It's hard to tell with Trump, but I wonder if he's referring to the doctrine of predestination here. Is the harsh Calvinism of his Scottish forebears resurfacing as he comes to the final stage of life? Oddly fitting if true.

A long shot: does anyone have an image of Iseult Gonne’s signature? I acquired a 1930s book signed “Iseult” on the flyleaf and, as it’s an uncommon name, wondered if it had been hers.

Restored Hogarth murals at London hospital open to public for first time

Anyone remember Reform promising to go into their new councils with DOGE-style units to slash “waste” and stop taxes from rising? Yeah, it went exactly as you’d expect if you put people in charge who have no idea how anything works.

At the Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936, at least 100,000 people, including Jewish residents, Irish dock workers, Communists and Labour Party members prevented a march by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) from passing through the East End...

The commander-in-chief is not ok. read @radiofreetom.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

A searchable works list has been released to identify the authors’ works that were stolen by US Corporation Anthropic, to train its AI models. It includes UK authors whose works were copied without their permission or payment.

I wrote a short piece for the Observer on the attacks in Manchester. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Today I've joined parliamentarians from across the political spectrum in calling on Kemi Badenoch to rethink her dangerous position on the climate and net zero - a position which puts Britain's economic strength, national security, and environmental leadership at risk.

Sarah Mullally is named as first female archbishop of Canterbury

Solidarity with the Jewish people of Britain and the right of all of us in this unsettled country to live, work and worship (or be irreligious) in security and happiness.

This week the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced the return of maintenance grants for students in greatest need. In a new blog post, RHS President Lucy Noakes considers the state of access to history and the humanities in UK HE bit.ly/3KP5WMe #Skystorians @artsandhums.bsky.social

One more awful thought: most Jews won't know about this yet. It's only lapsed ones like me who are on our phones. A lot of people will find out in a few hours once the fast goes out. They'll be an outpouring of grief (but not much surprise). If you feel like caveating it, don't.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day. As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time. At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

Hwæt! 🐉 Ever wondered what the epic poem Beowulf sounds like spoken in Old English? #NationalPoetryDay

The Climate Fiction Prize celebrates the most inspiring novels tackling the climate crisis. I will be one of this judges this year and would love to read your work. The £10,000 prize is awarded annually to a single novel. Submissions now open. Link here climatefictionprize.co.uk Please share :)

Manchester synagogue attack latest: police say suspect shot after four people injured by vehicle and stabbings

'The escalation from Trump One to Trump Two has seen irrationality spread from the deliberative public sphere to flood the veins of government.' www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

Douglas Barrowman and Michelle Mone's company, PPE Medpro, has just been ordered to refund the Government £122m from a PPE contract. There are two very odd things about PPE Medpro that may affect the odds of the Government ever getting that £122m... Thread:

Politics is not like selling biscuits, where the task is to find out what people like & flog it to them. It's a moral activity. It's about arguing for the things you believe in. It's about *shaping* the "median voter". Farage has moved the centre-ground of politics. His opponents can move it back.

If you don’t like being called a racist, maybe don’t make a career of saying things that appeal to racists, don’t create a political party that keeps attracting racist candidates, don’t fawn over racist world leaders, and don’t make a convicted racist the guest of honour at your party conference.

They drop against the ends of names, Not orderly, but any old how. Henri, Mitchell, McGough- watch it mates, The brackets, any day now. Brian Patten

Age yourself with a movie you saw in the theatre as a kid.

If you're starting a postgraduate course in History this autumn, please do consider joining the Royal Historical Society bit.ly/41mTuck Postgraduate Membership brings access to research funding, events, publications and networks. You'll join an international community of more than 6500 historians.

#AmReading The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell's investigation into the poverty of England's industrial north. I haven't read this book before, but I've heard that Orwell was a great guy and we shan't see his like again.

Just your annual reminder to raise a glass to Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov who on this date in 1983 saved ALL our lives when he decided to wait for evidence in stead of passing on the message that could have caused armageddon.

