It might be a week later than I had hoped but I'm finished redrafting the last of my three main chapters. It was a particularly difficult one and needed a lot of effort but I'm quite happy with the progress I've made on it and the depth I've been able to give it. Next up: two background chapters.

My first journal article, Moral Panic in the Industrial Town, explores a very Scottish 1960s crisis. academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

Can you help?

This is so, so well-articulated.

Yesterday Living Rent launched our manifesto ahead of the Scottish elections. Created in collaboration with union members and the public, it sets out six key demands toward a Scotland where ordinary people are empowered ahead of the elite. Have a read here: www.livingrent.org/living_rent_...

A staggering new finding from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies: since 2001, the money left over each month for lower-income renters—after paying rent and utilities—has fallen 60 percent to a record low of $210. $210 left over for food, healthcare, childcare, and everything else.

Newspapers as Surrogate Archives: A Case Study of the Early Twentieth-Century Dublin City Coroner’s Court | The Historical Journal | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

More than 100 people have gathered outside Glasgow’s Trongate 103 arts space to protest rent hikes they say amounts to a de facto eviction

I have deleted my original debunk of this story as it appears it is actually an amalgamation of 2 stories... (Don't let anyone tell you I'm not prepared to be corrected!!) So let's look at them individually: We'll start with the photo... So what's going on? 🧵1/12

@newcastleuni.bsky.social will be hosting the British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research conference on 7-8 May. Tickets (no charge) for the event go live today at 9am. We have an excellent programme of speakers. Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk @sslh.bsky.social @ialhi.bsky.social

Felt inspired this morning, so I've spent much of the day developing out an idea for a postdoc. I'll keep the details under wraps for just now but it concerns an unexplored aspect of Edinburgh's housing regime in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Graduates who grew up in deep poverty face a large pay gap 10 years into their careers. They earn 13 per cent less than graduates who did not grow up in poverty – equivalent to over £7,590 a year, and larger than the gender pay gap in the UK ⤵️ buff.ly/5VfX2Fi

📣 Opportunity: Oral History PhD Research Project w/t Imperial War Museums & University of Strathclyde. An #oralhistory of women paramilitaries during ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland and Britain. For more information visit: www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/... #Postgraduate #NorthernIreland #TheTroubles

115kg for three sets of five reps today. Lets go!

#OtD 22 Mar 1974 Scottish workers in the East Killbride Rolls Royce factory refused to work on plane parts from Pinochet's Chile. They kept the refusal up for 4 years, leaving the engines outside to rust, before they went missing one night stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9498...

I analyzed over 10 years of anti-trans legislation. Over 330 bills have passed, with ~300 of them in just the last 5 years. There is no precedent in American history for so many bills to target one particular minority group like this in such a short timeframe. www.thedissident.news/the-ratchet/

For last 2 years we have been working on a large project to digitise, list and sort a collection of over 800 negative images (mostly on glass) taken by the Dundee Corporation Engineers Department in the 1920s and 1930s.

Writing today about the Craigmillar Festival Society. Astonished at how all-encompassing their vision and work for their community was. Self-organised provision of everything from arts and crafts classes for kids to care for the elderly to job creation programmes. A testament to tenant power

NEW: We often hear that Scotland’s more progressive income tax is “driving people out the country.” New HMRC data shows the opposite. Far more taxpayers are moving to Scotland than leaving it. Let’s look at the data 🧵

Replaced my back squats with belt squats to overcome the psychological barriers to lifting heavy. Aiming for bodyweight squats (c.115kg) by the end of the month. Its allowed me to maximise volume and overload the weight with ease. I feel like I can walk through walls

It's my last day in My Lai and I just met a survivor who has never been interviewed before. He showed me where his family was buried in a makeshift grave right after the American left in the afternoon of March 16, 1968. Unlike most of the victims, they have not been moved to a proper grave.

Just made the switch from Chrome to Firefox in anticipation of the introduction of AI-blocking features, but its already so much smoother and quicker. Uses much less RAM. I've seen the light.

Anniesland Court Table Lamp Just a fun project trying to turn something brutal into beautiful #brutalglasgow #brutalism #Glasgow

#OtD 5 Mar 1988 2,000 people took part in a demonstration through Leeds to protest against the homophobic Section 28 law which prohibited the so-called 'promotion of homosexuality' by local authorities and schools. It was eventually repealed in 2003 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1054...

