Matthew Whitfield
@matthewwhitfield.bsky.social
buildings, politics, miscellaneous
Everybody's gay, Kimmy. It's the 90s.
Everybody's gay, Kimmy. It's the 90s.
Pinned
England's Suburbs 1820-2020 | Home
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
I co-authored a book about suburbs. Buy it cheap, buy it early. Hell, buy it twice! liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Taxes are pretty much the only thing related to personal/family finance they do this little "what if that made someone's life difficult" dance for.
Benefits cut to the bone? Not interested
Wages eroded by inflation for decades and decades? Nope.
Technology abolished your job? Nope.
Benefits cut to the bone? Not interested
Wages eroded by inflation for decades and decades? Nope.
Technology abolished your job? Nope.
This house tax pretending is making me more insane than usual because as a renter I’ve had to move every 1-3 years just as standard because rents always rise. And no one cares. House owners get a tiny fraction of that precarity and suddenly it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened
November 27, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Taxes are pretty much the only thing related to personal/family finance they do this little "what if that made someone's life difficult" dance for.
Benefits cut to the bone? Not interested
Wages eroded by inflation for decades and decades? Nope.
Technology abolished your job? Nope.
Benefits cut to the bone? Not interested
Wages eroded by inflation for decades and decades? Nope.
Technology abolished your job? Nope.
and so why they’re in charge continues to be a puzzler
Ah, but are British political, media and economic elites intelligent and informed? No. Sure, but are they wise and reasonable? Also no. Are they charismatic leaders? No. Masters of wit and rhetoric? No. Can they crack a joke? No. Conventionally attractive? No. Do they look vaguely human? Do they fu
November 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
and so why they’re in charge continues to be a puzzler
no it won’t but it will learn the phrase ‘authentic wonder’ and bullshit you that it’s seen the face of god in a dew drop or whatever
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:57 PM
no it won’t but it will learn the phrase ‘authentic wonder’ and bullshit you that it’s seen the face of god in a dew drop or whatever
It would take me a lot less than two pages of a covering letter to set out my big plan to save the BBC: 1) bring back Top of the Pops 2) bin off Laura K and Chris Mason
November 26, 2025 at 3:45 PM
It would take me a lot less than two pages of a covering letter to set out my big plan to save the BBC: 1) bring back Top of the Pops 2) bin off Laura K and Chris Mason
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
No, ChatGPT is not conscious. Are the journalists who keep writing these fucking articles?
November 25, 2025 at 10:27 PM
No, ChatGPT is not conscious. Are the journalists who keep writing these fucking articles?
are…those London bendy buses that got shipped off?
So this happened in Oslo yesterday. Four articulated buses got stuck in a roundabout.
November 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM
are…those London bendy buses that got shipped off?
kind of obsessed that the Centenary of the general strike has a logo
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
kind of obsessed that the Centenary of the general strike has a logo
as of now I’m no longer a salaried architectural historian. By coincidence this piece by @municipaldreams.bsky.social was recently reposted and is a brilliant encapsulation of my PhD work, from an earlier era of me doing research for free. Maybe I’ll do so again! open.substack.com/pub/municipa...
Liverpool’s Interwar Multi-Storey Housing: Building an ‘A1 community in a properly planned township of flats’
The alleged English antipathy to multi-storey living (the Scots are different) is well attested but Liverpool – in this and much else – is an exception.
open.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 2:32 PM
as of now I’m no longer a salaried architectural historian. By coincidence this piece by @municipaldreams.bsky.social was recently reposted and is a brilliant encapsulation of my PhD work, from an earlier era of me doing research for free. Maybe I’ll do so again! open.substack.com/pub/municipa...
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. Since 31st October 2024, at least 340 trans people have lost their lives to anti-trans violence, or suicide. Transphobia kills. Please be an ally every day. tdor.translivesmatter.info/reports?from...
Remembering Our Dead - Reports
1 Nov 2024 to 20 Nov 2025
tdor.translivesmatter.info
November 20, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Today is Trans Day of Remembrance. Since 31st October 2024, at least 340 trans people have lost their lives to anti-trans violence, or suicide. Transphobia kills. Please be an ally every day. tdor.translivesmatter.info/reports?from...
every overpromoted person thinks they’re ’underestimated’
'There is a hint in Reeves’ comments that she is acutely aware of her own political mortality.'
Click to read our interview with the UK chancellor on.ft.com/4oS3IuV
Click to read our interview with the UK chancellor on.ft.com/4oS3IuV
November 20, 2025 at 10:27 AM
every overpromoted person thinks they’re ’underestimated’
the sort of thing that if you were from Hexham you would rightly never stop talking about (but also remove those cars. What is it about English marketplaces and bloody cars?)
November 20, 2025 at 10:24 AM
the sort of thing that if you were from Hexham you would rightly never stop talking about (but also remove those cars. What is it about English marketplaces and bloody cars?)
yup
📊 NEW | Greens hit 17% with YouGov
➡️ REF: 27% (+1)
🔴 LAB: 19% (-)
🟢 GRN: 17% (+2)
🔵 CON: 17% (-1)
🟠 LD: 13% (-1)
Via @YouGov, 16-17 Nov (+/- vs 9-10 Nov)
➡️ REF: 27% (+1)
🔴 LAB: 19% (-)
🟢 GRN: 17% (+2)
🔵 CON: 17% (-1)
🟠 LD: 13% (-1)
Via @YouGov, 16-17 Nov (+/- vs 9-10 Nov)
November 18, 2025 at 11:56 AM
yup
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
A tremendous scholar, campaigner and bundle of fizzing energy who saved many fine buildings. If you can donate, please do.
