Yes, I like that one.

Wrote a lil bit for the Clarion about Speedwell House, for those of you who saw my posts on it the other day! Am I ready for Serious Historians to call me ridiculous? Yes. Did I have a lot of fun writing it? Also yes

On the other hand, I uploaded an anonymous report I'd written for a journal to the chatbot to ask it who it thought was the author, & it hummed & hawed, produced a pretty sensible shortlist, & then said it was most likely by me, with some of the evidence being the "dry sense of humour" it detected.

Kakakania!

Habsburgs in space!

Oh how splendid.

(Both in 2023 and 2025 our Summer travel plans were affected by suboptimal rail connections through Serbia.)

A reminder of how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party in 1983, an era featuring much more widespread racial prejudice in the public, approached the issue of race and national identity:

‘The theme of exile guides the utilitarian design of the new show. Around a hundred archaeological finds from Gaza are laid out in a ground-floor bunker space, complete with strip lights, cold grey-blue walls and chilly steel benches.’

@josephinequinn.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

It's odd to think that, at 45, Kemi Badenoch is one of the very youngest Tory voters of all.

One of the conspirators who helped Gavrilo Princip shoot Archduke Franz Ferdinand survived to see the breakup of Yugoslavia. He could conceivably have watched the Neighbours episode where Scott and Charlene got married

Extremely disappointed to discover that the Marc Bloch Chair at the University of Strasbourg is alas not called the Chaise Longue Durée.

Something oddly cathartic about Kemi Badenoch making insane policy pledges

Some Uneasy Thoughts on Foucault and Machiavelli
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

The existence of the Great Barrier Reef implies the existence of the Great Barry Reef

Oh, they are fully cooked. a. Mel Stride as Shadow Chancellor?! and b. If you can't round up the faithful at your own conference...

We're pleased to announce that our Inaugural Craig J. Calhoun Prize for an Outstanding Thesis in Sociology has been awarded to @sachahilhorst.bsky.social. Her thesis investigated the shifting politics of ex-mining and manufacturing towns in the Midlands.

Read more about the prize 👇

The tax *cuts* coming in the November budget?

Describe your Bluesky account in a single image.

Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.”

“But we can open the box,” said Toad.

“That is true,” said Frog.

Bertie is a good cat.

(Years ago it was the wolf howling in the little ads for Newsnight that would set my parents' cat on edge.)

I wouldn’t normally endorse AI prompts but these are indeed essential for all academics.

Indeed, it really is ridiculous how much it needs restating that it is the cost of living and services that are central here. This is why these voters elected Labour; it’s why they’re pissed off.

Attn @moonbroth.bsky.social.