Sign in

Alan Lester

@alanlester.bsky.social
19K followers 8.2K following 3.1K posts

British Empire Professor, University of Sussex. Co-editor, MUP Studies in Imperialism series. Views here own. Blogs on politics of colonial history here: alanlester.co.uk Editor www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-tr…

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Alan Lester
Hurst Publishers @hurstpublishers.bsky.social · 10h
Snap up an advance copy of 'Prisoners of Empire' by @amalkc.eurosky.social at 20% off w/code PRISONERS20 here ➡️ tinyurl.com/3zn84zn7
083
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 9h
Just a reminder: 163 articles were published on Jason Arday in the week after he resigned. Same outlets: 13 articles on Cambridge academic James Orr after allegations of misconduct & a broadcast showing him seemingly engaging in illegal activity. bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...
bylinetimes.com
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
311849
Reposted by Alan Lester
Amal Chatterjee (migrant, grumbler) @amalkc.eurosky.social · 13h
It's out. The book that brings together so much that I think about, and speak of. Do read it. Do share it. Do talk about it.
43812
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 13h
This powerful book by Amal Chatterjee identifies clearly and unequivocally the mechanisms enabling colonial economic extraction long after colonialism is supposed to have ended. Highly recommended: hurstpublishers.com/book/prisone...
38220
Reposted by Alan Lester
Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
If you think a distinct sub category of human exists because some medieval warlords agreed that the border of England should be on the River Tweed, you are, Im afraid, an absolute maniac bsky.app/profile/theh...
10619115
Reposted by Alan Lester
Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played
10949661099
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Hegseth is a guy who lectures Europe on upholding its civilisational integrity Firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed www.thetimes.com/article/238b...
thetimes.com
Firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed
The war secretary announced that the execution of the Fort Hood terrorist, scheduled for December 3, would be ‘public’
6204
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
5/5 …(Bert’s ‘calling card’ according to Sarah) as his starting point. This is the result: aa full an account as we could manage of key actors and episodes in Brighton & Hove’s diverse and fascinating history: alanlester.co.uk/blog/brighto...
alanlester.co.uk
Brighton and Hove: Black and Imperial Histories
Background In 2019 the booklet Brighton & Hove Black History was updated by Brighton & Hove Black History community group. The group was co-founded created in 2002 by Bert Williams MBE &nbs…
092
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
4/5 Samuel spent the summer on an internship undertaking rigorous source referencing that validated, updated and protected Bert’s findings with the gold standard of academic rigour. With my and Sarah’s guidance Sam took Bert’s work in the Brighton & Hove Black History booklet…
160
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
3/5 At a time of greater, right wing denial and disavowal of Britain’s colonial and multi-racial past & bad faith attacks on community historians, they partnered with me and an outstanding @SussexUni student, Samuel Emmott Lozano to shore up Bert’s original research.
160
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
2/5 Sarah Lee, co-founder with Bert of the Brighton & Hove Black History Group, alongside a thriving group of volunteers from diverse backgrounds have responded to Bert’s recent experience of serious illness by seeking to safeguard his research.
150
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
1/5 Brighton & Hove’s Black & Colonial History: After retiring from the RAF Bert Williams MBE spent his time uncovering the stories of Black people’s presence in Brighton & Hove. However he faced prejudice, excluded from institutions which did not take him or his work seriously.
1179
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
It’s good to hear Badonoch unequivocally condemning Braverman’s and Reform’s disgusting ethnonationalism. Let’s hope it’s a milestone in the Party leaving its most poisonous culture war era behind. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Kemi Badenoch says Tories would scrap inheritance tax on family homes
Tory leader says her party is "coming back", as she aims to convince voters it has changed after 2024 election defeat.
1141
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Ahmed Reid on the wall of silence that’s prevented us appreciating a key part of our history and the Black scholars who knew. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/oc...
theguardian.com
The Register that shatters the myth of Britain’s role in profiting from enslavement
In this month’s newsletter: for Caribbean scholars, the evidence of how deeply slavery shaped Britain’s wealth has never been in doubt. Plus, heritage walks in Manchester
0238
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Anti-reparations activists love to talk about slavery in the Sokoto caliphate, quoting the stat that it contained more captives than the entire USA. Less likely to note that Lugard helped its slaveowners suppress a slave revolt 70 years after British abolition. www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/o...
theguardian.com
Once Upon A Time In Sokoto review – exuberant history lesson on intra-African slavery
Inua Ellams displays a Stoppardian or Fraynian relish in turning complex topics into enjoyable theatre in his latest play
050
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Each protest costs £150,000 of tax payers money and means there are fewer police on the streets to protect white women & girls. The only consolation is that some of the men most likely to threaten them are part of the protests: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Protesters scuffle with police as migrants brought ashore on south coast
The Home Office said 149 migrants were brought ashore and taken by coach to a processing centre in Kent.
2277
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Does this mean that, for the first time since Johnson & his acolytes polluted the Conservative Party, it’ll discard far right culture war scapegoating of migrants, trans people, people of colour & the “woke”? I'm a classic old school Conservative, says Kemi Badenoch www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
I'm a classic old school Conservative, says Kemi Badenoch
The Tory leader seeks to echo Margaret Thatcher as she sets out her guiding political principles.
2202
Reposted by Alan Lester
HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 04/10/2026
Ninety years ago today, Oswald Mosley tried to march his Blackshirts through the Jewish East End. 🧵 He had thousands of uniformed fascists behind him and 6,000 police clearing the way. But the people of the East End got there first.
18893359
Reposted by Alan Lester
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Access the 2026 report on the teaching of empire and recommendations here: ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid...
ora.ox.ac.uk
Teaching about the British Empire, migration, and belonging: a research-led strategy for secondary education in England - ORA - Oxford University Research Archive
Teaching about the British Empire, migration, and belonging: A research-led strategy for secondary education in England reports findings from the Portrait EMB project, a national study of teaching pra...
0169
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
And here’s what right wing propagandists get so wrong about the teaching of Empire: alanlester.co.uk/blog/teachin...
alanlester.co.uk
Teaching the British Empire: Experts Versus The Spectator
Alan Lester The Spectator’s owner Paul Marshall and its editor Michael Gove are afraid of William Dalrymple. His sequence of books on colonial India that have sold millions, his Empire podcast with…
0164
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
1/2 Dead right www.theguardian.com/education/20...
theguardian.com
Can teaching schoolchildren about Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade remain optional? | Morgan Ofori
Mounting evidence about how slavery shaped Britain shows that teaching about its history cannot be a matter of choice
1179
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
5/5 The sticking point for meaningful discussions about the form that reparative measures (rather than just “aid”) may take is an admission of British responsibility for those effects, and an apology. alanlester.co.uk/blog/british...
alanlester.co.uk
British Reparations for Trans-Atlantic Slavery: Lessons From History?
Lecture Given to the Association of Commonwealth Journalists, 24 Nov 2025 Alan Lester Professor of Historical Geography University of Sussex Introduction[1] Reparations are ‘a commitment to acknowl…
164
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
4/5 The UK government has already admitted the fundamental justice of their claim, recognising that the effects of this crime against humanity are ongoing and not just historic:
153
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
3/5 In reality @CARICOMorg want to negotiate a forward-looking programme of support that’s not too far away from this: caricom.org/wp-content/upl…
131
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
2/5 CARICOM has never demanded the $18 Tn calculated as Britain’s debt for generations of trafficking and plantation captivity - that’s a deliberate misrepresentation of their demands from anti-reparative activists, designed to make them seem unreasonable & unrealistic.
142
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
1/5 Despite the headline, the practical gap between CARICOM reparations calls and the British government’s position is not that wide. King will not apologise for slave trade on Caribbean tour www.thetimes.com/article/db84...
thetimes.com
King will not apologise for slave trade on Caribbean tour
Charles will face renewed calls for reparations, including from the president of Guyana, who says nations who benefited ‘need to do the morally right thing’
184
Reposted by Alan Lester
Alan Stedman @alanjstedman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
100% this ⬇️
04912
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
2/2 The first, though was in Woking, founded in 1889, funded by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum, the female ruler of the Indian princely state of Bhopal, & the burial place of the Muslim soldiers who died in Brighton’s WWI military hospitals: blogs.sussex.ac.uk/snapshotsofe...
blogs.sussex.ac.uk
When the Raj Came to Brighton
‘The Royal Pavilion, Brighton, as an Indian Military Hospital. Main Entrance, Western Front.’ Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove In the early stages of World War I, the R…
1162
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
1/2 Interesting story of London’s but not Britain’s first purpose built Mosque in London: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...
theguardian.com
‘A beacon of peace’: London’s oldest mosque celebrates centenary
Fazl Mosque was used as an air raid shelter in the war – but that is not its only link to a pivotal moment in world history
2198
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
BBC journalists rarely feel the need explicitly to justify writing criticisms of a politician. The rationale is self-evident. Mason does, frequently. Maybe he doth protest too much?
100
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s essential that more and more organisations & individuals fight far right disinformation wherever it’s found.
080
Reposted by Alan Lester
HOPE not hate @hopenothate.org.uk · 01/10/2026
The far right thrives on lies and disinformation. We’re debunking some of the most common myths they peddle, exposing the harm they cause, and showing why their claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. Read our new report: hopenothate.org.uk/2026/10/01/f...
hopenothate.org.uk
Far Right Fact Check
Disinformation Debunked - What the data actually says.
