Reposted by Lesley PitmanMartin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 11hThe people holding up the internet sheets.works/data-viz/holding-up-th…sheets.worksThe people holding up the internetFour billion phones ask one text file what time it is. One lecturer keeps it in his spare time. We counted the rest. 0109
Reposted by Lesley PitmanLaura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books 4093489110512
Reposted by Lesley PitmanHetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 08/10/2026If you care about the British Library, consider applying to join the Board! apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/9596?n...apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk Appointment details – British Library up to x7 Board Members – Apply for a public appointment – GOV.UK 1714
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I started following when they posted something very interesting about my current home town, and now I am doubly rewarded. 010
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026One reason I still love social media, despite, well, everything. This appeared in my feed this morning. It is the town where I grew up, filmed a few years before I was born. More rural before the mass housing programme, but still recognisable. There were still horses in my street when I was a child. 160
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Thank you so much for sharing this. A real treat for me. I grew up on one of those rural streets a few years later, although it wasn’t as rural then. This must precede the big post war housing programme. I remember there being horses though. Wonderful. 010
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026His book says just that the story was inspired by Maugham. That could mean anything. It is a straightforward reproduction of his plot, updated. I am not sure readers would know that. 030
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Quite apart from everything else Jeffrey Archer did in what journalists have been calling his complicated life, there is the matter of his short story, the Luncheon. Paying tribute to Somerset Maugham is one thing, nicking his plot is another. 130
Reposted by Lesley PitmanOtto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026As Nick later says he "WAS" the Tory Mayoral candidate and indeed it was as a result of running for the gig that he was ultimately brought to justice. This wasn't "a thing that happened" 38596146
Reposted by Lesley PitmanOtto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Yes indeed I'm rather tiring of the coverage... a convicted perjuror who brazenly lied his way through life and continued to attend the House of Lords even as this poor woman's life fell apart. 40865192
Reposted by Lesley PitmanStephen Graham @stephengraham.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I had this bit about Jeffrey Archer from the 1995 HIGNFY video memorised for whenever I needed a handy fact about him. 431775674
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026“When the Russians occupy, the first thing they do – and we know this from the areas that were occupied and then liberated in 2022 in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions – is to go to the libraries, take the Ukrainian language books out and destroy them.” 042
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Incinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian bookstheguardian.comIncinerated novels and destroyed warehouses: Russia’s war on Ukrainian booksA Ukrainian publishing boom sparked by the 2022 invasion is now under threat from the force and frequency of Russian attacks 030
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Their story is here ajr.org.uk/journal-high...ajr.org.ukDoreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and the 'Winton Children' - AJREver since his part in the rescue of 000
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Following Esther Rantzen’s sad death that very moving clip with Nicholas Winton is being widely shared again, and the myth grows that he was a lone hero. If you admire him, as you should, please also remember Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick, Beatrice Wellington, and their colleagues. 160
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Yes, so good that he was recognised in the end. Of course he was long dead when Nicholas Winton became famous. 020
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I always have to take a breath when I see this story, as it is not the full truth. He did a great thing, but never claimed to work alone. He worked with Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and others, who took much greater risks in Prague, while he was in London. Their story is largely forgotten. 190
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Local primary school just came out, and our front door bell rang. Nobody there, but two little figures running off down the road. I didn’t know knock down ginger was still a thing. 021
Reposted by Lesley PitmanThe Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Academy of Sciences in Kyiv 🙏🇺🇦 510951
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Is nobody talking to the French? No coalition of the willing? I think Europe is aware that the US might not step up. 000
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I am two episodes into Wargame, watching largely through my fingers (Gove!). I have questions. It is oddly devoid of context. What happened to Ukraine? Surely the Baltic would be next? There are lots of easier ways of attacking the UK than using expensive missiles. And where is the rest of Europe? 100
Reposted by Lesley PitmanHelene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 26/09/2026An excellent&long overdue essay on British (lack of) resilience, explaining just how dependent the UK is on circumstances it cannot guarantee itself, and why protecting your security means a lot more than to just spend more money on arms (although that is necessary, too). www.ft.com/content/ba80...ft.comHow resilient is Britain?As climate and geopolitical risks cast doubt on the UK’s ability to cope in a crisis, leaders are turning from ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’ as a governing philosophy 913852
Reposted by Lesley PitmanR @liburghal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026"Generic White Man" is the most common cause of failure in this. 161
