Just had my luckiest urban wildlife moment ever. Went to one of my favourite wee lookout points and there was a kingfisher perching there; the kingfisher flew away and within a minute an otter showed up. These are lousy photos and I do not care.

I hear that D'Artagnan and Allan Breck have shaken hands and vowed friendship until they are both revenged.

Not just RLS; there was nothing from the man under the pointy stone rocket, next to the station named after him. The man who pretty much invented the historical novel.

Confessions of a justified sinner another absent classic

What, no Scott?

I know people are justifiably nervous about going out on the streets of London today, but I am in Edinburgh and this place is a cauldron of seething indignity over the omission of Stevenson on THAT list. Such is the strength of feeling, it has the potential to boil over into regrettably stern words.

Crowned. The word is *crowned*. Not "coronated". "Coronated" is a stupid cod-latinism. Thank you for your attention in this matter!

Well said @carolinelucas.bsky.social ! Getting PR is the top priority to stop Reform from ever obtaining a FPTP 'majority', and also ultimately to give all of us, of whatever party, the chance to vote with our hearts.

Today’s #BirdOfTheDay theme is #FeathersInFoliage - any bird pictured in or near foliage. This is a sedge warbler singing its heart out in hawthorn..

So can we please ditch Palantir now?

I was confused by the posts today for the #BirdOfTheDay theme of #WadersOuttaWater, until I found out that "wader" means different things in North America and Britain. So I'll contribute one of each type: a black-crowned night heron, and a lapwing (on its way to attack a jackdaw).

And that just has eaten into a lot of UK policy discourse and causes people to go “oh, this is all just drama”, and no, literally none of it is, that’s just become the default voice for talking about everything in order to dance around the embarrassing fact of “Brexit was a mistake”.

“Streeting’d allies say he’s preparing to resign.” Wouldn’t it be easier to just resign?

I'd be sad not to see and hear gulls any more. Yes, I've had food snatched from my hand in Aberdeen. My fault for eating a sandwich while walking back to the office. Gulls are just trying to survive.

Design legend Margaret Calvert is 90 today. Look at that cake! If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it. One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her. Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG) Cake by: mybaker.co

Social care reform, immediately. Bon the commission, give task force 3 months to propose final recommendations building from Dilnot proposals, implement immediately with penny on basic and higher rates of income tax to pay for it. Immediately transforms local govt fortunes too…

The Labour party is full of incredibly talented women, yet all anyone can talk about is Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham.

"Earlier today the Prime Minister spent 17 minutes with Wes Streeting" The poor bastard. I feel a lot more sympathy for Starmer now.

For the #BirdOfTheDay theme of #FeatheredFemmes, an elegant black redstart.

Might have to post this annually until we do something.

Important announcement: a staycation is where you have time off and stay at home. It is not a holiday away from home in the UK. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Being tailgated this morning through a small village made me realise that an underreported benefit of the UK's 20mph limit is that you can legally inconvenience society's worst people for free.

So many replies saying 'wait, what? Shabana Mahmood herself needs to go!'

We've been trying to tell Labour this for years. But the party has been run for the last decade either by the Bennite wing who hate the EU or the Blue Labour wing who hate the EU – never by the mainstream progressive centre of the party who voted to Remain and now want to Rejoin. #RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Wes Streeting just gave your address, your ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, if you are cis or trans, if you've ever had an abortion, an addiction, are disabled in anyway and a million other pieces of info about you, to a far right tech company the UK government has no control over.

Just got the bus into town @13 miles. The sheer thrill of the £2 ticket. Bus drivers see some terrible driving by motorists on the dual carriageway, I'll tell you. And then, passing the BMW garage as we reach town, and there's a used car in there for £73 000, and the madness of it all is too much.

The same stork demonstrating both #BirdOfTheDay themes: #LockedOn (any bird with an intense gaze) and #Breezy (birds in windy conditions).

Madness. This should all be in-house.

'NHS England has granted external staff from companies including Palantir “unlimited access” to identifiable patient data while working on a part of its flagship data platform.' archive.ph/nu26P #R4Today

Surely they've suffered enough?

I'm afraid this is just what happens if you treat “R” as a silent letter

TIL that although a coot will put on a threat display against an adult swan, if the swan threatens back then the coot will not engage it in single combat. I'm faintly disappointed to find there is something that a coot won't fight.

More cootlets.

Swinney builds a firewall. Good

Yes, and even worse, I am quite sure the PM is being told that the Home Office view on migration is the single key obstacle to the closer ties he claims to want with the EU. So everyone in Brussels and Westminster can see the weakness when he can't apparently overcome this.

Yes, it is 🗳️ https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/may-2026/2026/05/is-it-finally-time-for-proportional-representation

Starmer has a choice: 🥀 Be remembered as the PM that ushered in Farage and his brand of Putin/Trump Oligarch funded fascists. 🌹 Be remembered as the PM that changed the electoral system to PR and united people in a common cause of regrowth, peace and security.

What's happening is we're moving to a European party system but without PR.

If only Labour were brave enough to just introduce some form of PR now, while they have the numbers to do it. Yes, it's controversial. But it's blindingly obvious FPTP is not fit for purpose.

Poor old Banbury. Reform winning on 950 when the total progressive vote was over 1400. This is why we need PR as a matter or urgency.

revenge of the humanities graduates, you love to see it

Police Escort in London 🦆🦆

“Make Way for Ducklings” 🦆🐥

The week on the Untitled History Podcast, @pptsapper.bsky.social joins me and we take a look the war of 1812. Ya know. That time when the US tried to capture Canada, but instead got taught how flammable the White House was... #history cms.megaphone.fm/channel/the-...

My "this is not a golden calf" shirt has people asking a lot of questions answered by my shirt.

The Government is considering scrapping the NHS-Palantir deal. Do you want Palantir out of the NHS? RT if you do. #PalantirOUT

The UK voting for Reform is grotesque. Brexit already dragged the country into nationalist delusion, and now people are openly embracing rhetoric and scapegoating tactics that echo some of the ugliest politics Europe produced in the lead-up to the Nazis. Have people learned absolutely nothing?

Stuck abroad with your baby for several months even though they are legally allowed in the UK? Too bad, says Mike Tapp, you should read gov.uk daily like the rest of us obviously do. No complaining allowed unless you're a hero voter with 'concerns'. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Britain's broadcast media boasts of its strict adherence to impartiality rules. Mentions per MP. LibDems: 645 Tories: 5,116 Greens: 7,763 Labour (the actual govt): 27,438 Reform: 70,732 Anyone surprised they're ahead? bebroadcast.co.uk/politics-who...

I'm not getting any less convinced that the main current driver of British politics, showing up in various ways and to various extents across the spectrum, is people's desire to be told "Here is a category of human beings whom it is legitimate for you to hate".