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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 2d

God bless The Church Times for their ongoing insistence on responding moderately but forcefully to the Reverend Canon Nigel Biggar’s nonsense. www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

Even given all that Biggar writes about the universality of slavery and the complicity of Africans, three things might be said. First, Britain played a key part and, however others may want to respond to their own history, it is morally responsible to face up to our own heritage. Second, as a Tory, he might have made more of Burke’s view that society is a partnership not just between the living, but between the living, the dead, and those still to be born. Third, guilt is not the only spur to action. There are the obligations that we owe one another irrespective of any personal responsibility for atrocities in the past.

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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 2d

We have built a society in which people of different skin tones, religious backgrounds & cultures get along, share power, work alongside each other, procreate with each other, recognise the each other’s humanity and democratic rights. It is a STUNNING ACHIEVEMENT OF WORLD HISTORIC PROPORTIONS.

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 3d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Philip Purser-Hallard @purserhallard.com · 10h

But now that the Doctor has been Black, we can read his incarnation with this knowledge as a mixed-race (or, in some sense, partially Black) man passing as white, which potentially gives the cricket obsession and the Edwardian costume a very different significance.

Ncuti Gatwa, a Black man, as the 15th Doctor, circa 2023.

Jo Martin, a Black woman, as the Fugitive Doctor, circa 2020.

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 9h

At least it wasn't as bad *that* shower scene #TheArchers

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Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 10h

Of course, it’s not irrelevant that Lewis wrote LWWW in the aftermath of WWII, and sets it at its beginning (probably), so it’s not entirely surprising that the Witch’s reign of terror has some fascistic touches, but I hadn’t realised how much Ed sounds like someone going fash out of resentment.

Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 11h

Ok, did not expect “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” to feel quite so relevant to this moment.

Here’s Edmund, deciding to side with the leader who he’s been told disappears people.

He did want Turkish Delight and to be a prince (and later a king) and to pay Peter out for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn't want her to be particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn't do anything very bad to them, 'Because,' he said to himself, 'all these people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she'll be better than that awful Aslan!' At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn't a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 9h

Yes I did! So gorgeous

Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 9h

It's concerning that Channel 5 have revived their airfryer fixation. They went through a phase of endless programmes about them. It's not healthy to be that obsessed

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 10h

They're mirroring one another's sleep position which is a good sign I think

Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 10h

Did he have that many to start with? #TheArchers

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 12h

I love the yarn you're working with

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Tom Cutterham @tomcutterham.bsky.social · 14h

In 1776, a Scottish housepainter called James Aitken set out on a secret mission to destroy the British navy and win the War of Independence for the United States. His story is the core of my book, EMPIRE ABLAZE: The American Revolution and the Atlantic Working Class, out next summer with Verso!

The cover of "Empire Ablaze: The American Revolution and the Atlantic Working Class," which features an image of an eighteenth-century building on fire, with small sailing boats visible on a river in the foreground.

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 12h

Well done! Lovely picture of Willow

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 13h

How to succeed in business in the #18C #C18th :
1. Obtain government job awarding government contracts
2. Award the contracts to yourself
3. Make sure that when this is noticed you keep the contracts, but get a different lucrative government job, which technically ends the conflict of interest

🗃

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Jae H @considermycat.bsky.social · 18h

So… smartphones for teenagers are going to be *banned* in schools, but *mandatory* everywhere else. Got it. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Government to consult on digital IDs for 13-year-olds

There has been a backlash to the announcement a UK-wide digital ID scheme will be introduced by 2029.

www.bbc.com

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Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 18h

that speech should sometimes be poetry. For poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible.”

CS Lewis, “Reflections on the Psalms,” on the sayings of Our Lord.

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Eddie Burfi @eddieburfi.bsky.social · 20h

A reminder that 75% of people support a wealth tax.

To the ‘patriots’ saying they’ll leave the country in a strop:

Paying a wealth tax on assets above £10m is not a hardship. You'll still have a fancy house, fancy car and a fancy life.

Patriotic Millionaires know. @patmillsuk.bsky.social

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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 1d

Even now a crack team of Scottish culinary scientists are racing against time to discover a way to deep fry it.

juux @juux.com · 1d

omg part deux

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dave wagner @davewagner.bsky.social · 1d

he won the nobel peace prize for keeping a cowcat away from his sister, try again next year everybody else

An orange and white cat looks proud, capable. He is laying on his little paws

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Duncan Stone @drcricket.bsky.social · 21h

Thanks for all the love for the Luton lads yesterday.

If anyone is interested in the stories behind this (and other pictures), the social and cultural #history of recreational cricket in England reveals a great deal about #class, #race and #society in the UK.

repeaterbooks.com/product/diff...

West Indian cricketer Learie Constantine meeting dignitaries before a Lancashire League match in 1928.

An anti-apartheid protestor is dragged off a cricket field in 1969.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 20h

Have you tried triptans before? Sumatriptan is available over the counter and can work really well at stopping migraines.

Deepest sympathies

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Maggie Blackhawk @maggieblackhawk.bsky.social · 1d

New essay in the Atlantic today: How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution by Ned Blackhawk (with many lessons on how we ended up where we are as a nation, and a gift link) www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

How Native Nations Shaped the Revolution

The Founders were inspired—and threatened—by the independence and self-governance of nations like the Iroquois Confederacy.

www.theatlantic.com

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 21h

When I need a routine, non-urgent dentist appointment they have them available on the day. When I need a more urgent on the day appointment (broken tooth) they have nothing until Wednesday

Please pray there's a cancellation becomes available

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Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 21h

Jarring but salutary to hear Wisdom 15 and be reminded that the lovely antiphon we get in the Christmas liturgy is, in its original context, about the slaying of the first born at the Exodus.
“For while gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,

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Stephanie @stephanieoffer.bsky.social · 21h

Welcome back! Nothing particularly of note that I'm aware of