Alan Lester
@alanlester.bsky.social
British Empire Professor, University of Sussex. Co-editor, MUP Studies in Imperialism series. Views here own.
Blogs on politics of colonial history here: https://alanlester.co.uk Editor https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-truth-about-empire/
Blogs on politics of colonial history here: https://alanlester.co.uk Editor https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-truth-about-empire/
Another patriotic Brexit ally (who lives in a French Chateau) implicated in Russian bribes. Feeling the heat Farage?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 28, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Another patriotic Brexit ally (who lives in a French Chateau) implicated in Russian bribes. Feeling the heat Farage?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
5. Recycle the pretexts that British colonists at the time used to launch unprovoked invasions. The point of the Ijebu invasion was not that the state broke a trade agreement but that it would not allow aggressive British traders to usurp its control. Quote on right from Lugard.
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
5. Recycle the pretexts that British colonists at the time used to launch unprovoked invasions. The point of the Ijebu invasion was not that the state broke a trade agreement but that it would not allow aggressive British traders to usurp its control. Quote on right from Lugard.
4. Create straw men. Olusoga could not have been any clearer that Mountain Horse was a volunteer. This criticism suggests utter desperation to find something - anything - to criticise!
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
4. Create straw men. Olusoga could not have been any clearer that Mountain Horse was a volunteer. This criticism suggests utter desperation to find something - anything - to criticise!
3. Berate the presenter for sticking to historical realities rather than myths Britain had not introduced democracy anywhere before the end of empire and there was no thought of developing colonies until 1929, even then based on loans with interest.
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
3. Berate the presenter for sticking to historical realities rather than myths Britain had not introduced democracy anywhere before the end of empire and there was no thought of developing colonies until 1929, even then based on loans with interest.
2. Pretend that you have consulted expert historians who accuse Olusoga of being an activist when the reality is the reverse. As ever, it is the private right wing lobbying company History Reclaimed who supply what insubstantial critique there is.
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
2. Pretend that you have consulted expert historians who accuse Olusoga of being an activist when the reality is the reverse. As ever, it is the private right wing lobbying company History Reclaimed who supply what insubstantial critique there is.
1. They didn’t bother to watch it all because they knew how they were going to attack it regardless. Maybe no one will pick up in the fact that it doesn’t actually end with WWI but extends into the 1950s.
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
1. They didn’t bother to watch it all because they knew how they were going to attack it regardless. Maybe no one will pick up in the fact that it doesn’t actually end with WWI but extends into the 1950s.
1/5 It was entirely predictable that The Telegraph would jump on @DavidOlusoga’s Empire series to fight its right wing culture war for control of our public history. Let’s see what they’ve done:
November 27, 2025 at 8:28 AM
1/5 It was entirely predictable that The Telegraph would jump on @DavidOlusoga’s Empire series to fight its right wing culture war for control of our public history. Let’s see what they’ve done:
I don’t think this Telegraph contributor has actually watched the Empire series by @davidolusoga.bsky.social that he’s attacking. He suggests Olusoga focuses only on atrocities such as Amritsar, when that massacre wasn’t mentioned, and gets the date range wrong, saying it ends with WWI.
November 26, 2025 at 9:43 PM
I don’t think this Telegraph contributor has actually watched the Empire series by @davidolusoga.bsky.social that he’s attacking. He suggests Olusoga focuses only on atrocities such as Amritsar, when that massacre wasn’t mentioned, and gets the date range wrong, saying it ends with WWI.
All things considered, a sensible budget that might just allow for lower debt repayments and future growth. Very unlikely that the baying Tories who still insist on treating voters like simpletons and the economically illiterate Reform could have pulled this off.
November 26, 2025 at 6:56 PM
All things considered, a sensible budget that might just allow for lower debt repayments and future growth. Very unlikely that the baying Tories who still insist on treating voters like simpletons and the economically illiterate Reform could have pulled this off.
Both in @thetimes.com today. There you go Daniel.
