James Crossland
@jamescrossland.bsky.social
Professor of #History. Author of "Rogue Agent" and "The Rise of Devils".
#spies, #terrorism, #extremism, fake news, weird stories, terrible people and things that are not real 🗃️ 📚
#spies, #terrorism, #extremism, fake news, weird stories, terrible people and things that are not real 🗃️ 📚
Sic semper tyrannis.
One can hope.
One can hope.
BREAKING: Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has lost his final appeal and will have to serve 27 years in prison.
November 26, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Sic semper tyrannis.
One can hope.
One can hope.
Reposted by James Crossland
Having been mistakenly included on an electoral roll, Manchester shopkeeper Lily Maxwell voted in a by-election on this day 1867, more than 50 years before (some) women were enfranchised by the Representation of the People Act. Suffragists seized on it as a test case.
November 26, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Having been mistakenly included on an electoral roll, Manchester shopkeeper Lily Maxwell voted in a by-election on this day 1867, more than 50 years before (some) women were enfranchised by the Representation of the People Act. Suffragists seized on it as a test case.
It took a while, but Tom Cruise is finally - if subtly - acknowledging his age.
Am I the only one who thinks the cover art/poster for MI: The Final Reckoning looks like a stunt pilot DLC for Microsoft Flight Simulator?
November 26, 2025 at 8:24 AM
It took a while, but Tom Cruise is finally - if subtly - acknowledging his age.
The fact that the Brexit disaster will never be honestly discussed and instead swept under the "nothing to see here" rug of national discourse is both tragic and extremely British.
Mustn't cause a fuss.
Mustn't cause a fuss.
New analysis by the House of Commons library estimates that Brexit is costing the Treasury up to £90bn a year in lost tax revenue, and the average Briton has seen a hit to GDP per head between £2,700 and £3,700.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Brexit costing UK up to £90bn in lost tax revenue , new analysis shows
Exclusive: Britons also up to £3,700 worse off, leading to calls for the Labour government to improve relations with the EU
www.independent.co.uk
November 26, 2025 at 8:22 AM
The fact that the Brexit disaster will never be honestly discussed and instead swept under the "nothing to see here" rug of national discourse is both tragic and extremely British.
Mustn't cause a fuss.
Mustn't cause a fuss.
Reposted by James Crossland
Study: Average 19th-Century American Spent 93% Of Time Waving At Trains, Boats https://theonion.com/study-average-19th-century-american-spent-93-of-time-waving-at-trains-boats/
November 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Study: Average 19th-Century American Spent 93% Of Time Waving At Trains, Boats https://theonion.com/study-average-19th-century-american-spent-93-of-time-waving-at-trains-boats/
Majendie would dispute this. He considered himself a one man bomb squad during the dynamite war of the 1880s, and set up training facilities in Paris so people could follow in his stead defusing anarchist and Fenian IEDs. The initative faded after he died in 1898
#history 🗃
#history 🗃
For over 80 years the Met's Special Branch called in explosives #specialist s like Vivian Majendie to defuse bombs planted in London rather than doing it themselves. In 1971 this changed when the Met set up its own Bomb Squad to counter the anarchist Angry Brigade campaign. #Museum30 #CM150
November 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Majendie would dispute this. He considered himself a one man bomb squad during the dynamite war of the 1880s, and set up training facilities in Paris so people could follow in his stead defusing anarchist and Fenian IEDs. The initative faded after he died in 1898
#history 🗃
#history 🗃
I saw that Clerks was #94, thought "this isn't a serious list" then flipped to number one, where Airplane was nowhere to be seen.
Nonsense.
Nonsense.
It is imposdible to make a Top 100 list everyone agrees with…
BUT THIS LIST IS SO WRONG!!!!
variety.com/lists/best-c...
BUT THIS LIST IS SO WRONG!!!!
variety.com/lists/best-c...
The 100 Best Comedy Movies of All Time
Variety's list of the 100 best comedy movies of all time includes 'Annie Hall,' 'Pretty Woman,' 'Waiting for Guffman' and 'Young Frankenstein.'
variety.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I saw that Clerks was #94, thought "this isn't a serious list" then flipped to number one, where Airplane was nowhere to be seen.
Nonsense.
Nonsense.
