I feel as though this is the right moment to share that I once shared an elevator with Joyce Carol Oates.

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?

Historians here: Anyone up for joining a panel on early modern translation practices in science and medicine with me and the wonderful Sare Arıcanlı? It’ll be for the 2026 ESHS–HSS Joint Meeting in Edinburgh. Let me know!

You can now register for our exciting conference that spans disciplines, time, and place and offers exciting hands-on sessions. Please sign up soon as spaces are limited!!

The first photo of my new book, courtesy of my editor... "The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age" comes out in early December! Feel free to pre-order it today! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

The problem with diagnosing "the electorate have unreasonable expectations around tax and spend" is that those expectations did not develop in a vacuum. They are the product of decades of politicians and the media telling them they can have x services with y tax levels, or not contradicting it.

The generation that experienced WW2 knew how bad things could get. The horrors that they had directly experienced in Coventry, on Omaha, at Belsen, Bastogne, Dresden, Nanjing & Tokyo meant that they understood how dangerous THIS was. This is where all that started.

Amazing how a few TikToks of e-bike thieves can create a completely false impression observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Do I know anyone in Edinburgh?

The Conservative immigration proposals cannot be allowed to stand without a profound and widespread statement of moral condemnation inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...

"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral." I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.

The idea that our friends, relatives, neighbours and colleagues should be summarily flung out of the country by some future Tory government because they don't fit some right wing extremist's definition of "cultural coherence" should set alarm bells ringing everywhere.

CFP for HSS/ESHS 2026 - The Science and Medicine of Bodily Habits. I am excited to be working with @wraggem.bsky.social to co-organise symposia on bodily habits from the medieval to modern periods. From sleeping to eating and urinating, how much do we control our bodies? Abstract deadline 21st Nov

#Job opportunity Lecturer in early modern history Full time - permanent

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Looking forward to this exciting event!

And our FIVE YEAR teaching and research position in Early Modern Europe and the World is now live..... Please do circulate and/or think about applying. I truly love our department! @kingshistory.bsky.social

Lecturer in the History of Early Modern Europe and the World (closing date 13 October) . This post is a five-year appointment, starting on 1 January 2026. my.corehr.com/pls/coreport...

Reform are now coming after people with permanent residency. It'll be citizens next. No one is safe from authoritarian governments.

New post just out: "Three seconds" What links Charlie Kirk, the overthrow of the Nepalese government, the US-China trade deal, and the trial of a Romanian Presidential candidate? TikTok. Here's why it's changing politics and what that means. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

We're delighted to see that @mollieray.bsky.social is shortlisted for the Young Comics Laureate 2025-6! geni.us/YCLAU Mollie will be appearing at our Autumn Weekend to discuss how the graphic novel format allows her to treat challenging topics with wit and sensitivity. Book now £6: geni.us/LFMBHB

Liberals are unwilling to admit that there is a form of politics that exists in the world that centers around causing harm for pleasure, destroying things, and looting the rubble, and they're unwilling to admit that this politics has a stranglehold on the right

So much of the crisis is the fact that liberals are unwilling to describe what's happening, because they're scared to say that their opponents are lying, are operating in bad faith, want evil or harmful policy, and don't share our basic goals about what society should look like

I think today has demonstrated that, if anyone thinks the media is not the driving force behind the rise of fascism in the UK, they are either dishonest and culpable themselves or total deludinoids. 100,000 trans people: crickets 100,000 fascists: max publicity.

The PM's silence right now is utterly damning. I don't normally post about politics, but it seems to me that we are dangerously close to a moment where we can safely say - if you don't stand up for the right thing, then you are against it.

That's true, but people turned out to stop Mosley & government legislated against uniforms. Powell was sacked from the Cabinet & denounced by both frontbenches. Griffiths did indeed become a "parliamentary leper". What's alarming today is the lack of fightback & the silence from govt & opposition.

Look I know it's a sjot inheritance and we have deep rooted structural economic and political problems and switching PMs won't solve them. But saying "fascist hooliganism is bad and we're gonna nick the culprits" is the easy part, and yet he is just. Not. Doing. It.

A Prime Minister whose party wants him out, with opinion polls through the floor, and who cannot bring himself to denounce the dark ethnonationalist turn against non-white British citizens… how does he come back from this?

Govt should take this message seriously. The far right, backed by the world's richest man, is actively stoking racial & political violence. Staying quiet, flattering them, saying "we hear you" won't work. Stand up for decency, for respect, for the best of modern Britain or watch those things burn

There's been a shift towards support to the far right here and it's horrible to see. But this remains a vastly less racist/homophobic/anti-semitic country than it has been in the past. Which makes it all the odder that our politicians today seem more scared to make the argument.

Starmer as it happens hasn't made a public speech outside chamber since mid-July. Hard to think of a PM who has made so little use of the normative power of his office. Unlike eg Cameron who really did think No 10 had the capacity and obligation to attempt to frame debate on all manner of issues

Have any Labour ministers or MPs spoken out about Musk inciting insurrection in the UK today?

And as a shot/chaser to that, compare this quote in Robert Shrimsley's latest terrific column:

Dear God, this really is awful.

Absolutely !!!insane!!! to me that the UK government, lobby and newspapers litigate at length every minor infraction by the BBC, rival newspapers, or what some random columnist has posted. But all of them just carry on not even commenting about this media owner. He’s not hiding, he’s telling you!

Anybody still using X needs to ask themselves what would it take for you to leave it?

Surprise publication day! Earlier than anticipated, you can now read my #firstbook (digital version in #openaccess) or order a printed copy through the link. Official announcement and info on book presentation event coming soon! brill.com/display/titl... #NatHist, #HistNatHist, #flowers

Can we shift away from low-quality UUK leadership?

Not a day goes by that I don't think we are witnessing a epochal narrowing of the field of collective human consciousness.

Way to represent the sector guys 👏 Looks like UUK and Labour are shaping up to decimate the sector. Would it have been any worse under the Tories?

Reckon this will be the first of many large uni mergers over the next few years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

History majors have lower unemployment than computer science majors. Folks with humanities graduate degrees are more sought after by corporate recruiters than those with MBAs. Study history! Get a job!

Does anyone in the UK have career advice for a 40 yr-old academic - historian of science and medicine - who may need to build a new career outside the academy? This is a serious request - any ideas and tips would be much appreciated.

Watching Farage on the news. He's just laughing at Peston when confronted with his obvious lies. When faced with his tax affairs he just says 'I'm different, I've run a business, so what'. When pressed on spending plans he says GPs are 'forced' to put 'young people' on disability. So easy for him.

What Farage has learned from Trumpism is that, faced with tough questions, you just spout a couple of lines of obvious laughable BS and the interviewer and editor will move on. It's very effective. If people refuse to live in the real world, how can you make them?

"You can't policy your way out of a propaganda problem" is such a good line. Policy matters, but how you communicate stuff matters more right now.