William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 11hThe Ebihen archipelago on the north Brittany coast has 3 of the world’s best beaches in its 1km x 0.3km extent, all virtually unoccupied as only accessible 2hrs either side of low tide: unspeakably beautiful. 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 14/10/2026Oh if only the Guardian’s politics team were as perspicacious and unaffected by centrist normality as its football commentators www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...theguardian.comThis civil war on the British right is a charade – its politics are more united than ever | Jonathan LiewDon’t be fooled by its bickering leaders. Their calibrated fake fighting will probably end in coalition, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 13/10/2026Hmmm, possibly offensive to sharks: not a parasitic species 120
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026These egregious and lying scare quotes come free - no extra charge - with your @theguardian.com subscription www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...theguardian.comThousands gather in London to express support for Palestinians after three years of ‘genocide’Twenty arrested in first march since Ed Miliband declared UK’s position was that Israel’s occupation of West Bank was unlawful 010
Reposted by William OwenTowards a National Collection (TaNC) @nationalcollection.bsky.social · 06/10/2026We are pleased to announce the launch of the Wikimedia project, part of the N-RICH Prototype programme. Led by Histropedia, the project will explore how Wikidata and Linked Open Data can connect data services and research infrastructures across the UK cultural heritage sector. tinyurl.com/356zfd4j 032
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026No No No: Science can say what it will but *money* will rule the day. (You’ll know what I mean if you get to the end of this worthwhile review). www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oc...theguardian.comA Statement review – outstanding climate change dramedy about a 1980 meetingPaul Rudd, Paul Giamatti and Tatiana Maslany lead an excellent ensemble in this dramatization of a failed 1980 conference on climate change 110
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 · 27/09/2026Yep saw that. There’s clearly been some weird collective panic in the FT features and marketing teams, fearing a slump in How to Spend It readership. I’m sure you can buy the paper in Monaco though. 010
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 · 13/09/2026Nobody mentions Cold Comfort Farm for three decades, and then suddenly @davidveevers.bsky.social it’s the talk of the town. How? Is this ‘the vibe’? 111
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…and failing to rigorously scrutinise how their actions, on donations and conduct, is damaging to the idea of democratic politics overall.” Patrick Howse, former BBC News producer on BBC News’ response to C4 expose of Reform seeking illegal cash donations. bylinetimes.com/2026/09/07/t...bylinetimes.comThe BBC Is Just Nodding AlongThe corporation's news coverage has lost its soul as a bulwark against unaccountable power and extremism, writes a former BBC News producer 010
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 · 04/09/2026It’s immensely reassuring and empowering when persistence pays off. 030
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 · 19/08/20263/3 Yet at the end of the story there is a convergence. Ella becomes involved in a personal struggle for the truth concerning her husband’s death in Gallipoli, in which she discovers that he was killed twice-over by Winston Churchill & only in part through the agency of Turkish bullets. 000
William Owen @wdowen.bsky.social · 19/08/20262/3 Nurgis, the third of five sisters, was at St Hilda’s College Oxford in 1906 with Eliza’s granddaughter, Ella Ogilvy Bell. They led parallel and very different lives on opposite sides of the struggle: Nurgis joined the Rashtriya Stree Sabha women's movement; Ella married a British Army captain. 100
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 · 19/08/2026Re. Point 1, don’t underestimate history: understand our past, present and possible futures [plural] 010
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 · 16/08/2026Oh, and show with-the-wind newspapers too (Like @theguardian.com, carrying a dozen or more stories about Jason Arday, some of which heaped on the harrassment, eg. www.theguardian.com/education/20...theguardian.comJason Arday claimed he was paid ‘1.4 million’ by publisher for memoirSimon & Schuster still plans to publish book by Cambridge academic who resigned this week amid plagiarism claims 001
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 · 05/08/2026This is just one of the ways in which wealth generated in India & China was mobilised, via savings, into investments in capital goods in Britain, which is the subject of this 3-part essay on East India Company involvement in the railway mania of 1843-50. 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. 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 · 03/08/2026This is just one of the ways in which wealth generated in India & China was mobilised, via savings, into investments in capital goods in Britain, which is the subject of this 3-part essay on East India Company involvement in the railway mania of 1843-50. 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. 000
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