Peter Mitchell
@pdkmitchell.bsky.social
'Imperial Nostalgia' (MUP, 2021) / more books just as soon as I'm let / I do @LortBurnSpecials.bsky.social and am bald and very handsome
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
scottish librarians, academics, writers etc see below
I'm glad to have signed this statement in support of queer and trans staff at the National Library of Scotland, who by the sounds of it are going through an awful time at the moment: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
November 20, 2025 at 11:25 AM
scottish librarians, academics, writers etc see below
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
Angry, frustrated or just plain bewildered by the latest government asylum system proposals?
You're not alone. Read our CEO, Duncan's thoughts over on our website today - then please support our Stand With Refugee Families appeal 🧡
tinyurl.com/muce5fep
You're not alone. Read our CEO, Duncan's thoughts over on our website today - then please support our Stand With Refugee Families appeal 🧡
tinyurl.com/muce5fep
tinyurl.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Angry, frustrated or just plain bewildered by the latest government asylum system proposals?
You're not alone. Read our CEO, Duncan's thoughts over on our website today - then please support our Stand With Refugee Families appeal 🧡
tinyurl.com/muce5fep
You're not alone. Read our CEO, Duncan's thoughts over on our website today - then please support our Stand With Refugee Families appeal 🧡
tinyurl.com/muce5fep
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
Given it’s taking 7, 8 up to 23 years to make some determinations this actually had me laughing out loud in the absolute certainty this this is undeliverable on every level. It’s a broken policy on inception. The bureaucracy alone is unworkable.
It will also mean people's refugee status will be reviewed every 2 and half years. If this policy was in place now, that would mean the Home Office having at least another 67k decisions to process over the next year (the number of initial decision grants made between April 2023 and March 2024)
Shabana Mahmood has vowed to end Britain’s “golden ticket” for asylum seekers by forcing people arriving illegally to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement
November 17, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Given it’s taking 7, 8 up to 23 years to make some determinations this actually had me laughing out loud in the absolute certainty this this is undeliverable on every level. It’s a broken policy on inception. The bureaucracy alone is unworkable.
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
I for one am quite glad my family was not told to go back to Bialystok or Kyiv when they were "safe" in 1922.
November 15, 2025 at 8:54 AM
I for one am quite glad my family was not told to go back to Bialystok or Kyiv when they were "safe" in 1922.
I guess that's a no
November 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I guess that's a no
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
'Prof Nicola Ranger, the union’s general secretary, said: “A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.' 1/2
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:28 AM
'Prof Nicola Ranger, the union’s general secretary, said: “A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.' 1/2
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
November 10, 2025 at 5:01 PM
I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.
Going to Nairobi next week. Very much not there for fun, but if anyone has any good advice or knows nice places to eat / relax (I'm staying in Westlands) I'm open to recommendations
November 8, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Going to Nairobi next week. Very much not there for fun, but if anyone has any good advice or knows nice places to eat / relax (I'm staying in Westlands) I'm open to recommendations
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
wonder if this could have anything to do with the British press running a 24/7 hate campaign where typically a single newspaper might contain 3 anti-trans stories *a day*
"The wide-ranging polling on attitudes also suggested the proportion of the public feeling transgender rights have gone "too far" has more than doubled in five years" I WISH there was a follow-up question as to what new trans rights they think have come in over say, I dunno, the last 15 years?
November 8, 2025 at 4:57 PM
wonder if this could have anything to do with the British press running a 24/7 hate campaign where typically a single newspaper might contain 3 anti-trans stories *a day*
Seen that video of a hundred-year-old veteran weeping over his lost country and being comforted by the 'D-Day Darlings' in a poppy-bedecked morning TV studio? Assailed by a profound sense of unease? Of distaste? Of dread, even? Allow me to make it worse: tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...
After Captain Tom
The cultural memory of the Second World War has long been used to serve the interests of British conservatism. But now that the long post-war compact is over, has its meaning evaporated completely?
tribunemag.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Seen that video of a hundred-year-old veteran weeping over his lost country and being comforted by the 'D-Day Darlings' in a poppy-bedecked morning TV studio? Assailed by a profound sense of unease? Of distaste? Of dread, even? Allow me to make it worse: tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...
someone described my cat as "unsexy" the other day and I'm still fucking furious tbqhwy
November 3, 2025 at 5:00 PM
someone described my cat as "unsexy" the other day and I'm still fucking furious tbqhwy
The lads at @neheritagelib.bsky.social do excellent work and I'm very chuffed to be representing @nenature.bsky.social in this year's NE History Compendium
October 29, 2025 at 10:22 AM
The lads at @neheritagelib.bsky.social do excellent work and I'm very chuffed to be representing @nenature.bsky.social in this year's NE History Compendium
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
Correct your maps: Newcastle is Mitteleuropa
LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 happened and it was great
keep yr eyes peeled for LORT BURN SPECIALS: 4
LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 happened and it was great
keep yr eyes peeled for LORT BURN SPECIALS: 4
October 19, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Correct your maps: Newcastle is Mitteleuropa
LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 happened and it was great
keep yr eyes peeled for LORT BURN SPECIALS: 4
LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 happened and it was great
keep yr eyes peeled for LORT BURN SPECIALS: 4
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
"You need not wipe your knife to cut bread for the table, because in cutting a slice or two it will wipe itself." Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants.
