History lessons have been simplified: just one version, updated overnight

Heart-warming story of the day on.ft.com/47Kk7dz

"Far from draining our welfare system, migrants are supporting the British state’s solvency." New analysis by @lgilbert.co ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...

It seems giant poppies are now part of the lamppost nationalism in York

Hoping this helps our colleagues across the industry

The ‘leading academics’ were from History Reclaimed

In a shocking twist, billionaires unable to buy election.

The British Library’s chief executive has resigned with immediate effect midway through strike action over what has been called a “derisory” pay offer #AcademicSky

Dick Cheney Vice Presidential Library Opens In Pitch-Dark, Sulfurous Underground Cave

‘If the industrial strategy is to succeed, we’ll need English graduates as well as engineers, historians alongside computer scientists, and social scientists together with health professionals.’ www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/do-we-n... @timeshighered.bsky.social

Exit Stalin:The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991, by Mark Smith - out in January - will be good www.penguin.co.uk/books/314043...

Some turbocharged optimism in the Telegraph

The Humanities pretty good at this, and exist already…

Matt Goodwin’s stance on migration is pretty much indistinguishable from that of the BNP in the past 1990s and not a million miles from that of the NF in the 1970s.

And a guest on Question Time this week. Why book him; what’s the gain?

Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted: manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

James Reed on the weak graduate job market, impacted by AI and very dismissive of anything other than STEM. But isn’t it clear that critical thinking skills and ethical literacy, taught through subjects in the Humanities and Social Sciences, are more important than ever?

An inconvenient truth. @turnbulldugarte.com and @emiliabelknap.bsky.social puncture a pervasive myth. ‬ "Among young respondents aged 18-25, a very comfortable majority of women reject Reform UK (75%), and a similarly large majority of men in the same age group share the same view (71%)."

Booking my daughter’s 6th birthday party at a kid’s trampoline park. There are some tempting add-ons.

Man Wouldn't Have Worn Costume To Work If He'd Known He Was Getting Laid Off

While this an engaging series, the thing about the Great Terror is there’s still no settled view on precisely why it happened. Saying it’s down to the ‘logic of totalitarianism’ - case closed - essentially takes us back to arguments of 60 years ago.

Would that be Stalin’s forced displacement of thousands of citizens to make way for Moscow’s skyscrapers or the forced labour?

What I think this demonstrates is 3 things (1) This mass deportation policy is wildly at odds with public opinion in general, and with opinion of many sensible Tory voters, members & MPs (2) Many ppl defending the policy didn't know what was in it (3) Informing and pressuring them therefore works

Sultana’s comments are so offensive on so many levels. You can’t “both sides” Putin & Zelenskiy. You can’t speak over the voices of Ukrainian workers who are on the frontlines fighting for democracy & workers rights. It is Putin and his acolytes who benefit from this war.

In today’s Russian papers: nuclear-powered cruise missiles, poisonous snakes and economic pressures: “Russian industry is balancing on the verge of an all-industry collapse.” #ReadingRussia

For which HE institution is it sudden news that they need to run like a large business?

New post just out: "Never again?" On how the radical right are trying to change our collective memory about World War Two as part of their assault on the postwar order. And why that memory remains a critical defence against nationalism. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/n...

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

'Research by Public First warned that the North East could lose £87m in the first year of a levy due to projected falls in international student numbers'. Siri, what's an own goal? And why can't mainstream media find better images to capture what universities do and why it matters?

Don’t threaten me with a good time etc etc

? Ballpark prediction for current kind of deal was about 4% in annual income per head. And this is pretty much what has transpired. Also... the government aren't really doing anything that will make significant inroads into that. Their red lines [no Customs Union, no Single Market] prevent it.

The way to answer "has anybody done this since Idi Amin in 1972" would be for Conservatives to name a democratic government that revoked permanent settlement to remove legal rights & then deported, expelled those people. Important they get asked to give the counter-example to "since Idi Amin"

If Labour cannot denounce mass deportation of permanent residents, Idi Amin style, what is the point of them?

Linden Kemkaran, of Kent county council, seems totally unserious.

Your regular reminder that scrapping ILR for people who have come here and played by the rules, which is what Lam proposes here, is a position supported by 3% of the public

‘Because I am not a dictator or an autocrat I like feedback, I like to discuss’ - a totally reassuring way to open a meeting.

Interesting research on how Stalin’s Gulags shaped the long-term development of the USSR. voxdev.org/topic/instit...

This is fascinating by @chrisgiles.ft.com. What if the massive rise in people claiming out of work benefits is actually because we've raised the state pension age? www.ft.com/content/ee67...

There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system. Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts Spending is controlled, not spiralling Worklessness is near record lows My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...

Power and politics are woven into the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. Shortlisted for the 2025 British Academy Book Prize, The Baton and the Cross by journalist @lucyaash.bsky.social explores how Vladimir Putin co-opted the Church to shape Russia today. Learn more here 👉 bit.ly/3WDTgKS

On ‘rip-off’ degrees observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Daniel Hannan is cross today about ‘intellectual elites’ who dislike Britain. Presumably he’s including in this elite Daniel Hannan from June who described Britain as a ‘third world country’, and other Telegraph columnists like Allister Heath who, every other week, declares the country finished.

One person, at least, willing to vote for Badenoch for her vote-winning ‘sound economics’ 🙃

It’s my birthday today, and one of the things about having young children (5yr) is the variety it brings to cards.

Sorry, but if you're saying those implausible and shallow Kemi Badenoch announcements constitute a good speech then you're part of the UK's political problem. Same half-baked "tax cut good / international commitments bad" bearing no resemblance to well formed policy.

Didn’t Michael Gove, Badenoch’s ‘mentor’ do an English degree?

Good to see the Conservative Party committed to keeping the deficit down by *checks notes* spending £2 billion giving tax breaks for private education, creating a massive new deportation force and pledging to maintain pensioner benefits.

A good opener from David Runciman