BBC has censored this year’s Reith Lecturer! Short🧵below.

I share this with respect for the many excellent journalists at the BBC. And with the hope that transparency helps strengthen, not weaken, our democratic culture. /5

It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites. About universities, corporations and media networks bending the knee to authoritarianism. /4

This has happened against my wishes, and I’m genuinely dismayed by it. Not because people can’t disagree with my words, but because self-censorship driven by fear (Trump threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us. /3

This sentence was taken out of a lecture they commissioned, reviewed through the full editorial process, and recorded four weeks ago in front of 500 people in the BBC Radio Theatre. I was told the decision came from the highest levels within the BBC. /2

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Hopefully you’ve all read this excellent piece by Peter Coviello, about why you should never talk to the New York Times, or in general any media with a preconceived agenda. But also see his “Is there God after Prince?”, written just after Prince’s passing… lareviewofbooks.org/article/is-t...

My old pal Pete Coviello — one of the best writers and thinkers I've ever known — wrote the piece of the moment lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...

"A publicly accessible tool that invents false criminal allegations about a sitting US senator represents a catastrophic failure of oversight and ethical responsibility.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

@zackpolanski gives a masterclass in how to deal with the bad faith questioning and constant attempts at interrupting of Trevor Phillips. Phillips' gotchas all fall flat as Zack walks all over him.

Just read a passage in a book that describes elderly people as time machines: able to recall the past whilst being reminders to younger people of the future that awaits them. I think that’s a pretty magical understanding of age.

I knew @northumbriauni.bsky.social had taken away staff desks in NBS this summer, making them essentially hotdesk. Now the employer has informed staff that they are gutting their pensions, too. If there was EVER a time to join @ucunorthumbria.bsky.social, NOW is the time!

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

Around 10,000 university workers being made redundant this year. Labour policies are definitely cutting through in higher education …

I absolutely love this vision of change and change-making as well as Polanski’s rethinking of the transatlantic ‘special relationship’.

This is complete hogwash

A Whitehall source said: “Unfortunately this looks like the EHRC deflecting – they still haven’t sent ministers the information requested in order to assess the draft code. The EHRC should be cracking on with their job, not giving lectures on timing while government still awaits their material” 🔥

Many of the 90 bodies of Palestinians returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities under the ceasefire deal showed signs of torture and execution, including blindfolds, cuffed hands and bullet wounds in the head, according to doctors’ accounts.

Keep it going. Get your family and friends to join www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Men like Piers Morgan have found women in trans women who it is socially acceptable to abuse. Every time they do this stuff they are telling you how they'd treat cis women if they could get away with it.

The grand tradition of lying to strangers asking you survey questions

One hundred percent this. Transmisogyny is misogyny.

“I’m old enough to remember when mainstream British politicians, who should know better, stirred up racial hatred as a path to power. You’re old enough to remember too because it was last Tuesday. And it was Robert Jenrick” Cathartic anger at flag-flying racism. www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

"A message of neighbourly solidarity is thriving in Birmingham against a backdrop of racist intimidation" #antifa #StGeorge #racism #flags www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

it appears that @bsky.app have suspended the account of @jessiegender because a trans person saying "I wish ill on JK Rowling" is against the rules, so let me say with my loud cis voice that I too wish ill on all perpetrators of hate speech against trans people reinstate Jessie, this is ridiculous

Excited to learn that R Derek Black has a new book out! There was a minor media blitz about Black a few years ago because they'd come out against white supremacy after growing up deeply embedded in the white nationalist movement. Rare Youtube algorithm win. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnzB...

My friend Nader was killed at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site. I want those responsible for his murder held to account. Silence over these crimes is complicity, and silence today means they will happen again tomorrow.

Habibi trouncing!😂

World War 2 & Vietnam War lasted a combined 27 years, or just shy of 10,000 days. In that time, a total of 132 journalists were killed. Israel has sieged Gaza for just under 700 days & killed 242+ journalists. This violates Art 79 of Add’l Protocol (I) of Geneva Conventions. These Are War Crimes.

Anyone who fails to see that we are careening toward fascism is not paying attention.

Reform just tell people whatever they think you want to hear. And of course that includes former Tory Ministers turned Reform. We must hold them to account. Every. Single. Time.

Heartbreaking to watch a much of our world descend into misogyny, butchery, homophobia, transphobia and out and out racism and realise that those politicians and media outlets we thought would fight them actually are more confident encouraging them, platforming them and silencing criticism

"For a brief moment, the publication of photos of starving Palestinians broke through the wall of propaganda, prompting minimal concessions. But the siege continues, the hunger deepens and the mass killing expands." www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

#israel #anti-war #Zionism #protest #gaza #palestine This was the largest and most raucous anti-government demonstration in months. “The anger was palpable; it was probably the first demonstration that I can recall that had a decidedly anti-war sentiment.”

Today is the 47th anniversary of this clearly unimprovable photo, from a story so absurd that it shouldn’t be true, but is: the day a team of workers from British Waterways pulled the plug out of the Chesterfield Canal, and all the water emptied out

Half the first book prize, 40% of judges and a third of the main prize! It’s not looking great Polari.

I will be asking to remove 'Queer As Folklore' from the long list for the Polari Prize 2025.

“The timing and frequency of the flights also raised questions about what atrocities British military pilots had borne witness to in the past 20 months.”

Gee whizz, why aren’t these people doing anything to stop the crimes against humanity, why won’t they meaningfully speak out against it. A real mystery

A US media outlet. British ones were instructed on day one to not talk about any of this and have obeyed faithfully, even when the PM went to the Cyprus airbase Britain and America have been using to keep Israel armed the teeth and said he couldn’t talk openly about that had been going on there.

So good to be in Brighton tonight for our South East Hustings. We need to tackle inequality and take the fight to Reform. All while keeping solidarity to the people who need us to show up for them. That's what the Green Party stands for. Link below to live hustings feed. 👇🏼

Librarian here, and Ebook Central (formerly ebrary, longtime ProQuest platform) is moving away from a model where libraries can directly license individual books, alongside full AI integration. It’s led their top competition EBSCO to double down on… NOT doing that. Very happy to use EBSCO.

Okay this is worse than I thought. A large # of academic press books (incld. a textbook I use in class) have been moved to a platform called Ebook Central. It's like Kindle paired w/ AI. No footnotes. No page #s No facsimile PDFs are available. I just wrote a lengthy complaint to my library. Sigh.

I *adore* what Kieran and the @neheritagelib.bsky.social are doing right now. Watching him explore and explain the places I grew up is amazing. I'm north of the border these days, but if you're in the north east get yourself along to the social. Bet it'll be a good night.

Fascinating listening to Sopel and Goodall go on and on about how people have 'legitimate concerns' about immigrants, in a podcast about the Tories and Reform stoking riots, completely oblivious to how they are also a huge part of the problem by legitimising racism as 'concerns'.

A member of the House of Lords urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser.

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 🗃️