Another lovely #buyastrangerabook offer. In memory of a friend who died at the end of last year, @lancslass.bsky.social is offering to buy TWO people a book each of their choice, up to £15. So, if there's a book you'd like (any book, not just what's on my website), get in touch. UK only

If creating sexual abuse material is bad, creating a machine to automate the creation process, making it available to the public whilst soliciting fees and then publishing what's produced seems ... worse?

Well this all seems above board. Shame on those of you who might think otherwise.

If this is true, it’s worth considering that even Putin doesn’t talk out loud about contemplating a military invasion of a NATO member.

Hivemind: Which is better, a Nest thermostat or a Hive thermostat? (Perhaps I should also ask the Nestmind)

Our Nest "learning" thermostat continues its campaign to reduce the temperature in the house to 14C. Today I discover that the app no longer supports ithat model so that I can't go in and force its tiny electronic hand. I now formally tender articles of surrender.

Today I found a job I absolutely would not want.

They're not going to need a magnifying glass for that one.

The US position now seems to be that it is too militarily powerful to need allies.

No pellucid ambiguity here.

No democracy for Venezuela until the country has been “fixed”. It’s explicitly oil first, voting later.

I'm afraid there *is* an obvious answer: it can't.

The multi-talented @gailmyerscough.co.uk has done a marvellous job remodelling and reshaping my website. Go and have a look for yourselves and repost, if you please - ta very much 👍 www.mathew-owen.co.uk

Eyes wide open, folks. They're revealing the supervillain plot.

In case it's helpful, here's a guide to vaccine recommendations as of the end of 2024 for both children and adults

UK: Hey EU, we’ve had a great idea. EU: OK. UK: We think our national interest suggests we’d be better off in the Single Market. EU: Don’t say it! UK: But … EU: DON’T SAY IT! UK: Obviously no Freedom of Movement. EU: ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH

Stromness this afternoon. The sun sets as another snow shower arrives.

🚨🚨EMERGENCY EPISODE🚨🚨 Very few people can claim to have met and known 🇻🇪's Maduro, Chavez & interim president Delcy Rodriguez. Well, my guest @catheriner.bsky.social, former 🇬🇧 ambassador in Caracas, is one of them and she spoke to me earlier today. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

Beyond the stumbling evasion of the simple question, at one point he says he wants the wealth of the oil industry to go to the Venezuelan people. Is that a principle he’d like to apply in the US as well?

I'm not a diplomat, but one thing I have to do regularly is to draft or help to draft public statements that parties to litigation agree as part of a settlement. There is an art to drafting something that reasonable readers can agree is clear but from which they draw irreconcilable meanings. /1

Both Starmer and Badenoch have decided that the situation is too fast moving to comment upon. What is it, precisely, they feel they don’t currently understand?

How does the, let’s call it questionable, justification for an attack to allow the abduction of Maduro justify an occupation and taking over the Venezuelan oil industry?

This makes my lawyer brain hurt.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Oof! I don’t see how Trump comes back from this! … Unrelatedly, what’s the emoji the kids use for sarcasm?

-1 C at Wimbledon Parkrun today. Notwithstanding the cold and my disgraceful decision to wear a sport snood (sorry @dieworkwear.bsky.social), there were still so many people we had to queue to finish.

Why on earth would Trump's action make China and Russia 'think twice'? Twice about what?

Neatly put

The #FIFA Peace Prize entitles you to one free military campaign in the CONMEBOL state of your choice.

Having Grok “apologise” for creating CSAM is like punching someone in the face and then having the Sooty puppet on your fist apologise.

2/ In November 2025, it emerged that the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) had quietly removed two panels memorialising Black soldiers at the Margraten war cemetery in Limburg. The cemetery itself had been created through their labor. bsky.app/profile/chri...

Pete HegSith

Why do we have red lines for the EU relationship?

So Trump is both figuratively and literally thin-skinned?

Why are the pubs I never go to closing? Why is that useful-looking shop I never buy anything from closed down?

Happy New Year! it’s been an honour to share this space with you all.

Hoping that 2026 will be the year that people the world over realise that putting despicable, venal narcissists into power simply does not benefit the little guy even by accident.

As I wrote here in 2021, the last three British judges to serve as members of the EU judiciary were snubbed by last Conservative government. Finally, all have received the recognition they deserved. rozenberg.substack.com/p/injustices...

DEEP TIME is horrifyingly vast & will make you feel like a vanishing tiny flicker of nothingness but in an oddly comforting (and scientifically accurate!) way, and this is unfortunately how I write HAPPY NEW YEAR essays so here you go & also Sorry: open.substack.com/pub/everythi...

orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing

Daughter came in to say that there was a woman passed out outside our house. We rushed out with blankets and found a small group of people helping a woman who had collapsed getting out of her car. Her eyes were open but unfocused. There was foam on her lips. She gulped a breath once or twice.

NEW | It’s finally here… The 25 Worst Columns of 2025, Part Five: Second World War Brain, Imaginary Theme Parks, and Sympathy for Andrew brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-25-wor...

In a dream last night I won an Olympic gold medal. This is by far and away the nicest thing ever to happen to me in a dream. Usually, I am facing a French exam I haven’t revised for or finding it impossible to get off a train in time. I had no idea what I won it for but I’d like to thank my trainer.

What did Trump say about the drones in Dublin earlier this month?

To be fair, immigration lawyers and public law academics have been warning about the increasing power of ministers re deprivation of citizenship for years now, also in light of the substantially unchecked discretion that courts have granted the government in the exercise of said powers

Kraft Men at Werk.

I once entered a gents toilet in a Heathrow lounge as Dustin Hoffman left, our shoulders almost brushing. I stood in a little puddle of wee at the urinal and marvelled that it might have been his.

Boyz II Men they couldn't hang.