Something my history degree taught me is that every secondary source is also a primary source - for something. I just binged a 2020-2022 podcast on the Jacobites (secondary source) and it was also clearly a PRIMARY SOURCE on what people were going through during pandemic restrictions in the UK.

“Ordinary people could not what these monsters did. We are ordinary people, therefore we cannot commit such crimes. But once you get closer to the real people who committed those crimes, you see that the syllogism doesn’t really work.”--Slavenka Drakulić (1949-2026), observing trials in the Hague

"There are colors that I want to show you, but I can’t. They exist in the real world. You probably saw some of them today, but I can’t show them to you on a screen. … Unless you have specialized equipment, they are entirely absent from the digital world. "Most of them are cyans."

This has been some of us since 1997.

For a graduation ceremony at the Berlin Philharmonic.

More public bodies backing down on supporting Pride events due to ‘recent legal developments’: Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service this time www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/mer...

A bit of local news about the new Reform council in Calderdale (which covers Hebden Bridge - lesbian capital of the north - and Shibden Hall - home of Anne Lister/Gentleman Jack). No pride flags or other 'symbols of division' for us 😡 www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/people/...

Yet another public policy responsibility that is going to become universities’ job to sort out 😬

My hundredth essay at my newsletter (in just under 500 days). It's about beauty and pleasure, films and trees and singing, about the small things,and their relationship to democracy and the large things.

The 100. *What* was all that stuff about a new planet somewhere

‘Moreover, higher education cannot function like a genuine market, where consumers can try out one brand of soap powder this month and another next month. Going to university is, for nearly everybody, a one-off decision: it’s more like getting married than going on a date’

Great stuff from my friend @brezaleksandar.bsky.social on the deeper political and social implications of BiH’s World Cup campaign but also Dubioza’s viral global hit “USA”, an unofficial anthem for both the team and Bosnia’s far-flung diaspora. www.euronews.com/2026/06/13/t...

this was an eye opener: 'It is estimated that about 71% of the images shared online are now AI-generated...more than a third of podcasts...last year Spotify removed 75m AI tracks.' www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

All the other Brady Feigls are just imitating

This is the kind of thing we don't hear about when we're told what the public (supposedly) thinks and wants. Fascism depends on keeping people - all people - in a state of fear, and making them feel isolated and helpless. In reality, there are always good people helping each other.

In 2017, Hull City of Culture commissioned Duckie to hold community workshops making parade icons of 50 local/national 🏳️‍🌈 figures (marking decriminalisation* 1967) for Hull Pride. Our workplace group had David Hockney, who didn’t deserve me steering him into a big tree by the Tesco Express.

In our first blog post we present a model of how the far right appropriates archaeology and how we can fight it! We use the recent 'looksmaxxing' trend as a case study to explore this. Give it a read and feed back what you think! 🏺 #AntiExtremistResearch

So glad that Luqman Saeed - an academic at Ulster University - has written this piece about the Belfast riots. I hope I could write this clearly and perceptively were I under similar pressure right now. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Second time this year: 🇭🇹 Winter Olympics team couldn’t wear design with Toussaint L’Ouverture. Problem this time is apparently an illustration of the last battle in the Haitian Revolution (⚔️ 1803 Vertières)

“The truth is that the global far right have spent the past few years using a billionaire-owned social media platform to deliberately whip up racist violence on Britain’s streets and now they are finally starting to succeed.” @adambienkov.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2026/06/10/t...

with the Men's football World Cup descending into totalitarian charade, it's not the only mega-event where there's dissent: things are kicking off for the Brisbane #Olympics in 2032, with, as is so often the way, First Nations at he forefront....

ONE FROM THE VAULTS RETURNS! For a special Tenth Anniversary season! Ten brand new episodes of the original trans history podcast. In our first episode, we chart the life of tarot master, sci fi writer, and 70s trans activist Rachel Pollack! Please share! m.soundcloud.com/onefromtheva...

Of all the many interdimensional portals to be found in the British countryside, the 'Green-Lane-As-Tunnel-To-Paradise' type of interdimensional portal is definitely one of my favourites.

This will go down as a major stain on FIFA and its World Cup before a ball has even been kicked. Infantino has been banging on about the most inclusive World Cup and Africa’s top referee can’t even get into the country. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/w...

My day job is at a rural branch of a public library, and we have a Pride display. Yesterday I was at the desk when a man came in. Fifties, maybe, or sixties. Plaid shirt, mesh trucker cap, suspenders. He went up to the display and just stood there for a long moment. Then he came up to the desk. 🧵 1/

Anthony Stewart Head will always be a real one for this. RIP www.thepinknews.com/2019/12/20/a...

