iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Bournville Lantern Lectures… Disrupted Sat 17 Oct Bournville Quaker Meeting House Step back in time for an immersive performance & lively retelling of an original Bournville Lantern Lecture, brought to life by Birmingham Rep’s Creative Learning Department. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

A magic lantern slide showing an aerial view of houses and gardens in Bournville, Birmingham in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing houses on Linden Road, Bournville in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing children playing in a park in Bournville, Birmingham in 1906.

A magic lantern slide showing children gathered either side of a small river in Bournville Park, Birmingham in 1906.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I’m really excited about this one. The performance is part of the partnership between the Department of History at the University of Birmingham and Bournville Village Trust. It started life as a Collaborative Research Internship and the research done by two of our wonderful students.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Bournville Lantern Lectures - Disrupted. Immersive history coming to south Birmingham. Saturday 17 October. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

sellymanormuseum.org.uk

Bournville Lantern Lectures... Disrupted!

An immersive, family friendly production of an original Bournville Lecture, brought to life by The Rep.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Bournville Lantern Lectures - Disrupted. Immersive history coming to south Birmingham. Saturday 17 October. sellymanormuseum.org.uk/events/2026-...

sellymanormuseum.org.uk

Bournville Lantern Lectures... Disrupted!

An immersive, family friendly production of an original Bournville Lecture, brought to life by The Rep.

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Andy Aitchison @andyaitchison.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Super proud of this and working with @tricksterprince.bsky.social and the rest of the team.

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Phil McDuff @mcduff.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Cool. So Burnham's plan is to use the entire state for crackdowns and racism, not just the parts explicitly designed to do crackdowns and racism. Fuck him.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Genuinely. You get to work with me and benefit from all my observations on the events of the day.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

🔔 UNTIL SUNDAY! 🔔 You can pre-order my first book for £16.50! Less than the price of a train from London to Reading

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Nick Lloyd @spaincivilwartours.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

#onthisday on 17 July 1936 the rebel military rose against ths Spanish Republic in colonial Morocco unleashing a murderous war causing incalculable pain+suffering, which still casts its shadow. Image: the Gracia family, like 100,000s, escaping into a very uncertain French exile, Jan 1939. Bastards

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

There’s always been a Gainsborough corridor.

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Murder is bad, m’kay? And the Brexiteer nationalist hard-right is single-handedly responsible for introducing a real language of violent response to ”betrayal” and “treason” over the last decade. Nigel Farage literally (if preposterously) threatened armed insurrection if he didn’t get “his” Brexit.

theguardian.com

Ann Widdecombe’s death should make Britain ask itself: what sort of political culture do we want? | Gaby Hinsliff

Dehumanising politicians is the first step towards justifying their elimination. It matters more than ever to keep putting the person back into the picture, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

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The Dispatch @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Rubbish bins and rodents have long plagued the streets of Selly Oak during the summer months. Is the community loosing its spirit as a result? www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/who-cares-ab...

birminghamdispatch.co.uk

Who cares about Selly Oak?

To-let boards, rubbish, and rodents: for some, the South Brum neighbourhood has lost its soul

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Brynley Heaven @brynleyheaven.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

officially labelled a waif and stray

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Every time I turn on the News, someone is discussing who *might* be Chancellor and what that *might* mean. These are good and important questions, but they are not "News". We need to find a way to shift the dial back to reporting on what *has* happened, rather than speculating on what *might*.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

'A government that says it wants innovation while pursuing a policy of often malign neglect when it comes to universities’ funding model and international students is not being tough-minded. It is simply incoherent.' @jdportes.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Burnham must learn from Starmer’s mistakes: Labour was elected to transform the economy, not just stabilise it | Jonathan Portes

Devolution, tax, the EU and immigration: these are all opportunities for growth if Burnham abandons the excessive caution of the past few years, says economist Jonathan Portes

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🦋 Frankie 🦋 @frankiemillie10.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

We laugh in the face of cattlegrids 🐑

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Sinead Carter @sineadcarter.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

still looking! please share with your networks ☺️

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Dr Ann Kennedy Smith @akennedysmith.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

'Ray addresses a meeting': my post about how the author and campaigner Ray Strachey (1887–1940) first became a suffragist as a student at Newnham College Cambridge in 1905, then took to the roads in a campaigning caravan in the summer of 1908.

open.substack.com

Ray Strachey, Cambridge suffragist

‘If we get the vote now, it will be entirely due to her'

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

If you can sit in a meeting and cry about what you're being told to do to a child, you can also refuse to do it.

