CAN WE BE DONE WITH THIS HORRID MONTH (poem by Brian Bilston @brianbilston.bsky.social) #poetry

It’s a real shame that Nigel Farage is too unwell to do interviews the morning after Donald Trump threatens us with sanctions. Here he is with “the bravest man he ever met”. He campaigned to make Trump President, and has spent the last year enjoying all the chaos he has caused.

Let's be clear what a pack of treasonous lies and crap this is. 1. There is no sign of any Chinese threat to Greenland, or even reason for China to particularly threaten the place.

US official says "Oh fuck".

Posted this thread the day Trump was elected. Anyone want to tell me I was wrong? All the Trump-whispering, “Give him a state visit, flatter him, we are so much more subtle and sophisticated…" Load of bollocks and waste of time.

Look, I realise no-one else cares, but for us medieval shipping nerds this is exciting stuff.

Apologies to @frwildflowers.bsky.social, who posts gorgeous pictures of North American plants that are balm to the soul, but Pedicularis groenlandica means literally Greenland Lousewort, and for some reason that seems a bit on the nose right now.

It finally dawned on me that when Paine said ““These are the times that try men’s souls” he meant “test”, not “oppress”. And, yes, these are the times when we’re getting to see what Americans are made of, who’s gold, and who’s, well, not.

This is really encouraging. Actual troops on the ground, in a matter of days. For once Europe seems to actually showing signs of understanding how hard power works. Royal Marines and SBS too, please.

During the passage of every piece of new immigration legislation since the NABA 2022, those of us who work with survivors of trafficking have told the government again and again that they will cause greater harm to survivors and embolden traffickers. They ignored us. Now we’re seeing the proof.

The aisled west porch and belfry of Mundon church, Essex, all in wood for #Woodensday, one of that often maligned county's most special places. Now in the tender care of @friendlesschurches.bsky.social churches and open daily. 1/3

FrenchResponse is an official account of the French Foreign Affair Ministry

Obviously not the main problem here, but one of my bugbears is the idea that something or other is bad for children, so they should not be exposed to it at all, then at age 18 (or whatever) magically it’s OK for them to dive right in, with no previous controlled exposure.

A great read on how we can actually finally regulate tech and move away from the US government’s blackmail grip over global tech markets that are currently forced to favour US tech bros. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is terrific news, and I have high hopes for Misha Glenny; “How To Invent A Country” is excellent radio.

Agree with this. Wrote about what to do about it here: open.substack.com/pub/howtorun...

Am beginning to wonder of anyone has told the government that they are in fact the government, becuase if not it would explain a lot.

It’s one thing to argue that it’s a necessary evil (wrongly IMO) but it’s quite another for Tories like Susan to profess their love for the child sexual abuse material and NCII hosting platform X. And to also tag the ego maniac billionaire enabling it, reeks of desperation.

It's unacceptable that Britain and France allow free passage of Russian shadow fleet tankers through their water.

This. Please take note @libdems.org.uk.

This is such a great, great point. Giving local government the budgets and powers to run services properly is *the* big thing.

2/We are Ukraine. Please respect our territorial integrity and sovereignty."

❗️Zelensky: "First of all, I want to say that we are grateful to Denmark for its presidency, and we respect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. We appreciate the beginning of Cyprus' presidency, and we respect its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

We need more hardcore European propaganda

We know what happens when a US President ignores international law. My friend Charles Kennedy understood what was at stake in 2003 when he stood against the Iraq war. Unlike the Labour government, we will not look the other way.

Even if nobody wants to take action against Musk for building a CSAM generator, there are people using it who are based in the UK and those prompts are absolutely something that would get you on the sex offender's register. Absolutely no justification not to try to identify and prosecute users.

During Fiona Hill's testimony to Congress on Oct 14, 2019, she described how Trump and Putin discussed exchanging Ukraine for Venezuela. The quid pro quo was if Trump refuses to help Ukraine fight off a Russian invasion, Putin would not help Venezuela (a Russian ally) resist a US takeover.

Excellent Clausewitzian piece here by Hertling, written before the Maduro abduction. The Hegseth "lethality" bullshit is of course a refusal to engage with any of the considerations raised here, in favour of pretending to be a Hollywood Action Hero.

Keir Starmer should condemn Trump’s illegal action in Venezuela. Maduro is a brutal and illegitimate dictator, but unlawful attacks like this make us all less safe. Trump is giving a green light to the likes of Putin and Xi to attack other countries with impunity.

Vance’s use of quotes is deliberate, not illiterate like Trump’s. Here, it signifies that legality itself is a dubious or frivolous concept as applied to the actions of the regime. It conveys not just that it’s wrong to say the acts were illegal, but ridiculous to use law as a metric at all.

Sorry people, but I'm not going out to bat for either Trump (obvs) or Maduro. Two blokes who each lost an election and then used force to overthrow the results. Maduro was just better at it, probably due to having had more practice.

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

While I'm sharing the general derision for this tit Ovenden, the bloke should be beaten round the head with @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social's specific observation here respecting Grenfell Tower.

Horribly depressing thread here. I will downgrade any lingering optimising that the govt might get its act together this year and therefore upgrade the probability of Starmer getting the push.

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

Ok team, we can bring these words back into usage! 💪 Overmorrow = the day after tomorrow Ereyesterday = the day before yesterday We ahould have been using such excellent words ereyesterday, but if we start now we’ll be glad overmorrow!

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

Famously, Alan Coren was told that the only books that sold were about cats, golf or the nazis, so called his next book Golfing For Cats and put a big swastika on the cover. On that basis, I recommend any author to rename their next book Dragon Fucking and put a big cross on the cover.

If we can avoid destroying civilisation long enough, a new world is coming where the fossil fuel barons are going the way of the original barons. Bit of a shame that the West decided to opt out and let China dominate the process.

I am a knight of the Round Table. Which would have it’s privileges but a lot would depend on whether this is before or after the whole getting-your-head-cut-off-on-New-Year’s-Day thing. On balance maybe I should have read P G Wodehouse instead.

Clare Allan • Abide With Me • night Venticelli •

I live in a rural area, hunting is just not an issue round here.

Every year, people mock this tree. But I love it anyway. It reminds us that if we stand together in tough times, we can overcome anything. Merry Christmas from my family to yours. 🎄✨

Badge of honour.

If you garden, please don't buy peat products. Apart from compost, try to find plants that have not been grown in peat. Peat has no nutritional benefits for plants, it is solely used as a neutral growing medium with perfect drainage which can then be artificially modified to specification.

I mean, they're not wrong, are they? The big social media giants are US firms, their owners are US citizens, the US Administration forms a codependent nexus with them, and they primarily operate by promoting hate. The USA, Russia and Israel are all rogue states.

The first images of the new Trump class of bigly battleships for the US Navy has been released.