William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Are words like 'tenebrous' used for any purpose other than to force us to reach for the dictionary? 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The way the world works: [Manchester] City lawyer Simon Cliff asserts that “Uefa doesn’t respond to anything other than aggression”, and threatens the governing body of European football … with “the destruction of their rules and organisation”. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThe Manchester City case shows us how the global mega-rich now expect to operate with impunity | Jonathan LiewWhen transnational alliances have scarcely been weaker, the way the club was allegedly run offers a bleak vision of a world driven by brute power and wealth, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew 001
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Enjoying the Mediterranean weather under a Mediterranean pine in Metropolitan London reading about the ‘Godzilla’ El Niño now at 3 degrees above average 010
Reposted by William OwenWilliam Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Big news, this has been a long time coming: strong evidence that there are multiple hidden chambers behind Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, possibly Nefertiti’s tomb. Nick Reeves’ work builds on laser scanning data captured by Factum Foundation > a decade ago. www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comExclusive: New evidence for hidden chambers beyond Tutankhamun’s tombGeophysical survey yields ‘tantalizing’ data that could point to Nefertiti’s burial place – but it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions. 012
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Big news, this has been a long time coming: strong evidence that there are multiple hidden chambers behind Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, possibly Nefertiti’s tomb. Nick Reeves’ work builds on laser scanning data captured by Factum Foundation > a decade ago. www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comExclusive: New evidence for hidden chambers beyond Tutankhamun’s tombGeophysical survey yields ‘tantalizing’ data that could point to Nefertiti’s burial place – but it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions. 012
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Scare quotes watch reveals Zionist sub-editor (and/or political editor) at work at the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...theguardian.comUK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backingEd Miliband announces sanctions on trade with settlers as PM says in the Guardian it is time to act 111
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 07/09/2026“my profession … smiles at hard-right figures when they walk into a TV studio and are given a disproportionate amount of air time to make their fact-free assertions while nodding along to their scapegoating of the weak, the disadvantaged, the foreign, and the displaced … 110
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I’m picturing this a.m.’s editorial meet at BBC News in Millbank House. At issue the plausibility of a long-planned editorial line for Reform conference, 'Preparing for Government'. Chris Mason is on the phone to Robbie Gibb: “WE STICK WITH IT!”. Nick Robinson grimly checks his intro one more time 0195
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026And should also be read in conjunction with this analysis by a French researcher of the strategy and tactics behind the hounding of Jason Arday and its ultimate purpose, in which Orr, and Toby Young, both figure broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-killin...broligarchy.substack.comThe killing of a black manA French researcher exposes the network of “race realists” who hunted Jason Arday like prey and the media who fell into their trap 110
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 03/09/2026BBC News R4 Today introduces a feature on supercharged El Niño by twice emphasising this is a natural phenomena and without linking the ‘supercharging’ to global warming by fossil fuel use. This is a repeated tick, editorial policy, not sloppy journalism. BBC News has gone full Trump. 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 02/09/2026www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...theguardian.comUK must end all trade with Israel, says co-founder of BDS movementExclusive: sanctions against ministers and settler groups are ‘smoke and mirrors cop-out’ says Omar Barghouti 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 28/08/2026From the FT, with no intended irony: ‘It’s like playing on concrete’: drought leaves sports pitches across England unplayable. - Rugby and football matches postponed as dry weather affects grassroots and amateur sports ... 100
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 21/08/2026A news item that tells us that next year is going to be the hottest ever because of El Niño without mentioning CO2 induced heating has got to be funded by fossil fuel companies - yeah? Well it’s BBC News, in every radio bulletin today. 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026The life of Eliza Ogilvy opens up rabbit holes I sometimes run down gratefully. This is a deep one, concerning the granddaughters of the Congress leader Dadabhai Naoroji and their leading role in the Indian liberation movement in Mumbai in the 1920s and ‘30s. eaho.substack.com/p/the-captai...eaho.substack.comThe Captain sisters in Bombay, organising women's resistance to British rule in IndiaDadabhai Naoroji paid for his granddaughters to have the very best education at Oxford & the Sorbonne; they used it wisely, to lead the women's Satyagraha movement and the boycott campaign in Bombay. 1104
