🚨 New on Substack, my post on Clay Cross's famous 1972 Rents Rebellion that resisted the Conservative Government's plans to raise council house rents: 'Clay Cross Council: ‘doing our job – and that’s to help the working class, the cream of the nation’ municipaldreams.substack.com/p/clay-cross...

Johnson Chun-Sing Cheung writes in our January issue, on refocusing social work education to meet the pressures of contemporary social work, and how antagonistic relationships between stakeholders in the community and the establishment have heralded new social work approaches in Hong Kong #CDJ

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

The World Community Development Conference 2026 is coming to Glasgow next year! Join us from the 30th June - 2nd July 2026, at the James McCune Smith Learning Hub. We're very proud to be sponsoring the event, rooted in the values of justice, participation, and community empowerment buff.ly/MmfThqQ

I have to say, for a day with 5 overlapping meetings, that was a very good day.

A little preview of my forthcoming journal article on council tenants' resistance and resilience today in @scotnational.bsky.social. Massive thanks to @charlielynch.bsky.social for reaching out and giving my work a write-up. www.thenational.scot/politics/257...

As I walked past it today and it's got some new paint on its shutters, here's the Sheffield Salvation Army Citadel building, now owned by the Council. As it happens this article about its renovation appeared a year ago today... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #CharityHistory

#Birmingham Brum Book - a 1975 events and socials listing guide to the city featuring dear old King Kong on the front cover who had kept watch over the Manzoni Gardens in 1972. Ref - L 83.3 #LibraryofBham

Fancy a trip around the British Museum with a weird nerd lecturing you about Videogames?! This Friday I'm running an evening tour... it's the next closest experience to being locked in a lift with me for a couple of hours. Marketing is my passion... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-videog...

Brilliant new article by @malcolmrussell73.bsky.social on glue-sniffing panics, youth boredom and deindustrialising towns c. 1970s-80s, published in @mbhjournal.bsky.social This began life as an exceptional MA dissertation at @uclhistory.bsky.social Congrats Malcolm! doi.org/10.1093/tcbh...

Roland Barthes on the desire to ‘take a rest from language’:

The 13th January 1691 marks the death of George Fox, the English founder of the religious group the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers. It was just two years earlier that after years of persecution, with their members often being fined or imprisoned, the government

Just about managed to catch the Advance Base Christmas Show on the last day it's available. What a cutie. We still want his omnichord. @advancebase.bsky.social youtu.be/tMta7JY6Pxs?...

Sir Titus Salt, mill-owner and philanthropist, died OTD in 1876. The model village of Saltaire was built between 1851 and 1871 to house his employees.

Charlie McConnell writes in Vol. 60, Issue 1 of the CDJ, examining the history and activities of the International Association for Community Development (IACD), and how the association supports international participatory community development practice buff.ly/FzuolR3 #CDJ #IACD

When transphobic “academics” complained about a “chilling effect” on their “research” they meant people describing their transphobic “research” as transphobic. Now there is a REAL chilling effect for trans academics of top-down establishment measures like fines & toilet bans. archive.is/oYqXS

They really expect us transgenders to comply with our own segregation ey

Been sent this by two separate family members now. Incidentally, the result of my grievance was that the employer *had* breached their own policy, but it was a rubbish policy anyway, so it didn't really matter. So you can see how seriously they take these things.

So desperately need to finish Those Two Things but so desperately need to Be Asleep - the enduring pre-Christmas existence.

[12hrs into my ice interrogation] agent: in 2021 you posted “they should call him matt hardcock am i right fellas” can you explain that? me: do you know who matt hancock is? a:… [43mins later] a: he had his own app? for parkour? me: no the parkour was a separate issue

If the reporting on the Peggie decision tells us anything, it should be that the way news gets reported in this country has little to do with truth, and much more to do with narrative - as well as whose heavily spun press release lands on journos desks first.

Lifeboats have been in Whitby for over 200 years, with the first station established in 1802 by the Whitby Lifeboat Association, followed by a second station in 1823 It is one of the earliest locations for organised lifeboat services, predating the official formation

Who is Wes Streeting, and why is he like that? I joined Sam Kelly and Jonas Martin on the @medicinered.bsky.social podcast to discuss the Health Secretary's political background, and what this might mean for health policy in the UK.

Going to see Porridge Radio up the road today and on the one hand it involves the kind of slightly risky travel choices that makes my Wes-Streeting-Says-I'm-Faking-It brain bleed but on the other I'm so looking forward to losing my voice screaming at the world again.