Reposted by James Crossland
“UK is costliest country to…”
- build nuclear power
- build fast rail
- build a house
- buy a house
- rent a house
- travel by train
- buy a beer
- power your home
- pay for childcare
- insure a car
- stay in a hotel
- go to the dentist
- buy bog roll
At least some museums are free….
- build nuclear power
- build fast rail
- build a house
- buy a house
- rent a house
- travel by train
- buy a beer
- power your home
- pay for childcare
- insure a car
- stay in a hotel
- go to the dentist
- buy bog roll
At least some museums are free….
UK is costliest country to build new nuclear power, government review warns on.ft.com/48gamUG
UK is costliest country to build new nuclear power, government review warns
Task force calls for super regulator to seize control of sprawling bureaucracy
on.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
“UK is costliest country to…”
- build nuclear power
- build fast rail
- build a house
- buy a house
- rent a house
- travel by train
- buy a beer
- power your home
- pay for childcare
- insure a car
- stay in a hotel
- go to the dentist
- buy bog roll
At least some museums are free….
- build nuclear power
- build fast rail
- build a house
- buy a house
- rent a house
- travel by train
- buy a beer
- power your home
- pay for childcare
- insure a car
- stay in a hotel
- go to the dentist
- buy bog roll
At least some museums are free….
Because Biff Tannen and his gang would spend their days smashing them off the sides of people's cars with a baseball bat
okay hear me out: why don’t electric cars have little wind turbines that recharge the battery while you drive
November 24, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Because Biff Tannen and his gang would spend their days smashing them off the sides of people's cars with a baseball bat
Gavrilo Princip managed to shoot straight on a summer's day in Sarajevo in 1914 and because of that millions died and four empires crumbled.
#Historians of the future might well look on this moment in Ukraine the same.
#Historians of the future might well look on this moment in Ukraine the same.
The American voter was really stupid on a random Tuesday in November and now my country is bleeding out because of a realtor
November 24, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Gavrilo Princip managed to shoot straight on a summer's day in Sarajevo in 1914 and because of that millions died and four empires crumbled.
#Historians of the future might well look on this moment in Ukraine the same.
#Historians of the future might well look on this moment in Ukraine the same.
Reposted by James Crossland
I think it might be partly because we do do Thanksgiving (husband is a US dual national) that I find British retail’s embrace of Black Friday, floating free from any actual holiday, so profoundly dispiriting.
One of the nice things about Thanksgiving is it’s not about buying stuff.
One of the nice things about Thanksgiving is it’s not about buying stuff.
November 24, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I think it might be partly because we do do Thanksgiving (husband is a US dual national) that I find British retail’s embrace of Black Friday, floating free from any actual holiday, so profoundly dispiriting.
One of the nice things about Thanksgiving is it’s not about buying stuff.
One of the nice things about Thanksgiving is it’s not about buying stuff.
Personally, I'm enjoying the additional layer of insanity that AI generated sloppy is bringing to Trump 2.0
This is what rock-bottom polling does to a man with a fragile ego.
November 24, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Personally, I'm enjoying the additional layer of insanity that AI generated sloppy is bringing to Trump 2.0
Reposted by James Crossland
In broad terms, Polanski seems sound.
I just wish he'd get over the naive left-wing blindspot on Russia, and accept that a true democracy has to be willing to fight the enemies that threaten it.
I just wish he'd get over the naive left-wing blindspot on Russia, and accept that a true democracy has to be willing to fight the enemies that threaten it.
I wish we didn’t need a military or military alliances. That would be wonderful. But leaving NATO would make one leader very happy, Putin. He’s already convinced Trump to bar Ukraine and other European countries from joining.
November 23, 2025 at 2:32 PM
In broad terms, Polanski seems sound.
I just wish he'd get over the naive left-wing blindspot on Russia, and accept that a true democracy has to be willing to fight the enemies that threaten it.
I just wish he'd get over the naive left-wing blindspot on Russia, and accept that a true democracy has to be willing to fight the enemies that threaten it.
"We need to return Russia to the mainstream of civilizational development. Towards parliamentary democracy"
From 2014. Interesting and sobering
#russia #news
From 2014. Interesting and sobering
#russia #news
I’ve been looking back at my old Russian newspaper reviews. They highlight how much Russia has changed - and signs of what lay ahead. #ReadingRussia
What the Russian papers used to write about: re-watching my old paper reviews.
