As good as Stephen says. Like much of modern social media, the promise is neither friends nor companionship, the promise instead is refracted shades of yourself.

Chatted to my great uncle yesterday – a northern, working-class guy, not that political. I told him my job involved exposing Farage. His first question was: “who funds him?” Investigations into Farage’s donors can have a major impact on Reform’s support – as this research has already shown 👇

No one has ever been able to adequately explain what Putin is meant to have thought NATO expansion would threaten him with, apart from limiting his expansionist ambitions. "He was worried they'd invade Russia." No he wasn't. He just wasn't. That's not a thing anyone thought might happen.

I expect to see a lot more tangible signs of "de-risking" vis-a-vis the United States in 2026.

$645bn…

How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented). Season's greetings to you all!

Scum, all you faithful.

This is lovely. Happy Christmas all

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

A perfect illustration of why resetting our relationship with the EU will be difficult when the US is attacking the foundations of liberal democracy.

Wish there were still TV programmmes interviewing French critical theorists

Final paragraph here is brutally astute.

MIT’s NANDA initiative found that 95% of generative AI deployments fail after interviewing 150 execs, surveying 350 workers, and analyzing 300 projects. The real “productivity gains” seem to come from layoffs and squeezing more work from fewer people not AI.

The UK’s largest planned data centre—a project by US firm QTS—is understating its true water consumption by a factor of 50, says new analysis by @watershed-i.bsky.social & @aiarmsracebook.bsky.social @digiconomist.bsky.social No mistake; AI is a heavy, polluting industry. shorturl.at/KXQxJ

Still utopian: www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.p...

Greta Thunberg arrested for holding a sign opposing genocide. When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble. Happening under a Labour Government.

This is a really good piece about the status of our immigration debate. Hits the nail on the head.

Very kind of the reliably splendid @jonnelledge.bsky.social to pick Ghosts of Iron Mountain as his Book of the Year on the last @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social of 2025 (at 34:05): www.podchaser.com/podcasts/oh-...

It should

Great article about what should be reported on every American news channel as a scandal:

The Environmental Protection Agency continues its march toward becoming, in effect, the "[Pro-] Environmental Pollution Agency." www.eenews.net/articles/epa...

Did you know that the US hasn’t had an ambassador in Moscow in 6 months? Or that our chief envoy to Russia won’t take briefings from the CIA? But wait, there’s more. Much more in this 6-byline WSJ piece on the Witkoff-Putin axis. Free link www.wsj.com/world/putin-...

Wow! This is absolutely beautiful if you’re still looking for presents (!)… (and they have a cd player!💐) www.prestomusic.com/classical/pr...

"One influencer said that in a previous interview with a government minister they were asked to pre-submit questions for approval and warned against going off subject matter" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

👇 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Spot on from @hugorifkind.bsky.social on the real Trump Derangement Syndrome that’s taken over not just the White House, but Reform and the Conservative Party. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Nothing to see here, just the gas industry choosing its own regulators. Seems fine.

Appalling, awful news…

Yes. This is important. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

HURRAH! Petitions are crap at making gov'ts do things they don't want to. But they are good for two things: First, making them explain why they won't do something, but second (and more important) nudging/giving them permission to do something they DO want, but that's been crowded out bandwidth-wise.

This might be of interest for (mid-career) colleagues in the U.S. who can move very fast.

I am enjoying writing this.

Priceless

New UK MI6 chief: Tech bosses are becoming as powerful as nations. Tech creates “peril” as weapons, drones and robots inflicted devastation on the battlefield, and some algorithms could “become as powerful as states”. www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...

Powerful heat pump modules, each with capacity 82.5 megawatts, enough to supply 40,000 homes, via district heating system. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An unreliable ally is not an ally, just like an unreliable smoke detector is not a smoke detector. The essence of the thing is its reliability.

British Academy's pioneering 'cold spots' work now replicated by HESA. 'University "cold spots" are developing in some parts of the country, new data analysis suggests, with courses in some subjects no longer available to students in certain regions.' 1/2

Instead of too many people coming into the UK we will soon have too few. In his latest post Sam highlights how sharp the fall in numbers will be and how this will effect economic growth and key sectors such as social care. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...

New research: The global criminalisation and repression of climate and environmental protest – a repertoire of repression #climatecrisis HT @carbonbrief.org www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The notion that "95% of people who responded to the survey are against this" can be glossed as "no clear consensus" is even more absurd than the usual "pretty damn absurd" usual baseline for uk politics.

Starmer urged to tell Trump his anti-BBC lawsuit 'unacceptable, as president quotes Badenoch to back his 'fake news' claim - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Glaciers set to reach peak rate of extinction in the Alps in eight years - #climatecrisis forecast to wipe out thousands of glaciers a year globally, threatening water supplies and cultural heritage Research by @landervt.bsky.social et el Story by me www.theguardian.com/environment/...

There is no better example of America's moral decline than Trump himself.

So campus speech. Much viewpoint diversity. Very marketplace of ideas.

I feel seen

Short new post from me about Bloc Politics. A lot of commentators have argued, with evidence from @profjanegreen.bsky.social, @robfordmancs.bsky.social and others, that British politics has split into blocs. So what does that mean for electoral strategy? 1/n benansell.substack.com/p/bloc-parties

Women’s often overlooked, grassroots peacebuilding efforts persist even when formal processes fail. We need a shift from state-centric models to approaches that prioritise human security and challenge existing power structures. blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2025/12/...