Alan Allport
@alanallport.bsky.social
Professor, historian, husband, dad, scouser, gobby. Author of Demobbed (2009), Browned Off & Bloody-Minded (2015), Britain at Bay (2020), Advance Britannia (2025). “Awesome but a bit boring” (RMP). Personal account.
Pinned
Excerpt from #AdvanceBritannia which is now available in the UK! North American release January 6. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/brit...
Reposted by Alan Allport
All solidarity to the incredible workers at the British Library! They deserve so so much better
Reading Rooms at the British Library are closed *all week* because so many of its workers refuse to work for pitiful wages in a contemptuously authoritarian and obliviously managed environment.
We need leaders who get it and are big enough to sort it out!
It’s a mess and a disgrace.
Lift it up!!
We need leaders who get it and are big enough to sort it out!
It’s a mess and a disgrace.
Lift it up!!
December 9, 2025 at 11:32 AM
All solidarity to the incredible workers at the British Library! They deserve so so much better
Reposted by Alan Allport
Magnum shot a nun for working on Sunday once
December 9, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Magnum shot a nun for working on Sunday once
And don’t forget
December 9, 2025 at 11:31 AM
And don’t forget
Reposted by Alan Allport
“I brought this horrid creature into the world, and now I must take him out!” Winfrey said
Oprah Pursues Dr. Phil On Ship Through Arctic
THE ARCTIC CIRCLE—With a vow to destroy the abomination she had created if it was the last thing she ever did, television host Oprah Winfrey has spent weeks on a ship pursuing Dr. Phil through the Arc...
theonion.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:30 AM
“I brought this horrid creature into the world, and now I must take him out!” Winfrey said
Reposted by Alan Allport
‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library - Research Professional News
Humanities researchers suffer amid “agonisingly slow” recovery from 2023 cyberattack, as strikes cause further delays
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:37 AM
‘No one seems to care’: scholars decry plight of British Library
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
Historian Peter Mandler said it was “a sorry state when a major piece of public infrastructure like this is hit so badly and no one in authority even seems to notice, much less care”.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...
Reposted by Alan Allport
“I’d have no problem releasing the video”
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
December 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
“I’d have no problem releasing the video”
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
“I didn’t say that, you said that. Fake news.”
5 days apart 😬
(From @therecount.com )
Reposted by Alan Allport
After declining for 25 years, child mortality rates from preventable diseases are projected to increase next year. I wonder what has changed.
December 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
After declining for 25 years, child mortality rates from preventable diseases are projected to increase next year. I wonder what has changed.
Reposted by Alan Allport
one of the underrated bad things about trump is that he's so insane people have forgotten that what a politician says actually does in fact matter, that it's also a speech act. you can't just go out and say shit. you're a public figure.
December 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
one of the underrated bad things about trump is that he's so insane people have forgotten that what a politician says actually does in fact matter, that it's also a speech act. you can't just go out and say shit. you're a public figure.
Reposted by Alan Allport
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Kevin, too big to fail
"You're a big account, so you have a duty to ..."
Look, at some level, I get that.
But also ... I didn't run for the office of Big Account with a promise to you, the Bluesky voter, to deliver on certain issues.
I just logged onto the same site you did, made some posts, and people followed me.
Look, at some level, I get that.
But also ... I didn't run for the office of Big Account with a promise to you, the Bluesky voter, to deliver on certain issues.
I just logged onto the same site you did, made some posts, and people followed me.
December 8, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Kevin, too big to fail
Reposted by Alan Allport
I called my father and it was bishop-on-bishop violence, a growing problem in these troubled times. The *biter* was George Bell of Chichester and he was moderately certainly that the *bitten* was the Bishop of London but he couldn't remember who.
trying to remember which philosopher/theologian got so mad at the Bishop of London defending the mass bombing of German civilians that he crawled under the table at Cambridge and bit him on the ankle. google isn't helping.
December 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I called my father and it was bishop-on-bishop violence, a growing problem in these troubled times. The *biter* was George Bell of Chichester and he was moderately certainly that the *bitten* was the Bishop of London but he couldn't remember who.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Less than half of Americans surveyed believe our military can win a war; only 54% believe we have a military that can keep the country safe. Lowest confidence in the military since 2018, and replies are strongly partisan and sensitive to age (lowest figures in youngest age bracket).
Americans’ Confidence in Military Lowest Since 2018 As Support Grows For NATO, Ukraine: National Defense Survey
U.S. military support and support for NATO is climbing, according to a new national survey, and party differences aren't as big as perhaps thought.
www.military.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Less than half of Americans surveyed believe our military can win a war; only 54% believe we have a military that can keep the country safe. Lowest confidence in the military since 2018, and replies are strongly partisan and sensitive to age (lowest figures in youngest age bracket).
Shitty 1940 history again from the NYT.
“Whether it was the French army in 1940, stuck behind its defensive Maginot Line, or Russian armored formations in Ukraine in 2022, decimated by Javelin missiles, the result is devastating for the side that will not discard old concepts, adopt new weapons or rethink its way of war.”
