Mr Murphy
@murphyhistory.bsky.social
“Enthusiastic peddler of history." Head of Year 9 and DofE assessor. Sometime medievalist. Mountain Leader trainee. Scouter. Trying to stay focused on teaching...
Reposted by Mr Murphy
Liz Truss was Prime Minister for 49 days, departing in October 2022. Today marks her fourth appearance as a former Prime Minister at the Rememberance Day service.
Liz Truss is 50. If she lives to be 96, she will have spent more days attending the service than actually being Prime Minister. /1
Liz Truss is 50. If she lives to be 96, she will have spent more days attending the service than actually being Prime Minister. /1
November 9, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Liz Truss was Prime Minister for 49 days, departing in October 2022. Today marks her fourth appearance as a former Prime Minister at the Rememberance Day service.
Liz Truss is 50. If she lives to be 96, she will have spent more days attending the service than actually being Prime Minister. /1
Liz Truss is 50. If she lives to be 96, she will have spent more days attending the service than actually being Prime Minister. /1
One for those* interested in the niche crossover of father/son Lake District antiquarians/philosophers of history.
*(I suspect the Venn diagram of those into both WG Collingwood and Robin Collingwood is a circle with just my name in it)
*(I suspect the Venn diagram of those into both WG Collingwood and Robin Collingwood is a circle with just my name in it)
November 9, 2025 at 11:56 AM
One for those* interested in the niche crossover of father/son Lake District antiquarians/philosophers of history.
*(I suspect the Venn diagram of those into both WG Collingwood and Robin Collingwood is a circle with just my name in it)
*(I suspect the Venn diagram of those into both WG Collingwood and Robin Collingwood is a circle with just my name in it)
Reposted by Mr Murphy
The next edition of the paper (13 November, 1989) was just as muted.
November 9, 2025 at 9:14 AM
The next edition of the paper (13 November, 1989) was just as muted.
Reposted by Mr Murphy
My annual post about how the Morning Star reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
November 9, 2025 at 9:02 AM
My annual post about how the Morning Star reported the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
hatfulofhistory.com/2014/11/07/h...
At this time of year some of the stuff you see (mainly from the excellent @mascotsilence.bsky.social and @remembrancewatch.bsky.social accounts) always makes me think of Sergeant Detritus at the site of Koom Valley in Thud:
November 8, 2025 at 9:26 AM
At this time of year some of the stuff you see (mainly from the excellent @mascotsilence.bsky.social and @remembrancewatch.bsky.social accounts) always makes me think of Sergeant Detritus at the site of Koom Valley in Thud:
Reposted by Mr Murphy
Busy evening for the Metaphor Police
This is officially one of the strangest pictures in American history, and I do not doubt that it will be considered iconic a hundred years from now.
100% serious here.
100% serious here.
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Busy evening for the Metaphor Police
Is it just… humans?
AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here on.ft.com/3JERVRg
AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here
Tech leaders say systems now rival human intelligence in key tasks, further fuelling the superintelligence debate
on.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Is it just… humans?
Really glad that the wheel of fortune has turned again and we are back to telling students to put blazers on after years of telling them to take their coats off…
November 5, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Really glad that the wheel of fortune has turned again and we are back to telling students to put blazers on after years of telling them to take their coats off…
There are few things you need more today than a court transcript of someone on trial for assaulting a US federal agent with… a sandwich.
Big day at U.S. District Court in D.C. where Sean Dunn, the D.C. Sandwich Guy, is on trial for misdemeanor assault of a federal officer.
Border Patrol agent Gregory Lairmore is on the stand narrating surveillance video of the sammie toss.
'Now he’s struck me with the sandwich,' Lairmore says.
Border Patrol agent Gregory Lairmore is on the stand narrating surveillance video of the sammie toss.
'Now he’s struck me with the sandwich,' Lairmore says.
November 4, 2025 at 7:08 PM
There are few things you need more today than a court transcript of someone on trial for assaulting a US federal agent with… a sandwich.
Reposted by Mr Murphy
You laugh, but this is how the exododus went extinct
November 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
You laugh, but this is how the exododus went extinct
Isn’t it also a myth that the imperial civil service was tiny? Amongst all the other many problems with this…
If the model here is that you let a private company conquer a country, co-opt local elites to exploit it for profit and govern it by force, while providing no public services and never worrying about elections, then, yes - this is a really good analogy, Mr Kruger.
October 31, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Isn’t it also a myth that the imperial civil service was tiny? Amongst all the other many problems with this…
I’m still not entirely clear which side is laughing and which side is crying…
You might think a Rowntree's Easter catalogue could have nothing to do with #Halloween, but that's because you haven't seen the two-sided chocolate twin face egg of 1932. A bargain at 1 shilling.
October 31, 2025 at 10:53 AM
I’m still not entirely clear which side is laughing and which side is crying…
Just finished The Death of Yugoslavia on iPlayer. Cannot recommend it enough.
(I think one of the reasons it hits home hard is that I can’t get away from the fact that the small children seen living through the descent into hell are the same age as me).
(I think one of the reasons it hits home hard is that I can’t get away from the fact that the small children seen living through the descent into hell are the same age as me).
The Death of Yugoslavia - Series 1: 1. Enter Nationalism
President Milosevic of Serbia describes how he seized absolute power in Serbia and unleashed the nationalism that shook the foundations upon which Yugoslavia had been built.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Just finished The Death of Yugoslavia on iPlayer. Cannot recommend it enough.
(I think one of the reasons it hits home hard is that I can’t get away from the fact that the small children seen living through the descent into hell are the same age as me).
(I think one of the reasons it hits home hard is that I can’t get away from the fact that the small children seen living through the descent into hell are the same age as me).
Appreciate this is not the main point here but I’m not convinced that Musk understands one of the central themes of the Lord of the Rings.
Elon Musk: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die" 29th October 2025. 2 million views in its first hour.
October 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Appreciate this is not the main point here but I’m not convinced that Musk understands one of the central themes of the Lord of the Rings.
So inevitable it has already happened. Several times.
October 29, 2025 at 8:45 AM
So inevitable it has already happened. Several times.
Reposted by Mr Murphy
Proof that, given enough time, everything gets clouded with nostalgia.
By 2050 there’ll be pandemic lockdown Facebook nostalgia groups. “Yeah, thousands of people died and we couldn’t leave our homes. But weren’t Joe Wicks workout videos great?”
By 2050 there’ll be pandemic lockdown Facebook nostalgia groups. “Yeah, thousands of people died and we couldn’t leave our homes. But weren’t Joe Wicks workout videos great?”
Microsoft's new Copilot AI character - Mico - is being reported as an evolution of the infamous Clippy
Despite Clippy's reputation for being maligned, Brits who encountered the digital paperclip tend to remember it fondly
Favourable: 38%
Unfavourable: 16%
Neither: 25%
yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
Despite Clippy's reputation for being maligned, Brits who encountered the digital paperclip tend to remember it fondly
Favourable: 38%
Unfavourable: 16%
Neither: 25%
yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...
October 25, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Proof that, given enough time, everything gets clouded with nostalgia.
By 2050 there’ll be pandemic lockdown Facebook nostalgia groups. “Yeah, thousands of people died and we couldn’t leave our homes. But weren’t Joe Wicks workout videos great?”
By 2050 there’ll be pandemic lockdown Facebook nostalgia groups. “Yeah, thousands of people died and we couldn’t leave our homes. But weren’t Joe Wicks workout videos great?”
I know I say every half term was the longest ever but seriously that one tested that idea almost to destruction.
a man sits at a desk with a sign that says fox mulder on it
ALT: a man sits at a desk with a sign that says fox mulder on it
media.tenor.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I know I say every half term was the longest ever but seriously that one tested that idea almost to destruction.
This, but for ceasefires, international diplomacy, and indeed tariffs.
October 22, 2025 at 10:11 PM
This, but for ceasefires, international diplomacy, and indeed tariffs.
This whole article made me so angry. My memory of that week in March 2020 was like being on a rollercoaster that was out of control. My memories of the entire year 2020-21 was of a veneer of organisation thinly disguising chaos, and for Johnson to admit it was all a mess really boils my blood.
Children paid 'huge price' for others in Covid, Boris Johnson says
The former PM says lockdown rules
www.bbc.co.uk
October 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
This whole article made me so angry. My memory of that week in March 2020 was like being on a rollercoaster that was out of control. My memories of the entire year 2020-21 was of a veneer of organisation thinly disguising chaos, and for Johnson to admit it was all a mess really boils my blood.
Reposted by Mr Murphy
Devastating news for those like me who were sure Taylor could fix them.
CNN: Hopes for Swift Trump-Putin Meeting May Be Put on Hold
October 21, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Devastating news for those like me who were sure Taylor could fix them.
Reposted by Mr Murphy
The Japanese Crown Jewels are even better because they're so sacred that even the Emperor isn't allowed to see them (they're presented to him in little boxes at his enthronement) and they also might not even actually exist.
October 19, 2025 at 10:34 AM
The Japanese Crown Jewels are even better because they're so sacred that even the Emperor isn't allowed to see them (they're presented to him in little boxes at his enthronement) and they also might not even actually exist.
How nobody has looked at a medieval crown which not only has a curse against usurpers but possibly used that power to finish off a senior Nazi and not seen a potential film I do not know.
I am obliged to note at this point that not only has the crown of Saint Wenceslas been going since 1346, it has usurper-zapping powers which were last tested in the 1940s and as far as anybody knows are still effective.
I recommend the experiment to any aspiring monarchs out there.
I recommend the experiment to any aspiring monarchs out there.
It's also funny how basically all royal regalia are a few centuries old at most. There's only one genuinely ancient bit of the British Crown Jewels left (the anointing spoon) because the rest of them either got lost by King John or flogged off by Cromwell.
October 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
How nobody has looked at a medieval crown which not only has a curse against usurpers but possibly used that power to finish off a senior Nazi and not seen a potential film I do not know.