Artist Jeremy Deller went viral recently with his 'Thank God For Immigrants' posters featuring Wham, but they weren't precisely accurate: George and Andrew were sons of migrants. It explained a lot. My new book Tonight the Music Seems So Loud: the Meaning of George Michael is out soon. sathnam.com
Rather than concentrate on the wildfire war he's just started, Trump is spending his time on the phone with British journalists slagging off Keir Starmer. Their dictation skills turn out to be excellent www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/lab...
Applications are now open for the International Placement Scheme 2026
Funded global research placements at leading cultural institutions for early career researchers and doctoral students - build expertise, networks and policy impact.
Apply by 19 March 2026
More info: www.ukri.org/opportunity/...
Come work with me! We are recruiting for a Head of Comms and Marketing to help us communicate the work of @britishacademy.bsky.social and the power of the humanities and social sciences in making sense of our changing world
app.loxo.co/job/MzM2MzQt...
For #AshWedneday – a few related artworks we found on Art UK 🖼️
1) 'Ash Wednesday' by George Shaw (b.1966) © the artist. 📷 British Council
2) 'Great Gale at Yarmouth on Ash Wednesday' by John Berney Crome (1794–1842) 📷 Norfolk Museum
3) 'lantern slide' by Olive Edis (1876–1955) 📷 Cromer Museum
Useful new report from @rgs.org on the state of geography in HE based on a snapshot survey. Most striking for me are textual responses which suggest larger/Russell Group institutions expect to face similar pressures in the coming year already felt by smaller institutions
www.rgs.org/about-us/our...
They were written to be heard
Congratulations!
The court found Palestine Action’s activities had not yet reached the level, scale and persistence that would justify proscription.
Essaka Joshua’s wonderful study Disability and the Gothic has just been published! Even better, it’s free online from today until the 3rd March 2026:
www.cambridge.org/core/element...
@dalegothic96.bsky.social
@universitypress.cambridge.org
@igagoths.bsky.social
Important work from @keeleuniversity.bsky.social, School of Life Sciences
Lost my phone in London, with four credit cards and £150 cash in the case. Returned to me within 21 minutes. This hellhole of a city eh.
Even if you just read 5 of them, you’ll not regret it!
Late pm, walking in Aston Village near Market Drayton, I could almost believe spring was on its way!
Always loved this sign, techniques were trade and precious
So what is holding us back? Mainly political will
To say I am excited about this would be an understatement. To say I am a little bit terrified would not!
Actually, just really looking forward to it -- and really pleased to see SHARP continuing its accessible practices.
eve.gd/2026/01/10/i...
Macclesfield Town (National League North) beat FA Cup holders Crystal Palace.
First non-league team to beat FA Cup holders in the century since third division added to Football League (1920)
Crystal Palace (Southern League) last did so in 1909 v Wolves
bbc.com/sport/football/videos/cql46e5g552o
Have a #painting. "The Long Walk II" My Galway city painting that I'll never tired of telling people it prompted a friend's young son to ask why there were giraffes walking down the street, and ever since that's all any of us can see. It hangs in his home. He's a man now. #art #JanuArty #SpeirGhorm
The fact that I misread this as ‘oat cakes’ is an indication that I have been around North Staffordshire for a long time
A new era for ceramics?
As the only historic place-based industrial cluster of significant scale in the UK, the Potteries is ideally positioned to help the government deliver several of the ‘IS-8’ growth-driving sectors set out in its Modern Industrial Strategy.
A world without a world order is a much greater problem for Europe than for any other economy of the world.
It is snowing steadily in North Shropshire
Landmark legislation
Doubtless the wave is supposed to be pleasure-producing surfer’s paradise: but the lumpy political unconscious of this disturbing image should surely recast it as a tsunami
A post about pirate book archives, their inevitable demises, and continuity and complexity of catalogues as new sites emerge. (As well as musings on the challenge of resourcing and financing such illegal [in many jurisdictions] operations at the scale that is needed.)
eve.gd/2026/01/01/t...
Nice post on Arnold’s legacy, possibly for Gramsci. Not sure he was one of the most attractive cultural critics (in my book, anyway) but very important
