It is really really important to remember looking ahead to 2029 that this is the alternative to what we have. And it isn't at all pretty www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Oh look, the fascist march in London descended into violence. Who could have predicted such a thing?

🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL🚨 #batw2026 is celebrating two decades over two weeks! Join us online 18-19 April 2026 or in person in Boston 24-25 April 2026! Check out and share the CFP. You won’t want to miss it! britainandtheworld.org/2026-20-year...

Trying to work out whether I'm the kind of person who desperately needs to tie something which marks their identity to a piece of public furniture. I'm considering getting my face printed onto fabric and sticking it on streetlights around town. It will go nicely with the Union flags

Just finished reading Cwmardy and We Live by Lewis Jones, which is a remarkable portrait of Valleys coal mining life in the early 20th century. It's not exactly a literary masterpiece, but life and struggle and everyday reality bursts out of its pages in a way which makes it a living document

Absolutely bizarre the BBC seemingly believing calling someone xenophobic is beyond the pale. Editing out the lines is just plain nuts. Someone should tell them they don't really need to be afraid of the Tories anymore

Just hearing the awful news about Hefin David. He was a passionate public servant who was never afraid to say what he believed. Really shocking news and just really heartbroken for everyone who loved and knew him

The main problem for populist right wing parties seeking to reduce immigration to practically zero is for it to be even remotely possible you need a massively higher birthrate, meaning far more family friendly progressive left wing policies

I really enjoyed doing my PhD, it was the most intellectually stimulating experience of my life. Nearly two years after finishing it's had no tangible impact on my professional life at all, despite my best efforts.

Trying to explore ways of getting back into some kind of academic pursuit that works around the new incredibly hectic (but very rewarding) career I have fallen into. Not really worked anything out yet but hoping to be able to do a bit more writing again soon, any advice welcome if others have done

Dentistry in this country has become such a joke. Got quoted £350 today for two fillings. On the NHS the same procedure by the same dentist in the same room would cost about £70. But NHS dentistry essentially doesn't exist anymore for most people.

Bit difficult for Richard Tice to sustain outrage at the Gibraltar deal with a beaming Fabian Picardo all over the news

Ah academia

The Brexit obsessed screaming blue murder over fishing, an industry which has always been tiny in this country, and ironically has suffered dreadfully due to Brexit red tape, should demonstrate how deeply unserious politicians they are

The language of 'surrender' around Brexit is drawn from a form of British identity based upon the Second World War, and little else. In many ways it's a very brittle identity. But there is a tremendous irony of using it against an institution born out of victory

I think every person who went out knocking for Labour in Runcorn is spending the weekend wondering if they had managed just a few more good conversations, would that have made the difference. Not helpful when you consider the size of the campaign, but bound to happen

The Tories are so far out of step with the public on British Steel. Today feels like a moment when Parliament comes together to make a major cross party intervention. Even Reform are on board. And yet the Tories are still finding ways to cling to the power of the market at all costs

I feel birth and death places hold a lot of assumptions and identity. You will make different assumptions about someone who was born and died in London to someone who was born and died in Belfast, and when someone moves around and dies elsewhere to where they were born, that tells you a lot

I had intended BlueSky to be an academic page, but left academia almost immediately after so my capacity for cutting edge insights is significantly diminished. I may occasionally write something interesting I read in a book 😂

I have been trying to tick off books that have been in the pile a long time. Just started reading the book on my shelf I have had for longest. A copy of Bleak House that I bought in a charity shop in Cardiff nearly 20 years ago

I'm a bit of a post nerd, as in I really enjoy postboxes and sending things by post (I know). I was pleasantly surprised that the first few friends I spoke to about the disbanding of the Danish postal service instinctively shared my horror. What an utter hellscape we are walking towards

It's really frustrating when illegal releases happen, like these recent wild boar and lynx releases in Scotland. It takes a lot of trust to get community buy in to rewilding, which is crucial to its success, and this just sets that back

Lovely tribute to John Prescott in Hull today. Really captured what a unique politician he was and how he could wield real power while wearing his socialism on his sleeve. A very rare skill. Rest in power comrade

The point of civil disobedience is to break the law to draw attention to the injustice of that law. The point is to be punished in order to make a moral point. I don't understand the point of taking part in civil disobedience then trying to defend yourself in court. Or taking part disguised

Embargo was lifted on my PhD thesis today, 'A Welsh Vision of Empire? Welsh Imperialists and the Indian Empire', so the 6 people who are ever going to read it now can 😅

One of the sad things about leaving academia is that you spend a few years with people excited about your research, and then it fizzes out and essentially disappears. The death of academia has left a lot of good research unfulfilled

I made the decision to withdraw from publishing my PhD thesis as a book today, as the looming deadline was becoming less and less realistic and now that I have left academia the original impetus for publishing no longer existed. It's a shame, but generally it's better not to be stressed!

