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In the UK academic recession, you will be at one of these stages since many unis buy the same cuts model from the same consultancies. It is always the same process: *Talk of belt-tightening *Incidental savings (e.g. printing, refreshments) *Travel budgets cut *Promotion freeze (1/4)

A question for your morn: We have figures for the growth in rail patronage since the 1990s. The headline figures show increasing numbers of tickets sold. But, has anyone conducted research on the people forced off the rail by pricing policies that the overall statistics hide?

Did you know that we hold the records for Aston's predecessor organisations and student's organisations, including their publications? In Dec 1956 the Journal of the Guild of Students of the College of Technology, asked whether our main building -at that point half complete- would ever be finished.

For the record I #RefuseToUseAI. BBC News - Government offers UK adults free AI training for work - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A new Article has been published in JTH! "Hidden vital players in supply chain – Freight forwarders from nineteenth century to date in Serbia", by Đurđica Stojanović and Marko Veličković. Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... Don't miss it!

Some good discussion of High Streets up on the Granuiad site - but what is missing from the discussion remains how much worse the problem of visible decline is in the UK compared to other European countries (or indeed Asia or Australia). www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

This is how the BBC is reporting Matt Goodwin's selection as Reform's candidate in Gorton and Denton. He's not an academic. He holds no academic position and hasn't done for quite some time.

As someone who owns a leasehold property, and is facing a bill of £12,000+ to extend the lease, this is the sort of thing that kills any sort of faith I had in Labour: Manifesto: "Labour will ...finally bring the feudal leasehold system to an end." www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 The UK Govt has quietly published - without announcement - the Joint Intelligence Committee/DEFRA report it suppressed last October. They tried to sneak it out in the midst of crisis. Read and share: “Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse & National Security.” (link below)

A new Book Review has been published in JTH! "Book Review: The Pearl of the East: The Economic Impact of the Colonial Railways in the Age of High Imperialism in Southeast Asia by Dídac Cubeiro Rodríguez", by Nirali Joshi. Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... Don't miss it!

We found a contact sheet, with negatives, of some of my late Grandfather's photos. These are, I suspect, from the 1980s or early 1990s. Can anyone identify where this is? #ukrailway #ukrailscene #britishrailways #passengertrain #heritagerailways

Almost a century later and we’re in the same position with that same argument. 🤠 When you travel by *bus/tram* you avoid and relieve traffic congestion.

The reason I go on about self-driving cars is that it's like watching somebody spend 20 minutes using a thimble to fill a kettle and them saying "I can't wait for the glorious day when I'll have a robot to carry this thimble for me"

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

🌍 Contested Skies: Rethinking Aviation and State Power 🌐 Discover how Global South nations claimed the skies in our new intro by Marie Huber & Waqar H. Zaidi: Read now here: www.sagepub.com/explore-our-... #AviationHistory #GlobalSouth #TransportHistory #Decolonization #JTH

Good reading. 'How the financial problem is described is not neutral. It reflects and reinforces a particular way of understanding what a university is....If the financial situation is framed as a classic demand-and-cost problem....the obvious actions are to emphasise tight cost controls'. 1/4

It's almost as if years of relentless media saturation bombing of flat-out lies, demonisation and blaming don't help the public to understand what is actually happening.

Apropos which: recommendations for anything on embodied experiences of ordinary/everyday mobility (e.g. not "travel" or "travel writing") in C18th England?

Critically, we also need the public to support actions that enable older people to live great lives without having to drive for when they fail the eye tests. So the public need to get onboard with no pavement parking, pedestrian priority, denser housing, fewer out-of-town shopping centres, etc etc

Congestion pricing has improved commute times, bus speeds, noise levels, traffic safety, and businesses and restaurants have seen more profits. A runway success by any measure. And a model for other cities too. Gift 🎁 link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Once again, the responsibility of government to manage the economy in order to maximise the opportunities for its citizens’ talents to produce greater wellbeing is denied in favour of accusations of “overeducation”… www.theguardian.com/education/20...

In 1887, British forces kidnapped & exiled the King of Opobo in today’s Nigeria. British Palm oil traders had persuaded the government that the tariffs he imposed restricted their profits. It was a milestone in the Scramble for Africa and indirect rule by Britain. alanlester.co.uk/blog/antisla...

The next online talk will look at life on the road in the mediaeval period. What was it like to travel, who could be found on the road, and what observations did they leave us? I'll be live online at 7pmGMT on Wednesday 28 January. Booking & more info: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-mediae...

