A great micro-business history that shows that tourism wasn't just a seaside industry in late 19th century Britain.

OUT NOW: Foundations of Managing British Olympics Our introductory history of the British Olympic Movement from the 18th century up to 1906! 🗃️ #sport #olympics #history #sporthistory soccermadboffins.blogspot.com/2025/09/new-...

Some good news, given the needless faffing with this over the years.

Now out digitally and releasing in print on Wednesday - a unique narrative of how the British contributed to the Olympic Games as an institution. 🗃️ #history #sportshistory #businesshistory #managementhistory bookstore.emerald.com/foundations-...

An excellent pushback against the idea that AI is somehow education enhancing from two of my colleagues.

Forced to admit that public sector is probably better (though train operator rankings are often more luck than management quality). www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/c13ea34...

Surely this is the early history of every new town ever. www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/9ee6ba6...

The Mandleson case demonstrates that 'serious politicians' or 'grown-ups' really need to up their game in moral and ethical terms, or it will be easier for Reform to pick them off. This applies both to the decision to hire him in the first place, and the painfully slow decision to fire him.

Congratulations London and South East University Group - you've merged together two failing businesses, now you have a very large failing business with a reorganisation problem. See also Penn Central in the 1970s or the British Motor Company/British Leyland.

Unpopular idea: we need to rehabilitate bureaucracy. It allows for fairness and due process as well as a career structure, and replaces abitary authority with rational authority.

Tax avoidance is unpatriotic.

Given climate change means the numbers of refugees are unfortunately only likely to intensify, politicians should be conditioning people to accept them. These sorts of populist sentiments are only political timebombs which limit your policy range later.

Was running along the river Don last night, and several footpath and no fishing etc signs had been spray painted over with St George crosses. I call it vandalism not patriotism.

Even graphic design and the classic idea of having a simple, tidy logo seems to be under threat. Bizarre for the country that invented roadside branding. www.ft.com/content/a1d3...

Council afraid to stand up in the court of public opinion.

Just a cute inspection vehicle I spotted passing on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway's youtube feed.

Good feature on the UK's foremost connoseuir of toilets. And one of the reasons why the standard of public space in the UK has declined so much. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The ECB would rather we didn't discuss it, but the Metro Bank One Day Cup Group B is in an intriguing position. Probably one loss too many for #Durham, though. #cricket

Available as e-book from 4 September and as hardback from 24th! bookstore.emerald.com/foundations-...

Loving the use of a Pacer by the Granuiad because it is still the stock image for rail in the North, nearly 5 years after Pacers were retired.

One of the lesser covered elements of the university crisis is that as well as cutting academic staff institutions are cutting away support structures for students. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

@geofftech.bsky.social temporary free bus route in Doncaster during roadworks that would make a good documentary.

Coming soon... bookstore.emerald.com/foundations-...

AI makes you stupid. Stay factual and think for yourself instead. www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/00c6e3c...

Perhaps not the most historically integral analysis, but the VOC was more than twice the size of Nvidia. www.visualcapitalist.com/historys-big...

Universities should stop wasting money on marketing that is inauthentic.

Come to my #AOM2025 session next on Organisational Communication via Employee Representation Schemes - room MR6 in Bella Center. #MHD

Automated metros are dangerous - in #Copenhagen for #AOM2025 and the people getting off the metro on front of me nearly got crushed by the doors which seemed to have no detector that someone was in the way. I was stuck on the train and had to go to the next station and come back one.

Pleased to report you can now watch our York Festival of Ideas session on Youtube - it is well worth watching if you are interested in football - I have rarely seen an audience so transfixed by a performance.

Seems Dundee's new principal believes he can 'engineer' the university back to stability. He's already discovering that engineering social systems is not the same as building bridges. www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/dund...

Appalling news just when we should be increasing transit, though I understand Chicago is also in a similar situation.

Dr Alex Gillett and I recently responded to the Public Accounts Committee call for Governance and Decision-making on major projects. We argue that changing motives for projects and conflicting incentives within government projects are critical to understanding why they go wrong.

Charles is such an environmentalist he is swapping the Royal Train for, er, two helicopters. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Before redesigning County Cricket yet again, perhaps consider if anything simple could be done to make it a better product.

Or read a book instead.

When peacemaking turns out not to be as easy as buying and selling land. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

Charlie points out each worker in the UK has benefited by nearly £500 from each international student hosted. Politicians need to realise this is the nature of our knowledge economy and protect it. wonkhe.com/blogs/intern...

The decline of buses in England should be a national scandal.

Still true: *Britain is a success story *Most of its cities are doing astonishingly well *Multiculturalism is popular *Mass immigration has not led to social disintegration *Nostalgia is increasingly weird *Britain is incredibly safe *Levels of social cohesion are high Don't let them gaslight you.

The UK has failed to invest its own money for at least 15 years.

So basically HS2 is behind because the original project specification was too vague, with the assumption it could be filled in later. Political instability then made this difficult to achieve. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685291...

As @garethdennis.bsky.social rightly says - doing nothing about improving infrastructure costs you more later. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

You can do better than this sort of pap, BBC. Students should have the ability to come up with their own ideas. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is welcome news - but instead of individual schemes should be accompanied by a broader policy pivot from the car to integrated public and active transport. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A few pleasant images from my walk from Limehouse to Paddington on the Regent's Canal in London on Saturday. Its great to see how vibrant this canal has become - back in the late 2000s when I first used to walk it it was little known and very quiet.

This is a fantastically empty and meaningless statement. Universities already do all these things, and more. www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/05/23/m...

Time for universities to simply say no to Generative AI www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/darw...

@martycricket.bsky.social got a personal best this morning of 31:36 in my 25th parkrun, does that count as a big event?

Good evidence that perhaps the UK needs to think about moving away from its overly expensive residential university model towards a more European civic model. upp-foundation.org/new-research...

A good little op-ed - of course @garethdennis.bsky.social puts across well why the US tech industry dislikes rail - it is an open source system devoid of proprietary elements. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/o...