November 26, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Both in @thetimes.com today. There you go Daniel.
Great to see this out in the world
November 24, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Great to see this out in the world
This is a political figure closely tied to the leader of the party leading in the polls taking instructions from the state that is waging hybrid warfare against our nation. It is portent of a calamitous threat to Britain.
November 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM
This is a political figure closely tied to the leader of the party leading in the polls taking instructions from the state that is waging hybrid warfare against our nation. It is portent of a calamitous threat to Britain.
This is the calibre of Reform’s intellectual heavyweights. Admiration for the USA’s gun laws.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
November 22, 2025 at 7:32 PM
This is the calibre of Reform’s intellectual heavyweights. Admiration for the USA’s gun laws.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
He’s been revealed as an unapologetic racist antisemite at school, he took political & financial advice from Epstein, his partner’s house ownership looks like tax avoidance and his Welsh wingman was working for the Russians. Any chance any other party leader would still be in post with all this?
November 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
He’s been revealed as an unapologetic racist antisemite at school, he took political & financial advice from Epstein, his partner’s house ownership looks like tax avoidance and his Welsh wingman was working for the Russians. Any chance any other party leader would still be in post with all this?
November 20, 2025 at 8:06 AM
If you happen to be in Exeter on Friday …
November 18, 2025 at 9:00 PM
If you happen to be in Exeter on Friday …
While so-called “patriots” are arguing for the BBC to pay billions to Trump, I think that if any such sums are to flow overseas for reparation, they should help the Caribbean build resilience in the face of climate change.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
November 16, 2025 at 11:08 AM
While so-called “patriots” are arguing for the BBC to pay billions to Trump, I think that if any such sums are to flow overseas for reparation, they should help the Caribbean build resilience in the face of climate change.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
If it weren’t so serious there would be something very funny about conservatives who supposedly uphold patriotic values and the sanctity of the family shrieking that fellow Britons should pay their BBC license fees to a foreign millionaire found liable for sexual abuse.
November 16, 2025 at 9:07 AM
If it weren’t so serious there would be something very funny about conservatives who supposedly uphold patriotic values and the sanctity of the family shrieking that fellow Britons should pay their BBC license fees to a foreign millionaire found liable for sexual abuse.
Trump’s decision to sue the BBC is exposing the Rabid Right’s hypocrisy. For all their flag waving, its extremists would rather side with a foreign despot who shares their fanatically anti-progressive doctrines than with a British institution that most of their compatriots cherish.
November 16, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Trump’s decision to sue the BBC is exposing the Rabid Right’s hypocrisy. For all their flag waving, its extremists would rather side with a foreign despot who shares their fanatically anti-progressive doctrines than with a British institution that most of their compatriots cherish.
Would you rather pay £174.50 to make Donald Trump richer still or to watch Strictly, Call the Midwife, & Traitors, & listen to BBC Radio 2? If you want the bullying narcissist to get the whole of next year’s BBC budget you have the UK’s right wing media mafia to thank.
November 15, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Would you rather pay £174.50 to make Donald Trump richer still or to watch Strictly, Call the Midwife, & Traitors, & listen to BBC Radio 2? If you want the bullying narcissist to get the whole of next year’s BBC budget you have the UK’s right wing media mafia to thank.
2/5 The group of 59 hard right Tories had been founded the previous year to lead a backlash against Black Lives Matter & undermine the @nationaltrust’s attempts to reveal properties’ colonial connections.
November 13, 2025 at 8:11 AM
2/5 The group of 59 hard right Tories had been founded the previous year to lead a backlash against Black Lives Matter & undermine the @nationaltrust’s attempts to reveal properties’ colonial connections.
How do Lenny Henry’s arguments for reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery stand up to Lord Biggar’s arguments against them? Head-to-head review here:
November 12, 2025 at 8:13 AM
How do Lenny Henry’s arguments for reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery stand up to Lord Biggar’s arguments against them? Head-to-head review here: