Guys! Listening to the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social podcast from today - about Ed Miliband - is the first time I’ve been encouraged and hopeful about national politics for years. Very much recommend finding it (& reading the piece)

Living costs are soaring, the current Prime Minister has historically poor ratings and yet Reform can only muster a four point lead, three years out from the general election. It's underpriced quite how beatable Farage really is

"History has lied to you". No it hasn't, and it's really sad that a university is using this framing. Historians debate evidence - often, as here, quite fragmentary. They question received ideas, test new theories, correct mistakes. That's the joy of history. But it doesn't mean others "lied". /

So, historian here looking for more freelance work over the next few months. I’m a very experienced RA and have done lots of things, including numerous oral history interviews, editing, co-authoring a book, public history journalism, archive work…

About 950 full-time New York University faculty members who are not on the tenure track walked off the job over a contract dispute. The university told students that classes would continue. nyti.ms/4snViwY

🚨 We're looking for a new Project Archivist 🚨The main objective of the project is to catalogue the papers of Harriet Harman. [Full time, 2 years fixed contract] The deadline for applications is 3 April 2026 with interviews planning to be on the 14 April 2026 buff.ly/mhMCz8E

Time to dissolve the people and elect another.

I need to approve the proofs for my article in History Workshop Journal so of course I am doing everything but that today

I’m running a 2 hour online workshop for teachers, heritage professionals, journalists & anyone who wants to be able to discuss the British Empire and its afterlives with nuance and concision. It’s on 1st June. Do sign up if interested? onlineshop.sussex.ac.uk/product-cata...

Ensuring that a tiny group of people are kept in profit explains many, if not most, of the problems we face as a society

Paul R. Ehrlich died yesterday. He was a biologist who influenced the western environmental movement during the 60s and 70s with deeply controversial warnings about 'overpopulation' and resource scarcity. Ehrlich thought Britain wouldn't make it to the year 2000 due to population pressures

I have a piece in the forthcoming handbook on contemporary British history edited by @sarahcrook.bsky.social and @drsarahlkenny.bsky.social about how these swelling notions of environment and 'overpopulation' intersected with British debates about social services and welfare in the 60s and 70s

Oh my god it is actually out - like actually now. Over a week early! They snuck it out without telling me! lol. Well, here it is people, and you can download the whole thing for free - thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social Fill your boots: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...

One of the things that made George Michael unusual as a popstar was his activism. Whether it was speaking out about apartheid, AIDS, or the Iraq War. My new book, Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: the Meaning of George Michael is published soon. sathnam.com #GeorgeMichael #Wham #TTMSSL #Iraq

6. Before Wales can fix its reading problem, it needs to fix its evidence problem. Without data and accountability, recommendations risk being little more than guesswork. www.itv.com/news/2026-02...

5. Wales collects no national data on how well children are learning to read at the early stages. In that vacuum, inspection judgements carry huge weight and can rapidly shape classroom practice, despite a questionable evidence base and virtually no way of measuring progress.

4. In that vacuum, the schools watchdog Estyn’s judgements on reading are the closest thing we have to a Wales-wide picture of what’s going on. But as I discuss in the article, what if those judgements and recommendations are themselves controversial?

3. When I first starting looking into this, I was amazed at how little data there was to tell us how well Welsh children can read. I was criticised at the time for using "old data" because i referenced a report from 2012 which said 20% of children were functionally illiterate.

2. Today’s report from the schools watchdog makes for grim reading. And the concerns go beyond pupils being left behind. Shockingly, it says the literacy skills of *too many of the teachers themselves* are weak. annual-report.estyn.gov.wales

I’ve written about reading again (sorry). There’s another sobering report on poor literacy in Welsh schools today. But how can a country get to grips with a problem if it has no reliable data on how bad things actually are? www.itv.com/news/2026-02...

Guys, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I think it’s actually possible that it will be Week 7 forever, and this week will never end, and it will always, always be Wednesday in this doom loop

Giving a lecture about the history of masculinity on Friday which is the very best reason to show Tom Holland's Comedy Central lip sync battle video in an academic setting that I can currently think of

Guess who's teaching discourse analysis this week 🤗

Unmissable event coming up in London on 24th of March on the city’s histories of health in disease. Dream panel of Ross MacFarlane, Elma Brenner, and Richard Barnett. Details and link to tickets below. #histmed www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/panel-disc...

When the premise of your article is that you champion and understand Welsh nationalism, maybe don't call Wales a Principality in the second sentence? spectator.com/article/why-...

