Rather nice sunset towards the end of quite an emotional day.

On X I used data to show London does not have the highest crime rate in the world. 10 mins later a right winger linked to my book. 10 mins after that I got 40 1-star reviews from unverified accounts (previously 4.9 star avg). Fair play to Amazon - they removed them all. But that's how it works.

Little has changed in Montcuit since 1944. #ThenAndNow #WW2 #Normandy44

"At Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia, Trump officials have instructed park employees to take down a sign that criticizes the post-Civil War 'Lost Cause' ideology, which romanticized the Confederacy and denied slavery’s central role in the conflict." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/c...

"Shooting Dad down so that he saw out the rest of the war as a PoW saved his life that night and I wouldn't be here without him," The whole crew were screened instructors and they all became POWs... @nmtdambusters.bsky.social #History www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Removing racist displays in one city = the cost of 12,000 hours of social care.

NOTHING will prepare you for this 45-second story arc. From "I'm just doing this because I love the flag, it's totally grassroots, and I'm not part of anything political"... to who actually gave him the flags the night before. Anyone who believes it is an innocent movement needs to see this.

Insane is right. 👇

"If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime" Trump brushing off domestic abuse as an inconvenience to crime figures...

Absolutely grim, enabled and promoted by Labour, Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper, who have ditched any pretence at wanting a better country for chasing fascist votes. The police? Too busy arresting OAPs with placards. Councils? Cowards. At least @insidecroydon.bsky.social isn’t mincing words.

On this day in 1966, Star Trek first beamed into living rooms across America. None of us could have imagined then the journey it would set us on. And not just the cast and crew, but the millions of fans who would find hope, inspiration, and community in its vision of the future.

In the darkest corner of the basement of the admiralty, someone mistakenly opened a creaky, cobwebbed door; and with an odd hollow groan, the author of Specification OR.52 lurched forward — and back to work.

Ant Middleton is a very overt racist. Middleton is an ally, friend & champion of Nigel Farage but now standing as an Independent for London Mayor because he is much too openly racist for Reform, now openly advocating you should need British-born grandparents to be eligible for leadership roles

Imagine the message it would send if Gary Lineker won 'Presenter of the Year' at this year's National Television Awards Standing up for compassion & the right to speak out And, the feathers it would ruffle My lovely followers, you know what to do: nationaltvawards.com/vote 🗓️ Deadline: 12th Sep

The latest Substack post. philipwblood.substack.com/p/beutepanze...

Got this out of the garage ready for #HeaviesGB Haven't done anything in 1/72 for ages. The tall tricolour on the tail reminded me of the Red Arrows. Them using Sunderlands instead of Hawks would be some sight. Anyway, looking forward to starting it. #histscalemodels

Free public online seminar - 'Hidden in Plain Sight: Recovering Female Leadership in the Viking Age' @thinkuhi.bsky.social PhD researcher Shanna Bryman discusses roles of women in #viking society. 📌7.00pm 30/10/25. UK time. 📌Register using the webpage below tinyurl.com/2uwvp5wu

As noted before, while this account does not normally post political content, I make an exception for the current and exceedingly nasty immigration debate in the UK, as this affects me and all members of my family, whether they hold British citizenship or not.

Reform UK, which has a grand total of four MPs, was just given an uninterrupted platform for an hour and a half on the BBC and Sky News channels, in order to talk about its plans for mass deportations When was the last time the Greens (with four MPs) or the Lib Dems (with 72) were given the same?

Captain Landon Johnson

Border 1/32 Lancaster with Dambusters conversion kit, remote controlled engines and spotlamps for the raid lights. Painted in AJ-P for Mickey Martins bird....

People convicted and imprisoned for saying or writing things that stir up racial hatred. • Abu Hamza • Abdullah el-Faisal • Lucy Connolly Guess which conviction made the right wing suddenly decide writing or saying things that stir up hatred is okay, actually.

He wasn't even that hard to work with - long form answer if you're interested old.reddit.com/r/AskHistori...

On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout. On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar. This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media. Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵

#OTD in 1944, the fighting on Hill 262, or Mont Ormel, came to an end. Troops of the 1st Polish Armoured Division fought a brutal battle there to close the Falaise Gap in Normandy. See where they fought in the video linked below. The Poles' Epic Fight at Hill 262 in Normandy youtu.be/gK_T-YHjpOY

White woman puts Mexican flag on her truck to waste ICE’s time.