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 18/08/2026@eicathomefinn.bsky.social @alanlester.bsky.social Thank you for your kind words! The kernel of the book (so far) is here eaho.substack.com/s/the-book/a... but yet to cover 2H19C. The explanation of how it fits together, and how one things leads to another, is here: eaho.substack.com/p/introducin...eaho.substack.comIntroducing Eliza Ogilvy (the long edition)A literary life in Scotland, India, Italy and London; a network of artists, writers and scientists; a microhistory of the East India Company and its influence on British culture in the 19th Century. 112
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 16/08/2026I’m standing in the rain. It’s not the monsoon but it’s gorgeous! 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 16/08/2026We need to show rightwing newspapers that actions have consequences. Add your name: goodlawproject.org/s/abb8a1goodlawproject.orgJason Arday: Demand a public inquiry now | Good Law ProjectCommission an immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press given its contribution to Dr Arday’s tragic death. 100
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Thanks Margot. Adding in part 3 on diverse mechanisms by which Indian and Chinese wealth was transferred to capital formation in Britain, inc. Macnaghten & Prinsep connections with GWR, Lushington & Harris with London Chatham & Kent, and P&O with opium transit eaho.substack.com/p/163-old-in...eaho.substack.com16.3 Old Indians, new moneyDavid Ogilvy was a cog in the machine that directed wealth gained in China and India into British capital formation during the railway boom and bust of 1843-50. The consequences were transformative. 174
Reposted by William OwenWilliam Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026And here is Part 1, Railway mania eaho.substack.com/p/161-railwa...eaho.substack.com16.1 Railway maniaHow profits extracted from India fuelled Britain's railway bubble; how William Aytoun played a small part in its bursting; and how Eliza Dick found herself in an East India Company marriage. 033
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026And here is Part 1, Railway mania eaho.substack.com/p/161-railwa...eaho.substack.com16.1 Railway maniaHow profits extracted from India fuelled Britain's railway bubble; how William Aytoun played a small part in its bursting; and how Eliza Dick found herself in an East India Company marriage. 033
Reposted by William OwenAlan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 14/08/20261/2 Following on from @eicathomefinn.bsky.social & others (link), William Owen has been researching the East India Company's influence on British society & economy. This eastern influence merged with that of the Atlantic slavery complex to help transform the nation. uclpress.co.uk/book/the-eas...uclpress.co.uk 21811
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Something to watch giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...giftarticle.ft.comThe Bayeux Tapestry loan is a model for the Parthenon MarblesBurnham has a chance to create a legislative carve-out that speeds the process of returning the artefacts to Greece 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Bristol University's failed appeal to overturn David Miller's tribunal victory confirms legal protections for anti-Zionism as a philosophical belief - and is ignored by all m/s media except the BBC and Al Jazeera. Times, Telegraph and Guardian are much too busy hounding Jason Arday to cover it. 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026As the great opium smuggler James Matheson once remarked, it is “opium revenue on which [the East India Company] chiefly rely for the means of paying the dividends on their Stock”. And yes, a guaranteed annual dividend of £630,000 was divided between some 4500 individual shareholders. 110
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 05/08/2026So why the scare quotes? The article says “Two of the most frequently used chemicals in pet flea and tick treatments – imidacloprid and fipronil – are banned for use in pesticides in the EU and UK due to their severe toxicity to fish, invertebrates, bees.” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...theguardian.comCalls to ban ‘toxic’ pet flea treatments that harm UK wildlife and environmentOver-the-counter treatments for cats and dogs contain chemicals that are banned in pesticides and pollute waterways 000
Reposted by William OwenWilliam Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026As the great opium smuggler James Matheson once remarked, it is “opium revenue on which [the East India Company] chiefly rely for the means of paying the dividends on their Stock”. And yes, a guaranteed annual dividend of £630,000 was divided between some 4500 individual shareholders. 101
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 03/08/2026As the great opium smuggler James Matheson once remarked, it is “opium revenue on which [the East India Company] chiefly rely for the means of paying the dividends on their Stock”. And yes, a guaranteed annual dividend of £630,000 was divided between some 4500 individual shareholders. 101
Reposted by William OwenMargot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Thinking through the unedifying, un-evidence-based rush to an undefined, apparently unmodelled paradigm of 'specialisation, what's being lost/threatened? Herts History was an excellent example of performing to a top standard in REF, but also much more than that. Questions to think with include: 1/4 110756