‘It was not in his nature to do anything by halves:’ Mary Booth on her husband’s work. No lie detected. I run a course that demystifies Charles Booth’s massive Life & Labour survey and the accompanying Poverty Map. Starts Tue 13 Jan at the Mary Ward Centre, nr Stratford High St DLR short.do/wLa3Vc

As we welcome in the #NewYear2026, a reminder about the Railway Work, Life & Death project. Looking at accidents to British & Irish railway staff before 1939, last year we added 69,000 more records to our free project database! More here:

This article explains how U.S. government beef grading emerged in the early twentieth century through close cooperation between public agencies and the meat industry. doi.org/10.1017/eso.... #Bizhis #AgriculturalHistory @busineshistory.bsky.social @usdagov.bsky.social @foodstudies.bsky.social

General Boxing Day rail services were withdrawn steadily in England and Wales from the 1950s, but in 1975 BR withdrew the remainder. They returned only in 1977 (with some exceptions) The ad from 14 Dec 1963 evidences the competition from cars "Go by train, and relax let someone else do the driving"

General Boxing Day rail services were withdrawn steadily in England and Wales from the 1950s, but in 1975 BR withdrew the remainder. They returned only in 1977 (with some exceptions) The ad from 14 Dec 1963 evidences the competition from cars "Go by train, and relax let someone else do the driving"

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. This poster is from 1906. At the time of its release, the Railway Magazine stated: "SOME of the recently issued posters displayed by British Railways have shown marked ingenuity...The Great Northern Railway produced a particularly fine poster".

Want something Christmassy and #railway related to read after your lunches? Why not try my post from a few years back on British railways' failed "#Christmas and New Year Gift Ticket Scheme” (1935-38). #Christmas2025 davidturnerrailway.wordpress.com/2021/12/24/a...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. This poster is from 1906. At the time of its release, the Railway Magazine stated: "SOME of the recently issued posters displayed by British Railways have shown marked ingenuity...The Great Northern Railway produced a particularly fine poster".

A (likely) posed image of a London, Midland and Scottish Railway dining car decked out in festive garb, from the December 1937 edition of the staff magazine. It was estimated that the company's dining cars would serve 12,000 lbs of turkey on Christmas Day that year.

Hello all. Can anyone direct me to a good company that produces this sort of free-standing display? Also, any ideas about costs? For something I am working on, we'd need it roughly the same size and shape. Many thanks in advance.

Dec 15, 1960: 30-year old designer Allan Fleming's stylized "CN" becomes the new corporate logo of the Canadian National Railway. The new logo replaced the traditional maple leaf monogram introduced in 1943 and the English-language initialism "CNR." 1/3

On 24 Nov I gave the Commonwealth Journalists Association Annual Lecture in the House of Lords, kindly hosted by Lord Guy Black. My topic was debates over British reparations for slavery. Here is the text: alanlester.co.uk/blog/british...

I am very proud to say that I have been elected a Fellow of the @royalhistsoc.org. It's an honour.

Putting aside the question of how good/bad this looks, I don't think in all my travels I have seen a UK rail livery so reflective of a political context. Previous liveries were often attempts to convey a message about services and companies, but this is a political exercise.

Just so anyone considering Wes Streeting knows:

my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing. they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors. their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen. their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.

A quick thread about empire based on a long conversation in a hospital waiting room today. Like so many Brits, my family includes people from multiple heritages, including white elders raised in industrialised regions of North England and Wales which were not racially diverse when they were young.

In 1952, BR's North Eastern Region produced this guide to Christmas and New Year services. It stated that on Christmas Day "The normal Sunday Service will operate" with some alterations." There were 5 additional trains, 8 altered trains and around 50 cancelled, but huge numbers were unchanged.

Okay Advent. Here's a #Christmas thing In 1936 the London, Midland & Scottish used "3,780 eggs, 1,260 lbs of bread crumbs, 735 lbs raisins, 735 lbs mixed peel, 630 lbs apples, 63 bottles of rum, 30 bottles of brandy and 219 pints of stout" in their Christmas puddings for restaurant cars and hotels.

Okay Advent. Here's a #Christmas thing In 1936 the London, Midland & Scottish used "3,780 eggs, 1,260 lbs of bread crumbs, 735 lbs raisins, 735 lbs mixed peel, 630 lbs apples, 63 bottles of rum, 30 bottles of brandy and 219 pints of stout" in their Christmas puddings for restaurant cars and hotels.

One should be in no doubt that most of Britain's elites will simply make their peace with Farage and do a deal, so long as they get left alone or benefit. Tho there is resistance to Trump in the US, it's v much the exception.(1/2) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I do hope that the BBC board and editorial standards committee will not fall prey to this ridiculous attempt to control public history.

If you’ve appreciated @davidolusoga.bsky.social’s marvellous BBC Empire series, you might be interested in our conversation about the writing of its history:

Congratulations to Pablo Pryluka, 2025 winner of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social Krooss Prize for best dissertation in business history. Pablo's dissertation summary now published Open Access in @entandsoc.bsky.social. Check it out for the best in new business history research

Our paper in the MOH SI on Microhistory about FIFA Secretary General Helmut Käser’s 1967 business trip to Northern Ireland and London for the IFAB annual conference is now available open access (apparently). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My greatest achievement...