Ali Messer
@freereed59.net
Teacher Education. History. Trad music. #HistoryEducation #TeacherEducation #UKteaching #SSChat #ContraDancing
📒🕰🎓🗺 No DMs unless we talk irl.
https://intheoryandinpractice.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/and-then-the-bell-rang/
https://linktr.ee/Freereed59
📒🕰🎓🗺 No DMs unless we talk irl.
https://intheoryandinpractice.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/and-then-the-bell-rang/
https://linktr.ee/Freereed59
Reposted by Ali Messer
I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove Made Orwell Prize Judge Despite Record of Attacking Journalists and Dodging Scrutiny
Critics say "Orwell would have enjoyed the irony" of the former Conservative minister's appointment
bylinetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities.
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise
bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...
Reposted by Ali Messer
The EPA is starting to allow the use of pesticides containing PFAS on food. The move is part of an effort to roll back the regulation of PFAS — also known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily in the environment.
November 25, 2025 at 5:31 PM
The EPA is starting to allow the use of pesticides containing PFAS on food. The move is part of an effort to roll back the regulation of PFAS — also known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down easily in the environment.
Reposted by Ali Messer
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Reposted by Ali Messer
Is runaway welfare spending to blame for the Chancellor's fiscal challenges?
Hear from @alexclegg.bsky.social on why any claims that the Chancellor could avoid raising in the Budget could by cutting welfare should be scrutinised.
Hear from @alexclegg.bsky.social on why any claims that the Chancellor could avoid raising in the Budget could by cutting welfare should be scrutinised.
November 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Is runaway welfare spending to blame for the Chancellor's fiscal challenges?
Hear from @alexclegg.bsky.social on why any claims that the Chancellor could avoid raising in the Budget could by cutting welfare should be scrutinised.
Hear from @alexclegg.bsky.social on why any claims that the Chancellor could avoid raising in the Budget could by cutting welfare should be scrutinised.
Reposted by Ali Messer
Today’s post, by Matthew Dance, explores naming policy in Edmonton.
This post is part of our Telling Truths about the Settler Colonial Project Series, make sure to check out the entire series!
This post is part of our Telling Truths about the Settler Colonial Project Series, make sure to check out the entire series!
Who decides our place names? Power, Policy, and Memory in Edmonton
Tuck and Yang’s Decolonization is not a metaphor provides an interesting touchpoint to identify a pattern of “settler moves to innocence.” What does this mean, and what is the pattern? As Indigenou…
activehistory.ca
November 25, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Today’s post, by Matthew Dance, explores naming policy in Edmonton.
This post is part of our Telling Truths about the Settler Colonial Project Series, make sure to check out the entire series!
This post is part of our Telling Truths about the Settler Colonial Project Series, make sure to check out the entire series!
Reposted by Ali Messer
Read it (without that one sentence...) here: downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith...
downloads.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Read it (without that one sentence...) here: downloads.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith...
I buy at least two books from this list every year! If you are a non-tenure-track historian and have a book coming out in 2025, please fill out this form to be included!
Haven't received as many contributions as usual for this year's lists--could be many things, but one aspect is surely that our ability to get this in front of people is much diminished. If you know folks whose stuff should be on here, please suggest it! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
November 25, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Ali Messer
Not exactly related, but this is how I feel about abortion access. I was born the same year as the Roe v. Wade decision. I had, for almost my entire life, a constitutional access to abortion care. It's wild to see it crumbling within a generation.
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Not exactly related, but this is how I feel about abortion access. I was born the same year as the Roe v. Wade decision. I had, for almost my entire life, a constitutional access to abortion care. It's wild to see it crumbling within a generation.
Reposted by Ali Messer
Every elite authority in the UK appears to have lost their mind in precisely the same way
November 25, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Every elite authority in the UK appears to have lost their mind in precisely the same way
Reposted by Ali Messer
"My mentor always tells me, 'Kim, dogs don’t bark at parked cars." They’re coming after critical race theory, 1619, intersectionality because these ideas mobilized people. They gave them the language to actually articulate what they were seeing with their own eyes," says Kimberlé Crenshaw.
