The UK government is holding daily news conferences on the Coronavirus pandemic, and yesterday the Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded to a question about further restrictions on the public - such as limiting public transport - like this: We live in a land of liberty, as you know, and it’s one of the great features... Continue Reading →
Workshop: ‘Innovations in Teaching Eighteenth-Century History’
Online workshop hosted by the University of Northampton, 25 June 2020 Register here to participate in the event. Registration is free but places are limited. In recent decades, the eighteenth century has been a notable growth area in historical studies and related disciplines. Since its study was long neglected, historians of the period tended to... Continue Reading →
Restricting immigration, a good idea? An historical perspective from 1905 to the present
At the beginning of this week the incumbent Home Secretary announced that from January 2021 new legislation would restrict immigration into the UK, as the government had promised in the run up to the 2019 General Election. In brief the aim of the Conservative administration is to limit the amount of poorer, less well educated,... Continue Reading →
Deporting people is not the answer to the problem of crime, nor has it ever been.
Clearly we need to have the full details of those individuals who have today been deported from the UK to Jamaica. However, the Home Office was forced to remove well over half of those they wished to deport after last minute appeals that they had not had their cases properly represented by lawyers. Which begs... Continue Reading →
The Algerian Hirak
Since 22 February 2019 Algerians have been protesting in the streets. As usual there has been very little coverage of events in the British, indeed Western, media. This is, however, one of the most impressive pro-democracy movements the world has seen. It was triggered by President Bouteflika’s decision to stand for a fifth term of... Continue Reading →
Racism, diversity and contested histories: some reflections on Christmas (just) Past
The Cratchits sit down to Christmas dinner If, like me, you tuned in to watch the BBC’s latest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol, I’m sure it will have left a lasting impression. Over three nights a star-studded cast presented a much darker version of the tale of Scrooge than we are used... Continue Reading →
Star Wars: a personal history
When The Force Awakens came out in 2015, I wrote a blog about how Star Wars had a strong sense of history, referencing previous times and films about them. After watching the new movie The Rise of Skywalker last Friday, I have been thinking about how the series has a history in a more personal... Continue Reading →
Free Speech for Fascists
On 13 November, David Renton gave a History Research seminar based on his work on the history of fascism and National Front. In this blog he reflects further on issues of free speech raised in his presentation: For years, I’ve written about the battle between left and right. My interest hasn’t been so... Continue Reading →
Should we teach ‘difficult’ history in schools?
One twenty-two-year-old (Instagram ‘influencer’ Freddie Bentley, pictured above) recently caused consternation by suggesting topics such as climate change and Brexit should be taught in schools rather than the history of the Second World War. It followed comments by contestants on the reality show The Apprentice that revealed that they weren’t sure of the dates of... Continue Reading →