Trump's territorial expansion rhetoric is strangely reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt, except Roosevelt carried the awful aspects of his character under a much cooler visage

It’s time, friends! We welcome submissions for #batw2025 in Liverpool, UK. Join us at John Moores University 25-27 June 2025 for another great conference! We can’t wait to see you there! Watch here for more info. britainandtheworld.org/2025

I deleted my Twitter account the other day after a little while of not posting to it. I was worried to do it mostly because I still used it for political news, but now most of my main sources are over here, and every time I opened it the first post to pop up would be properly insane

Each year I do a round up of everything I've read over the past 12 months, and this is the first time I'm doing it on Bluesky. Maybe something will peak your interest and I'd love to hear about what you've been reading. Mine are typically underpinned by my interest in imperialism but it can be mixed

Pride at ending the slave trade is a very weird British quirk for lots of reasons. 1) many countries never had a slave trade to begin with 2) the British were not the first to abolish it 3) it's a bit like praising a mass murderer for eventually stopping

Nigel Farage stands up in parliament and relays what President-Elect Trump thinks about things. Shouldn't we be concerned about a party leader who only really seems to want to represent a foreign leader?

I seem to be getting asked to write more academic things now that I've completely given up on academia than I was when I was trying to find a job. Which seems very weird

The Chagos case has been really interesting as an exercise in politicians confidently opening their mouths to be outraged about something they know nothing about. I am particularly taken aback by the declaration that Mauritius has no right to sovereignty to Chagos, based purely on... nothing

Never underestimate the wealthy's ability to demand hand outs

The politics of envy argument is so ludicrously inconsistent. It seems to be based on the idea that someone is actually not very rich, so shouldn't be taxed more, but yet everyone is desperate for their life all the time. Only works as an argument if there's something to be jealous of

Understanding the Welsh imperial experience challenges many of our assumptions about Welsh identity, but crucially it doesn't delegitimise either nationalism or unionism, neither of which are dependent on historical claims for survival.

What Edward Said did very well was to deconstruct and explain the Western mind, not just for the early twentieth century, but very much for now. It's remarkable how much of the rhetoric around asylum seekers and migrants remain so relevant to orientalist discourse and racist civilisational theories

Very excited to be part of the launch of Globalising Welsh Studies. We are having an online launch on Sat 26 October, 10am, which is free to attend and all are welcome. Registration is through the link below. Be great to see lots of faces there! www.llafur.org/events/globa...

This is a major historic moment in the history of British decolonisation, but by far the most important issue is the right to return for Chagossians. Otherwise this simply becomes a minor administrative quirk www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The reaction of the British public to decolonisation was fairly muted, and compared to the collapse of other European empires the British were remarkable for how little it appeared to impact the public psyche at the time. (1/15)

In the 1920s Welsh steel workers were in India establishing Tata's tinplate operation. It is a sign of the shifting geopolitical realities of the last 100 years that Welsh steel workers in Port Talbot are now at the mercy of Tata

The supreme irritation of finding something in an archive catalogue that would have been ideal for a now completed projected 😅

Really excited to see this project come to fruition. My chapter (chapter 1!) is a historiographical overview of how Welsh historians have considered the empire over the last 100 years, plus an insight into my own research on the Welsh in India www.uwp.co.uk/book/globali...

I'm fascinated by how ordinary people perceive and experience the world around them, and my research has looked at that within the structure of imperialism. Empire fascinates me because of its ability to impose basic norms into a completely alien environment. (1/11)

Taking the plunge of trying out a new site. Will mostly be using to post about #history and my research on the social history of British imperialism, India, Wales and anything else I end up doing! #skystorians