Dr Matt Lodder
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mattlodder.com
Dr Matt Lodder
@mattlodder.com
4.4K followers 1.2K following 4.1K posts
Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of Essex. Trustee, Bishopsgate Institute. Law Student. Historian of tattooing. Podcaster @beneaththeskinpod.history.tattoo. 'Painted People' and 'Tattoos' out now. ADHD.
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mattlodder.com
There are six sexes. If you disagree with me, you're denying biology.

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Here, we used human eye (iris) color of Europeans as an empirical example to demonstrate that highly accurate genetic prediction of complex human phenotypes is feasible. Moreover, the six DNA markers we identified as major eye color predictors will be valuable in forensic studies.
November 27, 2025 at 3:37 PM
mattlodder.com
I think this is legitimately the right answer though.
Arthur Steward Michael Cummings (1919-1997) ink and watercolour on card Original cartoon - Mrs Thatcher at the Chelsea Flower Show, Talks to the Flowers The flowers in question are caricatured heads of Neil Kinnock, generic members of the house of Lords, Douglans Hurd (called "A Srinking Violet"); Nigel Lawson (whose pot bears the caption Lawsonius Gloriosus) and a depiction of a man saying Down with Clause 28", labelled (homophobically) "Pansy". Thatcher's speech bubble says "Careful, or you'll be dead-deaded". Relevantly, the depiction of Thatcher here by the same cartoonist strongly resembles the gay activist in the original post; Lawson resembles the communist and Kinnock is depicted identically.
November 27, 2025 at 11:42 AM
mattlodder.com
I'm sure all the racists will stop going on about immigration now and this will all have been worth it. Right?
UK net migration drops sharply to 204,000 in year to June - down 80% from its peak in 2023 A sign saying 'passports' at the UK border - with a sign saying 'UK border' in the background as people queue up Summary Net migration to the UK fell to 204,000 in the year to June, new figures show That's a drop from 649,000 in the year to June 2024 - a fall of around two-thirds - and a drop of nearly 80% from the peak in 2023
November 27, 2025 at 9:50 AM
mattlodder.com
Wait! It was 40 minutes?! Not even 120!!!
OBR to answer questions after Budget report published in error published at 14:22 14:22 Just a reminder that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will be holding a press conference at 14:30. Usually, the forecaster releases its Economic and Fiscal Outlook after the chancellor has made her Budget announcement. It then discusses the Budget and its forecasts with reporters. That didn't happen this time - the OBR's forecast came out 40 minutes before Reeves stood up in the House of Commons. So expect the first few minutes of the briefing to be a grilling about why its report was published before the Budget was even public.
November 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM
mattlodder.com
Why should major policy announcements have "the element of surprise"? Why is this a good thing?
However weeks of policy leaks to the media - plus today’s extraordinary accidental early publication of the OBR forecasts - mean the usual element of surprise has completely disappeared.
November 26, 2025 at 1:24 PM
mattlodder.com
This is not actually 'extraordinary'. People who would have had the detail two hours later actually got it a little earlier, in a form arguably more digestable and clear than the Chancellor's speech.

Am I missing something? This is just an absurd way to think about this.
OBR removes report link - but is it too late to bolt the stable door? published at 12:59 12:59 Jonathan Josephs BBC business reporter The Office for Budget Responsibility appears to have disabled the link to its economic forecasts after publishing it ahead of the chancellor's Budget statement. It was an extraordinary error which economists and business leaders - as well as journalists - have been making the most of by digging into the detail before Rachel Reeves was on her feet. It’s arguably too late to try and bolt the stable door closed. The OBR has already apologised for what it says was a technical error that it's investigating.
November 26, 2025 at 1:07 PM
mattlodder.com
This is not actually 'wild'.
'This is wild' published at 12:30 12:30 Faisal Islam Economics editor from the Politics Live studio It is beyond extraordinary that the OBR document has been published about two hours ahead of time. All the policies and all the market critical fiscal numbers are out in the wild, the markets are reacting, before the chancellor has even stood up. Helen Miller of the IFS keeps on saying “this is wild”. I have just read out the major tax measures and numbers on BBC Politics Live. History of the wrong sort. Incredible.
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
mattlodder.com
My other white whale is to replace my Nick Fouquet wedding hat which I left on a train...
November 25, 2025 at 11:11 AM
mattlodder.com
My kingdom for these specific horses.
November 25, 2025 at 11:04 AM
mattlodder.com
The shoes. The SHOES.
November 19, 2025 at 5:05 PM
mattlodder.com
Asylum seekers are not allowed to work, at all. So is this a weirdly masked announcement that asylum seekers will be allowed to work now? Or an official UK Government account publishing nonsense?

(via Reddit www.reddit.com/r/GreenAndPl...)
A tweet from the UK Home Office: Automatic handouts funded by the taxpayer will end. We will seek to remove asylum support, including accommodation, from those who choose not to work, and those who break our laws. Britain will no longer be a magnet for illegal migrants seeking to benefit from its generosity. Descriptive alt text
November 18, 2025 at 3:58 PM
mattlodder.com
This includes my book, 'Tattoos'!
November 16, 2025 at 9:14 AM
mattlodder.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:17 AM
mattlodder.com
A young boy lies on a sanddune The night sky above the desert. Shooting stars cross the panoramic view.
November 10, 2025 at 7:49 AM
mattlodder.com
Petra.
November 9, 2025 at 10:37 AM
mattlodder.com
Already loving this trip...
November 9, 2025 at 2:59 AM
mattlodder.com
Somebody stop this madness.
November 7, 2025 at 12:54 PM
mattlodder.com
November 2, 2025 at 12:29 AM
mattlodder.com
On my way home from a 2-0 Chelsea win and an incredible set from Arch Enemy... What a day!
November 1, 2025 at 11:11 PM
mattlodder.com
The kink archives @bishopsgateinst.bsky.social throw up the most surprising objects...
October 31, 2025 at 7:36 PM
mattlodder.com
Delighted to be the cover feature for the Royal Horticultural Society magazine this month!
October 29, 2025 at 5:54 PM
mattlodder.com
My two lectures on Operation Spanner and its aftermath for the UK APP conference in September are now on our Patreon: patreon.com/beneaththeskin
October 23, 2025 at 3:35 PM
mattlodder.com
Petition to ban Johnathan Jones from ever writing about art again.
Can we imagine any reason, Johnny boy - metaphorical or didactic, you unimaginative goon - why a Sami artist might install a small, fragile structure amongst a vast empty landscape?
It's hard to understand why Tate Modern didn't ask Sara for a bit more, well, art. She must have submitted drawings. Did these not suggest it was all going to be rather slight? You do know, they might have gently said, this is the space Ai Weiwei carpeted with sunflower seeds, and Rachel Whiteread filled with a simulacrum of Arctic ice? When you stand on the looking down, the main part of Sara's installation is swallowed up in the scale of its setting, the weakly spiralling wooden fences failing to impose themselves at all on the eyes or imagination.
October 21, 2025 at 3:02 PM
mattlodder.com
I was six years old, Academia.
October 15, 2025 at 9:52 PM
mattlodder.com
Amazing work by the GLP... The case being made by the ECHR is crumbling at the very lightest touch...
"A trans-exclusive approach by [duty bearers] would likely engage s.19 EA 2010 in that such an approach may well put trans people at a particular disadvantage relative to people who are not trans. This would require the service provider to justify the trans-exclusive approach. The possibility that a trans-exclusive approach will require justification appears to be accepted by the EHRC DGs (S87),"
October 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM