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Charlotte Lydia Riley

@lottelydia.bsky.social

25K followers 1.2K following 5.3K posts

Historian. Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain (Penguin, 2023). Is Free Speech Under Threat? (2024). Work stuff here: https://linktr.ee/charlottelydiariley repped by Carrie Plitt @ FBA pronouns are she/her and views are my own 💫

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · Sep 1

anyway if you want to find out more about empire, migration and British culture, BUY MY BOOK

Imperial Island

Imperial Island shows how empire, its disintegration and its ever-present aftermath have profoundly shaped the British people, their culture, society and politics, throughout the last seventy years. ...

www.penguin.co.uk

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 7h

(By “downstairs” I mean in the buggy park at the entrance — I guess they might let you take them in as ofc it’s wheelchair accessible, but I didn’t see anyone with one and they’re very strict on not taking bags etc so I’m not sure they do.)

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 7h

There’s a lot of open shelving with tantalising items you can’t touch, and for obvious reasons nothing really aimed at small kids, so if you can do it in an nap time then great and otherwise probably not!

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 7h

I would *not* take my toddler but it was fine with a newborn — so depends where the one-year-old falls. Think you might have to leave buggies downstairs so would also depend if you can still use a carrier. (The cafe is great and has high chairs fwiw).

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 8h

tbf to them I thought this on my first visit but I found the info provided through the online catalogue/QR codes pretty good on my second!

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Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 19h

WELL THEN IT'S NOT MEANINGFUL IS IT, NICK www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Me neither! But weirdly I hadn’t heard the word spoken aloud for ages (ever?) and then saw someone talking about it and was startled by the pronunciation. Think someone else in the comments is right that an-TEE-fa is often used to discredit the movement/hide what it’s short for…

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Which one?!

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

given that it’s, you know, short for anti fascist

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

That’s the thing! Very confusing. And almost certainly the only thing that links Chuck Schumer, Tom Morello, Merrick Garland, and Bill Ackman.

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

wait are people saying “an-TEE-fa”? I assumed we were saying “ANti-fa”

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

This is like greats at Oxbridge — it’s like, a degree from the Harvard committee of social science and I’ve never understood what that means!

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Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley

Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 1d

iconic

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Like. Of all the people who might oppose Trump. (His mum is also a very cool 102-year-old civil rights activist.)

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

His dad was a Mau Mau fighter and Kenya’s first ambassador to the UN! His aunt was the first woman elected to the Kenyan legislature! His mum was also pretty cool — a civil rights activist who campaigned against censorship of music during the big Tipper Gore panic about violent lyrics.

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Tom Morello not only has a social sciences degree from Harvard, his great-uncle was also JOMO KENYATTA

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

seems like a non-insignificant percentage of rage against the machine's fanbase are young republican men driving SUVs bopping their head to anti-oil, pro-immigrant songs thinking the lyrics are about how they wish their suburban parents would get off their back

Tom Morello tweets: "Fascinating that all those “don’t tread on me” posers and their AR-15’s are nowhere to be seen and government tyranny is instead being opposed by a guy in an inflatable frog suit."

Someone named Manny replies: "@grok
why do some people say Tom Morello and band mates are RAGE FOR THE MACHINE and not against ?"

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Man, he does look like him, doesn’t he — something around his eyes in particular

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

The book is question is my Imperial Island! I am still sad I didn’t have time in the end to do picture inserts, but it just means finding the historical hotties within is a reader-led activity.

phoebe, eerieops enthusiast @phloebotomy.bsky.social · 3d

so i was looking up ppl in this book i'm reading & daaaamn john smythe could get it.

also v accomplished. helped carribean immigrants to britain, was a RAF pilot, & AG of Sierra Leone. dude did like, everything.

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Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley

Celia Richardson @celiarichardson.bsky.social · May 7

The analysis by Whitehall officials provides no data or research to back up the government’s central argument that it is environmental legislation that holds up building.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

UK government admits almost no evidence nature protections block development

Whitehall analysis provides no data or research to support the government argument that environmental legislation holds up building

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Charlotte Lydia Riley

QM_UCU @qmucu.bsky.social · 1d

*FIFTEEN THOUSAND JOBS LOST*.
If this were in a sector in which the PM could go and do a photoshoot looking like One Of The People, we’d have had a government intervention by now.

LopaLeach @lopa.bsky.social · 2d

Cuts equivalent to 15,000 jobs planned at UK universities – UCU www.timeshighereducation.com/news/cuts-eq...

Cuts equivalent to 15,000 jobs planned at UK universities – UCU

Proposed job losses almost triple since March as unions prepare to vote on nationwide industrial action

www.timeshighereducation.com

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Was really surprised to find this winter that pregnant people aren’t eligible for Covid boosters any more — apparently it changed last autumn. But still eligible for a flu jab of course!

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

Oh wait it’s animal testing isn’t it

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

I can’t imagine any mechanism by which they wouldn’t be!

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 1d

you’d have to be either very brave or very stupid to pick a fight with Celia Richardson and if I know anything about Nigel Farage it’s that he’s not very brave

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, this is really desperate shit, isn’t it? I am a great deal more woke-sceptic than pretty much all of Bluesky but I honestly can’t be bothered to care about the National Trust putting vegan tampons in the men’s toilets and neither should you

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 2d

That Domino meme with “Mark Watson praises Granit Xhaka” at one end and “the creation of Greater Albania” at the other end