Euan Healey

19 May 2025

Big day to be a fisheries historian (fishtorian). Big day. When it comes to oily fish, the export market has always been the focus of British commerical fishing. Prior to the First World War, British fishing was dominated by the North Sea herring fishing; herring outweighed every other fish (1/?)

Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social

The odd thing about UK fisheries is that we export a lot of mackerel and import a lot of cod and haddock. When did this start? Once upon a time did we eat a lot of mackerel?

Dudes rock

Alex Partridge@alexpartridge87.bsky.social

Transport nerds never change, please (via @londoncentric.media)

16h

Looking to refresh my podcast feed to be a bit more stimulating - what are you enjoying at the moment? Especially anything which is doing cultural criticism (especially film, or culture writ large), or current affairs in an interesting way, or are generally thoughtful/thought provoking.

@patchthompson.bsky.social

16h

I'm not really interested in comedians who have podcasts with no format and are just for yapping, I have my fill of those. Also not really interested in history podcasts unless you know of one that's particularly good (not to mention critical)

Euan Healey reposted

Patch Thompson

Always fun to see who gets to just repay stuff like this, isn't it? Also, over five grand in two years of travel expenses for a PhD student? Very droll.

Euan Healey reposted

Disney Prime Video + ᵖᵃʳᵒᵈʸ

@disneyprimevideo.bsky.social

Replying to @alexfirer.bsky.social

Bluesky has four kinds of users

@petergeoghegan.bsky.social

Viva Србија, viva Brasil, viva every country where fascists are losing

Euan Healey reposted

Peter Geoghegan

First Orban, now Vučić. Both fundamentally undone by rank corruption of their regimes. Which is so often the reality of the authoritarian right in power. Really worth paying heed to in Western Europe right now

Peter Geoghegan@petergeoghegan.bsky.social

Wow. Vučić has conceded Serbian election. Massive moment for the entire Balkans

I have eaten the emergency stockpile that was in my house and which andy burnham told me to save for the emergency Forgive me they were beans so baked and so beany

His point about Brits in the 00s and 10s not needing free migration to leave for work so not seeing its benefits is timely. I don't think our politics right now speaks at all to just how many young people are leaving the UK because of the poor state of the job market - it feels quite bad!

Matthew Holehouse@matthewholehouse.bsky.social

A possible Zeitenwende from Burnham to Ben Riley-Smith: open to freedom of movement, no to the euro or Schengen

Blockbuster 1v2 today

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Thistle are playing into a 20mph headwind at this point

Wee bit wet

Blockbuster 1v2 today

Conditions are dire, but they are mince on real wet grass

bbc.co.ukEdinburgh v Johannesburg Lions - Rugby Union - BBC SportFind out all the scorers and match details for Edinburgh v Johannesburg Lions in the United Rugby Championship on BBC Sport

I love the URC's two-game tour system because, and no (some) disrespect to Edinburgh, I get to spend a full week thinking "yeah we are going to absolutely mince these lads" before inevitably being humbled by a ropey opening 20

Euan Healey reposted

It’s fun that you can now look at basically any nonsense being peddled by a major party and pinpoint its cause to a particular social media site. This is Facebook nonsense, for example.

Euan Healey@euanhealey.bsky.social

I'm sorry I actually can't get over Plaid Cymru trying to ban new electricity pylons. Utterly ridiculous tinpottery.

bbc.co.ukWales could ban steel pylons as government launches consultationThe Welsh government says it is consulting on an "undergrounding-first approach" to electricity lines.

I'm sorry I actually can't get over Plaid Cymru trying to ban new electricity pylons. Utterly ridiculous tinpottery.

Euan Healey reposted

Thomas I-G

@thomasig.bsky.social

Tom James@tacj.bsky.social

Wales plans to ban steel pylons as government launches consultation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ft.com‘Relentless’ cost of living pressures behind collapse in UK consumer confidenceIndex measuring how people view their finances and economic prospects suffers largest monthly drop since onset of Covid in 2020

Huge props to the picture editor who illustrated this article with a picture of the mural of Sam Allardyce eating orange chips

The uncropped mural:

bbc.co.ukTen Ashfield Independent councillors quit after leader's fraud convictionJason Zadrozny was found guilty of defrauding the county council out of thousands of pounds.

Jason Zadrozny? I haven't heard that name in years

theguardian.comUS judge orders Trump to sit for deposition in $10bn lawsuit against BBCJudge threatens to dismiss Trump’s BBC lawsuit unless he cooperates with discovery process and sits for deposition

What happens when a president perjures himself, coming up at 5

General Boles@generalboles.bsky.social

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA *breathes* HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

theguardian.comBBC News to axe education editor role in cost-cutting moveFears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position will also go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m

I really think that the move from specialist journalism to generalist journalism is an underrated upstream cause of a lot of our news environment, discourse and politics problems. Death of local news is real too but the death of specialist news has created a neglect at the heart of our media.

Michael Savage@michaelsavage.bsky.social

NEW: BBC will no longer have a dedicated education editor as part of proposal that will see 100 jobs go across BBC News. School leaders call the plan “deeply regrettable” and ask for a rethink. Education/Social affairs editor jobs being combined. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/o...

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The struggle to make news publications profitable is, naturally, at the heart of this - and a cultural struggle to get people to pay for news reporting that matters. (I should say I have an experience of trying to freelance for a bit, but journalists may fairly tell me I'm talking out of my arse)

This kinda stuff will happen when you don't have strong cyber requirement as a job rec for your cyber posts (which ofc you have to be willing to pay for!). It's a kind of stealth gutting of specialist reporting? You keep the title but not the skills.

Mic Wright@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social

I saw a screenshot of this and had to go and check if it was real. How can you be the BBC’s cyber correspondent and not have heard of PHP before yesterday? *And* now be talking confidently about it on the news. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck...

theguardian.comBBC News to axe education editor role in cost-cutting moveFears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position will also go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m

Michael Savage@michaelsavage.bsky.social

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I think one of the reasons that the both politics and the media (with notable exceptions!) have been poor at reporting and holding to account big tech as they have grown to dominate our lives is that there are a lack of people who have been long-term embedded in tech worlds as they've developed,

i.e who therefore know and understand AI well so can ground OpenAI press releases and govt regulatory ambitions in reporting what actually might be materially possible! (there's a generational perspective as well in which there are just fewer journalism jobs so a lack of new blood on new issues)

theguardian.comBBC News to axe education editor role in cost-cutting moveFears over lack of scrutiny for key sectors as health editor position will also go in cuts aimed at saving £5.5m

Michael Savage@michaelsavage.bsky.social

Specialist journalists who work covering niche areas or for niche publications can better report and explain the actual material changes in a sector long before they reach critical mass that they need to be reported by a news-politics journalist for mass consumption, meaning the end product is worse

Collapse in freelance budgets is a big influence here too I suspect - in that there is not loads of money available for media to commission specialists who work in a specific area when specialism is needed for a news story, instead it just goes to a pool who cover it how they can

BBC's culture editor here honestly claiming 43% of Scots are watching BBC ALBA every week... think about it for 5 seconds and it doesn't sound plausible - this would be about as many Scots who listen to BBC Radio and more than triple the number who watch BBC Scotland... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Quick check and the BBC's stats for ALBA are based on 43% of the *Gaelic community* watching ALBA, which makes much more sense (~2.5% of Scots identify as speakers in the last census). Come on lads, we can do better than this! www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...

The spectacular @themountaingoats.bsky.social at the Barras tonight

Euan Healey reposted

Replying to @jordanpfot.bsky.social

There is clearly a miserable streak in the British electorate, ingrained by years of austerity and silly buggers governments, that makes people entirely unwilling to accept wins, or see politicians through anything but the most cynical lens.

telegraph.co.ukExclusive: Musk approached Trump to slow down Starlink in UkraineSpaceX founder had publicly blamed president for chaos over restrictions, but sources say he initiated them

Europe needs an active policy of divestment from every business Musk is involved with (and a broader consideration of the risks of private individuals with control over critical infrastructure) and that includes a rapid end to using X for any official business. We can't let these betrayals slide.

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social

If you are still on Musk's X, you are enabling his treachery.

I also hope that the fact Musk intentionally sought to weaken the Ukrainian war effort will be given as much coverage and attention as that Tesla on strings

so proud to be 470x more likely than the average bsky poster to mention arbroath

Nathan Goldwag@goldwagnathan.bsky.social

extremely on-brand, I have to admit also I have one of these people blocked and one of them muted lol

Euan Healey reposted

Replying to @jordanpfot.bsky.social

Would you as a rule exclude, say, Muslims from hospital wards because they might make elderly patients uncomfortable? Of course not. Discomfort cannot on its own inform policy, for the simple and obvious reason that discomfort is often entirely misplaced!

Euan Healey reposted

What a heartless, cruel thing for an elected representative to say.

If it walks like a chicken, and clucks like a chicken, it's probably a fish www.ft.com/content/8f1e...

Sorry, there was me thinking words have specific meanings for a second, my bad, o wise salmon-feed executive

theguardian.comNigel Farage says charities that help asylum seekers reach UK should be prosecutedReform leader did not say who should be targeted but party figures have been critical of small boat rescues by RNLI

In which Nigel Farage insinuates that the *Royal* National Lifeboat Institution are Marxists

youtu.beNARNIA: THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW | Official Trailer | NetflixYouTube video by Netflix

So much to be excited about in this trailer - attention to visual detail like the van wings on the horse, Ciaran Hinds' voiceover, a fun soundtrack, a strong vision of how to communicate the childish wonder contained in TMN - I can't wait for this

I simply do not think that "this isn't exactly as it did it in the books" is a sufficiently good criticism to be screaming at a trailer in its comments. Some fans' apparent inability to be interested in something unexpected or different is truly concerning to me.