🎭We've been working with Disabled communities and creative groups to work on a Toolkit that will help make creative spaces more accessible for all. 💥We're so excited to be launching this in February, and we want YOU there! Don't miss it! Register now👇 www.disabilityrightsuk.org/make-it-toge...

Boy do I have a lot to say about competence standards and PGR assessment (i.e. vivas). Happy to see a nod to the guidance I co-wrote in this article. FWIW it is NOT difficult to make adjustments for PGRs. People just don't want to.... wonkhe.com/blogs/why-is...

Our Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality Archive records the work of the group who fought for inclussion of excluded minorities in the North East through the latter half of the 20th Century. Browse the catalogue here: specialcollections.ncl.ac.uk/che #ExploreYourArchive #EYAInclussion

🇪🇸 BREAKING: Spain is the next broadcaster that withdraws from #Eurovision 2026, following the results of the EBU General Assembly today.

We are starting to plan our monthly events schedule for next year and we would love your input! Would you like to lead one of our sessions? Or do you have any ideas for speakers/themes that you would like to see explored? Please do get in touch! #DisHist

Required reading of the most welcome sort in IHS this morning. 'It is in the space between our divining and conjuring that the argument lies, the debate happens, history is written and the story gets its endless quality.' www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Wes Streeting is a one-man stigma producing machine. Denying support for trans folks, now seeking to limit who has mental health care. Why don't we, y'know, invest in housing, communuties, young people, food, art, nature, regulate social media, consider the impact of covid, long covid & deprivation

#BirminghamTheatre Vesta Tilley (1864 - 1952) made numerous appearances on the Birmingham stage as a male impersonator. This cartoon is from The Owl, April 1890. Ref - LF 08.2 #LibraryofBham

It's an obvious point but I think one worth making again - Fuck Wes Streeting.

With anti-trans news every day, we're on a mission to bring festive joy to trans+ youth 🎄 We have just closed sign ups for this year's Trans Secret Santa with hundreds and hundreds of registrations. 🎅 Now we we need your help making the gifts as magical as possible ✨ www.transsecretsanta.co.uk

#CharityHistory, for good measure.

I find it very strange how a legal decision which relates solely to gender recognition certificates – something under 18s definitively cannot have – is being used to justify changes to longstanding policies on including trans kids.

Contact us if you have been affected by the policy changes of Girl Guiding or the Women's Institute. This could be as an individual, or because you lead a local Brownie group who don't want this policy change. We want to help protect trans inclusion. goodlawproject.org/about/contact/

Aideen O’Shaughnessy and co-authors write in our January issue on the involvement of grassroots activist groups in the production of knowledge for policy reform, investigating how abortion rights activists can challenge or inform abortion policy in Ireland buff.ly/jMmUvUS #CDJ #Ireland

The government’s choice for next Charity Commission chair has been confirmed

Thrilled that there's an archives study guide for Sheffield Ski Village www.sheffield.gov.uk/libraries-ar...

80% of British media spends all day everyday calling trans people predators and freaks, and the remaining 20% say tsk tsk that's a bit much while still arguing they should be banned from even having a fucking hobby and, honestly, would it be so hard for them to just piss before they leave the house?

The article explicitly notes WI had had a trans-inclusive policy *since the 1970s*!

Last year we received a new deposit of a cuttings book from the First World War, compiled by Lady Julia Inglefield of Beaconsfield. This book covers her work in caring for Belgian refugees and finding them employment in the local lacemaking industry.

#Scouts this rally cry for new recruits by the Birmingham & District Association of the Boy Scouts appeared in The Rotaria, October 1914. Ref - L 24.2 #LibraryofBham #ACCScoutsBham

ICYMI! The recording of last night's session is now online 🗃️ youtu.be/wtqw-KkDQyo?...

It still stings when you fail to make the threshold, but when a union outsources its entire ballot campaign to avoid using its own staff, with whom they are in dispute, there's at least a comforting sprinkle of hubris.

Widely regarded as history's greatest ever Christmas playlist (by me and my pal Jane) let's hear it again for my true lifetime's work open.spotify.com/playlist/4ke...

Shelter employees have cancelled plans to take industrial action after the homelessness charity tabled a new pay offer

Geoff Higgins and co-authors write in our latest issue on implementability in community development approaches, and the novel taxonomy of principles, conditions and processes for success buff.ly/x4d6vqx #CDJ #Development