It is exactly two years since C20 Society established the Elain Harwood Fund to secure her legacy, and hosted an incredibly moving event in her honour at the Southbank Centre.
We’re pleased to announce the Fund has now reached £81,000 in donations – over half way to our initial target of £150,000. 🧵
We’re pleased to announce the Fund has now reached £81,000 in donations – over half way to our initial target of £150,000. 🧵
November 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM
A tremendous scholar, campaigner and bundle of fizzing energy who saved many fine buildings. If you can donate, please do.
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
tedious to see "the government don't actually believe in what they're doing, it's political strategy to neuter Reform" doing the rounds. it doesn't matter! if I stab you to impress some people watching, while assuring you that actually I like you and wish you no ill will, you've still been stabbed
November 18, 2025 at 10:06 AM
tedious to see "the government don't actually believe in what they're doing, it's political strategy to neuter Reform" doing the rounds. it doesn't matter! if I stab you to impress some people watching, while assuring you that actually I like you and wish you no ill will, you've still been stabbed
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Twenty-two years ago today Section 28 was repealed.
But we're seeing history repeat itself as some in the media and in politics spread bigotry and misinformation about trans people.
1/8🧵
But we're seeing history repeat itself as some in the media and in politics spread bigotry and misinformation about trans people.
1/8🧵
November 18, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Twenty-two years ago today Section 28 was repealed.
But we're seeing history repeat itself as some in the media and in politics spread bigotry and misinformation about trans people.
1/8🧵
But we're seeing history repeat itself as some in the media and in politics spread bigotry and misinformation about trans people.
1/8🧵
I realise that I became informed about this shitshow pretty much exclusively from a piece in the *Museums Journal* somebody shared on here
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:07 AM
I realise that I became informed about this shitshow pretty much exclusively from a piece in the *Museums Journal* somebody shared on here
Klarna boss says he’s worried about people buying things they can’t afford
![44m ago 08.11 GMT
Klarna boss reveals he's nervous about AI spending splurge
The boss of buy-now-pay-later group Klarna has also warned about the tech industry's multibillion-dollar dash to build data centres to power AI models.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the Financial Times that the huge sums being poured into computing infrastructure made him "nervous".
He said:
"I think [OpenAI] can be very successful as a company but at the same time I'm very nervous about the size of these investments in these data centres. That's the particular thing that I am concerned about."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dqsos7o5ommivvjb43ac35ox/bafkreightws4geiquf2rnr5aoe7pjhcwcwubkj3rneq6wmlpixgql5c3sq@jpeg)
November 18, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Klarna boss says he’s worried about people buying things they can’t afford
first Park Hill and now this. I guess Urban Splash just hate Sheffield’s modernist legacy archive.ph/rRLH2
archive.ph
November 17, 2025 at 4:26 PM
first Park Hill and now this. I guess Urban Splash just hate Sheffield’s modernist legacy archive.ph/rRLH2
for context in 1975 it was elites that were despairing, rarely ordinary people who experienced record levels of income equality and real terms growth, and comprehensive social housing provision
"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
“It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975
November 14, 2025 at 11:02 AM
for context in 1975 it was elites that were despairing, rarely ordinary people who experienced record levels of income equality and real terms growth, and comprehensive social housing provision
free speech on campus stuff was a cavalcade of horseshit from the start, but the denouement is still as bleak as it gets
Indiana University, which has now been subordinated to the direct control of the Indiana GOP, announces that criticism of the MAGA movement and doctrines of the GOP is forbidden. An instructor is dismissed for speaking critical words about the MAGA movement.
Indiana Professor Removed From Class Over White Supremacy Lesson
www.nytimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 7:06 AM
free speech on campus stuff was a cavalcade of horseshit from the start, but the denouement is still as bleak as it gets
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
For the first time since it's founding there's an actual conspiracy that indicts powerful elites and there are actual documents that actually prove it and Infowars is like "nah"
November 13, 2025 at 3:47 AM
For the first time since it's founding there's an actual conspiracy that indicts powerful elites and there are actual documents that actually prove it and Infowars is like "nah"
‘it’s complicated/no magic money tree/we can’t have nice things’ is literally populism tailored for the author in terms he sets i.e. he finds it popular but it’s not true. It’s an important part of that psychic framework that Starmer must be perceived as a serious minded truth-teller
Pretty amazing to choose Starmer as the example of a politician who tells the truth but looks like he’s lying. Even the tame political hacks are constantly saying he doesn’t believe or even comprehend what he’s saying half the time. He’s famous for it!
November 13, 2025 at 7:06 PM
‘it’s complicated/no magic money tree/we can’t have nice things’ is literally populism tailored for the author in terms he sets i.e. he finds it popular but it’s not true. It’s an important part of that psychic framework that Starmer must be perceived as a serious minded truth-teller
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 13, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Every office has an executive tier whose emails are like:
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
saw on news , , can we replce complianc dept with web 3
and a worker tier whose emails are like:
Dear Jim,
First of all, I *love* this idea! Unfortunately, I spoke with Legal and identified a few issues with this approach. For starters…
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
This really isn't the first dodgy @BBC edit but it's certainly the one that counts because delegitimising striking miners in 1984 or undermining Corbyn in 2019 apparently don't matter. Some thoughts for @LRB blog www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...
Des Freedman | Whose BBC?
From the revelations about Jimmy Savile in 2012 to the gender pay gap debacle in 2017, the BBC was for many years its...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
This really isn't the first dodgy @BBC edit but it's certainly the one that counts because delegitimising striking miners in 1984 or undermining Corbyn in 2019 apparently don't matter. Some thoughts for @LRB blog www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...