Alan Lester
LightNews LightNews
banner
alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester
@alanlester.bsky.social
17K followers 7.3K following 2.1K posts

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

Videos

Alan Lester is a British historical geographer and author who has worked for Sussex University since 2000. He was appointed Professor of Historical Geography in 2006. He is known for his research on imperial networks, colonial humanitarianism and imperial governance. .. more

Political science 40%
Sociology 34%
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · Apr 30
The podcast of David Olusoga and I discussing Empire & the rewriting of history:

howtoacademy.com/podcasts/dav...
HOW TO PODCAST | David Olusoga & Alan Lester - The Truth About the British Empire
David Olusoga and Alan Lester reveal the dark realities of the British Empire, and reflect on the importance of historians amid the resurgence of nationalism and misinformation.
howtoacademy.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 14h
Thanks Ryan. I’m not sure he has really had the (economic) means to do so yet. Agree on with you about cracking down on rights but fear that Greens would have to work in alliance with a viable Labour to block Reform nationwide.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 15h
I agree and hope others are right to believe that toppling Starmer would enable a more progressive government to settle in & improve things. I fear that the effect will be entirely counterproductive. The more likely outcome is a perpetually destabilised Labour govt leading to Reform. Weimar echoes.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 15h
The double standards of our media ecosystem and the power of its anti-Labour propaganda are more than evident. Compare Rayner/stamp duty to Farage’s many career-ending actions. A more progressive Labour PM just presents the next target. If you want to block the far Right now you must hold the line.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 15h
I say this not out of any great affection for Starmer but because I fear that ousting him will simply be episode 1 of an ongoing, press-orchestrated campaign to topple one Labour PM after another until the party is out of office again.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 15h
Yes the distraction needs to end & Starmer needs to be able to focus on important rebuilding after the toxic Tory legacy. It might help if Labour MPs stop briefing a voracious, hostile, anti-Labour press & consider how they’re doing fascists’ job for them.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
The Church knowingly invested in the trafficking of some 20,000 people, 3,000 of whom died on the way.
6. The right wing objections are really political rather than historical.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
4. They are claiming that the Church got its history wrong because it profited from South Sea annuities rather than shares in the company’s less successful’ slave trading branch.
5. In fact it continued to hold shares too.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
… donations from slave-traders, clergy who owned captives and investment in the slave-trading South Sea Company.
3. Right wing activists are campaigning against the Church’s reparative Project Spire in parliament and the right wing press.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
Key points:
1. Trans-Atlantic slavery was unlike other forms of slavery. People were commodified and racialised as ‘objects’ for capital accumulation.
2. The Church of England invested in this system through ownership of a Barbados estate with high death rates and purchase of captives for it;

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
Good idea Narinder, will do.

Reposted by Patrick Walsh, Morwenna Ludlow

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d
The Church of England is developing a reparative justice scheme in recognition of its complicity in trans-Atlantic slavery. Project Spire has been attacked in Parliament and the right wing press with claims of flawed historical research. What’s the truth?

alanlester.co.uk/blog/the-arg...
The Argument About Project Spire and the Real History of the Church of England as an Enslaver
Alan Lester Immediately before and after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, a number of prominent British organisations assessed their entanglements with slavery and its afterlives. They incl…
alanlester.co.uk

Reposted by Peter Holmes

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
I agree, but especially with this:

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
Farage has already severely constrained on the UK economy with Brexit. A glimpse here of the unmitigated economic disaster his premiership would bring:
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
Nigel Farage’s politics begin and end in the boozer
A pubs-for-child-benefits swap is Reform UK’s latest innumerate wheeze — it is surprising how little scrutiny its pledges receive
www.thetimes.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
2/2 … that he thinks even the AI, engineering & medical research at Harvard is infected by “woke” ideology. Severing this research pipeline is like cutting of your arm because you’re hallucinating it’s a snake.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
1/2 So much of what the Trump administration does is staggeringly stupid that it’s easy to miss some of the most jaw-dropping acts of self harm. Pete Hegseth has so completely lobotomised himself …

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pentagon ends academic ties with
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will end all graduate-level military training, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.
www.bbc.co.uk

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
Unbelievable. Severing the USA’s defence ties with one of the world’s leading sources of cutting edge research is an act of self-sabotage that America’s enemies could only dream about.

