A weirdly difficult day. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Dublin. Last night. Front row with my Cure-mad son. Utterly mesmerisingly joyously brilliant! Thanks @robert.thecure.com! Don't think a 14yr old could have chosen a better first gig...

If that doesn’t alarm managers sufficiently to think about resisting the boilerplate solutions offered by their chosen consultants (spoiler: they are: cut, contract, centralise and use the phrase ‘hub and spoke’ a lot) then consideration of the reputational damage this is doing on their watch should

A statement from @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social posted on the other place: 'the culture of cover up must be ended'. 'The ambition must be to ensure that women don't need to look forward to childbirth in fear or look back on it with trauma'. Hear, hear.

The Bridge Chapel, next to Rochester Bridge, was built in about 1391 by Sir John de Cobham as a secret place of prayer for travellers crossing the Medway. "It's a secret but it's in plain sight, isn't it?" Alison Cable, archivist at The Rochester Bridge Trust, said. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Too often the NHS... is more interested in protecting its reputation than delivering safe care. Until it embarks on a sustained... cultural shift, working cooperatively with patients & families, many fear it will cont. to fail mothers & babies.' Michael Buchanan's take👇https://tinyurl.com/mr23uedv

'Too often the NHS... is more interested in protecting its reputation than delivering safe care. Until it embarks on a sustained... cultural shift, working cooperatively with patients & families, many fear it will cont. to fail mothers & babies.' Michael Buchanan's take👇https://tinyurl.com/mr23uedv

I hope that we will hear responses from core national bodies including @thercog.bsky.social, @rcm.org.uk & @newsnmc.bsky.social which do not use this as a moment to ask for more resources but start by owning the part they have played in how we have got here.

I am once again begging universities to realise that staff - academic, professional services, estates, all of them - are the product they are trying to sell. Without staff there is nothing to sell. No amount of flashy buildings will replace staff in universities. UKHE is in freefall.

Each uni has a consultancy in that tells them how to run a degree cheaply. They all simply say 'mega lectures' (LOL, infrastructure) & 'generic modules staff is interchangeable on'. It's pitched as rationalising, creating a 'sustainable' portfolio. But its destroying what university actually is.

The Ockenden report on Nottingham has now been published here: www.ockendenmaternityreview.org.uk/wp-content/u...

🚨 BREAKING: Nottingham maternity review exposes ‘cruel’ care and toxic bullying at NHS trust: www.thetimes.com/article/ebec...

Thinking of the Nottingham families awaiting tmw's report by @dockendenltd.bsky.social. And all those for whom it will stir up such pain. Remembering the intensity of the day before the East Kent report: So. Many. Interviews. The Amos report to follow next week... www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Looks like Carlisle's becoming a destination station (again!). I am so heartwarmed to see the love and care being given to our railway architecture & the brilliant work being done to support and enable it by @railwayheritage.bsky.social.

They’ve also created a waiting room as a homage to Conan Doyle’s case whose plot relies on various train timings from the stations, and have refurbished the toilets in a heritage style. We think Sherlock Holmes would approve, although obviously he couldn’t smoke his pipe in there.

Surprisingly this Charles Holden masterpiece is not listed. It draws inspiration from the Moscow Metro. The London Passenger Transport Bd had provide advice to them in the 1930s. I especially like the roundel tiles.

As one reviewer put it, he's not so much a band leader as "the conductor of an entire musical ecosystem". Reading this makes me wonder if my son was right to swap his birthday tickets for Gorillaz to see the Cure instead... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

And finally, a view of things to come when the pool is revived at Tynemouth.

It's thought more than half the 60 former directors and senior managers from @nottmhospitals who were asked to give evidence to Ockenden refused to do so 👀

Join us for a paid summer research placement! 🌞 We are looking for a PhD student or postdoc to help us put together a history of how and why CRASSH was founded 25 years ago, its evolution, and its impact on research at Cambridge and beyond Find out more at https://bit.ly/3PZBJgE ⏳ Apply by 28 June

The three genders

Wet. Dry. Write up. (!)

For the love of Bardsey! @bardseybirdobs.bsky.social

From the window in the priests' room above the porch of St Mary's Uffington you can see the White Horse! My photo from a magical @ballioloxford.bsky.social bike ride last Sunday.