I've got a journal article out! '"The Order of the Elephant": Symbols and Power in the Policing of Land Agitation in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland' - exploring medals awarded to police who arrested land agitators in the 1880s, one of which is on display @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social

Do any other historians have their reading-for-fun ruined by a compulsion to take notes? I’m trying to enjoy Kershaw’s ‘Hitler: Hubris’ but I’m stopping every minute or so to write something I’ve read in my notes app.

#OtD 27 Feb 1973 armed Native American activists occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in protest at corruption and US treaty breaches with Native Americans. Despite state violence and killings they held out for 71 days and galvanised huge support stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9898...

Exciting PhD opportunity! Focussing on the political, legal, and administrative context of the introduction of 'the Thistle' in Glasgow. Delighted to be part of the supervisory team alongside @jamesnicholls.bsky.social, Jane Scoular, and Chris McCorkindale. www.sgsss.ac.uk/studentship/...

Dirty Business- Channel 4’s exposé of England water companies shows abuse of corporate power, failed govt policies and human suffering. It has got worse Thames Water may pay 2024 fines in 2030 or never. Fines on others waived. Say NO to profits B4 people. Let companies go bankrupt. Nationalise.

Damer’s ‘Scheming’ and ‘Moorepark to Wine Alley’ are essential readings for understanding council housing in Scotland. The use of oral history, the examination of the discourses surrounding tenants and the view of council housing as an extension of 19th century hegemony and practice - indispensible

In the eighteenth century, landlords in the Scottish Highlands exerted control over what their tenants planted and how they planted it. In reality, these 'reforms' disrupted resilient ecological practices. Cat Scothorne on seeds and the Highland Clearances.

Also for Edinburgh old-stuff nerds: they've got Sulman's 1868 view of Edinburgh too. It's in a slightly battered condition but there's fun stuff like this glimpse of the Innocent Railway tunnel... maps.nls.uk/view/74401135

📆 OTD in 1875 Mary Barbour was Born 🗣️ “We should be daring in our demands, not only for better houses but for a higher standard of living generally.” (1st pic: Protests & Suffragettes Mural on Crossloan Rd & Uist Street— Mary Barbour & Isabella Elder)

the brick facades of manistee, michigan

"Scotland would be safer if our police had guns". The @thecourier.co.uk published this article by Jim Spence claims that was later picked up on by BBC Radio Scotland. Here are some thoughts.🧵 www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/c...

Doing the five-storey tenement clock in style: Comber House, part of the Comber Estate, Camberwell, designed by LCC Chief Architect George Topham Forrest, built 1927-32. Despite its appearance, some of the estate's flats were of the so-called ‘simplified type’ with shared facilities.

Sadly did not get the job, but made great connections at the interview and received some useful feedback. Best of luck to whoever got the role!

New PhD studentship opportunity! Research and write the history of Release, supervised by me and @alexmold.bsky.social! bloomsbury.ac.uk/drugs-civil-...

Just back from a job interview at Stirling University. Got to have a look around the beautiful mid-century Pathfoot Building. Every corridor is covered in art, with access to gorgeous courtyards plotted around the site. If I’m lucky this is why my office would be!

Preorders of 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' currently more than 40% off the cover price at Amazon. Due out Feb 26th. www.amazon.co.uk/These-Isles-...

Creating a new regular feature promoting the Left in Scotland. Suggestions for events, publications, projects etc Contact Us here: bellacaledonia.org.uk/contact-us/

Jim Ratcliffe is best known as the unpopular Manchester United owner and today he has been in the news for saying that 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants'. We need to understand Ratcliffe's as an energy billionaire who made his power and money by closing workplaces and opposing unions 🧵

Lower-income families face 137-year wait for living standards to double, says UK thinktank

UK (Scotland), More in Common poll: Independence referendum Yes: 53% (+5) No: 47% (-5) +/- vs. 21 August - 1 September 2025 Fieldwork: 24 January - 04 February 2026 Sample size: 1,017 ➤ europeelects.eu/uk

CALL FOR PAPERS - Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn'. A two-day workshop organised by @maxlong.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May. Details in poster below, please share.

Three generations of Welsh miners, 1950, photo by William Eugene Smith, American photojournalist.

🔴 BREAKING: Labour Together paid controversial PR firm £30k to investigate journalists who were digging into how its undeclared funding Reporters from Sunday Times, Guardian and other outlets targetted *And* Morgan McSweeney knew about it Full story: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

I'll be talking about 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales' at Timperley Probus Club, Tues March 3rd, 10am, Timperley Sports Club, Stockport Road. Visitors welcome. Book due Feb 26th, available for preorder. www.timperleyprobus.co.uk

Devastatingly sad. Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support