11% of British people hold a favourable view of Robert Jenrick, according to new YouGov polling

Some good news, though, if anyone has mislaid medieval Britain.

The single biggest thing (in cost terms) I’ve changed my mind about is UK tuition fees. Dreadful system, need to scrap it.

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

This "open borders" line is *infuriating* - these people came here to study or work, because they had a uni place or a job to come to. They paid visa fees, student fees, NHS surcharge - and many of them are doing challenging and important work - staffing our care homes, for example, including Mum's.

Rapid response from the Lib Dems

Imagine this... and then realising that it doesn't even fund the HE system properly anyway. One of the worst Public Policy Disasters in decades. Willetts and Osborne have obvs dined out on it and gone on to great success tho. That's Britain, always failing upwards! 🇬🇧

Our first RHS lecture of 2026 is '"Alike in Appearance but not in Scope": Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe', with Prof Charles West (Edinburgh) bit.ly/49GlmMR 6pm, Friday 6 February. In-person booking is now full but registration to attend this event online remains open #Skystorians

Our fun BBC history podcast for kids & families 👇

Revisiting IRT (Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania 1952/2009/2021) for #EpigraphyTuesday: IRT 690: Undated Greek funerary verse for Delarkes (found in Al-Khums/Homs, Libya, on road from Oea to Lepcis Magna) irt2021.inslib.kcl.ac.uk/en/inscripti...

A modern classic, now scarce - Faith's The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship - is being reissued as an ebook by @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social (at a very reasonable price). www.bloomsbury.com/uk/english-p...

Imagine being so based even your AI girlfriend breaks up with you over it

Bet-you-didn't-know (I certainly didn't) #FunFact of the day. #OldNorse 1/2

Sky Sports has boiled its Ashes coverage down to its purest and greatest form: Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain standing there talking about what’s gone wrong www.kingcricket.co.uk/sky-sports-h...

Booking for the first @royalhistsoc.org Lectures of 2026 is now available: bit.ly/48N0CCY > Charles West on 'Queens & the Making of Medieval Europe’ > Vinita Damodaran on 'Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire' > David Stack on 'Well-being: a Historian's Perspective' #Skystorians

WILMA!!!!

One for the early medieval/Merovingian nerds: Happy to receive a copy of Dáibhí's 2023 Jennifer O'Reilly Memorial Lecture, in which he argues that the name Rath Melsigi, the Irish monastery where Ecgberct (d. 719) settled after the plague of 664 according to Bede, derives from 'M[á]el-Sigi'... 1/3

For your collective delectation this holiday season: Quite possibly the silliest thing I've ever written (and definitely the most ridiculous graph I've ever made!) loreandordure.com/2025/12/16/j...

New post just out: "The Overshoot" Net migration is collapsing, and will fall further over the coming years. We could even have net emigration. What does that mean for the country and the political narrative as we head towards the next election? (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...

#EpigraphyTuesday Inspired by the reopened National Museum of Libya in Tripoli, let's look at IRT 231, a Roman-era dedication to Liber Pater: irt2021.inslib.kcl.ac.uk/en/inscripti...

Though no longer a new development, worth noting it's pretty useless that ESPNcricinfo aren't providing live scoring for a women's ODI between two Full Member nations (for which live streaming is freely available). An empty scorecard simply stating/demanding 'Bet' says it all.

The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

'This was even higher among the most disadvantaged students, with more than half (52 per cent) stating that this was their intention – meaning they are three times as likely to be based at home as their wealthy peers.' How/why Cold Spots really and increasingly matter to equality/inequality. 3/3

We could not be more thrilled at UCC @radhumslab.bsky.social that our brilliant colleague, Dr Eugene Costello, has been awarded a €2m European Research Council Consolidator Grant for his project, "DeepCattle." www.ucc.ie/en/news/2025...

Call for Papers! Our Spring Conference @snsbi.bsky.social will be held on 27-29 March 2026 in the historic Athenaeum in Bury St Edmunds. @namestudies.bsky.social, @englishplacenames.bsky.social, @logainm.bsky.social, @placenames.bsky.social, @placenamesni.bsky.social, @ainmean-aite.bsky.social

Who has made this 🤣

Enmeshed in marking, but just thought I'd point out that this article is now out, open access: Simon MacLean, arguing that the Astronomer's Life of Louis the Pious could be rather later than historians have assumed: might 'the Astronomer' be Jonas of Orleans? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Clare Downham @downham.bsky.social reviews 'Vikings in Early Medieval Ireland: Church-Raiding, Politics and Kingship', by Colmán Etchingham academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... @boydellandbrewer.bsky.social

Looking forward to giving a paper next week in Rome with the archaeologists who excavated parts of the Schola Saxonum, just opposite the church built over Sancta Maria scola Anglorum, as Archbishop Sigeric called it. Lots of interesting 10th-cent evidence attesting to life in the English quarter

okay I can see this is coming from the replies so: to be clear I'm not saying Farage having been racist at school doesn't matter, what I'm saying is that I find it weird that the media is going soooo big on this when they'd mostly remained quiet on the many, many dogwhistles of current day Farage

Wonderful project from @jnockels.bsky.social on improving text recognition in historical Scottish newspapers, in collaboration with the National Library of Scotland. www.dhi.ac.uk/projects/rec... #ff2025

New issue of @parergon.bsky.social edited by @mattfirth.bsky.social, Dr Cassandra Schilling and me!

Does the concept of a 'shatter zone' help us understand 11th-c. Normandy? Looking forward to reading this by @ralphtorta.bsky.social direct.mit.edu/jinh/article...

Fuck Mitchell Starc and his stupid pink ball.

Really pleased to have my short article out with @epoch-history.bsky.social on the experience of disability during the Hundred Years' War! The rest of the issue is a fantastic read and it was lovely to work with the editors and @joshcoulthard.bsky.social. www.epoch-magazine.com/post/the-exp...

keep meaning to write about this but god if this isn't me - feel like people maybe assume that being bilingual means thinking in a mix of words but my god it's so much worse than that, I conjugate French verbs in English, I feminise/masculinise English nouns, it's a MESS up here

[cough] or French newspapers from today

I don’t get it, why does making art become unsatisfying when you remove the part where your brain works and is rewarded with a sense of accomplishment

The modal British voter thinks that pensioners are the group who gets the least good deal from the state! You can't have a serious conversation either about shrinking the state or expanding the tax base from that starting point!

Another year, another end-of-semester infographic presentation from my students. Here's a map showing Alcuin's letter network.

Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”

and again - literally just the hobby horse of some random anonymous Twitter accounts, enraging how quickly they managed to turn their horrid posting into actual government policy and rhetoric

Let's be honest, Boaty McBoatface is the most impressive thing the UK has achieved over the last 9 years... everything else has been a bit crap

lmao France

This is Irish erasure.

only another 0.2-0.5 sleeps to go until the ashes

Out next Monday.

I sometimes feel like I am going mad. Owning a £1.5m home is not normal in London or the South East of England.