#OnThisDay in London's radical history, 1886: Social Democratic Federation leaders Burns, Hyndman, Campion and Williams trial for inciting February unemployed riots starts. More on the Feb 8th unemployed riot in the West End, following two rival demonstrations In Trafalgar Square wp.me/p74yfw-Fy

Hello football, my old friend 🫠

C… 🤣🤣

The UK has been importing food since Roman Times. It’s possible that we have never been self-sufficient in food.

Our programme for summer seminars @ihr.bsky.social is up now! Featuring a v timely paper on American citizenship + immigration at the founding; ancient Greek refugeedom; gypsy and Roma mobility; & cross-confessional solidarity with refugees in early 20thC Britain tinyurl.com/3bxsdy32

Well Farage did defend the “great philanthropist” against the “baying mob” who took down his statue. Oh no, sorry I’ve got that wrong. He didn’t mind Savile’s statue going. It was Colston, in whose ships holds 9,000 children died, that he defended. His victims were Black though, they didn’t count.

“Lowry Academy, [Manchester] removed books containing "inappropriate content" from its library. It said they included Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.” Removing books that speak against authoritarianism. Way to educate, eh?! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Remembering Emile Zola on his birthday 🎂 A self-portrait from around 1900. Zola was a remarkable photographer, though I hear he also wrote a bit on the side :) "He was a moment in the conscience of Man." Anatole France

Just me that sees it?

New contextual essay for our collection, Radicalism and Popular Protest in Georgian Britain, c. 1714–1832. Professor Katrina Navickas explores how the British state responded to democratic and working-class movements throughout 1789—1833. Read the essay at

Is there a more annoying idiom than adverts on commercial radio which are made up of trite exhaustive rhymes and ‘verse’?!

This is what led to the arrest of Ryan Bridge from Raise the Colours A queen of a local passer-by decided to get under their cherry-picker van (while it was parked) so he called the police He & his rabble of flag wankers were served with notice by Oxford CC on Monday against putting flags up...

Raise the Colours claim 'violent physical attacks by left-wing mob'🤣 That's a group of nice people from South Oxford, mostly women, who were abused and harrassed. When Bridge films himself being challenged he moves towards people and then leaps back yelling 'DON'T TOUCH ME!' to pretend he's been hit

RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall accused of aiding and abetting war crimes

“first they steal your culture, then they charge you to see it” — traditional curatorial proverb

Some monumental truths in this thread about international relations and especially about the position and dissolution of any John Wayne mystique of the U.S.A.

Lumo. Unwittingly booked through Trainline. 1/2 hour into a journey. Don’t recommend it. I’ve never been assailed by so many passive (at best) aggressive tannoy messages. I have a guilt complex induced by their terms and conditions bombardment. Sorry I have a bag, sorry other passengers will get on.

Introduced myself to the National Library of Scotland yesterday with an, unintentional, #dadjoke - the three toilets on level 13 were all being used, a woman waiting told me they were “all full”. I looked surprised and asked if they were really that bad. (Thankfully, I think, she comprehended 🤞😬) 🤡

This is Molly. She was finally found a week after her human fell down a 180-foot waterfall while hiking together in New Zealand. Her human was badly injured and rescued by helicopter, but Molly was missing. A week later, Molly was found at the base of the waterfall and reunited with her human. 14/10

Principled librarians is what a just and progressive society needs. Doing the right thing has never been more imperative. To defend the provision of and facilitate access to knowledge and information. Contest and oppose authoritarianism and anti-knowledge. Strength and solidarity to Luanne James!

I’m leading this London Rare Book School course on the history of collecting. Ideal for anyone interested in studying the history of libraries and how and why books have survived. We’ll be looking at why special collections are special. 22-26 June. #bookHistory👇📚📖 ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

🇪🇸 Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. military aircraft involved in attacks on Iran, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Monday. The move expands Spain’s earlier restrictions on U.S. access to jointly operated bases in the country.

Nosebleed!

PSA down to 0.4. 🕺Lucky boy.

“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.” ~ John Berger (1926-2017) #Painting by John Berger.

What does 'talk to the past' even mean?

Every time I see a post of yours I think "historians have such privileged access to social media content no one else has".

I think often of a New York Times photo of a little Iraqi girl tending to her parakeets in a bombed house, probably from 20 years ago now. I will think of this man and his sweet dog often now too. People just want to love what they love, care for their little beings, and instead we do this to them

Springsteen: Well, this past winter federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. They picked the wrong city. Your strength and your commitment told us that this is still America. And this reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand.

Fling them into Guinea Quay. Hideous racists.

Two of the journalists assassinated in South Lebanon this morning by Israel were Lebanese correspondents Ali Shoeib and Fatima Ftouni. They become the 252nd and 253rd journalists killed by Israel in the last two years. Unprecedented. (📸 Cradle Media)

Can’t do marches, too autistic. Hope this is massive though!

So it turns out the real scandal of the Gorton and Denton by-election was the willingness of media organisations to collude in Nigel Farage's attempt to undermine the result of a free and fair election www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-the-bb...

Together for Palestine! Together Against the Far Right!

Well-deserved! Pride of place amongst the books in our family house! There was a discussion in work just the other day about our favourites. I love The Singing Mermaid and The Smartest Giant bestest I think. 🖤

Wikipedia now has higher standards than all universities

Police repression of Britain protests is now “routine” — new report finds www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/20...

Read everything B. Traven! 🖤

Australians now have better mobility into the EU than Brits “Under the new scheme, Australians can live and work in Europe for up to four years without needing a job offer before arrival.” Second class citizens in our own continent www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/tr...

“This part of the story has gone mostly untold.” Applies to many defining yet practically taboo characteristics and operations of Britain’s national story. ‘Curated’ indeed. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The true problem of "religion" in a pluralist society is that it's the job of "religion", anthropologically, to oppose pluralism. "Religion" that embraces pluralism is living a contradiction, which is fine by me, but leaves it vulnerable to charges of hypocrisy from people who oppose pluralism.

Ha!

This is what I was hoping to see from influencers and independent journalists who traveled to Cuba. The impacts of U.S. actions aren't getting the attention they deserve in mainstream media. My people are being ignored in the U.S. news.

It’s time for the UN to formally recognise the transatlantic slavery trade as a crime against humanity | John Dramani Mahama

under a reform government, your kids are going to die of a preventable disease while cabinet ministers use it as an excuse to be racist

Reform-run Kent County Council is pushing a motion today claiming there is an "invasion" of refugees happening. The Greens say it is a racist motion and are set to protest.

Well worth briefing yourself with this timely guide: www.cambridge.org/universitypr...

Fascinating. Holst - Baltic German on his father's side. Brunel - half-French. Burke - Irish as a shamrock. Churchill - half-American (& that half descended from French exiles). Almost as if constant mobility and intermixing is a thing. Oh, and all 4 of the Beatles had Irish ancestors.