Saavan Chavda

Hi Ben! Likewise thank you for following me. I am currently writing a chapter about Prince Lebuu, the East India Company and local identity which I am enjoying very much! I am looking forward to reading your latest article - Rotherhithe is such a fascinating place to research. :)

Imagine discovering that the entire structure of state secondary education was about to collapse, and musing "Ah well, we'll always have Eton, Harrow and Winchester..."

This is basically how the political class thinks about higher education.

Devastatingly sad.
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support

Stephen Lawrence’s mother claims Daily Mail ‘pretended’ to support her Baroness Lawrence, who is suing Associated Newspapers, said she believed the newspaper ran its campaign seeking ‘credibility for supporting a black family’

It’s an indication of how the right wing has rehabilitated racism that, in the 2010s, the Daily Mail thought it would gain credibility by appearing to back a Black family seeking justice. Now it seeks credibility by being as overtly racist as possible.

www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Arsenal fans can be very annoying online but I don't think there's any other fanbase that gets as frequently and purposefully provoked by the British media. And also very indicative of how most journalists seem to live on twitter and so compile all their opinions from how people act on there

He earns £500,000 per day. That's £100,000-a-day for every rape and sexual assault accusation that's made it into the public domain since he was 19.

Margot Robbie is wearing Mughal queen Nur Jahan's necklace. It was gifted by her husband King Jahangir (r. 1605-1627), Akbar's son. Cartier acquired it (harummmph). Cartier's president later gifted it to Liz Taylor..blah blah.

Colonial loot around your neck.
'The obliterated shall be remembered'.

Calls for King Charles to formally apologise for slavery after research shows crown’s role Book The Crown’s Silence details how crown profited from and protected trade in enslaved African people for centuries

MPs, experts & campaigners have called on King Charles to make a formal apology for transatlantic slavery, after research in THE CROWN’S SILENCE highlighted how the British crown & Royal Navy extended & protected the trade in enslaved African people for centuries. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...

The UK edition of the crown silence, out now!

Happy 🇬🇧 UK pub day to THE CROWN’S SILENCE—a deeply researched narrative history of the monarchy’s centuries-long entanglement with slavery. This is the new history book the far right loathes. Please buy it b/c it’s important history but—also—it will really piss them off if it does well in the UK!!😉😘

A reminder that racist historian David Starkey, said in 2020:
"Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there? An awful lot of them survived."
He's speaking at this year's How The Light Gets In festival.

Two-thirds of UK voters wrongly think immigration is rising, poll finds Exclusive: Voters say they have little confidence that government can control borders despite sharp falls in net migration

This is why the Government's strategy is doomed. The British public's view of immigration is completely disconnected from reality, and copying the last government by pursuing increasingly vicious crackdowns on legal migration is delivering the same outcome.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

one takeaway from the grok noncon porn thing is that much of the media just isn't interested in an issue they can't pretend has two sides or that doesn't give them an opportunity to shit on the left. Also it would be uncomfortable to justify remaining on twitter after acknowledging it

Y chromosomes in women who had given birth to sons. An extraordinary aspect of pregnancy. Also yet another indication of the complicated nature of our genetic makeup that does not fit within the binary oversimplifications of so many people peddling hatred as biological law.

Kidnapping the leader of a foreign state without any declaration of war and announcing it via social media is full-on rogue state stuff. From the world’s number one superpower.

Farage chose Greenwich as the green screen backdrop for his divisive pitch because of its naval and imperial associations. Between 1824 and 1841, 45 Black sailors were admitted to its hospital. From Africa, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, they are an integral part of British history & identity.

Yes she was an animal rights activist, but we should honour the dead by highlighting *all* their activism. Bardot faced French courts five times and was convicted on each occasion for “incitement to racial hatred”, and she called Muslims “invaders” who are “destroying us, destroying our country”.

The bit that gets missed in the scandal around Farage's schooldays is that his school made him a prefect - despite warnings from staff about his conduct.

It's a recurring theme for Trump, Johnson, Farage & co. We can't be surprised at the way they behave, when their behavior is constantly rewarded.

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."

- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.

Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!

Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

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:

More than half of ethnic minority Brits say the England flag has now become a racist symbol, with Brits of all colours now tending to say the raising of the flag is mostly about expressing anti-migrant, or anti ethnic-minority sentiment

NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’ Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust

Flag raisers have complained they’re misunderstood. Their real intention was the benign expression of national pride. No hint of racism. Since they’re well-intentioned I wonder how many will take them down once they know how they’re seen by NHS workers?

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

FIFA head says 'you will see' at World Cup draw if Trump receives new peace prize FIFA has announced the creation of a peace prize, which it plans to award for the first time at the World Cup draw on Dec. 5 in Washington.

Trump has threatened to bomb or invade 7 countries with a shot to play in the 2026 World Cup. He *has* bombed one (Iran) and said he'd deny them visas. He's preparing for war with another (Venezuela). He has summarily executed citizens from at least 3. He has imposed tariffs on nearly all of them.

A post on Reddit that asks an important question:

Why is there so much anti-indian sentiment/racism in London?

Today, i was walking past a group of white 20yr olds in Soho and one of them said 'this isn't india, get out'.

Blood spilled in Sudan can be seen from space. Nobody can feign ignorance about what’s going on | Nesrine Malik The massacres carried out by the RSF in El Fasher, Darfur, with the support of its UAE sponsors, will only stop when the international community acts, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

This from @nesrinemalik.bsky.social is a clear and horrifying explanation of the atrocities underway in El Fasher. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...