Lovely day with students thinking about community ownership enabling Gaelic revival and ecological restoration. 12.11pm: the sound of a US KC-135 Stratotanker above us. Profoundly unsettling.

Just saw Everybody to Kenmure Street, magic film. Catch it if you can.

Things feel pretty bleak at work. This isn't normal.

Cold, determination ✊

I'm reminded of that terrible warning from the apostle James: “Weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you … Listen! The wages of the labourers … which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries have reached the ears of the Lord”

Absolutely this

Edinburgh being Edinburgh

NEW: We often hear that Scotland’s more progressive income tax is “driving people out the country.” New HMRC data shows the opposite. Far more taxpayers are moving to Scotland than leaving it. Let’s look at the data 🧵

The BBC has run an interesting piece about USAF air refuelling tankers using Prestwick in Ayrshire to resupply for operations in Iran. John Swinney has implied when questioned this is untoward and his hands are tied: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Really? 1/4 🧵

The most Edinburgh thing to have Edinburgh’d – a stand of Colin Baxter postcards scattered to the wind over Princes Street, a lost red squirrel snagged in a pothole.

An incredible achievement. Hoping that this can be rolled out across Scotland too…?

Some very interesting work here on the biodiversity impact of land abandonment during the Black Death. I'd love to see something similar on the Highland Clearances ... it would usefully inform re-wilding chat.

‘First as tragedy, then as farce’ – bombing a girls school followed by this grotesque UN panto. It's a truly grim timeline, friends, but we hope and work for justice.

I have some hot compost news

Wow! Palestine Action win judicial review - Guardian report. This is a *big* legal win. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The future of the university – AI getting high on its own supply

Ring? Just don’t.

An analysis of systems – patriarchy, billionaire capitalism, violent borders – is rarely popular but exactly right. I’m grateful that an MSP is willing to say this.

Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word. IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it. Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

Despatches from the biocide aisle in Tesco. 👇

Geographers, in case you missed this detail, Alex Pretti graduated from the Minnesota Geography department in 2011.

The courage of Minnesotans is contagious.

Can’t stop thinking about what we will happen closer get to elections in 2026 - and even more importantly in 2028 - that MAGA will be on course to lose

Arrests calmly ongoing. This is going to take a while. There are a lot of clergy risking arrest.

Gospel / the Gospel was always a threat to the MAGA state. Arresting people singing ‘Down in the River to Pray’ 🎶 will leave a brittle, desperate regime.

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

People can say they didn’t vote for this but people are liars

I have cleaned-up this fascinating autochrome of James Thin (famous for his chain of bookshops), who was born 202 years ago (in Edinburgh on 23rd March 1824), making him (so far as is currently known) the earliest-born person ever to have been photographed in colour. He is seen here in the garden...

Definitely ummm *interesting* to see the postwar global system collapsing on the timeline.

This entire thread is exactly right about what’s happening at Edinburgh.

In fascist messaging, the lie is not supposed to be convincing. It’s that state power is bigger than what you know or saw. The stupidity is the point.

It’s a relief to see some Christian leaders recognise the moment.

Anyways, my ride is here

The immigration doom loop in full swing. Chasing the xenophobes is a doomed strategy both economically *and* politically. (1/3) archive.ph/pyVLg

“Would you mind giving the car a push?”

So the UK Government will have an enquiry into ‘grooming gangs’ but not into CASM produced and circulated on an industrial scale? Labour does not believe in *anything*.

This is incredibly grim, but it will keep happening unless knowledge workers organise.

No one should be posting on that site. It isn't complicated.

This week’s ingredients: * water * coffee grounds * neighbour’s pet bedstraw * shredded Christmas wreath * kitchen and food waste * manuscript drafts

The BBC keeps calling the imperialist actions of the US 'unprecedented'; I wonder if they know anything about the history of Latin America in the last 200 years or so.

At least one pair now in Duddingston, Edinburgh.

Last of this year’s light from a cherished Edinburgh view.

Forty years ago, in late December 1985, The Bangles released Manic Monday, written by Prince under the pseudonym ‘Christopher’. Treat yourself 🎧

Welcome to The Future

Some of these redactions are almost like modern art

It's the scales that will make this an iconic photograph.

Mind-blowing how little impact the spycops scandal has had on public life despite the courage of these women. 139 undercover cops spied on antifascist and other activists. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

No idea what is and isn’t beyond the pale any longer

At last, some properly rigorous reporting on the vampiric management consulting behind proposed cuts at Edinburgh Uni. Grab some garlic, read and weep.

I have ‘reformed evangelical Christians’ on my timeline preaching daily about the sanctity of life and they’ll say nothing about one of their own doing murder out in the open.