November 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
"My mentor always tells me, 'Kim, dogs don’t bark at parked cars." They’re coming after critical race theory, 1619, intersectionality because these ideas mobilized people. They gave them the language to actually articulate what they were seeing with their own eyes," says Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Reposted by Ali Messer
1. In Tennessee, public libraries have closed for up to a week to facilitate a Trump-inspired book purge.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee public libraries close for Trump-inspired book purge
One hundred and eighty-one public libraries in Tennessee are reviewing their children’s collections after Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) ordered them to remove books with LGBTQ themes…
popular.info
November 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
1. In Tennessee, public libraries have closed for up to a week to facilitate a Trump-inspired book purge.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett (R) has ordered most of the state's public librarians to remove children's books with LGBTQ characters or themes.
Reposted by Ali Messer
Reposted by Ali Messer
🚨NEW BLOG🚨
Struggling with lesson PITCH?
Jointly written with @apf102.bsky.social, this blog explores an approach we've used with #ITT beginning #teachers to examine the PITCH of their lessons through thinking about sequencing of knowledge.
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/25/s...
Struggling with lesson PITCH?
Jointly written with @apf102.bsky.social, this blog explores an approach we've used with #ITT beginning #teachers to examine the PITCH of their lessons through thinking about sequencing of knowledge.
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/25/s...
Surfing the ‘Semantic Wave’: Helping beginning teachers to think about tackling the ‘pitch’ of their lesson
This blog is jointly authored by Victoria Crooks and Alex Ford. Check out to read more blogs from Alex. Photo by Vladimir Kudinov on Pexels.com Matthew is a fab beginning teacher. He is highl…
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog
November 25, 2025 at 2:39 PM
🚨NEW BLOG🚨
Struggling with lesson PITCH?
Jointly written with @apf102.bsky.social, this blog explores an approach we've used with #ITT beginning #teachers to examine the PITCH of their lessons through thinking about sequencing of knowledge.
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/25/s...
Struggling with lesson PITCH?
Jointly written with @apf102.bsky.social, this blog explores an approach we've used with #ITT beginning #teachers to examine the PITCH of their lessons through thinking about sequencing of knowledge.
uonhistoryteachertraining.school.blog/2025/11/25/s...
Reposted by Ali Messer
Train travel just feels… nicer. More space, city-centre arrivals, actual views, and no sprinting through terminals. You can read, nap, have a picnic, whatever. And the carbon savings are massive. Join the Flight Free Challenge. #Climate
flightfree.co.uk/post/how-to-...
flightfree.co.uk/post/how-to-...
How to travel by train
It’s the ultimate in no-fly travel, so here are some pointers if you’re new to the rails
flightfree.co.uk
November 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Train travel just feels… nicer. More space, city-centre arrivals, actual views, and no sprinting through terminals. You can read, nap, have a picnic, whatever. And the carbon savings are massive. Join the Flight Free Challenge. #Climate
flightfree.co.uk/post/how-to-...
flightfree.co.uk/post/how-to-...
Reposted by Ali Messer
Thanks to Heritage Council funding, digital versions of these parish registers will soon be online. And the precious records of St Luke's Douglas can move from a damp old building to a temperature-controlled archive. #Speirgorm #Ireland 🗃️
November 25, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Thanks to Heritage Council funding, digital versions of these parish registers will soon be online. And the precious records of St Luke's Douglas can move from a damp old building to a temperature-controlled archive. #Speirgorm #Ireland 🗃️
Reposted by Ali Messer
Complaint cites "Linda McMahon, Trump’s Education Pick, Bankrolled His Raucous Madison Square Garden Rally" from Dec. 2024
November 25, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Complaint cites "Linda McMahon, Trump’s Education Pick, Bankrolled His Raucous Madison Square Garden Rally" from Dec. 2024
Reposted by Ali Messer
Don’t get me started on how they ruined google scholar
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Don’t get me started on how they ruined google scholar
Reposted by Ali Messer
When I began my working life in 1994, the WWW scarcely existed. Even 3 or 4 years later it was mostly made up of webpages people had written themselves in their spare time.
