Now open access: BJRL back archive, including special issue on ‘Medical History in Manchester: Health and Healing in an Industrial City, 1750–2005’. Check it out.

Un operaio è morto nel Salento. Costruiva la vasca per l'acqua piovana

I have noticed a resurfacing of controversial, old-fashioned psychological labels, such as personality disorder or, as in this case, narcissism, and they are often used to blame parents - or let's be honest, mothers. These are for mental health what ultra-processed foods are for nutrition: very bad.

To be honest, I have been in meetings like that, just longer... (P.S.: To me, it's wonderful to see that what LLM is reproducing are standard Anglo-American communication practices).

Lisbon for 3-9 months anyone? gulbenkian.pt/en/bolsas-li...

4/ Skin colour, accent, name or whatever are used by some employers (and landlords) to judge whether to carry out a check. Foreigners face checks but so too do ethnic minority Brits. Existing system is a recipe for discrimination.

1/ There’s quite a lot of misunderstanding by good journalists about how right to work checks operate. It’s not illegal to work without having provided proof of your right, as James goes on to say later in the thread. And employers are not under a legal duty to conduct checks: ID is not mandatory.

4) Generalised digital IDs have downsides and some upsides. Dematerialising the compulsory ID of most non-citizens in the UK had very little upside and made people vulnerable. That one would have been the policy to actually complain about

In the UK, the highest level of identity theft is reported (almost 40%), compared to other EU countries, where it is significantly lower and usually does not have the same devastating impact due to the existence of more robust systems to verify identity. And this is just one reason.

The biggest losers of this are undocumented migrants, who will see even less spaces in society they are not excluded for, but I am sadly confident that this government too sees this as a plus.

I do not think there is ultimately a valid reason for digital ID, but I can see some for a mandatory ID (as long as it is free or almost free of costs, and there are extensive resources to get more vulnerable populations on the system)

3) the pilot EU Settled Status was probably digital mostly to cut on costs. The UK probably would have the resources to put in infrastructures for routine in-person registration and the production of physical IDs as most European countries, but it would cost and take more time

2) with the dematerialisation of almost all migration statuses (a much worse idea IMO), ID for all could normalise the procedures non-citizens go through, and if both groups are on the same digital platform it might make checkers more lenient of temporary server issues

That said: 1) having undocumented (no passport or driving license) citizens in an age of extensive private ID checks is a major factor of exclusion, even without bad policies such as the Hostile Environment or voter ID to make things worse

With the government moving to introduce mandatory digital ID, I will repeat myself: digital ID is the worst of both worlds, as it keeps the dimension of government control while leaving people without a physical document to autonomously prove their rights www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Wow! Considering that paracetamol (acetaminophen) is basically the only drug the pregnant woman can take, I think that if we follow this reasoning, basically everyone should be autistic.

“A demonstration of the toxic melding of the inchoateness of popular discontent, the inability of the left to speak to working-class grievances and the venomous malevolence of the far right that shapes so much of politics.” My ‪@theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...

And who protects migrant women? Nobody, because migrant women cease to be women. Normative and mainstream ideas of femininity no longer apply to us. That's why the violence and abuse against us is completely invisible to british politics and feminism (and feminists). We simply don't exist.

I closed mine a while ago, mostly because I couldn't bear the amount of spam emails it generated. I think that the best alternative, if you are looking for one, is the French archive HAL. Here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_(op... and here hal.science

It's interesting how therapy is often viewed as a magic black box, whose only problem is availability. But a bad therapist or a bad treatment (and given limited regulation in the UK, these are real risks) can cause irreparable damage. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

But it will trickle down? Won't it?

People saying "oh, 100.000 isn't a huge number" honestly scare me. They are just looking for an excuse to toss this aside and go on with their protected lives, while leaving us alone with all this.

It's interesting that today's rally has been called a "migrant march" while I think that migrants in London (and elsewhere) are stuck in their houses and possibly away from windows.

This has been in the making for a long time. Shortly after the Brexit referendum, I was insulted b/c I was having a non-English conversation (in a phone call). Nobody around cared. When I set foot abroad, I sigh in relief and I realise how unsafe I feel (and I am) in the UK as a migrant woman.

We have struggled to explain the Starmer government. But I think the explanation comes down to two simple forces: 1. A visceral, obsessive hatred of the Labour left. Any progressive policy, however necessary and popular, looks to the inner circle like a dangerous concession to the left. 🧵1/2

Please join us for a discussion event on Extinction, with @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and Rachel Webster, at Manchester Museum, on 18 Sept 2025. blogs.manchester.ac.uk/chstm/2025/0...

