Quite a journey, this, looking back at 2025 MADNESS. “I have a theory on that strange Q&A Trump did from the roof. I wonder if, when he had swollen ankles, a clinician said to him: you need to elevate your feet. And he thought: oh! I'll go up on the roof.” @pimlicat.bsky.social had us in stitches.

That Cracker Barrel story is insane

Oooooh! I'd forgotten Mr JO'B pt 2 was today. I was thinking I had to wait till Thursday. What a happy Sunday this is!

I can thoroughly recommend listening to the two most recent episodes of Quiet Riot. These take a sometimes comical, sometimes angry, always relevant, look back over the year with regular presenters, @sturdyalex.bsky.social @pimlicat.bsky.social plus @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Double James is always a delight. 🎧👇

Part 2 out tomorrow

Primary teacher here: If your kid is dressed as a donkey in the nativity, it's on purpose; they are an ass in the classroom. Equally, with angels - angelic for the majority of time. Wrote in a special cactus part one year for an odious little prick.

Stuffed to the brim with everything that's gone (wrong) in 2025 - and the Kafkaesque quality of the appallingness we find ourselves in. Lots of dots joined, and much to enjoy.

If you need a festive politics fix today please do give @quietriotpod.bsky.social with @pimlicat.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social and special guest @mrjamesob.bsky.social a go - quietly riotous about the culture of omertà that protects those responsible for Brexit, bad Covid governance & more 🍾

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! From us and @mrjamesob.bsky.social as we look back on the year t’was. A good one to listen to while you peel spuds/walk the dog/hide in your room 🎧👇 (Part 2 follows later in the week)

Insightful reflections on 2025 from @quietriotpod.bsky.social team with guest @mrjamesob.bsky.social Thanks for this & everything else over the year you have now become my main go to channel for fair unbiased (& at times amusing) current affairs. open.spotify.com/episode/2dbS...

"At its best, Christianity in Britain has been a force for the liberation of the oppressed, a powerful source of kindness, compassion, social justice and welcome," writes @itsryanrodrigues.bsky.social. https://bestforbritain.substack.com/p/would-the-christians-of-the-far-right

The European Convention on Human Rights remains one of Britain’s greatest achievements. Walking away from it would not be an act of independence. It would be an act of forgetting.

Email from "A" in "Balmoral" asked Ghislaine Maxwell for "inappropriate friends" 🤢 www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3...

The folly of Brexit continues to damage businesses and consumers alike www.britishchambers.org.uk/news/2025/12...

The 60 Minutes piece on the Trump Administration’s torture prison that Bari Weiss doesn’t want you to see has leaked.

While a customs union between UK and EU would be a very positive development, there is a danger in presenting it as some sort of silver bullet that can deliver unrealistic growth. Only deep and dynamic beneficial alignment can achieve that. Listen to @pimlicat.bsky.social explain. ~AA

Basically, I need to stop making any sort of droll remark, based on the notion of something totally outlandish, because a few hours later it happens. ~AA

I haven’t missed an episode of @quietriotpod.bsky.social with @sturdyalex.bsky.social & @pimlicat.bsky.social since it started, and a friend I had recommended it to told me yesterday that he is also now hooked. A terrific podcast for all politics nerds - especially those with high blood pressure!

Our last official Sunday School show of 2025! 🎧👇

The monarchy has one purpose. To ensure the continuation of the monarchy.

If you've not already done so, do watch this 3 part documentary about the monarchy by David Dimbleby. Excellent broadcasting. We desperately need to reform our constitutional arrangements, and certainly how public money flows to these unelected billionaires. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

If you've not already done so, do watch this 3 part documentary about the monarchy by David Dimbleby. Excellent broadcasting. We desperately need to reform our constitutional arrangements, and certainly how public money flows to these unelected billionaires. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Has he converted to Christianity yet?

Jeffrey Epstein & David Walliams leading all the bulletins but Kemi Badenoch knows that only men from ‘different cultures’ pose a threat to women.

So everything is redacted except bill clinton in a jacuzzi?

FT defends London, one of the greatest cities in the world www.ft.com/content/dd79...

Yes I agree! @quietriotpod.bsky.social is always calm and reassuring 🎉🎉. My go to sanity break!!!

Things are going great over at X, The Everything App

Goodwin can't see that for a call to murder asylum seekers & MPs Anyone who changes their mind on the legitimacy of this language if XY is Asylum Hotel, Mosque, Synagogue, newspaper, TV or podcast studio, or whether Z is about Labour, Green, SNP, Tory or Reform has dangerous views on violence

This is an inspired appointment. He is the complete professional. For the last three years, he’s been at the epicentre of constant crises as FCDO Political Director, always calm, resilient and constructive. No wonder he is highly respected by his international peers 1/2 www.gov.uk/government/n...

This is just one of the many projects backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The UK doesn't have this kind of help anymore because of Brexit. #RejoinEU 🇬🇧🇪🇺

Actual Good News: Labour has launched its fair funding formula for local councils. The aim is to push more cash towards deprived communities like Middlesbrough and Birmingham. And less for wealthier areas such as Kensington and the Home Counties. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

One very key q: If the STDC or the airport default on their loans, who is on the hook? Is it the councils in one of the poorest parts of the country, or is it the govt, who would have to write off the debt? A: nobody seems to know. Govt still hasn’t provided clarity

The South Tees Development Corporation, which carries out the regen of Teesworks, has received ~£500m in loans from the TVCA. But no loan agreements were in place. It’s now struggling to repay.

Auditors and new officials have been turning over stones at the body in charge of Teesworks. Turns out the Tees Valley Combined Authority has been lending hundreds of millions of £ to connected orgs, without loan agreements, and those orgs are now struggling to repay as.ft.com/r/ac457745-4...

Great show this morning as always. Combined to this weeks Behind the Lines episode we all need a wake up call. Thank you for discussing it in such a calm manner.

Uggghhhhhhhh

Back by popular demand, it’s @annettedittert.bsky.social 🎉

A huge huge THANK YOU to the nearly 400 @quietriotpod.bsky.social listeners who helped buy gifts for children who will otherwise go without. You’re all gorgeous and amazing 🤩

Thinking of my late father today, who was Chairman of the EU's Socrates programme, a self defined euromaniac, esteemed political scientist and former Vice Chancellor, who would be extremely proud and delighted about today's news on Erasmus+ This one's for you, Dad x

Thinking of my late father today, who was Chairman of the EU's Socrates programme, a self defined euromaniac, esteemed political scientist and former Vice Chancellor, who would be extremely proud and delighted about today's news on Erasmus+ This one's for you, Dad x

I guess getting in just before a crash makes a change from getting in just after one www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The answer is that they shouldn't have to. But that they do is a little reservoir of kindness that might encourage more kindness. And it's all the more meaningful bacause it is strangers.

A huge huge THANK YOU to the nearly 400 @quietriotpod.bsky.social listeners who helped buy gifts for children who will otherwise go without. You’re all gorgeous and amazing 🤩

Brexit was one of Russia's proudest achievements - splitting Europe and spreading misinformation. https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/putin-never-stop-export-chaos-g87brj805

GRIN AND SHARE IT

This isn't bad either.

Fantastic detail from the PA court coverage of Lib Dem peer Lord Razzall getting his second driving ban of the year.

😍We are rejoining Erasmus. Official announcement tomorrow😍 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...