Sarah May

Also (and I can't stop looking at it, it's sort of magnetic in its delightfulness) this is surely the first time I've seen the word "cough drops" in writing since reading sthg like the Railway Children or Just William... and, oh, I see it very clearly now, it's a Paddington Bear budget

Look, I know all the reasons we got here, but we really need to start seriously thinking about what we do in a world where The Markets punish whole countries for voting for decency, compassion, and fairness. We must stop pretending the capitalist machine is an objective, value neutral force.

A bus. And yet it takes decades to talk about. Endless reports and consultations. A bus.

"We absolutely must improve these services going forward, which is why we are exploring in-house models," said Jameson. "We want to have a big wave of insourcing, because we can no longer be totally reliant on these companies that let us down time and again."

“the minister tried to shovel all of the blame onto Capita, ignoring the significant failure of governance by the Cabinet Office that allowed Capita to wreak havoc.”

The Independent. 'True scale of Reform UK’s donations from overseas donors revealed 80 per cent of the money received by Reform UK from donations in the year 2025-26 has come from individuals or companies who have been based abroad in the past two years'

The UK economy has been stuck in a slow-moving crisis for 18 years. Wages have stagnated, prices have risen and basic services have been cut – giving rise to a widespread sense that everything is getting worse. If Burnham doesn’t respond, Reform will benefit. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Nowadays, the internet sometimes feels like a once well-to-do neighbourhood that became a slum after an industrial park & motorway were built through it. And I'm the lifelong resident who refuses to leave, unable to accept that the decaying, now unsafe area will never regain its former grandeur.

Next Tuesday we host the Society's 2026 Public History Lecture with @greshamcollege.bsky.social: 6pm on Tuesday 3 November. We welcome Sathnam Sanghera who will speak on ‘What History is NOT’ bit.ly/4smNxZc In person attendance is now fully booked but online remains available #Skystorians

It's publication day! An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class is published today, 27 October 2026, by @versobooks.bsky.social. My book is a new history how Britain's formerly powerful working class was pushed to the political margins. Order🔽 www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

I had my son quite late in life. Partly because my own life was not ready for a child, but partly because the world seemed so chaotic: Cold War, threat of Nuclear War, recessions. In 2006 a lot looked more stable 🫤 There's never a right time & every generation faces challenges. Still...

As in Hungary, the authoritarian regime in Serbia is being dismantled . “For years, we failed to fulfill our duty. We kept silent, turned a blind eye, reported events one-sidedly, and failed to ask the necessary questions. For that, we owe our viewers an apology,” news anchor Goran Eror said.

We can’t argue these people were just victims of ‘the values of their time.’ Theirs was a time of intellectual ferment and ferocious debate, and the wrong side won. It didn’t have to go that way. 5/

£145 billion

New call for applications: RHS Workshop Grants, 2027, supporting day meetings of historians to plan and pursue a project bit.ly/48hkJrD The Society now invites applications for 6 Workshop Grants of £1000 each to support group activities and networking. Closing date: 15 January 2027 #Skystorians

The BBC needs to provide an explanation for this.

Stop what you are doing and look at this lovely story. A photography student in the 80s took pictures of punks and mods on the street in Preston. He’s now tracked them down and photographed them again. The pictures and stories are really ❤️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Michael Atiyah 🇪🇬: Fields Medal 1966 (also Abel Prize 2004), for K-theory. Ahmed Zewail 🇪🇬: Nobel for Chemistry 1999, for his work on femtochemistry. Omar M. Yaghi 🇯🇴: Wolf Prize 2018, Nobel for Chemistry 2025, for his work on reticular chemistry Naguib Mahfouz 🇪🇬: Nobel for literature 1988

Exactly. A referendum is a decision, not a life sentence. In 2016 voters chose Brexit; they didn’t vote to surrender the right of future generations to reconsider it. If the consequences prove damaging, as they have, democracy demands the freedom to debate, vote again, & potentially change course.

This paper is why I hate evolutionary psychology so much. Male aggression in the present is inevitable, because in the deep past, manly men with beards fought each other to win the prize - that's right, it's us! The manosphere loves this shit; but if you have a different view, it's 'ideology' .... 🧪

Announcing the shortlist of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2026. Congratulations to the authors, translators, and publishers! tinyurl.com/bdhfm9nx @tenement-press.bsky.social @pushkinpress.com @sevenstoriesuk.bsky.social @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social

"Why is UK govt considering a major U-turn on electric vehicle policy that, if followed through, could stall take-up of EVs, close off a route to lower living costs, & dent the UK’s ability to meet its carbon targets?" 94% of drivers are happy with their EV www.theguardian.com/environment/...

There are multiple winners of the Nobel Prize in different categories from Arab countries: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of... Iranians have won the Fields Medal twice: stats.areppim.com/stats/stats_... People from Arab countries have won the Wolf Prize: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Pr...

Anyone got tips on words to mute to decrease US political discourse in my timeline? I've got the obvious ones, politicians names. But it's still very dominant. I don't want to use 'vote' because there are other elections I'm interested in. I'm asking for practical tips

"Specialists" are gonna focus on how we fought the algorithm, but a huge part of it was actually about people being on the streets educating others and changing their opinions. News media refused to tell people about the crimes and intentions of the bolsonaro family, so we did that ourselves.

It's very, very telling, I think, that the markets are so concerned about the pro-democracy incumbent winning

Since his ennoblement in Boris Johnson’s 2023 resignation list, Tees Valley regional mayor Lord (Ben) Houchen has claimed more than £25,000 in tax-free daily “attendance” allowances from the House of Lords for 73 days when he hasn’t voted, spoken or performed any recorded parliamentary activity.

This article does not discuss one major reason why chocolate in the West got worse - Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two African countries that are the biggest suppliers of cacao globally, got organised and started demanding fair prices for it. www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Israel has committed the 'crimes against humanity of extermination, torture [and] rape' in the West Bank and is continuing to commit genocide in Gaza, a major new UN report has concluded ⬇️ www.thenational.scot/news/2...

Ever heard someone say "protest doesn't change anything"? Brazil and Serbia just proved them wrong. 🇧🇷 🇷🇸

I enjoyed this; it's full of interesting ideas and positivity.

Pretending that they are the bogeymen does nothing to keep real women safe. The Economist article was far more nuanced than that graph suggested. But of course, that graph is all anyone will bother taking from it🙄

This is a salutary reminder to us all that the best protection for archaeology and heritage is to stimulate interest and excitement among voters. Without that ignorant and vicious politicians can destroy anything they want to.

"We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." — T.S. Eliot

They will say “vote biblically!” but when you vote for welcoming the immigrant, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, bringing healthcare to the sick, forgiving debts, caring for our planet, laying down our swords, and loving all our neighbors, they will call you a Marxist.

The lessons from Brazil and Serbia? Don't concede one inch of ground to the far right. Don't appease. Don't triangulate. Don't grovel. Don't say they have "legitimate concerns". Mobilise your base, and fight them with all the democratic means at your disposal.

An incredible whirlwind of a day today, installing the 'Faces of Dura-Europos' in the National Museum of Damascus, then greeting wonderful guests, including people from Dura (who travelled across the country to join us) and the Minister of Culture. So grateful for my incredible team and colleagues.

A new #UrbanPrehistory blog post on #Glasgow deep time - the discovery of a probable fragment of Neolithic polished stone axe at the #Camphill excavations this summer was a rare & significant discovery in a city of few axes… theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/2026/10/26/g...

Hear hear. Especially for material aimed at children or young people. It's just so lazy.

'offers buyouts'