4196129
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I’ve never seen a BBC correspondent try to build such a huge mountain out of such a tiny molehill. Chris Mason’s hysterical quest to undermine Andy Burnham, based on a few noncommittal words: Chris Mason: Why Andy Burnham's about-turn on Manchester City matters www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Chris Mason: Why Andy Burnham's about-turn on Manchester City matters
The prime minister's comments on Man City were revealing on several levels - and leapt on by many in football, the BBC's political editor writes.
4837874
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It’ll be interesting to see if the electronic tracking of domestic abuse offenders released from prison early today will show a convergence on Crowborough, Dover & other far right, anti-immigrant rallying points.
0170
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
2/2 UK’s low growth rate today if every employer had their wage bill erased. If all they had to incur was a one-off payment of about £20,000 (the average amount each captive was valued for compensation in 1833), for a person’s lifetime of work, AND that of all their descendants!
150
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
1/2 Sorry, one more reparations post today: some express astonishment at the calculation that Britain could ‘owe’ $18 Tn to the Caribbean (reparations campaigners aren’t demanding this - they’re not stupid & know it’s impossible). But just think how easy it would be to solve the
151
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
It’s time we stopped normalising those who actively foment opposition to any discussion of reparations. We should presume accountability for past & ongoing wrongs and label them “activists” as well as those campaigning for reparative justice.
071
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
2/2 ... it tends to be those appalled by slavery both past and present who act on modern slavery, rather than those who bring it up only to deflect from reparative justice discussions. If you're concerned, do attend? www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/anti-slave...
eventbrite.co.uk
Anti-Slavery Day Conference 2026
100 years after the Slavery Convention: What has changed and what have we learnt?
082
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
1/2 ... and while I'm at it: every anti-reparations activist also claims that we should be focusing on modern slavery rather than historic, as if they are mutually exclusive. As this event shows though, ...
1152
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
3/3 as to how the people he had bought were acquired. The Africans, he maintained ... only "exchanged their owner and laws". They gained ... "life, for death; clemency, for barbarity; comfort and convenience, for torture and misery; food for famine"' (C. Hall, Lucky Valley, 408)
052
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
2/3 'No blame was to be attached to the slave trade since ... in Africa "slaves" were considered "actual staple products, as much as wool and corn are to Great Britain". "The colony man is only the buyer,’ as [Long] put it in his later notes, so carried no responsibility ...
163
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
1/3 Every anti-reparations activist I debate with insists on the overweeing importance of African slave-traders' complicity in supplying Britons with captives for the plantations. Their argument is precisely that of the C18 scientific racist and justifier of slavery Edward Long:
2125
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Borrowing costs of 6% were imposed on newly independent Caribbean & African countries by British administrators, creating a debt trap they’ve never been able to escape: alanlester.co.uk/blog/britain... www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Global bond sell-off intensifies, as UK long-term borrowing costs pass 6%
Fears that US deficit is unsustainable drive Britain’s 30-year bond yield to level not seen since 1998
0148
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Latest arrival in manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/series/studi...
Andrew Hillier, Living in the Shadow of Empire: women and the China consular world, 1843-1900
0136
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Fascinating: Anglo-Saxon expat enclave in Rome during 10th century: Anglo-Saxons got special treatment in Rome’s ‘English quarter’ www.thetimes.com/article/070e...
thetimes.com
Anglo-Saxons got special treatment in Rome’s ‘English quarter’
The Pope made most visitors use his currency but coins minted in East Anglia, London and the West Midlands from AD900 have been found near the Vatican
0176
Reposted by Alan Lester
Ed Granter @edgranter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Do you know how low that is for a population our size?
2238
Reposted by Alan Lester
Malcolm Wilson @malcolmwilson01.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Apropos of nothing…
082
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Oh the dilemma this poses for right wing culture warriors! Condemn it as an example of snowflake liberal cancel culture or celebrate it for cancelling the British slavery episode? BBC removes Horrible Histories episode featuring slavery and child labour www.thetimes.com/article/8146...
thetimes.com
BBC removes Horrible Histories episode featuring slavery and child labour
The broadcaster’s decision to remove one episode and edit others to meets its editorial guidelines for children’s programmes has been criticised as ‘insane’
53016
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Thanks Ali, looking forward to it!
130
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
5/5 That long -overdue book (sorry Cambridge University Press, I’ve drafted 9 chapters I promise) is my first priority, waged or not. Thanks to all those X emigres who engaged in good faith and from whom I learned a great deal, especially before Elon corrupted the conversation.
4451