Reposted by Lesley PitmanDr Nazlin Bhimani @nazlinbhimani.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Some good news – a new library! Shakespeare’s Globe has opened a new public library and archive holding more than 6,000 books, original texts, recordings of productions and other treasures from the theatre’s history. www.thebookseller.com/news/shakesp... #Shakespeare #TheatreHistory #Renaissancethebookseller.comShakespeare library and archive containing 6,000 books opens under the Globe theatreThe theatre has opened its newly renovated research and collection centre, which features London’s only publicly accessible dedicated Shakespeare library and archive 011343
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I so hope that today’s news is good news for the BL, but it is just sad that yet again it is someone with no background in libraries or the cultural sector. Can we really not come up with anyone suitable? Thoughts with the staff today. 060
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Even more true for those with life threatening allergies, of course. Is there any coordinated work on this, @lucygobag.bsky.social? 032
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Any other coeliacs quietly stocking up on food you can safely eat? And that you might actually enjoy? This advice doesn’t quite work for us, and seems a little puritanical. There are many good things to say for chocolate, but one is that it keeps well. And in an emergency I will need treats.bbc.co.ukWhat food items should you stock up on in case of an emergency?Extreme weather may be changing the way we need to shop, with the UK government urging people to stock up on canned goods. 020
Reposted by Lesley Pitmanelia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible 25150303941
Reposted by Lesley PitmanHanna Liubakova @hannaliubakova.bsky.social · 16/09/2026#Belarus So much happiness today. Among those released are media professionals and not only: Andrei Aliaksandrau, Liudmila Chekina, Iryna Zlobina, Dzmitry Navazhylau, Tatsiana Kuzina, Pavel Belavus. Let's celebrate them & let's keep fighting for everyone who remains behind bars. 04615
Reposted by Lesley PitmanAlex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 15/09/2026All day Piddington's womminfolk have been telling news how they will be terrified of "hundreds of young men nearby, free to come and go as they please." NOT ONE JOURNALIST has asked: "How did you cope when it was an army base? Who came and went then? Nuns?" Soon as you ask that, all becomes clear. 791488441
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I hope Andy Burnham takes more than two days off. Two days is not enough, even if you are Prime Minister. Especially if you are Prime Minister. 160
Reposted by Lesley PitmanLiesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 14/09/2026University HR departments really forget what *H* in their name stands for, don't they? This gaming of the rules may be legally correct it definitely isn't morally. Much love to Wolverhampton colleagues and @plashingvole.bsky.social in particular. 0369
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026It was a very long time ago and the world has changed, but I still remember all the incredibly grand women who subsisted on a lettuce leaf. 020
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026In that job I have a faint memory of being asked what school I went to. That is not a question that most people can answer in a meaningful way. Nobody would have heard of my school, and anyway it has changed identity twice since I went there. 121
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026That, of course, was the posh kid in question. 110
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Currently seeing all the publicity about the latest series of 7 Up, and amazed anew that by an accident of education I knew the mother of one of the posh kids. We worked in the same organisation, and that job took me into a different and strange world, simply because I learned Russian at school. 250
Reposted by Lesley PitmanParody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 07/09/2026More evidence of fighting age men swarming uninvited into our towns. 1311703432
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I don’t know what I would do without them, especially the cheese ones. 011
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Classic coeliac lunch today. Small emergency packet of Nairn’s GF cheese oatcakes from the bottom of my bag and a bag of crisps. They had sold out of GF sandwiches. It was 12:10. 230
Reposted by Lesley PitmanTom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Just keep muttering to myself "he was still trying to solicit another donation during the by election he held to avoid the investigation." 735678
Reposted by Lesley PitmanNadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 03/09/2026The moment Reform admitted on camera the “grim reality” is they can’t bag any British donors was the moment I realised how bad it was 529668
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Took them 3 hours, but now it’s their lead story.bbc.co.ukFarage senior aide filmed suggesting way to avoid donations lawA film broadcast by Channel 4 shows senior Reform UK figures discussing donations with an undercover reporter. 142
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I wonder if there will be a problem pinning anything on Farage, as that big foreign donation wasn’t real and didn’t actually happen. 000
Lesley Pitman @lesleypitman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026BBC News website quiet so far on the big Channel 4 News scoop. Somebody is having an unexpectedly busy evening checking out what Reform has been up to. I wonder how long it will take. 240
Reposted by Lesley PitmanSamuel Moore @samuelmoore.org · 01/09/2026This is why we had a whole open access movement. You can't leave this stuff up to the good will of organisations who may take access away at a moment's notice. 14520
Reposted by Lesley Pitmandread & circuses ♥️🖤🤍💚 @likeapen.bsky.social · 31/08/2026A real gut punch: "If we could not digitize everything in response to the global pandemic when we could not go anywhere, we certainly do not have the time or resources to completely digitize all world cultures before international mass displacements of populations due to climate change." 0149