'The Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC) will be meeting with UK parliamentarians, Caribbean diplomats, academics and civil society groups from 17 to 20 November.' 1/2

As I posted about drinking porter on 15th November a reminder of the part porter had in London's working class history- the Cato St conspiracy of February 1820. A more significant event than historians until recently allowed (it failed btw) wp.me/p15p2Q-ej4

As I posted about drinking porter on 15th November a reminder of the part porter had in London's working class history- the Cato St conspiracy of February 1820. A more significant event than historians until recently allowed (it failed btw) wp.me/p15p2Q-ej4

Latest Times on @zackpolanski.bsky.social (PatrickMaguire 15th Nov) 'His are the clean, placeless vowels you often here from northerners who spent too long in London' (Samuel Johnson on London applies & Maguire is a Lancasterian...)

Concluding a day of moderate porter drinking. Will Hawkes London Beer City notes that the long delayed Guinness Open Gate Brewery(etc)is set to open in a few weeks(Covent Garden) & is close to the site of Combe an historic porter Brewery..

Morgan McSweeney dropped from Beard of the Year longlist for bringing the hirsute into disrepute wp.me/p15p2Q-fuI

Still on the porter theme, a short bus ride to @popnhops.bsky.social for Vibrant Forest, Black Forest porter

A day for porter drinking. Hook Norton Twelve Days (cask) is a decent start. I checked when it was first brewed...

Union set side quest in today's What's Brewing. Thinking about the rare art of brewery coopering. wb.camra.org.uk/2025/11/06/c...

Saturday lunch at the Crofts, Roath

Starmer has done nothing but Morgan McSweeney has been dropped from Beard of Year longlist kmflett.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/m...

Unsurprisingly a difficult week but this makes a decent nightcap. Even so having watched episode 2 of @davidolusoga.bsky.social Empire I do think 'imperial' doesn't convey the best message in 2025

would usually have on cask(if at all)but drinking bottled Greene King Abbot. Of the stronger beers I drank on cask 50 years ago- Ruddles County(5%) Directors (4.8%) Ind Coope Burton Ale(4.8%) just Abbot (5%) & Fullers ESB (5.5%) remain

Starmer has done nothing but Morgan McSweeney has been dropped from Beard of Year longlist kmflett.wordpress.com/2025/11/14/m...

looking at the darts. Good to see Reform supporter Gerwyn Price getting booed

Morgan McSweeney dropped from Beard of the Year longlist for bringing the hirsute into disrepute wp.me/p15p2Q-fuI

"while his beard is highly impactful in the public domain it does not always present a positive image of the hirsute"

A New Thing for fans of the union fermentation system. Link to this FB post - www.facebook.com/laurahadland...

@footymac.bsky.social thanks for response on Oxford just checking if you're interested in doing a seminar on the new book

The Times has written about @zackpolanski.bsky.social they have discovered that he lives in Hackney, doesn't have a car & is a vegan. Clearly the personal is political wp.me/p15p2Q-fuw

New from @thornbridge.bsky.social Colombian coffee porter. It works well & certainly not outwith the traditions of C18/19th London Porters or indeed Henry Hunt in Bristol

I should perhaps add that my existing CV includes 'shamelessly partisan' (Times Literary Supplement)

its set to rain here for at least the next 24 hours (see storm Claudia). That means cat management issues..

@footymac.bsky.social a couple of points. Are you interested in speaking around your latest book at the socialist history seminar at the IHR (spring term?) 2nd. There is discussion that when Starmer joined Socialist Alternatives at Oxford he was selling the Militant. Tariq A suggests not. Any idea?

interested to find myself described in the Morning Advertiser (paper of the licensed trade, founded 1794) as 'historian & industry commentator'. One for the CV clearly

The Times has written about @zackpolanski.bsky.social they have discovered that he lives in Hackney, doesn't have a car & is a vegan. Clearly the personal is political wp.me/p15p2Q-fuw