Today's major research task.

Clearly Mr Trump doesn't know about the A453 between Nottingham and Leicestershire (renamed Remembrance Way). The road bears the same number of British military loses in Afghanistan. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...

Unpopular opinion. I can see why people enjoy "The Traitors". My family love it, and I get the people watching element. But, as a historian of the Soviet Union all the unmasking of the hidden enemy that has been rooted out is a bit much for me.

Eventually the students loan system will have to be rethought and or designed. I doubt there will be the political will for some time, but the wider HE crisis might eventually prompt changes. Student loans: ‘My debt rose £20,000 to £77,000 even though I’m paying’ www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...

Latest @theguardian.com cartoon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Have you completed a PhD in the last 10 years? Applications are open for our Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship in Sustainability and Environment. Funding covers an £8000 bursary for part-time (0.5) research over 8 months, plus travel expenses. Apply by Monday 9 February. link.bl.uk/VisitingFellowship

I really do admire @jonathanliew.bsky.social's writing about cricket. So often these gems are about much more than cricket. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

As someone who has written about burial, exhumations, and mass graves for the Red Army's war dead in the Second World War this article is professionally fascinating, but deeply grim and very depressing. Terrible that this continues to happen and is necessary. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

A grim day in many ways, but #Boro are 2 - 1 up! #UTB

Can anyone help Charlotte out here?

Just been watching the northern lights up our road, and fox stands by the fence and watches too! Magic.

Feels like a significant moment today. The green crate and shoe boxes that contain all my primary sources for the book I have been working on are being archived today (i.e. shoved in the corner). Materials for what might be the next book in the plastic box are being literally dusted down.

Living the dream: 12-year-old son has a pal staying over. They offered to cook us all dinner. It was delicious. The kids are alright!

Given Robert Jenrick is a Reform MP, a party where questions have been asked about links to Russia, I wonder if people will start asking questions about Jenrick's time as a corporate lawyer in Moscow.

Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research. We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Very late new year's resolution: OK, not everything in the UK works brilliantly (especially the trains), but there are loads of brilliant people out there doing their best to make things work. Resolving to celebrate and highlight the things that work well, and the people who make that happen.

"Honest" Bob has done what?

Thoroughly enjoying Pierre Novellie's stand-up routine on Radio 4, and all his jokes about reading. I especially enjoyed: "If you don't like reading you only need to know two letter, A I."

Today was a tough day at times. But the cat's eccentricities in how it sleeps is cheering me up.

An interesting piece, which makes some really interesting predictions. But, I really can't imagine using AI for my own research and writing.

Extraordinary and important journalism from Nawal Al Mahafi on Russia's recruitment by exploitation of foreign fighters. A quick🧵 ‘I made the biggest mistake’: the young Yemeni men lured into the Russian army with empty promises www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Oh look, the software update has made this programme glitzier, but far harder to use! Quelle surprise!

I enjoyed this essay. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Gwendolyn Sasse is always worth reading and listening to. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Looking forward to Mark B. Smith's book Exit Stalin: The Soviet Union as a Civilization 1953-1991 which comes out with Allen Lane at the end of January 2026. Might splash by lottery winnings from last night on a copy.

Absolutely loving the Food Programme on Desi Pubs. So often it is a programme about so much more than food. There is lots of history in this week's episode. Very much worth the licence fee this week. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

A reminder for hard pressed UK researchers the "Great British Rail Sale" runs till Monday 12 January and you can get 50% off on some train journeys, and you can book ahead till end of March 2026. www.nationalrail.co.uk/great-britis... Perhaps it will make that library or archive trip a bit easier. 📢

I for one would welcome some kind of sense that we might still have jobs in several years time, before one signs contracts to deliver manuscripts several years in the future. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/prom...

One of my great fears and suspicions is that Word is stealing my writing and feeding it into LLMs. If it isn't I expect bots are downloading all the pre-prints from institutional repositories anyway. I suppose readers could be feeding chunks into AI models as well.

When I next sit at my home computer, I am going to fully delete my Twitter account. I don't use it, but never got around to fully deleting.

Fun to receive my copy of Teaching History no.201, which I have an article about Late Stalinism in. Thanks to @histassoc.bsky.social for the copies and the opportunity to write this.

Apologies slightly self indulgent cricket related post. Of course English cricket has a drink problem. It runs throughout the game. The teams are often sponsored by breweries. Amateur clubs are built around bars. Spectators in cricket grounds build "beer snakes" from the cups.

New @hepi-news.bsky.social report shows continued fall in foreign language study in England at A-level. Language teacher recruitment consistently falls well below government targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was reached. on.ft.com/4l5SYX4 (Full report www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/31/n...)

I've seen contacts expressing concern about the following before, but I'm noticing that there are lots of important books in my field (and presumably others) where UK libraries only hold digital copies. These can't be loaned on ILL and aren't easy to read on screen. Becoming a bigger problem.

A very early and cold start to the day as I make my way to Norwich and the @basees.bsky.social Study Group on the Russian Revolution at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social #EastCentre

Quite an interesting discussion of neuroscience and reading and the critical and empathetic faculties that it creates on #FrontRow on #Radio4. Advocates for LLMs should listen.

Repeat after me: York University is in Canada, the University of York is in the United Kingdom.

Has there ever been a world sporting championship final where the current world champion plays the current world youth champion, but the youth champion is five years older? #darts 🎯

Beautiful skies tonight. Cold but pleasant for a walk to the shop.

H-Science, Medicine, and Technology (H-SMT) is looking to recruit new editors and advisory board members. networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

The boy did good! Honey and Soy Chicken.

My twelve-year-old son has offered to cook tea, using a recipe he learnt in food technology. Things are looking up in 2026!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026 the National Year of Reading. 📚📖

Just heard Jonathan Haidt on the radio saying it was social media and the smart phone which destroyed the mental health of younger generations, and that parents will cut themselves off from technology. Why is there so little discussion of the impact of (a) difficulties of getting a "good" job 1/2

There are other more important stories in the news, but I am struck by Britain's and its railways' failure to stop signalling cables being stolen. Something that has been happening for over a decade. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A slight irony of wanting to buy and read the new big book on capitalism and not having the £50 to spare (and I'm not blaming the author or publisher given it is a big book and academic books are even more expensive), more a comment on the bank balance at the of December.

The 2025 Quality Street distribution is in! (The only QS ranking that really matters.) #marriedtoastatistician

The performance of the England cricket team has been really bad. Perhaps English cricket should be declared dead and obituaries write. Then they could burn some bails, and give the series a catchy name like "The Ashes." Oh....