Stalker is about waking into a contaminated zone. I recommend it if you haven't seen it already - literally one of the all-time greats, one of the few SF films in that category.

The Road! Apocalyptic films in general might be more likely to have long miserable walks :-)

Variations on this theme might be Forrest Gump (it’s running rather walking) and The Straight Story (a road movie via lawnmower, so with a slow pace).

Lord of the Rings?

The Long Walk reminded me that there aren't many films about walking. For such a basic human activity, walking doesn't much feature as a dramatic structure - partly because it's less inherently dramatic than a speeding train. And it's a slow way to travel the typical distance of a road movie.

In Not the End of the World, data scientist @hannahritchie.bsky.social identifies giving people access to cleaner cooking fuels as a fundamental ecological action. (Improves air quality and health, saves labour, and reduces biodiversity loss from deforestation.)

This is a welcome shift but it should have been the strategy from day one. The rise of support for Reform is not really about immigration. Support for Reform is highest in those areas with *low* migration, but high deprivation. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Had an anxiety dream in which I was naked in an Oxfam shop. Too embarrassed to walk out into the street, I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around me, meaning to return it. A woman from the shop pursued me out, accused me of stealing, and made me go back inside and iron donated clothes.

#BookPoll: What are your favorite spooky or Halloween-themed books for young people? If illustrated, pls include illustrator name (not just author). Pls include a LINK to where people can find more info about the book. Include alt-text w/images. #SpookyKidLit #KidLit #HalloweenBooks #LibrarySky

The British media will have to reckon with how it reports Trump (and indeed, Farage) in the coming months. Giving false claims endless airtime will not work. Nor will clickbait “is Tylenol linked to autism?” headlines. There is a way to hold account without publicising him. We’ve not found it yet.

Why are we going backwards on racism in Britain? (A disappointing question to ask in 2025). Now that the Prime Minister is finding his voice again to address this, my Eastern Eye column on what he should say next + the actions that should follow on the causes www.easterneye.biz/racism-in-uk...

NEW: My relationship with my #RheumatoidArthritis body has run the gamut from incandescent hatred, through ignoring its existence, to finally becoming best friends. In my new @healthcentral.bsky.social column, I share my journey. https://pulse.ly/hkmjuz5ftj

Saw I Swear, a biopic of Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson, at an advance screening last night. It's touching, funny and well acted, though also rather old-fashioned, like those 70s 'problem novels' for teenagers that were intended to raise awareness of an issue.

People say "autism never used to exist" and then you go to the Natural History Museum and the exhibit has a caption like "Born in 1762, The Revd [name] was famously irascible, steadfast in his routine, and dedicated his life to collecting 25,000 rare beetle specimens".

Happy Rosh Hashanah and a sweet year to everyone celebrating.

Worth remembering many people will be unfamiliar with terms like "indefinite leave to remain" and "settlement". People know what immigration is + citizenship, but settlement is less intuitive So its important for those countering the proposals to put in schoolgate language what is being proposed

They've actually openly said they want an immigration system like the UAE, they want a human rights regime like Russia & Belarus, they want to send people fleeing for their lives back to the Taliban. You'd have thought not difficult to make a case against all this.

.@SadiqKhan responds to Farage’s deportation plan “Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain. They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.”

Nice listen if you're looking for music to suit the changing of the seasons. Plus, a banjo piece inspired by the Narnian civil war. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

#FridayReads Quicksand and Passing, two novels in one volume, by Nella Larsen.

Very cool. I've not read Violet Hunt's fiction, but have read a biography of her; she was part of the Imagist social circle in early 20th-century London. At an anniversary reconstruction of a 1914 Imagist dinner, where each guest represented one of the original diners, I got to 'play' her.

‘A perfectly calibrated Swiss watch of cringe’: why Fawlty Towers remains the greatest ever sitcom, 50 years on