I never wash our bread knife – and I won’t let the internet shame me into changing my ways | Emma Beddington
I never wash our bread knife – and I won’t let the internet shame me into changing my ways | Emma Beddington
Apparently the mostly British habit of not cleaning your bread knife after use is ‘gross’ and unhygienic. If that’s true, then call me disgusting, writes Emma Beddington
www.theguardian.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"You need not wipe your knife to cut bread for the table, because in cutting a slice or two it will wipe itself." Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants.
I'm leaving my day job soon, but one of the cool things about it has been helping midwife stuff like this excellent blog on the Hancock Museum condor, a bird kidnapped from Chile in the 1880s who spent the rest of her life being gawped at by Geordies and glumly trying to bite children's fingers off
Did you know that Great North Museum: Hancock once had its own live condor? Us neither, until our brilliant volunteer Julia found it in our Society Transactions: www.nhsn.org.uk/that-condor-...
That Condor Moment
NHSN library and archive volunteer Julia Black explores the life and legacy of the Hancock Museum's very own condor While preparing the Summary for one of the recently digitised NHSN Transactions, I w...
www.nhsn.org.uk
October 20, 2025 at 1:28 PM
I'm leaving my day job soon, but one of the cool things about it has been helping midwife stuff like this excellent blog on the Hancock Museum condor, a bird kidnapped from Chile in the 1880s who spent the rest of her life being gawped at by Geordies and glumly trying to bite children's fingers off
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
Best wishes to Christian in seeking treatment for his *checks diagnostic manual* racism
October 18, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Best wishes to Christian in seeking treatment for his *checks diagnostic manual* racism
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
They are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance.
October 19, 2025 at 10:47 PM
They are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance.
oh no
Betting firm threatens to end its entire High St presence if it has to pay any more tax bit.ly/4qhaL1j yet another in the too rich and too important to pay tax series
If gambling tax rises, we’ll shut all our 1,300 shops, warns Betfred
Increased levies expected to be imposed in next month’s budget could cost the company 7,000 jobs, according to Joanne Whittaker, the chief executive
bit.ly
October 19, 2025 at 1:32 PM
oh no
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
back in 2016 I was at some event and got introduced to Goodwin; he found out I worked for the Londoner's Diary and proceeded to follow me round the room like a puppy for the rest of the night, throwing quips in my direction in the hope of being quoted in the paper the next day
Wrote a piece on Matthew Goodwin for the latest issue of @prospectmagazine.co.uk.
What led a promising academic to throw it all away in the name of becoming a propagandist for the radical right?
What led a promising academic to throw it all away in the name of becoming a propagandist for the radical right?
October 19, 2025 at 9:07 AM
back in 2016 I was at some event and got introduced to Goodwin; he found out I worked for the Londoner's Diary and proceeded to follow me round the room like a puppy for the rest of the night, throwing quips in my direction in the hope of being quoted in the paper the next day
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
As many of you know, I collect Haitian art. The most famous painting in my collection is Frantz Zephirin’s *The Slave Ship Brooks*, which has been exhibited around the world, including the 2022 Venice Biennale. Here are photos of the painting and of Frantz when he had just completed it.
October 17, 2025 at 11:13 AM
As many of you know, I collect Haitian art. The most famous painting in my collection is Frantz Zephirin’s *The Slave Ship Brooks*, which has been exhibited around the world, including the 2022 Venice Biennale. Here are photos of the painting and of Frantz when he had just completed it.
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
This is today!
If you show up to buy a ticket on the door, you will be asked to buy one online.
Skip that step and buy one before you leave the house.
🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/venu...
If you show up to buy a ticket on the door, you will be asked to buy one online.
Skip that step and buy one before you leave the house.
🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/venu...
October 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM
This is today!
If you show up to buy a ticket on the door, you will be asked to buy one online.
Skip that step and buy one before you leave the house.
🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/venu...
If you show up to buy a ticket on the door, you will be asked to buy one online.
Skip that step and buy one before you leave the house.
🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/venu...
Reposted by Peter Mitchell
I've been covering this story for the last three years and it's so frustrating how little people seem to care given the scale of what's happened at Teesworks.
This report is superb, and lays it all out. It covers eight pages, but could easily cover more.
I really recommend this.
This report is superb, and lays it all out. It covers eight pages, but could easily cover more.
I really recommend this.
It certainly could, as our eight-page SPECIAL REPORT sets out in full, financially unsound detail in the new Private Eye, out now.
🧵3/3
🧵3/3
October 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM
I've been covering this story for the last three years and it's so frustrating how little people seem to care given the scale of what's happened at Teesworks.
This report is superb, and lays it all out. It covers eight pages, but could easily cover more.
I really recommend this.
This report is superb, and lays it all out. It covers eight pages, but could easily cover more.
I really recommend this.
In some canny good company in the GNM: Hancock library
October 15, 2025 at 1:44 PM
In some canny good company in the GNM: Hancock library