Charlotte Lydia Riley
@lottelydia.bsky.social
Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain (Penguin 2023)/An Alternative History of the British Empire (HUP 2024). Is Free Speech Under Threat? (2024).
https://linktr.ee/charlottelydiariley
repped by Carrie Plitt @FBA
views are all mine 💫
https://linktr.ee/charlottelydiariley
repped by Carrie Plitt @FBA
views are all mine 💫
Pinned
We’re thrilled to celebrate our colleague @lottelydia.bsky.social, whose book Imperial Island (Harvard University Press, 2024) has just been awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize by the American Historical Association! This prestigious award acknowledges Charlotte’s thought-provoking work.
American Historical Association Announces 2025 Prize Winners – AHA
The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2025 prizes.
www.historians.org
🥳
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
time after time we are presented with the same tableau: a five-foot-five roadrunner effortlessly escapes the clutches of a 20 stone coyote, denounces him with a "meep meep" and dispatches him with a malfunctioning ACME product. little wonder then that coyotes are turning to Nick Fuentes
December 15, 2025 at 7:59 PM
time after time we are presented with the same tableau: a five-foot-five roadrunner effortlessly escapes the clutches of a 20 stone coyote, denounces him with a "meep meep" and dispatches him with a malfunctioning ACME product. little wonder then that coyotes are turning to Nick Fuentes
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
This is the exact lighting they use for the pic to accompany a profile of a professor who got suspended because he kept using slurs in class as a supposed intellectual provocation.
I guess this has probably already gone viral somewhere but I am simply dying at this picture of a bear that looks like it hired a photographer to do a glamour shoot
December 15, 2025 at 8:51 PM
This is the exact lighting they use for the pic to accompany a profile of a professor who got suspended because he kept using slurs in class as a supposed intellectual provocation.
@willpooley.bsky.social so uh, what was the journey here exactly
December 15, 2025 at 8:53 PM
@willpooley.bsky.social so uh, what was the journey here exactly
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
Nobody in The Moral Maze gets eaten by the Moral Minotaur, which is a fundamental flaw in the programme.
December 15, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Nobody in The Moral Maze gets eaten by the Moral Minotaur, which is a fundamental flaw in the programme.
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
This was fun. I like going for the gifts for older kids/teens because sometimes they get passed by. A good book or art supplies can change everything.
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Check out my list on Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk
December 14, 2025 at 8:34 PM
This was fun. I like going for the gifts for older kids/teens because sometimes they get passed by. A good book or art supplies can change everything.
The problem with babies learning to take a dummy out of their mouth at 4 months old is that this is several months *before* they learn that they should only take their dummy out of their mouth if they actually want that to happen
December 14, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The problem with babies learning to take a dummy out of their mouth at 4 months old is that this is several months *before* they learn that they should only take their dummy out of their mouth if they actually want that to happen
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
Honestly impressed at Starmer and Nandy's commitment to not doing their job. This guy is literally talking about his wife, his children, her, and her children, and they do nothing!
CT explains why he thinks Shabana Mahmood is neither English, nor British, to which Cole does not respond to at all.
Cole: asks how many generations? Is it a race thing?
CT: Not race as Albanians don't count either. It is ancestry.
It is infinite generations, if you don't have the ancestry.
Cole: asks how many generations? Is it a race thing?
CT: Not race as Albanians don't count either. It is ancestry.
It is infinite generations, if you don't have the ancestry.
December 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Honestly impressed at Starmer and Nandy's commitment to not doing their job. This guy is literally talking about his wife, his children, her, and her children, and they do nothing!
Still time to donate here! There are a range of lovely kids’ books, some really big toys, and individual packets of crayons — if you’ve even got a spare fiver you could donate multiple items.
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Check out my list on Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk
December 14, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Still time to donate here! There are a range of lovely kids’ books, some really big toys, and individual packets of crayons — if you’ve even got a spare fiver you could donate multiple items.
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
Just a small campaign update. We are so pleased that the new child poverty strategy addresses some of our asks.
BUT
The hostile immigration environment does not just tip children in to poverty - it legally mandates that they stay there.
We don't think it's right. Do you?
BUT
The hostile immigration environment does not just tip children in to poverty - it legally mandates that they stay there.
We don't think it's right. Do you?
December 10, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Just a small campaign update. We are so pleased that the new child poverty strategy addresses some of our asks.
BUT
The hostile immigration environment does not just tip children in to poverty - it legally mandates that they stay there.
We don't think it's right. Do you?
BUT
The hostile immigration environment does not just tip children in to poverty - it legally mandates that they stay there.
We don't think it's right. Do you?
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Check out my list on Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Was braced for Lincolnshire criticism, but didn’t bank on the over-representation of yellowbellies on the magazine’s staff. A completely accurate summation of a very odd county from which to originate; far too high in the rankings tbh.
In Issue 26 we have ranked the Ceremonial Counties of England, from top to bottom...
December 13, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Was braced for Lincolnshire criticism, but didn’t bank on the over-representation of yellowbellies on the magazine’s staff. A completely accurate summation of a very odd county from which to originate; far too high in the rankings tbh.
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Check out my list on Amazon
www.amazon.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Anyone looking for a nice Christmas donation to make, the Kevin Jenkins Newham Toy Appeal is now in its 46th year and is still trying to collect enough toys for children in Newham this Christmas. There’s an amazon wish list here (or search justgiving for the appeal to give cash):
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
"Whether he's the UKs answer to nick Fuentes"... Nick Fuentes is a nazi if you're trying to be the Fuentes of the UK you're trying to be a Nazi
Harry Cole of Sun interviews Connor Tomlinson - who advocates banning ethnic minority MPs from parliament
Tomlinson regrets sacrificing Suella Braverman but feels sure (on no evidence) she would sacrifice herself to remove the risk of Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel & Shabana Mahmood!