YouTube video by Steve Rosenberg
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 9:46 AM
In the niche category of "IRA dad jokes", this is a good one.
Why do Irish dancers only move their legs?
Because their arms have been decommissioned pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement.
Because their arms have been decommissioned pursuant to the Good Friday Agreement.
November 22, 2025 at 9:40 PM
In the niche category of "IRA dad jokes", this is a good one.
Reposted by James Crossland
On 23 November 1990, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was released in the UK. It was the first time that the TMNT had been called the ‘Ninja Turtles’ because the cartoon had been renamed the ‘Hero Turtles’ due to a panic about ninjas in 1980s Britain.
tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/when...
tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/when...
When the Right Tried to Cancel the Turtles
In the 1980s and '90s, successive moral panics about hooliganism and violence on TV culminated in a right-wing campaign against a dangerous social phenomenon: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
tribunemag.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM
On 23 November 1990, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was released in the UK. It was the first time that the TMNT had been called the ‘Ninja Turtles’ because the cartoon had been renamed the ‘Hero Turtles’ due to a panic about ninjas in 1980s Britain.
tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/when...
tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/when...
Reposted by James Crossland
All that time we have spent teaching people what War is.
It now looks like we should have invested more in educating folk in what Peace means.
(Hint: it doesn’t mean a supposed ally blackmailing you into stopping fighting and doing what your enemy wants)
It now looks like we should have invested more in educating folk in what Peace means.
(Hint: it doesn’t mean a supposed ally blackmailing you into stopping fighting and doing what your enemy wants)
November 22, 2025 at 7:39 AM
All that time we have spent teaching people what War is.
It now looks like we should have invested more in educating folk in what Peace means.
(Hint: it doesn’t mean a supposed ally blackmailing you into stopping fighting and doing what your enemy wants)
It now looks like we should have invested more in educating folk in what Peace means.
(Hint: it doesn’t mean a supposed ally blackmailing you into stopping fighting and doing what your enemy wants)
Reposted by James Crossland
IRA guns fall silent, photo by Brendan Murphy, Irish News picture editor and photographer, who died recently.
November 22, 2025 at 7:25 PM
IRA guns fall silent, photo by Brendan Murphy, Irish News picture editor and photographer, who died recently.
Reposted by James Crossland
Truly an inspiration.
November 22, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Truly an inspiration.
Reposted by James Crossland
My favorite moon landing conspiracy is that it was faked but they hired Stanley Kubrick to direct it and he was so dedicated to make it look real he demanded that they shoot on location.
November 21, 2025 at 5:22 PM
My favorite moon landing conspiracy is that it was faked but they hired Stanley Kubrick to direct it and he was so dedicated to make it look real he demanded that they shoot on location.
Reposted by James Crossland
Russia and their new allies’ terms of Ukrainian surrender should immediately be denied by this group of countries.
As Kennan wrote back in 1946:
“Russia is deaf to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of power.”
As Kennan wrote back in 1946:
“Russia is deaf to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of power.”
November 21, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Russia and their new allies’ terms of Ukrainian surrender should immediately be denied by this group of countries.
As Kennan wrote back in 1946:
“Russia is deaf to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of power.”
As Kennan wrote back in 1946:
“Russia is deaf to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of power.”
Reposted by James Crossland
138 years ago #OTD November 21, 1887, the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet - was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Written in 1886, and rejected by a variety of publishers for being either too long or too short,
November 21, 2025 at 4:07 PM
138 years ago #OTD November 21, 1887, the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes - A Study in Scarlet - was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Written in 1886, and rejected by a variety of publishers for being either too long or too short,
Reposted by James Crossland
Latest piece out in @theatlantic.com . Trump's "peace" plan for Ukraine, which he at this very moment trying to force on the country with threats and intimidation, is grotesque. The US president is admitting what too many refused to admit, he wants Putin to win. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump’s Devastating Plan for Ukraine
The White House is giving Putin permission to try again.
www.theatlantic.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Latest piece out in @theatlantic.com . Trump's "peace" plan for Ukraine, which he at this very moment trying to force on the country with threats and intimidation, is grotesque. The US president is admitting what too many refused to admit, he wants Putin to win. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Good start to the weekend
🥂
🥂
November 21, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Good start to the weekend
🥂
🥂