Here come the #Eurovision 2026 viewing figures on a Friday afternoon. Many digital indicators up, but broadcast audience numbers down to 131m from customary 160m+. EBU’s take: contest evolving from ‘TV show’ to global multiplatform event. www.ebu.ch/news/2026/06...

Oh good, the slides for my Viking medievalism lecture needed refreshing.

Interesting Irish connections at the v&a in their jewelry section. Not surprising how aesthetically pleasing objects can be separated so easily from politics, including the colonial worlds they inhabited, replicated and circulated in, esp the murky world of ownership and provenance.

At a symposium hosted by @uwconline.bsky.social and co-sponsored by the International Association for Communication and Sport and UNESCO (among others). The questions asked, as I read THIS story, “can the World Cup still unify?” and “What should be the measures of soft power success?”

Great bit of research looking at the impact of Starmer's "Island of Strangers" speech (shifted perceptions of Labour to more hostile to immigration ... only succeeded in hurting support for Labour / helping Reform in the group Labour were targeting).

Throwback to when a TV station in Iceland accidentally aired an episode of Teletubbies with subtitles from the Sopranos 👌🏼

Post a poster you used to have on your wall

‘As the host of the 2027 IDAHOT+ Forum, we demand that the UK government explain: how can trans people who participate in the Forum in 2027 feel safe in a country that has actively vilified trans people?’

If you work on AI + war/violence, do submit an abstract to us:

Alan Moore’s latest novel has an acknowledgements section in which he thanks the universe, a moon goddess, and a python god. it also includes this line: “Existence is a stupefying stroke of luck and we should all feel grateful to be part of it, even when much of it's on fire and overrun by Nazis.”

Juliet Jacques on Labour's Section 28: "Civil disobedience and trans organisation will flush this contemptible code down the toilet of history, and we can push for a full inquiry into how the EHRC became captured by transphobic fanatics and ask how we can safeguard such bodies [...] in future."

If you would like to, please consider signing this, and sharing it with your networks. So important for LGBTQ+ communities, who may face endless discrimination and exclusion when trying to use services. Huge thanks.

I wrote something, and I got a lot out of my system while doing it. I am trying to be like Audre Lorde, and fill my anger with "information and energy." But sometimes, it's a scream into the void that's necessary. Thanks @aoifemod.bsky.social and DFLW for the opportunity. dflw.ie/breaking-the...

“Trans people will be left with a choice between researching toilet provision every time we go out… our worlds will get smaller, and so many trans people who enrich our communities will self-exclude, leaving everyone worse off.” Lawmakers must end the legal limbo undermining trans lives in the UK.

"I'm worried for them. They don't know how to be defeated." Rebecca Jane Morgan's account of the fight for legal recognition for trans people in the UK offers important lessons for today's activists, writes Kit Heyam. Read in full now 🌶️ #transrights #lgbtq www.redpepper.org.uk/culture-medi...

‘In the space of a few years, the UK has moved from a broadly inclusive status quo to being the most aggressively anti-trans developed democracy in the world’

13. For those with power who aren’t MPs, this seems like a good approach to a response: bsky.app/profile/davi...

I find that I have an actual political philosophy about this, so I am going to try to articulate it. For many decades now, if you are a left-wing person, you have been able to see laws get better. It has come to feel as if that is the way to improve the world.

This cartoon by Ella Baron from the Guardian today actually made me well up a little. We will keep fighting. Together.

🇭🇺 Hungary's Prime Minister Péter Magyar will instruct the minister or State Secretary for Culture to scrutinize opportunities for Hungary to return to #Eurovision. "There is no sense not to participate in such a contest."

Most importantly: as a cis woman; a feminist; a historian - this will *never* be in my name. Then: an equalities body that chooses to exclude a specific group; chooses to limit human rights of one community - it is an equalities body that has already dismantled itself and any legitimacy with it.

The updated code of practice for services, public functions and associations has been laid before Parliament. The guidance tells organisations how they should approach trans inclusion. Here’s what that means 👇 goodlawproject.org/the-code-of-...

Timely @amnestyuk.bsky.social report on the growth of organised anti-trans activism in the UK - no surprises for those who follow this actively, but really useful in pulling some key empirical data together: www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hu...

New EHRC guidance is due today. Remember: ➡️ Early reports based on unattributed briefings are spin, not facts. ➡️ This is civil law around who can and cannot bring discrimination claims - not criminal law. ➡️ Whatever it says, it is a choice by this government. They can fix it. ➡️ We will keep going.