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Congratulations to the government on saving 2700 jobs by nationalising British Steel. Now, about the 18,000 university jobs lost in the last 18 months, with more coming…

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Elspeth Van Veeren @evanveeren.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Another excellent example of just how incurious and limited the UK press has been about this crisis. Not one mention of the cuts to humanities that Bristol’s own VC is trying to push through at the moment in this article about her position on the cuts 🤔🙄. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

Florence Welch’s mother says cuts to arts and humanities ‘absolutely tragic’

Exclusive: Prof Evelyn Welch, vice-chancellor of Bristol University, believes her daughter’s success shows value of arts education

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John Paddington @padders123.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Still find it fascinating the complete mess of the city she represents isn't seen as a negative thing. It's almost as if the ongoing bin strike (and lack of household recycling for over a year) doesn't get any attention. Just imagine if what is happening in Birmingham was in London.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Congratulations Max, this looks wonderful! I can’t wait to read.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🚨📘 Book Alert! 📘🚨 My first monograph, 'A Science for Everyday Life' is now available for pre-order! Published by @upittpress.bsky.social & released mid-December 2026. US/North America: upittpress.org/books/978082... UK/Europe: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Book cover for 'A Science for Everyday Life: Mass media, natural history and the environment in Britain, 1900-1945'. Image on the cover shows a class of children watching a film about a frog.

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I know people who clung onto the Labour Party in the slim chance that after Keir Starmer things might have been different. Labour consistently revealing there's absolutely no plan for change. The puurpose is to maintain power & wealth for the super rich. Join.greenparty.org.uk

join.greenparty.org.uk

Join the Green Party

Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party standing up for people and planet.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I’m really going to have to backtrack on my long-held position that the idea of a ‘crisis of masculinity’ is bollocks.

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Alan Owlport 🦉 🎃 @alanallport.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

“Gender studies is so irrelevant to today’s world”

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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

At which point are journalists allowed to say "nope, that's not an answer. You're failing in your duties by repeating this very obvious deflection for two years in a row. You need to give an actual response now."? Or else publish just "the DfE said the same thing they did for 24 months".

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Universities are independent from government and are responsible for managing their own finances, but we are committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers and the economy.

“We have taken action to put the sector on a secure financial footing, including raising the maximum cap on tuition fees annually and refocusing the Office for Students to support universities’ financial stability.

“Through our ambitious reforms announced in the post-16 education and skills white paper we will restore universities as engines of growth, aspiration and opportunity.”

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Julia Laite @julialaite.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Do non-migrants have any idea how *utterly terrifying* it is for those who have IDL in the UK; have built a life here, have British kids & forged a sense of love & belonging to be bombarded with news that a sizeable % of the population & government want to be able to take that away & deport us?

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I think of it as writing through allusion.

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Imagine complaining that a work place is committed to equality. This is where we are in the UK in 2026. Heartbreaking to watch a society voluntarily roll back decades of progress.

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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The truth is that, by European standards, the UK is not a good place for kids. A big factor is the cost of living. Labour’s expansion of childcare has been something, but tackling an extractive rentier economy is much more difficult. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

theguardian.com

UK children will be one of unhealthiest generations in decades, doctors say

Analysis of 12 indicators including asthma, obesity and vaccination finds child health is ‘national embarrassment’

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Telling your followers to burn down hotels with asylum seekers in them is "hurty words". But Dan Hodges doing a few tweets is grounds to call the police.

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Warren Wells, AICP @warrenjwells.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing half the population that the "manly" way to get around is on a giant rolling couch controlled by gently depressing your toe.

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Nathan Cardon @ncardon.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My new article in @modamhist.bsky.social is out now in first view and open access and is a preview of chapter 6 of the 'The World Awheel' (@columbiaup.bsky.social). It's a story of American mobility, femininity, and power in the spaces of European empires. doi.org/10.1017/mah....

A historic photograph of Fanny Bullock Workman wearing bloomers and standing in front of a drop frame bicycle on a dirt road. Image from the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK, courtesy of the MacRobert Trust.

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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

My bedroom painted by Muriel Lewis c.1967 in the art therapy studio at Netherne Hospital, where she was compelled to live. Many of her works depict scenes from her materially affluent home life, often devoid of people, with eeriness & emptiness troubling under the surface of comfortable surroundings

Drawing in an illustrative but rather stiff style depicting a big bay windowed bedroom with chintz bedspread and curtains, a pink tiled fireplace to the left and a vanity unit in the central window with a view to trees outside

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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

New book by Bluecoat Press of @andyaitchison.bsky.social prison photos. It’s a very important series and anyone who loves documentary photography should buy it bluecoatpress.co.uk/product/inca...

bluecoatpress.co.uk

Incarcerated – Bluecoat Press

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Museums Association @museumsassociation.org · 09/07/2026

News | Birmingham museums extend opening hours after council budget boost New hours come into effect this month thanks to £300,000 investment

museumsassociation.org

Birmingham museums extend opening hours after council budget boost - Museums Association

New hours come into effect this month thanks to £300,000 investment

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

And absence of much resembling news...

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