Our new JST #JacobiteStudies Virtual Workshop Series launches Tue, 13 Oct at 5pm UKT with a discussion about academic publishing with @dparrish0.bsky.social (JST) and @siobhanmup.bsky.social (MUP). Make sure to bring your questions, tips, and anecdotes! Full programme: jdb1745.net/events/jstwo...

The ability to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into a loss-making TV channel, bent on wrenching British politics sharply to the right, is yet another of the ways in which extreme wealth is trying to remake UK democracy. It needs to be part of any serious conversation about political funding.

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · last wk.

New GB News accounts are out. Here are their losses to date. Or "spent political donations" if you prefer

In this week's episode of The Week in Art, Ben Luke previews a new Renoir exhibition at London's National Gallery, learns about the controversy around the opening of Kanal in Brussels, and explores a sculpture from 1938 by Jamaican-born artist Ronald Moody. buff.ly/HNusLNI

First published in 2006 and reissued to coincide with the exhibition Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam at the Royal Academy of Arts, Higgie’s Bedlam: A Novel imagines what the Victorian painter’s surviving archive cannot supply: an inner life. buff.ly/eMTdGha

#OtD 3 Oct 1896 designer, artist and libertarian socialist William Morris died of tuberculosis at age 62. We have used some of his iconic artwork in merch to help fund our work: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

"Picking on Byline Times sends a message to other political journalists: Be careful. Don't be too critical. We can do the same to you." @adambienkov.bsky.social speaks to LBC's @mrjamesob.bsky.social about Byline Times' ban from Conservative Party Conference.

From Scotland to Northumberland, Blackpool to Leicestershire, Reform contested six by-elections yesterday. They lost all six. Six contests. Six defeats. Reform are not inevitable. Their bubble has burst😉 Have a great weekend comrades! #NoFascists #RightWingLosers #FailingFarage

Yellow Hibiscus and Aster, from the Flowers of the Twelve Months: October, 1670-1710, by #YunBing (#Qingyu 清於; Haoru 浩如; Chinese, Qianlong era, active late C17th–early C18th). Held by Asian Art Museum, searchcollection.asianart.org/objects/5437... #artherstory #womenartists #hernaturalhistory

Welcome to the #Uncanny Halloween Countdown 2026! A new mini-Uncanny case every day till #Halloween! 🎃 This is an eerie one! Are you feeling #TeamSceptic or #TeamBeliever? See you tomorrow for another nugget of nightmare fuel! Uncanny Halloween Countdown | Listen on BBC Sounds & watch on YouTube

I'm so very sad to hear of the death of Esther Ranzen who played an important role in reuniting me with Nicky Winton - the man who saved my life. It's so desperately sad that she couldn't choose assisted dying as was her wish.

From the September Issue Book Reviews - love the featured work “Lo Ting” (1997) by Jimmy Keung Chi Ming @theartnewspaper.bsky.social

The Art Newspaper@theartnewspaper.bsky.social · 4w ago

For a city as iconic in the global imaginary as Hong Kong, there are surprisingly few broad histories of its art. Filling that gap is Oscar Ho Hing-kay’s Hong Kong Art: A Curator’s History (1987-2004). buff.ly/dg1PiH3

Alys Denby, spouting utter guff with huge confidence on Politics Live, like "bringing the review forward by a year is just kicking the can further down the road" and "if you bump into the Laffer curve you get no tax revenue at all", has no economic training I can find, except from Tufton Street.

Why is this CAROUSEL OF NOBODIES constantly platformed by our state broadcaster? This woman was reviewing restaurants and books until recently - then she lands a spell with the Centre for Policy Studies and - hey presto! - she works for City AM and is on the BBC as some sort of expert on economics.

People say Londoners are cold. But experts say what comes across as rudeness to some is a kind of “civil inattention” that’s necessary in big cities. We’re not mean – we’re just overwhelmed.

Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.