This is what happened to my Great-Grandad. Would very much like to see this exhibition. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

I’m on the Fallout pod talking about my book with @philipwblood.bsky.social. It is a great podcast also more than ably cohosted by @dustinducane.bsky.social and @benskipper.bsky.social Check it out. youtu.be/jT0fVDwpQX0

www.reddit.com/r/transgende... Guess what? The story about the trans M&S employee and the bra fitting is a pack of lies and distortions. Want to know what really happened and how colleagues stood up for her? Read her own account here.

“The White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history.”

The latest figures show robbery, theft, residential burglary and knife crime are down in London, but there's still a long way to go before I’m satisfied. Backed with record funding from City Hall, the Met is putting high-visibility policing at the heart of fighting crime.

Buried in The Observer yesterday was this: UK police knocking on doors demanding details of social media accounts of people, to pass to a foreign government, simply because they happen to live near where a US politician wanted to have a holiday observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Beautiful aircraft

I wrote to M&S about the stupid lingerie department story - confirms nobody offered a bra fitting to a teenage girl. The Telegraph and JK can (always) do one.

To say this is somewhat at odds with the news and social media narrative would be the understatement of the year. Also if Ed Davey is that popular vis Farage why is the mainstream media practically ignoring him?

Couple more #ThenAndNow photos from yesterday. Germans trying to retreat running into trouble in the form of 2nd Armd Div. In particular S/Sgt Cermak's 57mm A/T gun, visible in the first photo. Le Pont Brocard. #WW2 #Normandy44

Lt. Brown sat in the centre, commander of ‘Lillingstone’, number ‘55’ a Sherman I from 4 Troop, C Squadron, 1 Northamptonshire Yeomanry. Photographed #OTD 7th August 1944 by Sgt Wilkes. Lillingstone was lost at St. Aignan, Lt. Brown and gunner, Tp. Monkman, both wounded. IWM B8793 #1NY #33Armd

Oldie but goodie #ThenAndNow 81 years and a few days ago this PzIV (formerly of 2.SS-PzDiv) in St Denis le Gast. #Normandy44 #WW2

Yup. As I am constantly saying. People say they want far less immigration when polled because they have been led to believe that immigration is primarily a small boats phenomemon. I try to push back but jesus, they're funded by fucking billionaires.

Having a long-awaited tidy up/sort out. One of the great things about this kind of activity is what turns up. LNER and M&GN rule books from 1933, the latter with a supplement from 1934 and notes written by my grandfather Benjamin Dent.

Do you remember the horrific abduction in Worcester, MA where protestors clashed with ICE as they ripped a woman away from her family? The horror continues. The woman’s 13 and 17 year old daughters were placed in foster care. They are now both missing. 1/ www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/31/m...

Why is the Trump administration detaining green card holders without cause, blocking legal counsel, and refusing to tell families where they are? Will Kim has lived here since he was five. He’s getting his PhD, researching a Lyme disease vaccine at Texas A&M—and ICE disappeared him at SFO.

On 3 August 1944 Sgt Fred "Buck" Kite did a thing that got him his third Military Medal. His first was for an action in Dec 43 in N Africa, his second for actions on 18 & 19 July 1944 during Op Goodwood in France.

What a horror story. Why would anyone come to the USA for a vacation? Story of a Swiss woman detained in humiliating conditions at JFK + in NJ detention before being deported. www.nzz.ch/english/you-...

I think one of my summer projects will be planning a 4 day battlefield study to the crossing of the Po and battle of the Argenta Gap. Has anyone on here done such a tour?

Always nice when people take the time to review your books. Here's a new one from The Modelling News: www.themodellingnews.com/2025/07/read...

UPDATE: it's been over a week since I was prevented from boarding a flight home. My MP is on the case. My immigration lawyer is on the case. Still no answers. Still in limbo. I'm feeling pretty dejected. Apparently obtaining citizenship still does not safeguard one against these scenarios.

🐾 Did you see the black dog with eyes like fire? The legend returns Last seen in 1577 Black Shuck – the nightmare hound of East Anglian folklore – prowls again in Bungay. Celebrate the myth, music art & theatre at the Black Shuck Festival Aug 1–3 @eastangliabylines.co.uk @celinawords.bsky.social

The UK #OSA is shaping up to be the disaster that anyone would expect from the very obviously incompetent mix of IT-illiterate legislators and incompetent regulation by #Ofcom. We are at risk of losing Wikipedia and forums such as WW2talk.com, because the legislation is not fit for purpose. 1/2

This was meant to go out at 10am today. Here's the big announcement! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...