British Empire Professor, University of Sussex. Co-editor, MUP Studies in Imperialism series. Views here own. Blogs on politics of colonial history here: https://alanlester.co.uk Editor https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-truth-about-empire/
1/4 Jameela Jamil clearly had her tongue firmly in cheek when describing British people as “evil” in imperial days. But the reaction does indicate how little most Britons know about the violence entailed in holding on to an unprecedentedly extensive empire. One example: youtube.com/shorts/SaGNs...
Jameela Jamil: Britain Is "The Most Evil Country In History"YouTube video by Eastern Eyeyoutube.comIt’ll be interesting to see whether the constitutionally contrary Kemi Badenoch can ever be persuaded to work collaboratively. Burnham invites Tories and Lib Dems to social care talks www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Burnham invites Tories and Lib Dems to talks about social careIn a speech, the PM is expected to say finding common ground across party lines will be key to fixing social care.www.bbc.co.ukIf we adopt Helen Fein's definition of developmental genocide - the destruction of "people who stand in the way of the economic exploitation of resources”, then humanity as a whole is being subjected to a fossil fuel loby-perpetrated, slow genocide. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Wildfires 'stark reminder' of extreme climate challenge - WilliamThe prince's warning comes as wildfires rage in parts of Europe and the UK during a spell of extreme heat.www.bbc.co.ukI’m going to sound like an old-fashioned Marxist here but perhaps the glimmer of a waning interest in political drama & extremes (despite Chris Mason’s best efforts) might be to do with capitalism finally, gradually, absorbing its self-induced 2008 crisis? www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Public are finally tiring of the No 10 ShowNo great drama can continue indefinitely and in our politics-as-entertainment culture, we may be reaching series fatiguewww.thetimes.comFinally the right wing populism that has so damaged Britain since unscrupulous charlatans first started propagandising for Brexit may have crested. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Labour overtakes Reform in voter poll for first time since March 2025Labour up four points to 28% while Reform falls to 24% as Andy Burnham apparently wins favour for cost of living focuswww.theguardian.comwww.middleeasteye.net/opinion/prid...
Pride with a dash of prejudice: How the Spectator embraced the narrative of anti-Muslim bigotryBritain's oldest and most venerated political magazine has given innumerable column inches to unapologetic racist diatribe that has fanned the flames of Islamophobiawww.middleeasteye.netTrump’s war on Iran has cost the equivalent of Ghana’s entire national debt (US$ 37.5 billion). Ghana’s annual debt repayments are five times its combined health & education budgets. He could have arrested a whole nation’s underdevelopment. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
‘Shameful’: Pentagon accused of cover-up over US military casualties in Iran warNo press briefing has been held for months, as the defence department belatedly or inaccurately releases figureswww.theguardian.comThe racist vigilantes behind this unlicensed flag hoisting campaign shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it simply because they insist, pathetically, on gaslighting everyone with protestations of innocent patriotism. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Birmingham council accused of giving ‘free rein’ to group erecting England flagsCampaigners call for injunction against Raise the Colours, which is accused of spreading anti-immigration rhetoricwww.theguardian.comDisgusted with @thetimes for presenting this non-story. If it has to be covered at all it should be framed as Discredited Racist Smears Black Cambridge Professor in Sustained Campaign to Undermine Him. Arday quoted & cited sources appropriately. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...
Cambridge University pioneer Jason Arday in plagiarism rowThe youngest black professor ever appointed at Cambridge has been accused of plagiarising the work of other academics, a month before his memoir is publishedwww.thetimes.comThey respond “it’s all an Establishment stitch up”. Others say this bunch of grasping millionaires ARE the Establishment. In reality they are worse. Their greed is unmoderated by the desire for respectability & their views are too abhorrent even for the Establishment. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Police investigate donations by Richard Tice company to Reform UKBritain Means Business, owned by the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice, made two donations of £250,000 in the run-up to the 2024 general election.www.bbc.co.uk1/2 The Centre for Media Monitoring has surveyed over 3,000 Spectator articles. It will come as no surprise that it is Islamophobic: “stupid, bigoted, racist and irrational”, in the words of its former political editor Peter Oborne: cfmm.org.uk/wp-content/u...
cfmm.org.ukJust published, open access: Trump is floundering in a quagmire of his own making in Iran, not least because he completely misunderstands the lessons of imperial history. @willdalrymple.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Trump Completely Misunderstands the Lessons of the British EmpirePublished in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 54, No. 4, 2026)www.tandfonline.comMAGA’s attempts to censor US museums & cultural institutions are extreme but we must remember that it was culture war obsessed right wing extremists in the last Tory government who set us on the same path, on the pretext of defending against “radical” anti-racism. www.aam-us.org/2026/07/20/a...
AAM Statement on the Independence of the Smithsonian and America’s MuseumsThe American Alliance of Museums condemns the Administration’s continued attacks on the Smithsonian Institution and the museum professionals responsible for preserving, researching, and interpretin…www.aam-us.orgThis MAGA influencer conversion is more significant than it should be. Perhaps she could come to London next and defuse some more US far right propaganda? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Maga influencer Laura Loomer reverses course on Ukraine after Kyiv visitRightwing provocateur meets Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who says he expects to meet Donald Trump in Washington next weekwww.theguardian.comDo listen to this masterful exposition of the links between trans-Atlantic slavery and Australian settler colonisation from the brilliant & meticulous Zoe Laidlaw (working with @janelydon.bsky.social) www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
How British slave money flowed to colonial Australia - ABC listenIn 1833, slavery in the British Empire was abolished, but not without a massive compensation scheme paid out to slave owners. Some of that money flowed to colonial Australia. Two-thirds of Australia's...www.abc.net.auRead the Foreword by @sathnam.bsky.social and the Introduction by me for free here:
Hurst PublishersPB edition of the critically acclaimed ‘The Truth About Empire’ edited by @alanlester.bsky.social w/foreword by @sathnam.bsky.social out now! ‘Book of the Year’ @historyextra.bsky.social Extracted in @theguardian.com Sample 👉 tinyurl.com/38u2ndw3 & use code TRUTH20 for a 20% off in buy link.
Very pleased to see this out in paperback. Unfortunately it remains as pertinent as ever, as right wing populists continue to deny, disavow and distort the colonial past (and present). Read what the experts say!
Hurst PublishersPB edition of the critically acclaimed ‘The Truth About Empire’ edited by @alanlester.bsky.social w/foreword by @sathnam.bsky.social out now! ‘Book of the Year’ @historyextra.bsky.social Extracted in @theguardian.com Sample 👉 tinyurl.com/38u2ndw3 & use code TRUTH20 for a 20% off in buy link.
If only more of the electorate understood place & community in the way that the great geographer Doreen Massey did: as arenas in which multiple trajectories converge & are juxtaposed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Why Andy Burnham will find it so tricky to unite BritainIs there any common ground left?www.bbc.co.uk