Great (grim) thread

Claire Mullaly@clairemullaly.bsky.social · last mo.

There are two East Belfast UDA paramilitary flags on lamp posts either side of the entrace to Garnerville Rd in East Belfast. Garnerville is where the PSNI training college is. The paramilitaries are showing everyone who is in charge. Policing is severerly compromised. How did we get to this? [1/n]

'Hey for the New Jerusalem! The Millenium! And peace and eternal beatitude be unto the soul of Thomas Paine.' (Thomas Holcroft, 1791.) Thanks @gclaeyshistory.bsky.social et al. for all their painstaking work, & congratulations on the timely publication of this landmark scholarly edition.

Gregory Claeys@gclaeyshistory.bsky.social · last mo.

Tomorrow is the official publication day for Thomas Paine: Collected Writings, in 6 volumes, from Princeton University Press. Just in time for the 250th...

Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed

Peter Whitewood@pwhitewood.bsky.social · last mo.

This misses the point. Self-education has become more accessible in the last 20 years than at any point in history, though not through ‘amateur reading’. The problem isn’t access to information but learning how to evaluate it critically - and that brings us back to universities (and Humanities)

Sending this pic to every boomer in my contact list

Leo Hickman@leohickman.carbonbrief.org · last mo.

Seems to be a lot of selective memory in UK's right-wing newspapers about schools not closing during the 1976 heatwave. I just checked and, yes, many schools did close early as well as allow parents to "keep their children at home if they wish". This clipping from London Evening News, 29 June 1976

I'm looking for some extra work this summer so if anyone has anything - e.g. remote research (especially London archives or Cambridge area), transcription, editing, proofing, etc, or knows of anyone looking, then feel free to let me know!

It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it.

Anybody who opposes or even scrutinises British defence spending - which, after all, gave us the Tank That Deafens People, the Innovative Self-Jamming Gun, and HMS White Elephant - is clearly a nefarious agent of the Kremlin.

Nice reminder to what remains of the Starmer project that there might be an easier way of "winning over Reform voters" that doesn't entail bragging about robbing refugees of their personal possessions in militarised detention centres.

British Palestinians feel ‘gaslit’ and unable to speak out, says leading activist

British Palestinians feel ‘gaslit’ and unable to speak out, says leading activist

Ahead of Nakba march, Sara Husseini says many feel they are being treated as suspects rather than victims of mass suffering British Palestinians feel unable to speak openly about Israel’s war on Gaza, the director of the British Palestinian Committee has said, amid what campaigners believe is a growing climate of hostility around Palestinian identity and activism in the UK. Some were afraid to wear Palestinian symbols at work or display Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public, Sara Husseini said. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

The BBC’s description of people who choose to attend a Tommy Robinson march. “Peacefully expressing their interpretation of British identity”

Sharing, without comment, British newspapers’ depictions of the only Jewish person currently leading a UK political party . Times. Mail. Telegraph. Sun.

Yesterday in Hastings, in the wake of antisemitic attacks in Golders Green, I faced Nazi salutes. Today the Prime Minister uses his office to attack the only Jewish party leader to score political points.

Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 3mo ago

BREAKING: Keir Starmer says Zack Polanski's repost criticising the officers who arrested the terror suspect is "disgraceful" "I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party"

In a *new* post, I have pulled together the latest data on historians in UK universities and PhDs granted. The results are ... not great. Staff numbers have been mostly shrinking since 2019. PhDs have been roughly flat. 1/3. 🗃️ More info here: manyheadedmonster.com/2026/04/23/h...

'Universities across the UK have reported more than 1,000 job losses in the first four months of this year, with the actual number likely to be far higher as institutions continue to roll out cost-saving initiatives.' 1/4

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Over 1,000 UK university job losses announced since January. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...