How is this an appropriate use of public funds, putting up pro-Sadiq propaganda in tube stations? I’m not a hater, but I am a taxpayer.

british fan chat

Not sure about this new Enid Blyton book tbh.

“Far right anti-Zionism will not bring about a free Palestine; its racism will eventually be turned on Palestinians and Arabs. But given these distortions of the term… isn’t there a case for switching to the language of pro-Palestine?” Important, nuanced and positive from @josephfinlay.bsky.social

Humanists showing how to be mensches

Completely unacceptable from the Board of Deputies. This nakedly partisan hypocrisy does not represent me or many other British Jews. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

This is a real and repeated problem and it’s so easy to fix for a marginal additional cost! Just randomise ballot order!

Spare a thought for all the parents who have to take a day off work because their kids’ schools are closed for the elections. An expensive disruption for education and the economy. At the last GE, it was 9% of primaries closed!

This is tragically beautiful.

I have new paper coming out, "Smothering (the Fight Against) Antisemitism", that discusses an underappreciated impact of Trump's hyper-aggressive interventions against (real and imagined) antisemitism: Their net effect is likely to *deter* Jews from testifying about antisemitism they experience!

I think this comment piece sums up the Kanye West - UK Jewish community meeting offer well. Last week West performed in LA. Local Jewish groups were vocal in their opposition. He didn't offer to meet them - most likely because he knew he didn't have to. www.jewishnews.co.uk/kanye-west-s...

It’s time to post one of my favorite memes of the year.

So, about those Eid prayers in London... "What's the highest thing in Trafalgar Square?" "Nelson's column, innit?" "And the highest thing on the column?" "Nelson." "And on Nelson?" "His hat." "And the highest thing on his hat?" "That bit that sticks up." 1/8

STICK IT ON A FIVE POUND NOTE

On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter recon for a US attack on My Lai, an alleged Viet Cong-controlled village in Vietnam. But as the attack developed below, Thompson realised he was witnessing something something else: A massacre. He decided to act. 1/28

At a time of rising antisemitism, the Trump administration is trying to make American Jews into wards of the state, whose safety depends on political compliance. It's a bargain we should refuse, as I explain here: forward.com/opinion/8126...

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

This is good. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Exactly the same as when Israel scuppered our negotiations with Nasser in 1956: he had already made multiple concessions on the management of the Suez Canal when they attacked and we were then forced to engage in a peacekeeping action to calm the situation. Luckily 🇫🇷 could help on that occasion.

Well you know what day it is! m.youtube.com/watch?v=lS9J...

For some people, shouting "we don't want no Zionists here" is like "we don't want no fascists here". I can see their argument - terrible things were done in the name of Zionism. But almost all Jews would hear "we don't want no Jews here". And they have good reason to fear this is the subtext.

OMFG Green's is now available online for free

May as well dive right in. Did you know that dogs in ancient Mesopotamia also refused to drop the ball? According to a Sumerian proverb, “The dog understands ‘Take it!’ It does not understand ‘Put it down!’” Source: cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/34...

"I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny...He lost his life for those values."

A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.

Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.

Thanks but I’d rather be in the country where cops resign for lying than the one where they can murder me no questions asked www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"Angels do not govern us — men and women do — and no man or woman should be immune from the rule of law. We’ve taken that idea for granted for far too long, to the point where we’ve abandoned the “auxiliary precautions” the founders knew we needed. Now we are paying the price in blood."

Two British soldiers were convicted of manslaughter following the Boston Massacre of March 1770. Does ICE today face more or less accountability than the redcoats?

NEW BLOGPOST Abolishing trial by jury: why is the government overlooking the obvious? thesecretbarrister.com/2025/12/02/a...

1. Thread. Ed tech and the best lesson I taught this year. The best Ed tech in the world for my subject is a book. It is the ideal delivery method because the effort of concentrating on it helps people learn what's in it.

America is to democracy as London is to underground railways: it’s got the oldest, and one of the biggest, but boy is the infrastructure creaky.

Thought-provoking skeets from one of the UK's most interesting policy thinkers: does doing well Maths GCSE predict high earnings because maths is important, or because we are better at fairly assessing maths? (It's both, IMO, but some more thoughts of my own follow.)

Agatha All Along was brilliant until the final scene, a cop-out which was presumably mandated by the Disney/Marvel suits.

Are you a National Trust member? Do you dislike the cancer of concocted right wing culture-war nonsense slowly and steadily making every good thing in this country, go shit? Then grab your membership number and vote online in the AGM by midnight tonight. Just choose the 'NT recommended candidates'.

Well deserved!

Don’t look now, but I’ve got a joke about Orpheus.

😮

This sounds like a wonderful book about the infamous Duke of Buckingham, recently played by Nicholas Galitzine in the fun TV drama Mary & George The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes-Hallett book review – James I’s beloved bedfellow www.theguardian.com/books/2024/o...

How controversial is it to say that Hadestown in the West End is better than the Broadway version?

Adam and Eve invite God round to show him what they've done with the Garden

One of the finest generals this country has produced. An incredible man to interview. It is not hyperbole to say that he prevented a war with Russia in the Balkans, when Wes Clark was determined to start one. I wrote about it here. authory.com/JohnBull/Pri...

"Westminster’s reliance on Elon Musk’s X is ‘totally wrong’, says Labour MP." Josh Simons MP is right about this: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A pleasant surprise to find @stephenkb.bsky.social in the new Reform machzor whilst hungrily leafing through it yesterday.

Finally, some good news from the British Library! blogs.bl.uk/digitisedman...

I love this country