Some comments on the rise of the UK far right in historical context in the current Big Issue: www.bigissue.com/news/politic...

It’s Pavlov’s birthday. Pavlov was famous for making his wife, the ballerina Pavlova, salivate whenever he fed his dog a meringue based pudding.

1/ I had an interesting exchange recently, on a gay dating app of all places, with a self-confessed agnostic. I had made no bones of my faith, and he was respectful and said what he thought. But I got onto my pet theory that our faith pours into our hearts and minds and feeds our souls, ... ✝️⚓

Awfully kind review for Worlds Turned Upside Down

@insidecroydon.bsky.social #Croydon @grindrod.bsky.social Would have made an interesting addition to Croydon's skyline

"How many traitors are in Farage's new party?" would, I suggest be a better line than Digital ID. To beat Reform, make wavering voters ashamed to back them.

What did #18thcentury women wear when they were pregnant? What did a ‘good’ mother look like? Which fashion was both patriotic and recommended by midwives? For the answers to all these questions join me at the #IHR on 7th Oct archive.history.ac.uk/events/good-...

98-99% of those crossing channel seek asylum. Asylum seekers already have to carry ARC cards as id. Majority of undocumented individuals in UK become so due to Home Office cock ups. Absolutely nothing about a digital id would "deter channel crossings" or stop people working as undocumented migrants.

anyone happen to know if Leigh Hunt lived in York St in the late 1820s? he talks about being mentally transported from Italy to York Street on one occasion in his autobiography, and I half remember some quote of his about Charles Lamb's lodgings nearby, so it seems very likely

The 2 greatest MP running achievements are Ming Campbell's 10.2s 100m in 1967 and Matthew Parris's 2h32m London Marathon in the early 80s. Also impressive that Parris survived this medium.com/@a.pearce.hi...

The best real and historical name I’ve found in my sources is the name of the Royal African Company’s agent in Lisbon in the 1720s: Playster Onely. What kind of name is that?!

#18thC #19thC

Stephen Mullen's excellent book on this topic, The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775–1838 is available to read for free from our website: uolpress.co.uk/book/the-gla... #OpenAccess #History #Slavery #Scotland

These false beliefs do not arise in a vacuum. Yet we seem collectively incurious about their origins.

if you'll indulge something nice amidst the abundant bad, I am happy to report that there is now an audiobook version of Plantation Goods. Perfect for your next cross-country roadtrip, transcontinental flight, or ultra-marathon.

I will not impulse buy an expensive animatronic dinosaur I will not impulse buy an expensive animatronic dinosaur I will not impulse buy an expensive animatronic dinosaur (fortunately there's nowhere to put it) (maybe you have space though, they need HOMES)

Do any #Arthur Wellesley #DukeofWellington expert/enthusiasts know where he writes about the 4 yr old Salabat Khan who he left money for after his troops defeated the boy's father Dhoondiah on 10 Sept 1800?

Guerrilla Girls, Untitled, 1985 https://botfrens.com/collections/14375/contents/1122599

I hear the President has decreed that it is possibly a crime to refer to Americans as "fascists," but "fascism" is a word that has a relatively clear meaning that's worth understanding. Here's how an official publication of the US Army defined "fascism" in 1945.

“I am more convinced than ever that the Church of England is being corrupted by the multiple failures to engage with changing cultures, beliefs and practices and is already in a position where recovering a healthy spiritual and religious culture is going to be almost impossibly challenging…” [1/3] ✝️

Last night @southwarkcathedral.bsky.social I interviewed Nicola Kelly about her remarkable book "Anywhere but here", which tells the story of our failing asylum system from many viewpoints: asylum seekers, smugglers, border forces, local communities et al. Honest, & non judgemental. Do read it

[After spending a year leaving discarded food, animal carcasses and spilled vats of honey across my front porch] Look, of course I’d love to put some pants on, get a job and actually provide for my wife and kids, but can’t you see I’ve been forced to deal with this bear problem?

Remember folks, compulsory ID cards mean that you’ve *committed a crime* by leaving your house without one, and it will be at the whim of a future government what the penalty for that is.

Eighteenth-century precedents and 21st-century threats.

