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Matthew Kelly

@matthewjkelly.bsky.social

2.9K followers 810 following 170 posts

Historian of Britain & Ireland at Northumbria University. Beginning new work on the history of ornithology in twentieth-century Britain.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · Dec 23

We can all identify with this harassed fella. ‘The Minor Official’ from George Birmingham’s ‘Irishmen All’ (1913). Illustration by Jack B. Yeats.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 2d

This is from the Addison Report on National Parks (1931).

He was not wrong.

Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 4d

This is a very clear account of how government policy has already reduced access to degrees in History & other SHAPE subjects for members of marginalised communities and how new moves risk making matters worse still.

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 4d

This week, the Society's President Lucy Noakes wrote in response to Bridget Phillipson's Labour conference speech - and its implications for history and the humanities in UK higher education bit.ly/3KBX7Fw

#Skystorians

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d

I hear the echoes of Dangerfield…

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d

A strand in the historiography suggests that the argument for enfranchising woman had been won by the 1910s, but the politics at Westminster- Tory opposition, actively hostile Liberal PM - didn’t allow the passage of a bill.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d

This is the key article:

academic.oup.com/ehr/article-...

An Examination of Suffragette Violence

Abstract. This article offers the first fully researched analysis of political violence on the part of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and it

academic.oup.com

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d

Sorry, just seen your longer thread. You got it covered!

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 5d

Interesting / troubling. Not read the report. Are they claiming biodiversity gains bc brings some of that intensively farmed field into the development? Need cast iron guarantees no additional pollution impact on river, stretch falls within development. Much increased footfall, plus dogs & cats.

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Reposted by Matthew Kelly

Northumbria History @northumbriahistory.bsky.social · 6d

📖 Forthcoming this month, a new book from our colleague, Dr Gareth Roddy (@grod.bsky.social), "Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880-1940." Pre-order your copy now from @uolpress.bsky.social!
uolpress.co.uk/book/atlanti...

Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940 - University of London Press

The west has long gripped the imagination. In Atlantic Isles, Gareth Roddy examines the cultural and political prominence of the ‘westward gaze’, which flourished in late-nineteenth century Britain an...

uolpress.co.uk

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

I agree with all of this, Philip!

Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

There’s a lot in this reading, yes, though all front rank politicians have to be ruthlessly ambitious. I don’t see enrichment as the motive. In short, I’m less out of sympathy with the guy.

Blair. Gaza. Just wild.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

I entirely see your point. This shouldn’t be about whether my/our ilk like Starmer but whether he can lead that bulwark. That‘s what worrying. I’m entirely pragmatic abt British politics. What will keep the Right out, given the choices we actually have? No answer to that question excludes the LP.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

This government, not Starmer, has to succeed.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

It’s just not his bag.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

He cannot articulate himself because he doesn’t have the intellectual resources to draw on, traditions of political thought, of ideas, of coherent ways of positioning oneself politically. He‘s not stupid, he’s not cynical, and he‘s certainly sincere.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

Starmer is a puzzle but here’s a take. Someone of immense abilities but a useless politician, not flawed-they all are-but useless. His talents, his legal mind, are just not of use. He doesn’t have the language, the discourse, the ideas, to lead a renewal of social democracy. A fundamental lack.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

I’m kinda messing of course, but as a SWesterner in the NE, definitely sense I now have to stick it out for a few more weeks…

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 11d

And in a northern academic exile, fucking March too.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 12d

Pleasure. Just a little ushering.

Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 12d

A must-read for environmental historians, labour historians, & historians of embodiment, trade, Britain, the Thames, and more.

Conceptually ambitious & a really good story with an unexpected & dramatic denouement.

#envhist

Past and Present @pastpresentsoc.bsky.social · 12d

New on advance access: "Bodies, Tides, Timber, and the Global History of London’s Docks, 1860–1928"

by Simeon Koole (@uobrishistory.bsky.social) and @benmechen.bsky.social (@uclhistory.bsky.social)

#OpenAccess

doi.org/10.1093/past...

Bodies, Tides, Timber, and the Global History of London’s Docks, 1860–1928*

Abstract. This article examines changes in the bodies and environment of labourers carrying timber imported into London’s docks in the 1860s to the 1920s t

doi.org

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 13d

But I don’t want to exaggerate, we largely enjoyed it & don’t have the developed palate of Jay Rayner!

Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 13d

I can imagine that. But in our case, being moved from the palm court into a near empty dining room was a bit of atmosphere killer!

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 13d

The dinner wasn’t that great, and he’s right about the mannered service. Too much a performance by inexperienced staff. Pre-dinner cocktails in the lounge was fun—it’s a gorgeous room.

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 13d

Enjoyed that. Really interesting. Had dinner there this summer. Fun, bit daft, owners on site, mucking in. Got impression they weren‘t entirely convinced a good use of their money, but plenty to burn…

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Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 15d

Responses kinda fascinating. Does this land differently if rather than coded as Tory, the question is what do you love that’s coded as Conservative?

The Ineffable Horror of Joe Muggs @joemuggs.bsky.social · 15d

What’s the most Tory-coded thing you actively love?

Me: Essex. Elgar. Country pubs.

Matthew Kelly @matthewjkelly.bsky.social · 16d

By good, I mean some kind of genius himself.