This was, in almost every conceivable way, better than now.
This was, in almost every conceivable way, better than now.
It's weird to not only have lived through an information revolution but also now living through its undoing, all within less than a generation.
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 12:24 PM
When I began my working life in 1994, the WWW scarcely existed. Even 3 or 4 years later it was mostly made up of webpages people had written themselves in their spare time.
This was, in almost every conceivable way, better than now.
This was, in almost every conceivable way, better than now.
Reposted by Ali Messer
On Bregman, I was there in the audience and I can’t see what the BBC have gained by removing this line except more bad publicity. I will say that no such edits or censorship occurred when I gave the Reith Lectures and free-speech defenders might want think about whether this is the world they want.
November 25, 2025 at 12:11 PM
On Bregman, I was there in the audience and I can’t see what the BBC have gained by removing this line except more bad publicity. I will say that no such edits or censorship occurred when I gave the Reith Lectures and free-speech defenders might want think about whether this is the world they want.
Reposted by Ali Messer
One of the main reasons why the Labour Government in 1945 introduced universal welfare programmes was because of the indignity & problems that can be caused by complex means testing regimes. 2/2
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
One of the main reasons why the Labour Government in 1945 introduced universal welfare programmes was because of the indignity & problems that can be caused by complex means testing regimes. 2/2
Reposted by Ali Messer
This is a really important review which found serious failings under the last Conservative Government.
I’m glad the government are rectifying this injustice.
It also shows the problems that can emerge from means testing... 1/2
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
I’m glad the government are rectifying this injustice.
It also shows the problems that can emerge from means testing... 1/2
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
DWP to reassess hundreds of thousands of cases in carer’s allowance scandal
Damning official review finds many unpaid carers left with huge debt because of government failure
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
This is a really important review which found serious failings under the last Conservative Government.
I’m glad the government are rectifying this injustice.
It also shows the problems that can emerge from means testing... 1/2
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
I’m glad the government are rectifying this injustice.
It also shows the problems that can emerge from means testing... 1/2
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Ali Messer
Not main point (see my other post) but depressing that Phillips happily regurgitates entirely fictional numbers invented by far-right trolls on X and attributes them to "experts" {and Times is happy to print this slop]
archive.ph/RlXPj#select...
archive.ph/RlXPj#select...
November 25, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Not main point (see my other post) but depressing that Phillips happily regurgitates entirely fictional numbers invented by far-right trolls on X and attributes them to "experts" {and Times is happy to print this slop]
archive.ph/RlXPj#select...
archive.ph/RlXPj#select...
Reposted by Ali Messer
This is exactly what the recent Trump-BBC 'scandal' was designed to achieve. The BBC is now self-censoring criticisms of Trump in the name of "impartiality"
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 10:26 AM
This is exactly what the recent Trump-BBC 'scandal' was designed to achieve. The BBC is now self-censoring criticisms of Trump in the name of "impartiality"
Reposted by Ali Messer
This is the lowest support for Reform in a YouGov poll since April
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 25% (-2)
LAB: 19% (=)
CON: 18% (+1)
GRN: 16% (-1)
LDM: 15% (+2)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @yougov.co.uk, 23-24 Nov.
Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.
RFM: 25% (-2)
LAB: 19% (=)
CON: 18% (+1)
GRN: 16% (-1)
LDM: 15% (+2)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @yougov.co.uk, 23-24 Nov.
Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.
November 25, 2025 at 10:47 AM
This is the lowest support for Reform in a YouGov poll since April
We are looking forward to our next HTEN conference next week. Please do get in touch if you would like to find out how to join us. #HistoryEducation #historyteacher #TeacherEducation
In febrile times, exploring how we prepare teachers to address SCIs feels all the more important. We're delighted Rob Kanter and @helenfcarr.bsky.social will be sharing their important work and experiences with us at the next @htenuk.bsky.social conference.
Make sure it is in your diary. 🗓️
Make sure it is in your diary. 🗓️
November 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM