Jarrow ladies fire brigade, 1916 (Tyne & Wear Archives & Museum).

At the Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936, at least 100,000 people, including Jewish residents, Irish dock workers, Communists and Labour Party members prevented a march by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) from passing through the East End...

We've updated our three BlueSky starter packs for historians. Our principal list now includes details of 130+ societies and networks, based in the UK and Ireland, that advance the study, research and promotion of history go.bsky.app/AZaYQDd Please let us know if there are gaps. #Skystorians 1/2

#OtD 3 Oct 1937 almost a year after their defeat at Cable St, Mosley's Blackshirts attempted to march through Bermondsey, South London. Met with strong local opposition and barricades in the streets, the march never arrived at its intended destination workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e35-...

Confirmation that Trump will be signing an executive order designating "antifa"—i.e., opposition to fascism—as "a domestic terrorist organization." What this will mean concretely has yet to be seen. For now, read this guide to preparing communities to endure repression: crimethinc.com/Safeguarding

Learned a lot from this show sharing music from countries that were colonised by Portugal - Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Angola etc. Lots of great anticolonial tunes soundcloud.com/clydebuiltra...

It's publication day for British By-Elections! I publish a lot of writing, but this is the first book contribution I've had published, so it's very exciting! The perfect accompaniment to party conference season for you politics nerds, you can get a copy at: www.politicos.co.uk/products/by-...

“We have a new way of understanding the social history of post-war Scotland. Our book challenges and complicates stereotypes, especially of working-class life.” Historians, Valerie Wright and Alistair Fair spoke to me about ‘Building Modern Scotland.’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 www.thenational.scot/news/2545606...

Had a fantastic time presenting and attending the @womenshistscot.bsky.social conference on Saturday. Congratulations to all the speakers and particularly @vawright10.bsky.social for her in depth history of women’s housing activism in Scotland. Thanks to @ymcfadden.bsky.social and the team

An underrated thing about coming from Scotland's central belt is that several times in your life there will be a news article on whether or not your hometown is the "ugliest in Scotland". www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now...

This year’s Sue Innes Memorial Lecture at @womenshistscot.bsky.social conference given by @vawright10.bsky.social on ‘Housing as a ‘Women’s Issue’: Women and Housing Activism in Twentieth Century Scotland.

Fantastic session of Lightning Talks at the WHS conference. Thank you to our speakers! 👏👏 Wonderful to hear about wide-ranging projects—from activism at Sellafield, to research methodology in community archives, to increasing the visibility of women nurses on Wikipedia with @histnurse.bsky.social

My first journal article, "Resistance and Resilience in Edinburgh's Council Housing Schemes, 1919 - 1999", has been sent off to the editors! Should be available online (open access) in the coming months.

A relic from a different era at the offices of the Mineworkers Union of Zambia.

Horrors of Trump detention centre: Lisburn man tells his story after arrest for 'looking like a Mexican' Lee Stinton was lifted by US immigration police on an American street — in an incident he compared to a kidnapping. Here, he tells us his story.

Sky News reports on Peter Mandelsons friendship with Jeffrey Epstein (Mandelson even stayed at Epsteins townhouse in Manhattan while the financier was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor) A reminder that Keir Starmer appointed Mandelson our ambassador to the US.

BDS victory! The Scottish Parliament becomes the first in the world to endorse BDS against genocidal Israel. BDS calls for escalated civil society pressure on all states to impose legal and targeted sanctions against apartheid Israel similar to those that helped abolish apartheid in South Africa.

🚨 BREAKING | 1,339 people have now been arrested on "terrorism" charges in 2025, with almost all of them busted for holding signs at pro-Palestine protests. This is more than any year on record, by far. (Source: Home Office)

So glad this video of Graham Linehan allegedly assaulting a 17 year-old is finally public.

Recently @vawright10.bsky.social and I were interviewed for a podcast about the Scottish new towns book which we recently co-wrote (and which is available Open Access for free download via bloomsburycollections, though you can also buy a copy in print if you wish!)

Landlords shouldn't be taxed less than workers. But there's a key policy missing that would ensure the costs of such a measure aren't just passed on to renters. @sachahilhorst.bsky.social on why rent controls are the policy this Government urgently needs 👇 www.common-wealth.org/perspectives...

Open access texts analyzing the ongoing genocide in Gaza by: @martinshaw.bsky.social Raz Segal Sindre Bangstad Lorenzo Veracini 🔽 @jich.bsky.social y.social ⁨https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tandf-jich_genocide-in-gaza-and-the-end-of-settler-colonialism-activity-7360971002459152384-lp7k⁩

🚨My report on the criminological risks of the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport has been published! Massive thanks to everyone at @thesccjr.bsky.social for the opportunity and for their own work in creating this. Read it here: www.sccjr.ac.uk/publication/...

Tenant Participation & Engagement Officer @edinburghtenants.bsky.social providing development support, information, & advice to tenants/communities to ensure they have skills & knowledge to participate in shaping their housing/services. Full time|£35,012|Edinburgh tinyurl.com/23pafx3j #engagement

Israel double tap strike. It murders journalists then sends a drone in to kill the paramedics trying to retrieve their bodies. A war crime, broadcast live and sponsored by the US and Europe. 🚨Boycott EVERY news channel that doesn’t show this footage today🚨

dorking out at the Wellcome Library today and came across an excellent invention, which, true to its 19th century roots, has the most incredible and exciting title you can possibly imagine. Ready for it? 🧵

Don't miss this on Wednesday at 12 in Portobello Town Hall, Palestinian journalists Ahmed Alnaouq and Eman Alhaj Ali relfect on ten years of writing. Please help share this rare chance to hear directly from Gazan writers: www.edfringe.com/tickets/what...

Today in the National - print and digital - I ask the collective behind the Queer Glasgow Walking Tours about radical histories of the city, LGBTQ+ history as public history, and most importantly, which 1970s stage production was labelled “kinky claptrap appealing only to mentally ill weirdos.”

My new blogpost is on social housing in interwar Germany and the shift from the Garden City to 'New Building' - 'Social Housing in Cologne, 1913-1933: Light, Air and Trees … and Modernism' municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/08/05/s...

Happy to say I'll be presenting some of my research with residents of Wester Hailes at @womenshistscot.bsky.social conference on 13 September at the Kinning Park Complex!

Another heatwave next week. Besides being a sign of impending climate collapse, all this heat is just unbearable when you’re stuck inside writing all day. Very much looking forward to the cold and wind in the autumn. Much prefer jacket and jumper weather to boiling alive over my laptop

Shetland, Scottish Parliament constituency, Shetland Elects August 2025 projection: Liberal Democrats: 48% (+1) Scottish National Party: 25% (-1) Reform UK: 15% Greens: 7% Labour: 4% (+1) Alba: 1% Conservatives: <1% +/- vs. June 2025 projection

Shetland, Scottish Parliament regional list vote, Shetland Elects August 2025 projection: Liberal Democrats: 30% (+3) Scottish National Party: 22% (-12) Reform UK: 17% (+16) Greens: 14% (+4) Labour: 12% (+4) Conservatives: 3% (-13) Alba: 2% (+1) +/- vs. 2021 election

This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen. By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza

Solidarity with the Village Hotel workers! Also great to see my @living-rent.bsky.social branch banner respresented at the picket. ✊

Two new (and very different) publications coming soon. Including my first research article in an academic journal focused on "resistance and resilience" in Edinburgh council housing and the usable histories of housing in Scotland.

Happy to say I'll be presenting some of my research with residents of Wester Hailes at @womenshistscot.bsky.social conference on 13 September at the Kinning Park Complex!

Just been sent an amazing photo discovered by @mauricejcasey.com. Moscow 1924. My great grandad Bob Stewart on the far left (as usual), Head of the Comintern Grigory Zinoviev in the middle and who’s that second right? Why- that’s a young Ho Chi Minh!

"It’s important that working-class people who occupy positions of authority, or who have a public platform acknowledge how the politics of respectability work, and firmly reject methods to control working class people through judgement and shaming." journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/wo...

Exactly one hundred years ago - EJ MacRae was appointed Edinburgh's City Architect - Here is a short piece on the work of MacRae and his team. blog.historicenvironment.scot/2025/07/eben...

Getting in early for @ilfordphoto.com #fridayfavourites with this #crappycommiecameraparty shot - made with the FED-2, Industar-26m, and #kentmere400 - of one of my favourite corners of Edinburgh.

I've been contacted by a great wee student who is looking for people to fill out their survey for a study on social media and sectarianism in Scottish football. If you feel you can contribute, please do, and for any questions, contact [email protected] docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

British surgeon Nick Maynard explains how Israeli soldiers target Palestinian children at food distribution sites in Gaza, changing the location of gunshot wounds at times, such as aiming for the head one day, the chest the next, followed by the legs or genitals on other days. 🤬🤬🤬

For our project @caring-communities.bsky.social we're undertaking oral history interviews about children's social care with care-experienced people, their descendants and care workers. If you'd like to take part or hear more, please get in touch! caringcommunities.co.uk

'This government needs to stop listening to the empty threats of landlords and legislate to protect those who have been most impacted by decades of mismanaged housing policy' 👇 www.heraldscotland.com/poli...

Glasgow’s had a long history of being exploited in the media as a place of violence, social problems and poverty. In recent years there’s been an trend of shameless lifestyle bloggers using the city in this way for clicks. Disgusting examples below, but there’s so many more on there. Horrible to see

Over 12,000,000 people in the UK live in absolute poverty.

Shout out to Tesco's own brand Mackerel in Spicy Tomato Sauce

Arms manufacturers and the western military-industrial complex are a state within (several) states. From Elbit and Thales dictating the proscription of a peaceful activist group to Raytheon spying on the political activities of students - its clear that these firms are a threat to our democracy.