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Just published in Eliza Ogilvy’s Commonplace Book is Missing: On East India Company family alliances reforming as business networks in London, and their influence on the railway boom and bust of 1843-50, in three parts: 100
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Just published in Eliza Ogilvy’s Commonplace Book is Missing: On East India Company family alliances reforming as business networks in London Company, and their influence on the railway boom and bust of 1843-50, in three parts: 100
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Tragic yes, but for @telegraph.co.uk and Allister Heath it's simply time for the people of Leiston and the birds of Dunwich to embrace the Mediterranean lifestyle 031
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Today’s cloud. To be helpful it’s in the centre of the picture, in the sky. In the foreground you can see the desertification of Green Park. 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Could anyone with the necessary expertise translate this for me? “The [Ziwiye hoard] earrings belong to Barron London a … dealer whose website states: “With a reputation for discretion, the gallery works privately with collectors, estates and institutions to uncover and place pieces of significance” 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026‘Fairness you can feel’. Neil Kinnock is selling Andy Burnham like soap. Is he just a lot of lather? 000
Reposted by William OwenAdmirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Historian of science Margaret Rossiter (b #OTD in 1944) coined the term #MatildaEffect (1993). Named after suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage, the Matilda Effect describes a systemic bias where women's scientific achievements are ignored, minimized, or directly attributed to their male colleagues. 1/3 341657599
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Long piece on institutional collusion in the erasure of a people and their past. Well researched, worth a read, exposing reprehensible behaviour. www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/ex...middleeasteye.netExclusive: British Museum made false claims about its removal of ‘Palestine’ from displaysInternal emails reveal changes resulted directly from complaints by pro-Israel activists, with the museum and its director subsequently misleading prominent critics 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 02/07/2026'Lunch with the FT' is a lightweight regular feature and sometimes disappointingly so, as in today's with Morgan McSweeney, by George Parker [he's over at X] who offers a soft mouthpiece for myth-making and nothing resembling journalism. I'll save the world the link. @financialtimes.com 000
Reposted by William OwenCharlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 29/06/2026This loss is significant. Another database, the Colonial Film Project, exists still as a database but no films are viewable as the original project ran on flash (!). 2308
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 28/06/2026“As a technology, AI has pros and cons; as a rushed project of rapacious elites, it is transparently obscene … rolled out in the most reckless, self-serving way one could imagine, by the worst people, for the worst reasons. It’s not the machines you should be angry with.”theguardian.comThe Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow review – the real price of artificial intelligenceA vivid and entertaining polemnic on the economics of the tech revolution, filled with righteous ire 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 24/06/2026I’ve just seen James Parnell - Josh Simons axis described as “Continuity neo-liberal Zionism”. That just about sums it up. 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 20/06/2026It's that time when you think 'Thank God I don't have a subscription'. 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026Regulator left hand and right hand entirely out of sync, so dumb 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026The perils of working in the garden. This just fell on my keyboard. I was I in mid-sentence. 010
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 01/06/2026These are the people who are running the show. Weep with me. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comMandelson criticised Starmer’s lack of ‘verve’ and tendency to buckle under pressureCriticisms revealed in major release of files relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to US 010
Reposted by William OwenNormal Island News @normalisland.co.uk · 16/05/2026BREAKING: Man optimistic he can replace hated prime minister and win over the public by doing the exact same policies, but in a Mancunian accent ♥️ 34414112
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Free link giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...giftarticle.ft.comWhy birth rates are falling everywhere all at onceHomes and phones are part of the reason for the demographic shift changing our world 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Breathtaking article in the FT on the impact of smartphones and social media worldwide reducing socialising (by up to half) coupling and birth rates. “Women have moved leftward, men have not, and coupling and births have cratered.” app.ft.com/content/fba3...app.ft.comFTThe latest UK and international business, finance, economic and political news, comment and analysis from the Financial Times optimised for your device on app.ft.com. 100