NBC: "won't someone think of the inconvenienced white people!"

One of the things that surprised me about motherhood was that my bed would cease to be “my bed.” Instead it’s a community meeting hub that various children drift into and out of during the night to share their thoughts, needs, and feelings

As the Government begins its consultation on social media and young people, we are holding a conference later in the year to strengthen the evidence base including the latest thinking on understanding young people's mental health www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

Love opening up a box or two in the stacks to see what's inside and found two absolute treasures today. First up, a poor ruinous mid-sixteenth century primer which alas has not yet been mended, and doesn't appear in the catalogue. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 1/2

Gosh, so pleased (and terribly relieved) to see that the first review of Unhappy Mothers is out and is kind (so many thanks to Katie Joice for her careful time on it) doi.org/10.1093/shm/...

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Welcome to Reform’s front bench Yusuf, Hampton School, £29,916 per year Jenrick, Wolverhampton Grammar, £17,835 per year Farage, Dulwich College, £30,618 per year Tice, Uppingham School, £58,176 per year Braverman, Heathfield School, defunct private school The authentic voice of the working class

PLEASE REPOST 🥺🙏 The Canadian Letters & Images Project is an online digital archive of Canadians’ experience during wartime at home & in battle. It contains thousands of personal letters & photos that reveal people’s experience through their own words & eyes. www.canadianletters.ca/content/abou...

We're looking for a new editor for @histhum.bsky.social's para-site histhum.com (founding editor @desfitzgerald.bsky.social; subsequent editors @sarahvmarks.bsky.social @hhnnccnnll.bsky.social), who will also be the journal's social media editor Honorarium Deadline: 9 March 2026 Please circulate

Threatening to defund the Welsh university widely perceived to be a bastion of the Welsh language - it has one of the highest proportions of Welsh speaking students - isn’t a great look for a party looking to sweep the Senedd in May

Children need their families. Refugee children are no different. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The special issue of Cultural and Social History on “Researching Student Lives: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives” (co-ed. w Georgina Brewis & Jodi Burkett) is live - yay! Several articles are OA :) Huge thanks to our contributors & the journal editors! www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfcs20/2...

It's not even midnight and we're already at "Deport Elmo."

The sooner Keir Starmer resigns, the sooner he relaxes and becomes quite insightful and affable in media appearances and we can all go "why wasn't *THAT* guy PM?"

Bad Bunny's historical advisor is an assistant professor at UW-Madison. Hell of a flex for your tenure file.

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Still time to book to come along to next @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar at @ihr.bsky.social. Next Weds 11 Feb, 5.30pm, in-person with Margo Rashba on 'Vivienne Westwood's Punk & Britishness' 🧷 🇬🇧. Maybe see you there? #skystorians @d-j-frost.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Over the weekend I spoke to BBC Radio Wales about the book I've got coming out this week... 'New Labour, New Britain? How the Blair Governments Reshaped the Country' is officially published tomorrow. You can listen in here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

The Stuart Hall Archive Project Readings Seminars provide an opportunity to read and listen to a selection of Stuart Hall’s unpublished lectures, interviews, and letters, discussing his life and work and our own times. 3. Wed 11 February Education: Maximising Difference buytickets.at/stuarthallar...

The special issue of Cultural and Social History on “Researching Student Lives: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives” (co-ed. w Georgina Brewis & Jodi Burkett) is live - yay! Several articles are OA :) Huge thanks to our contributors & the journal editors! www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfcs20/2...

Have we ever solved the mystery of why babies only ever sleep ACROSS beds

We are organising a big "Festival of Social History" at the IHR, Friday April 24. The ticket price is an absolute steal for SHS members (join!). Trust me when I say this one's built different, it will be a hands-on day demonstrating how vibrant and engaged UK social history is. ONLY £10!

Thank you to everyone who shared their research with us yesterday! We enjoyed a brilliant first day of papers and a fantastic keynote from @sarahcrook.bsky.social. Looking forward to starting Day 2 shortly - look at this wonderful line up: 😊 voicesofmotherhood.wp.worc.ac.uk/index.php/20...

Very excited to announce this workshop on environmental approaches to modern British History taking place this September at @lincoln.ox.ac.uk. Please share!

Thank you so much to the wonderful organisers of @voicesofmotherhood.bsky.social for the opportunity to talk a bit about activism and mothering in modern Britain during my keynote today! Such a superb range of papers coming up too!