Pentagon ends academic ties with Harvard over its 'woke ideology' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Pentagon ends academic ties with
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon will end all graduate-level military training, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.
www.bbc.co.uk

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
Well worth reading to see how other European countries are now starting to rally against American techbro interference in our democracies.

www.bylinesupplement.com/p/epstein-tr...
Epstein, Trump and How Europe Is Punching Technofascists in the Face
Byline political columnist Heidi Siegmund Cuda investigates Europe’s big moves against big tech and the broligarchs in the wake of the Epstein scandal
www.bylinesupplement.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
A foretaste of Reform in government: huge savings will be announced for projects that were never going to happen. As people get poorer and lose what remains of the state safety net, they’ll be told it’s all in their imagination. The Party has spoken.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reform-run Kent council accused of fabricating £40m net zero savings
Exclusive: Disclosures show figures cited by council leader rested on unfunded ideas listed briefly in budget papers
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Alan Lester

sanjitchudha.bsky.social
Sanjit Singh Chudha 🏳️‍🌈 @sanjitchudha.bsky.social · 2d
We've known it all along, thanks to proper investigative journalists like Carol Cadwalladr. A pity that other - so called - journalists have let it slide for so long. Still, at least it's reaching a broader audience at last. Let's hope it's the start of more such pieces to really bring it home.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
It’s good to see the @thetimes.com taking Epstein’s links with Putin’s regime seriously. Next step: it wasn’t just about compromising material & finance, but destabilising Western democracies using Bannon, Farage & the far right.

www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
Was Epstein really a Russian spy? The evidence examined
Files expose his links to the Kremlin through ambassadors, oligarchs and intelligence officers — plus his attempts to meet Putin
www.thetimes.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 2d
Tomorrow in Brighton. Conservatives are relentlessly attacking Project Spire, the Church of England Reparative justice, scheme, in the press and Parliament. They claim the Church got its history wrong. I’ll set out what expert historians know and show the objections are political, not historical.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 3d
Hang on, isn’t the whole point of Trump’s Truth Social account that the world can hear the President’s thoughts unmediated? Isn’t this direct access what makes him so refreshingly authentic? Now it appears it was his aides ventriloquising him all along?

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 3d
More revelations about the global elites funding Nigel Farage’s anti-global elite rhetoric.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Court battle over Picasso art exposes offshore finances of Farage’s billionaire Davos sponsor
Exclusive: Sasan Ghandehari reluctant to share details of $10bn trust in row with Christie’s auction house
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Pauline Stafford

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 3d
How the cowed US media is doctoring reality on behalf of Trump’s generally despised administration.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
NBC appears to cut crowd’s booing of JD Vance from Winter Olympics broadcast
The US vice-president, JD Vance, was greeted by a chorus of boos during when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday
www.theguardian.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
My colleagues in the Sussex School of Global Studies and I have been swapping insights into what on Earth is going on with Trump’s administration. You can listen in on Global Takes on Trump:

rss.com/podcasts/glo...
Global Takes on Trump | Podcast on RSS.com
The advent of the second Trump presidency has already had seminal effects on global politics.In each episode, host Dr. Synne Dyvik will be joined by academics from across the University of Sussex Facu...
rss.com

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
Epstein managed different networks. The UK media has rightly centred the powerful pedophile ring. It has maintained an uncanny silence about the global, anti-democratic, far right political network. Farage is up to his neck in it. If it weren’t for unprecedented double standards it’d be career over.

Reposted by Margot C. Finn, Pauline Stafford

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
Epstein managed different networks. The UK media has rightly centred the powerful pedophile ring. It has maintained an uncanny silence about the global, anti-democratic, far right political network. Farage is up to his neck in it. If it weren’t for unprecedented double standards it’d be career over.
Dinner with Mr Brexit: Bannon’s European Revolution – Planned with Farage, Backed by Epstein
Nigel Farage was the figurehead and his partner Laure Ferrari started it. Steve Bannon and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were providing almost daily support
bylinetimes.com

Reposted by Rebecca Sear

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
This is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of democracy on this side of the Atlantic, and I’m not being hyperbolic.

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 4d
Oh dear, Farage & Badenoch will have to stir the s**t over the Chagos deal all over again.

Trump signals US support for Chagos handover deal www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Donald Trump signals US support for Chagos handover deal
It comes after the US president suggested last month he could withdraw his support for the deal.
www.bbc.co.uk

alanlester.bsky.social
Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 5d
Bumper crop of superb Studies in Imperialism books in paperback today.