Wrong history.
Wrong history.
December 8, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Shitty 1940 history again from the NYT.
Reposted by Alan Allport
I am brimming with holiday spirit
December 8, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I am brimming with holiday spirit
Today’s Feast of the Immaculate Contraception is cancelled as the organizers had to pull out at the last minute.
December 8, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Today’s Feast of the Immaculate Contraception is cancelled as the organizers had to pull out at the last minute.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!
December 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!
Netflix announces new Peace Prize
Q: Should Netflix be allowed to buy Warner Brothers?
TRUMP: That's a question. They have a very big market share. I'll be involved in that decision
TRUMP: That's a question. They have a very big market share. I'll be involved in that decision
December 8, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Netflix announces new Peace Prize
Reposted by Alan Allport
On 8 Dec 1941, the modern fast Italian merchant MV Sebastiano Venier left Benghazi with over 2,000 POWs crammed into her holds. These were mostly New Zealanders and South Africans, bagged at Sidi Rezegh and on Zaafran.
About 500 of them would not live another 24 hours. #navalhistory
About 500 of them would not live another 24 hours. #navalhistory
The tragedy of the POWs killed at sea
Introduction Operation CRUSADER saw about 8,500 Commonwealth soldiers become prisoners of the Axis forces, in the fighting around Tobruk and during the counter offensive in January. See this older …
rommelsriposte.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:16 AM
On 8 Dec 1941, the modern fast Italian merchant MV Sebastiano Venier left Benghazi with over 2,000 POWs crammed into her holds. These were mostly New Zealanders and South Africans, bagged at Sidi Rezegh and on Zaafran.
About 500 of them would not live another 24 hours. #navalhistory
About 500 of them would not live another 24 hours. #navalhistory
Reposted by Alan Allport
Remembering LUCIAN FREUD - born 103yrs ago today.
December 8, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Remembering LUCIAN FREUD - born 103yrs ago today.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Whoa … this is really strange.
Federal law enforcement managed to confiscate almost two tons of cocaine, and arrest 3 suspects, without blowing the boat out of the water or killing anyone.
🎁 link ⤵️
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...
Federal law enforcement managed to confiscate almost two tons of cocaine, and arrest 3 suspects, without blowing the boat out of the water or killing anyone.
🎁 link ⤵️
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...
$28 million of cocaine seized off Miami Beach. Three men charged
Coast Guard and CBP seized about 3,715 pounds of cocaine worth $28 million from a 65-foot vessel near Government Cut off Miami Beach; three men were arrested.
www.miamiherald.com
December 7, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Whoa … this is really strange.
Federal law enforcement managed to confiscate almost two tons of cocaine, and arrest 3 suspects, without blowing the boat out of the water or killing anyone.
🎁 link ⤵️
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...
Federal law enforcement managed to confiscate almost two tons of cocaine, and arrest 3 suspects, without blowing the boat out of the water or killing anyone.
🎁 link ⤵️
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/c...
There was a time when Americans would have thought this was pathetic
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you support the pardon of the former Honduran president?
SCHMITT: I'm not familiar w/ the facts or circumstances
S: What do you mean you're not familiar? It's been front page news
SCHMITT: You spew Democrat talking points every single week, which is why your ratings are so bad
SCHMITT: I'm not familiar w/ the facts or circumstances
S: What do you mean you're not familiar? It's been front page news
SCHMITT: You spew Democrat talking points every single week, which is why your ratings are so bad
December 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
There was a time when Americans would have thought this was pathetic
Reposted by Alan Allport
This is 100% going to be used to put ICE agents outside polling stations in areas where they want to suppress the vote.
BREAKING: By an apparent 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court halts an injunction that had prevented immigration agents from racially profiling Latinos in central California.
Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."
Sotomayor, dissenting, says the decision is "unconscionably irreconcilable with our nation's constitutional guarantees."
September 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM
This is 100% going to be used to put ICE agents outside polling stations in areas where they want to suppress the vote.
Reposted by Alan Allport
Not to go all politics (unlike me, I know) but a reason McLaren is loved in Woking is that it takes on people sans degrees with technical skills and offers them a brilliant future. Those kids won this for Lando. And it makes you very happy to be from there.
December 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Not to go all politics (unlike me, I know) but a reason McLaren is loved in Woking is that it takes on people sans degrees with technical skills and offers them a brilliant future. Those kids won this for Lando. And it makes you very happy to be from there.
“We knew very well what we were electing” is a hell of an admission.
CURTIS: All of us need to wake up every morning & say, 'what am I doing to make immigrants feel welcome' regardless of an individual says
BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage
C: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter
BASH: But he's not just an individual. He's the president calling an entire community garbage
C: We knew very well what we were electing. We wanted a disrupter
December 7, 2025 at 3:07 PM
“We knew very well what we were electing” is a hell of an admission.