Weston Big Wood is irreplaceable ancient woodland & a protected SSSI . Yet plans could see around 500 homes built on Tower Farm and Black Rock , enclosing it on both sides . We should be protecting places like this , not building right up to their edges . c.org/8bV8Vy5Gm6

Sign the Petition

Save Weston Big Wood from development

c.org

The fact that interest on illegal donations doesn't need to be returned creates a perverse incentive to receive impermissible donations in the first place. Why wouldn't you, if you can pocket quite significant interest, and there's no sanction if you return it within the legal time frame?

Reform UK Could Pocket Nearly £500,000 in Interest if They Are Forced to Return £72 Million Crypto Billionaire Donations

EXCLUSIVE: Electoral Commission confirms interest earned on impermissible gifts can be kept, prompting calls for Nigel Farage to hand any proceeds to charity

bylinetimes.com

Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight

Yesterday we relaunched the City of London’s Blue Plaque scheme with a plaque for Francis Barber. He was born a slave in Jamaica, brought to England as a child and freed. He was a servant to Dr Johnson, who made him his heir. After Johnson’s death Barber became a school master near Lichfield.

£72m for Reform over the weekend could be just the tip of the iceberg There's nothing to stop Elon Musk giving, via a UK X subsidiary, £300m to Restore Britain today Or a Trump ally giving £500m to Farage via a UK-registered firm There's a v narrow window to tackle big money in the elections bill

Come on folks - this is a priceless asset that we will LOSE if the money is not raised in the next ten days!!! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-cinema...

The Cinema Museum: HELP US BUY OUR HOME

After 40 years of uncertainty, we have a chance to secure our home. We need £500,000 to purchase our home and we have five months to do it!

crowdfunder.co.uk

For some reason the BBC chose the most miserable headline from an optimistic speech which said Ukraine had “already won” and that talk of Russian escalation was "not a problem" but a "sign of success".

PM's top security adviser says Europe faces hard winter to keep pressure on Putin

In rare public remarks, Jonathan Powell said now was not the time for European nations to take their "foot off the gas".

bbc.co.uk

Reform has basically been bought by two crypto bros As @philbrickellmp.bsky.social told me, Burnham needs to act, urgently and amend Elections Bill “It’s incumbent on the government to move at pace... safeguard our politics from the funding arms race now staring back at all of us.”

🔴 More than 80% of all the donations ever received by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have come from just two cryptocurrency billionaires, new Democracy for Sale analysis reveals. “If that isn’t a massive corruption risk I don’t know what is.” democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-8...

BREAKING: 80% of Reform’s funding comes from two crypto billionaires

“If that isn't a massive corruption risk I don't know what is.”

democracyforsale.substack.com

From August 27: “If he doesn’t, Burnham will have wasted a huge opportunity to protect British democracy. Without radical action, the power of money in our politics will only get worse—much worse.” Burnham is failing his first big test as PM democracyforsale.substack.com/p/burnham-is...

Burnham is failing his first big test as PM

The prime minister has the chance to end the power of the super-rich in British politics – he’s not taking it

democracyforsale.substack.com

Phil, what steps are you and your colleagues in government taking to bring this back under control? Does the new PM realise just how big a bodge he has made? And can we rely on the Lords to ensure that any donations made after the ?March ? cut off date have to be returned?

Labour should have acted quicker to stop this - and it may seriously regret not doing so

Ranvir Singh: "The Times was able to find 13 posts on X that named individual RNLI crew members.. one of these posts said 'first the traitors, then the invaders', which is a far right slogan, & it was shared by Elon Musk along with the photo of a gun. This is the stuff of 1939"

Been thinking on how hard RW media works on a "Rise of The Far Right" narrative, @annettedittert.bsky.social. Maybe convincing us such results are inevitable is a precondition to such results. It diverts all efforts to delaying, rather than defeating them. They play to win, while we play for a draw.

Quiet Riot@quietriotpod.bsky.social · 4w ago

B-SIDE OUT NOW! And we’re talking all things German elections with the superb commentator and analyst @annettedittert.bsky.social 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q... 🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/2pkI...