Ready to start your career in Publishing? Based in or around #Manchester? We're delighted to be working with training provider LDN Apprenticeships to recruit our first Apprentice Publishing Support Assistant. More info here: www.independentpublishersguild.com/IPG/Jobs_Boa... Deadline 5th September.

It would also be incumbent to redirect people to the UK Government page, which shows that the UK receives many fewer asylum seekers than other EU countries. Whatever problems the UK has, they are NOT being caused by the increasingly small num of migrants/asylum seekers www.gov.uk/government/s....

Massive opportunity to work with us in Edinburgh on Medicine without Doctors. 5 full-time postdocs each for 5 years starting in April 2026. Please share widely!

Why is the option of changing assessment never mentioned? I did almost all oral and/or written exams. I studied books (from 3 to 10), articles, and notes, and then I sat down in front of an exam commission (from 2 to 4 people) and was asked questions, or I took tests in loco. Honestly, it was fun.

Brussel centraal

Unfortunately, this is not "bad customer service" but something more complex 👇 I bring my utility bills when I travel, as I was asked for them once... I apologise for sharing my experience here, but I am always gaslighted and called stupid when I admit to feeling nervous about returning to the UK.

I am very relieved to hear that Dr Fitzharris' ordeal is coming to an end. However, it is important to remember that this is the case of a British citizen trying to get back into the UK. Imagine how difficult it can be for non-British citizens.

"Posturing on immigration is a cheap hit, a low-cost (to politicians – the cost is very high for migrants) way to gesture at some sort of executive action, for a government otherwise in the mire." A clear and elegant analysis of the dangerous rhetoric about migrants.

"Who needs the scorching Med"? I don't know, perhaps the people who live there? But of course, we all know that the main problem of the climate crisis is having to change your holiday destinations, what else? www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

I am very sorry and I hope that this will be sorted asap. The HO guidance around the ETA explicitly states that in these cases, a citizen can re-enter the UK with only a non-UK passport. But all we migrants know that the theory is one thing, and then there is the practice...

Look what I found! Wooowwww!

Hot off the press: new #OpenAccess book, co-edited by our colleague Dr Amelia Bonea: #Women, #science, #engineering and #medicine in the twentieth century. doi.org/10.7765/9781... #HistSTM #HistSci

For too long, people have been denied a real political choice. Not anymore. My piece for the Guardian on the extraordinary response to www.yourparty.uk www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Wow! I did not know the origin of the term feminism! youtube.com/shorts/SVhT2...

I wrote an article about the Gerson Therapy, and what it is about cancer and its history that attracts so many alternative treatments. For the @sciencehistory.org’s Distillations magazine www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

There has been a consistent decrease in crime (in the UK and elsewhere); actually, the good old days when you could leave your door open were quite an unsafe period. And of course none of us has ever seen a man with a balaclava on a train. But like numbers, the truth doesn't really matter.

Great to have you here!

"France is skint"... This is probably something that columnists in major newspapers should know. A country cannot be "skint". On the other hand, governments can enforce arbitrary austerity measures to prevent the redistribution of wealth. For avoidance of doubt, France has money, as does the UK.

She said: “I know I’ve upset you, just tell me what I’ve done so I can try to make it right.” Speaking five seconds later, she added: “Are you ignoring me?”

Very pleased to see that the last piece of the series "In the Journals" in #Somatosphere features the recent special issue of Anthropologie&Snaté "Globalised caesareans: between medical standardisation and local realities" Coordinated by Caroline Chautems, Irene Maffi, et Ainhoa Sáenz Morales

We're looking forward to hosting the Early Career Network Meeting and the In-Between Meeting of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) in Manchester in September. eshs.org/2025/07/11/e... #histsci #histstm

Only a week left to apply for our Mental Health Award ⏰ We’re funding researchers to use longitudinal data to find early signs of anxiety, depression and psychosis. Find out more and apply by 22 July ⤵️ wellcome.org/grant-fundin...

I don't think that resurrecting the racist views of environmental determinism is the best way to discuss #climatechange. Yet, here we are.. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

The small village where I grew up and where my parents live seems to be part of the scheme. If you buy a house there, my family will certainly invite you for lunch, so think about that :D www.theguardian.com/society/2025...