Alex Renton
@axrenton.bsky.social
Writer, broadcaster, optimist. FRHistS. Books: Blood Legacy: slavery & my family's part in it. Stiff Upper Lip: abuse in Britain's elite schools. BBC Radio 4's In Dark Corners. alexrenton.com
'The Fight to be Free' - Edinburgh Book Festival, 20th Aug. Heirs co-founder @axrenton.bsky.social in conversation with historians Peggy Brunache and Carrie Gibson on the fight to end enslavement across the Americas. @edbookfest.bsky.social www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/peggy...
Peggy Brunache & Carrie Gibson: The Fight to be Free | Edinburgh International Book Festival
no description
edbookfest.co.uk
Edinburgh Fringe is full of drag acts, as ever... Good luck to them, but isn't there a thread of misogyny here, the satirising of middle-aged women and their dress-sense? My granny wore too much make-up and dyed her hair... Here's 'Aunty Ginger-Ginger'
OFSTED announces yet another plan - the fifth? - on unregistered (and thus not regulated or inspected) care homes for vulnerable and abandoned children. There are now 900+ of these - it's been a criminal offence to run one since 2000... @georgemonbiot.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/n...
Ofsted outlines plans to tackle sharp growth in unregistered children’s homes
Ofsted has today outlined a change in its approach to tackling unregistered children’s homes, designed to stop unsafe and unlawful placements and to address issues of sufficiency in the children’s soc...
gov.uk
Where's World Cup Bluesky? Are we just ignoring it? (Scotlaaaaaaand!) #worldcup
Most gratifying thing on TV - Hislop takes down fellow panelist Michael Gove with studied savagery. Nice. Have I Got News for You, Series 71: Episode 10: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002x8df via @bbciplayer
Have I Got News for You - Series 71: Episode 10
David Tennant hosts, with guest panellists politician and journalist Michael Gove and comedian Chloe Petts joining team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as they delve into the news.
bbc.co.uk
Is it very quiet on Bluesky? Would anyone like to talk about the problems with the BBC's new, expensive Hate the Rich drama? Two Weeks in August. Initially quite likeable but. metro.co.uk/2026/05/26/b...
BBC viewers beg 'make it stop' as loathsome new psychological drama is slated
One viewer said a 3/10 score was 'generous'.
metro.co.uk
Ya'll. I am shook. In a good way. Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See's own role in legitimizing Slavery
Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Holy See's own role in legitimizing slavery
Pope Leo XIV has made a historic apology for the role the Holy See itself played in legitimizing slavery.
apnews.com
My enslaver ancestors, Church of Scotland to the core, would not like this at all... They built churches and schools (but in Scotland not Jamaica) bbc.com/news/article...
Church of Scotland apologises for role in slavery
The apology was adopted at the church's General Assembly in Edinburgh on Saturday.
bbc.com
Great conversation with Chris Braitch of Seen&Heard about boarding schools, complex childhood trauma and how to keep children safe today. seenheard.org.uk/blog/seen-an...
seenheard.org.uk
However much the British establishment says 'get over it', the descendants of the enslaved still ask to talk @heirsofslavery.bsky.social quoted here... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
UK stole 25m years of life and labour through slavery in Barbados, says report
Experts put estimate for economic harm done by 200 years of chattel slavery at $2tn, but stress this is ‘not an invoice’
theguardian.com
The US military has 22 sites in the UK. Every day long range US bombers are taking off here to drop bombs on Iran. This is a rogue state carrying out war crimes, and threatening more. The UK Government must grow a spine - and stop our bases being used for this war.
How to lose the votes of the 400,000 plus British citizens descended from victims of British transatlantic enslavement.
Sathnam Sanghera@sathnam.bsky.social · 5mo agoI didn't have this on my imperial amnesia bingo card @alanlester.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/92cb...
It is illegal to destroy civilian infrastructure. Pusillanimous Biden adviser David Satterfield on BBC R4 Today this morning did not dare say it. How utterly useless these grand old American Democrats are.
Asked to go on GB News today to talk about reparations for transatlantic enslavement. Said no (again) and the producer offered me... £40! www.theguardian.com/media/2026/m...
Church leaders criticise Christian owner of GB News over channel’s climate attacks
Exclusive: Paul Marshall also challenged over his own ‘misleading’ statements and £1.8bn of fossil fuel investments in his hedge fund
theguardian.com
Great conversation with Dr Naomi Murphy and David Jones - we covered boarding schools, the legacies of transatlantic slavery, and keeping children happy and safe from abuse today. podcasts.apple.com/hn/podcast/a...
Alex Renton (Video); Boarding School, Abuse, Slavery; Understanding History, Addressing the Present
Episodio de podcast · The Locked up Living Podcast: Surviving and thriving in prisons and other challenging environments · 28 de enero · 47 min
podcasts.apple.com
'No a la guerra!' Nice to be in Spain, a country with a coherent approach to international law and illegal war.
By the same argument quit Facebook, Insta, WhatsApp and Amazon... Which is no bad idea. (tks @davidveevers.bsky.social) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman
As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman
theguardian.com
'Lack of fibre' - exactly the problem. Good old Daily Mail.
This stands with the finest political/historical reporting I have ever read. So vivid, so important, so sad. #cuba www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
No water or electricity, and children begging in streets filled with rubbish – but this is why I won’t leave Cuba
Whether you blame the US or the communist regime, there is no doubt that this is an island spiralling into tragedy
theguardian.com
'The right wing objections are really political rather than historical.' The verdict.
Alan Lester@alanlester.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe Church of England is developing a reparative justice scheme in recognition of its complicity in trans-Atlantic slavery. Project Spire has been attacked in Parliament and the right wing press with claims of flawed historical research. What’s the truth? alanlester.co.uk/blog/the-arg...
The racist right are on the rise in Spain. Great piece today by @abbas-asaria.bsky.social on the politics of... jamón. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Spanish jamón is the best ham in the world – but culture warriors are reviving its dark history | Abbas Asaria
The far right is using pork consumption as a means to exclude, just as it was in the Inquisition, says Abbas Asaria, a chef based in Madrid
theguardian.com
The old right venting at @drbrookenewman... Racist, vicious, but in the end just plain silly.
Great work by @brookenewman.bsky.social, can't wait to see the book and the reaction from the Caribbean nations still with King Charles as head of state. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
British crown was world’s largest buyer of enslaved people by 1807, book reveals
Exclusive: Author of The Crown’s Silence tells how navy and monarchy protected slave trade for hundreds of years
theguardian.com