Tomlinson regrets sacrificing Suella Braverman but feels sure (on no evidence) she would sacrifice herself to remove the risk of Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel & Shabana Mahmood!
December 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM
"Whether he's the UKs answer to nick Fuentes"... Nick Fuentes is a nazi if you're trying to be the Fuentes of the UK you're trying to be a Nazi
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead
December 12, 2025 at 10:36 PM
mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead
very weird to see American speeding ticket discourse on this website. just… don’t speed? if you don’t want to get a ticket? or indeed don’t want to seriously endanger yourself, and your passengers, and other people?
December 13, 2025 at 8:34 PM
very weird to see American speeding ticket discourse on this website. just… don’t speed? if you don’t want to get a ticket? or indeed don’t want to seriously endanger yourself, and your passengers, and other people?
Halal butchers in Newham are advertising their “festive Halal turkeys”. Tommy Robinson is scared of Newham but it’s most a place that shows what happen when lots of different faiths and cultures live happily alongside each other.
Absolute arsehole. I work in a London school as a teacher where 40 to 50% of the students are Muslim. What happens at Christmas? The classes decorate their rooms, organise secret santas, exchange Christmas cards with all participating. It is very much seen as a community festival for all.
C of E responds to Tommy Robinson’s carols event with ‘Christmas is for all’ message
Release of 43-second video comes as senior church figures speak out against dangers of Christian nationalism
www.theguardian.com
December 13, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Halal butchers in Newham are advertising their “festive Halal turkeys”. Tommy Robinson is scared of Newham but it’s most a place that shows what happen when lots of different faiths and cultures live happily alongside each other.
The “real” prospect, Sarah? Real? Really?
Again, it is not Yer Da driving himself insane on Facebook that should worry us. It is elite radicalisation: the political and media class, who have roasted each other’s brains to blackened cinders.
December 13, 2025 at 11:05 AM
The “real” prospect, Sarah? Real? Really?
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
It's so fucked up to have been a kid during the D&D is the devil freakout and the Tipper Gore dirty lyrics freakout and live to see the teen suicide machine get such a pass.
December 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
It's so fucked up to have been a kid during the D&D is the devil freakout and the Tipper Gore dirty lyrics freakout and live to see the teen suicide machine get such a pass.
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
I think about this a lot, I feel like it’s deeply related to generative AI
Some things in life are supposed to be a little bit hard! Some things should require effort! Human beings should routinely hear “no” and “not yet” and “you can’t do that” and “that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”
Some things in life are supposed to be a little bit hard! Some things should require effort! Human beings should routinely hear “no” and “not yet” and “you can’t do that” and “that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”
I think part of What's Going On with billionaires is that the daily friction of interacting with normal people is part of what anchors people to the real world, and once you have enough money to buy your way out of the friction you can knock down a load-bearing column propping up your sanity.
December 3, 2025 at 11:40 PM
I think about this a lot, I feel like it’s deeply related to generative AI
Some things in life are supposed to be a little bit hard! Some things should require effort! Human beings should routinely hear “no” and “not yet” and “you can’t do that” and “that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”
Some things in life are supposed to be a little bit hard! Some things should require effort! Human beings should routinely hear “no” and “not yet” and “you can’t do that” and “that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line
On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
British Library staff asked for a decent pay. Instead they got ‘a few money-saving present ideas’, such as ‘consider not giving presents this holiday season’. They are on strike this week. I wrote about it for @lrb.co.uk. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
It's wild. We have so many real problems as a country, and instead a large chunk of our political class would rather hallucinate that one of the safest big global cities in the world is actually dangerous.
The "London = most dangerous place on the planet" discourse is still going strong on Twitter
I've actually been surprised by how little I've felt threatened as a woman in London (having lived in Tooting and Peckham)
I loved growing up in Nottingham, but I had much, much worse experiences there tbh
I've actually been surprised by how little I've felt threatened as a woman in London (having lived in Tooting and Peckham)
I loved growing up in Nottingham, but I had much, much worse experiences there tbh
December 11, 2025 at 6:59 PM
It's wild. We have so many real problems as a country, and instead a large chunk of our political class would rather hallucinate that one of the safest big global cities in the world is actually dangerous.
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
"Just need to get net immigration down and these people will suddenly become well-adjusted and happy with their lot" - the home secretary, apparently.
Some highlights from the X reaction to Sofie Jenkinson's concept of "Silly Sausage Britain":
December 11, 2025 at 11:24 PM
"Just need to get net immigration down and these people will suddenly become well-adjusted and happy with their lot" - the home secretary, apparently.
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
This is a really appalling editorial error on BBC Question Time
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
December 11, 2025 at 11:11 PM
This is a really appalling editorial error on BBC Question Time
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
NEW: Five years of social media history is only a fraction of what the US Government will shortly demand of overseas visitors.
The full requirements will end tourism in the United States.
Below is the full, mind-blowing list.
🚨THEY. WANT. YOUR. DNA.🚨
1/
The full requirements will end tourism in the United States.
Below is the full, mind-blowing list.
🚨THEY. WANT. YOUR. DNA.🚨
1/
December 11, 2025 at 3:27 PM
NEW: Five years of social media history is only a fraction of what the US Government will shortly demand of overseas visitors.
The full requirements will end tourism in the United States.
Below is the full, mind-blowing list.
🚨THEY. WANT. YOUR. DNA.🚨
1/
The full requirements will end tourism in the United States.
Below is the full, mind-blowing list.
🚨THEY. WANT. YOUR. DNA.🚨
1/
Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley
When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 8:47 PM
When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!