‘A Londoner spreading deepfakes of white women saying they don’t feel safe “because of migrants” told me impatiently that everyone knows the videos aren’t real, but I was missing the point: “It’s about us showing everyone what’s really happening.”’ Claire Wilmot: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

New HLQ issue live on Project MUSE. Articles explore imagined art in antislavery lit, deception in Stuart politics, reader engagement with the first English Quran, geopolitics in More's Utopia, anthologizing Shakespeare, and a bad actor in a c17 domestic dispute. #earlymodern #skystorians

Currently trying to look for a physical copy of an NRSV with apographa, with legible type face, that's sturdy enough to be carted a training evenings and weekends. But not too heavy or expensive. I assume I'll find it in the same section as the pet unicorns 😆 🦄

Stephen Mullen, a highly regarded historian specialising in Scotland's links with Atlantic slavery, objects to a right wing scholar's flagrant misrepresentation of his own work and that of Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum's curators in @thetimes.com alanlester.co.uk/blog/falsify...

This country made significant progress against racism in my lifetime - but we did not do so by chance. There is a visible visceral regression in experiencing of overt racism because the toxic fringe with the most extreme views have a sense of permission & impunity www.easterneye.biz/racism-in-uk...

Box pews were fashionable in colonial churches in the 18th century. People who worshiped at Old North had to buy their seating, so box pews were considered property. Owning a box pew was very expensive. Some cost the equivalent of a day laborer’s annual salary!

Not sure I'm keen on the American remake of Morecambe and Wise

Kind of amazing how UK news media still remains obsessed with the structurally limited impact in economic terms of small boats even as this potentially terminal havoc works its way through key UK industrial supply chains on.ft.com/3Ihb8YF

The Archer/Aldridge family holiday is simple: two weeks at Butlins in Skeggy #TheArchers

They've lost the 9yos

Oliver &Dane are lucky that this didn't happen when Joe Grundy &Bert Fry were alive. It would have been war!!! #TheArchers

Over 1600 people have now been arrested for offences like "wearing or displaying clothing" that arouses suspicion that they support Palestine Action. Impossible to overstate how repressive this is.

It seems a good time to reshare this prayer activity - praying for child refugees using Jelly Babies. You can adapt this activity to any refugee situation that reflects the community you live in. www.theponderingplatypus.com/jelly-babies...

It takes a special kind of person to go to the African continent and show support for someone who was OK with racist and slavery views. The Rwandian children watching is so ironic. Note the Yahoo article is before Kirk's death, August'25. www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Key crimes down in London. By working with the Met and backing them with record funding from City Hall, we’ll keep doing everything we can to keep Londoners safe.

Drax of Drax Hall is a truly brilliant title for a book

Join us on 15th October for a virtual lecture about the new book 'Drax of Drax Hall.' The work uses the story of the Drax family's history as enslavers in Barbados as a microcosm of Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Find out more: www.balh.org.uk/event-balh-d...

A great example of why framing (and survey question wording) matters...

If Labour try and win against Reform on technocratic and competency grounds, they will lose like Remain lost in 2016. Farage knows this. They need to come out swinging on values and decency. They need to grow moral and ideological spines.

Sadiq is just so good at being an ambassador for London. Every time someone has done something to make me feel unwelcome in this country, he's come right back to make me feel like London is home. And the fact that he still does it despite all the threats to his life is really impressive.

My #Heiresses tour is underway! Book now to catch me in #London #Birmingham #Wigtown #Glasgow #Edinburgh #Bridport & #Mold www.mirandakaufmann.com/events.html Hope to see you on the road! Don’t see your town? Feel free to ask your local bookshop/library/museum/venue/soapbox to send me an invite…

People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England is out today and free to download until 7 Oct: www.cambridge.org/core/element... Edited by Rachel Stenner, Kaley Kramer & I, this volume collects 10 new biographical essays about lesser known, diverse figures involved in the #18C print trade.

They're complaining about creaming butter &sugar by hand? Lightweights - one of the recipes in Mrs Rundell's New System of Domestic Cookery calls for an hour of whisking! #GBBO #BakeOff archive.org/details/b215...