Spanish crochet teacher Eva Pacheco and her students created a huge, colourful street canopy in crochet and knitting, making welcome shade for the community of Alhaurín de la Torre, Malaga #WomensArt

West Wood was meant to be sold off as a holiday village: waterworld, lodges, roads, sewage works, the lot. Rank won the planning fight and survived the High Court. Then locals dug in, the clock ran out, and Kent kept the trees. Funny how forests sometimes have the last word. tinyurl.com/y4bpnd9t

A student email reminds me of these remarkable twins: the axe hammer from Sutton Hoo (c. 78cm long) and Rhynie man carrying his over his shoulder. Were these for sacrificial killing of cattle? The new book on Rhynie by @northernpicts.bsky.social has an evocative image of Andres Dobat's idea.

A die stamp, potentially for making foils akin to those on the Sutton Hoo helmet has been found in Kent. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The @findsorguk.bsky.social record is here: finds.org.uk/database/art...

👀📽️Watch Professor Kerstin Liden's (@stockholm-uni.bsky.social) special seminar talk titled: "Crisis, Conflicts and Climate. Societal change in Scandinavia 300-700 CE" on our School YouTube Channel here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=doeQ...

Rehabilitating Wilfrid! New from Peter Darby in @ihr.bsky.social Historical Research. 'The 2 Wilfridian petitions provide evidence that a sophisticated & learned community, inc skilled administrators... was fostered by Wilfrid [which]... endured across at least 3 decades...' doi.org/10.1093/hisr...

What alternatives to MS Word do people use, beyond Google docs? Today is the roll-out of my university's Copilot integration and it turns out that it auto-AI summarises every single file you open with Word, so I am looking to try and move away from MS products

Cherwell District Council has been placed into special measures for planning applications. Developers can now choose to apply directly to the Government for major applications, bypassing Cherwell entirely – potentially including warehouse sites, the Puy du Fou theme park, and housing developments.

Nice to see Anglo-Saxon saints can still make headlines! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

These are *wonderful*! What a joy. Thanks so much for sharing them @alexclifford.bsky.social.

How about this for a cover! Published by @oxbowbooks.bsky.social. www.oxbowbooks.com/979888857186...

Please: no more entanglement! [*I'm sure these are good and interesting books but please let's give that word a very long rest.] From the #newbook shelf @bodartlib.bsky.social.

The second of @etreharne.bsky.social's Smithies lectures will be on Thursday 11 June, 17.15 in @ballioloxford.bsky.social - 'Medieval Manuscript Hunters & the Second World War'. All welcome! @oxmedstud.bsky.social @oxfordmedievalmss.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social

The Hereford Gospels online symposium is on 26 June. It's a free opportunity to hear about this remarkable manuscript from the experts. I'm also pleased to confirm that it will be recorded for those who may not be able to come in real time! www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/herefo...

Monday blues: Bye-bye to Bath Fire Station (1938-39) How did it come to this? A rare pre-war building by a female architect, Molly Taylor; survived the Baedecker Blitz; located within two UNESCO World Heritage Sites; recommended for listing by C20 & Historic England, yet rejected by DCMS in 2025.

Books I'm looking for an excuse to read... 'Essays showing how the stuff of Norman Sicily, its mosaics, frescoes, art and architecture, was used to construct its history.'

The spirit of the Chartists is cherished in Newport! This Chartist Heritage centre enlivens the pretty bleak townscape & here's the Chartist cave in the hills above where pikes & other weapans were 'secretly made & stockpiled' in the summer of 1839.

Make it stop!!!! Sign below 👇😠

Referring to the recent stillbirth deaths, one member of staff told the BBC: "It's bad, very bad. The worst part is the toxic culture between midwives and obstetricians." Still.

The MOSS safety signalling system set up in response to the first recommendation of Bill Kirkup's East Kent maternity report has been sending potential safety alerts about... East Kent. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New article: Ellen Swift argues the Thetford Hoard was buried in the 5th rather than late 4th century & that 'we must envisage a pagan cult center surviving into the 5th c.' cup.org/4voUskB

We're so excited to see the #SuttonHoo ship sail again (🤞in late Spring of 2027). youtu.be/J7jhAhQ34sM?...

For @oxmedstud.bsky.social.

Appalling to see how bad things are in maternity @ekhuft.bsky.social. Five neonatal deaths & thirteen *term* stillbirths in the last year. In April alone there were 10 moderate/ severe patient safety events. I hope the board will scrutinize this at their meeting on Thursday.

Balliol to White Horse Hill... in the 1930s & in the 2020s... @ballioloxford.bsky.social balliollibrary.wordpress.com/2026/04/29/r...

From the New Books shelf @bodartlib.bsky.social library. 'This book tells the story of the initial discovery & subsequent archaeological investigations at Rendlesham, & places the site in its broader context as a focus of power in the early East Anglian kingdom.' www.oxbowbooks.com/978191442731...