I've got to be honest, we may as well call it a night #DuvetKnowItsChristmas

It’s been a week. I’m wrapping myself in fleece, cracking the festive Amaretto early and bingeing All Creatures Great and Small.

@adsquires.bsky.social almost worth the flight?

So the kids are alright, but they really want the Westminster village to stop talking to itself and start talking to them about how to fix the country. demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Life’s getting a bit more crap here if you are a person from an ethnic minority 🧵

Is social interaction a tradeoff of autonomy for belonging compared to being alone? New paper by phenom @elainehoan.bsky.social says yes if you're interacting with strangers, no if you're interacting with friends/family. With a romantic partner you gain in both. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

What a dreadful day. I’m not Jewish but my husband is. I felt glad to be standing alongside him for the end of Yom Kippur and it was moving to hear a deeply felt message of condolence and solidarity from the local imam at synagogue tonight.

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day. As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time. At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

the requirements to succeed on new media platforms are almost precisely the opposite of what successful experts… have trained themselves to do: maintain an institutional tone of formal detachment & stay ruthlessly on-message at all times.’ @noupside.bsky.social carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

my favorite robert redford story is that mike nichols considered him for dustin hoffman's part in THE GRADUATE. during their conversation nichols asked redford something like, "have you ever struck out with a girl?" and redford's response was basically, "i don't understand the question"

There was nothing unifying about the “Unite the Kingdom rally”. Solidarity with anyone non-white who felt threatened in London yesterday. The vast majority of Brits think and feel differently (see evidence from data superhero Sunder Katwala below) and good if we can find ways to demonstrate this.

so. remember how in the past people got enough exercise just from doing their job & daily tasks? & now all jobs are screens & we have to *deliberately exercise* to stay healthy? from now we will have to *deliberately write* and *engage with art made for a wide audience* to keep our brains healthy.

Inspo for all of us who love 21s.

A splendid read. I’d love more (social) policy and less Westminster intrigue in our journalism. And yes somewhat arch - policy can be chewy, but policy writing can inspire all the feels from rage to joy, when it captures the human impact.

In 2020 @moreincommonuk.bsky.social launched the British 7 Segments. After a pandemic, major global conflicts, political upheaval, cost of living crisis, changes in work/social/information habits it’s time to update them for 2025. Here’s an intro to our new tribes of Britain (Quiz link next)

James Plunkett offers practical inspiration here to anyone trying to be a bit less hierarchy and a bit more network.

Money doesn’t grow on trees but ideas do. ACE chief exec @henleydarren.bsky.social arguing in The Stage that cultural sector innovation is a source of growth, drawing inspiration from Daniel Susskind’s excellent book Growth: A Reckoning.

Read if you have ever been ensconced in a Parisian Brasserie. As a young’un I was intimidated by Lipp - that association with lunching French presidents - but the theatrics at Bofinger, near the Bastille, made my Dad’s 70th a cherished memory.

Interview with Arts Council England Chair Nick Serota in The Guardian highlighting the vital role of public investment in attracting other sources of revenue for the cultural sector. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

This is a brilliant, moving report capturing life and the absurdity of the system for most prisoners and prison officers. If only more media outlets could do this, instead of frothing at the mouth about prison reform. Congrats to Preston Prison for opening its doors too.

Wooah. 18.5% reduction in sick leave reported. (And this was pre-Covid: "Our sample periods for the LEZ and ULEZ analyses are 2005–2009 and 2016–2019, respectively.")

Creativity means business! 🏦🔑 And public investment in arts and culture helps make it happen. New CEBR report finds #ACEsupported orgs added £1.35 billion to the economy in 2023 📖🎉👇 #LetsCreate buff.ly/WGf1vVO Image credit: Jerome Whittingham

Sorry for paywall, but for those who can, our Arts Council Chair in the hot orange seat on freedom of expression, the value of public investment in culture and the importance of listening. on.ft.com/4czH310 Axing arts quangos risks ‘liberty of thought’ says Nicholas Serota

It’s not the purpose of Arts Council investment, but the way public money for art and culture drives growth in the wider economy should be factored in by government. www.thestage.co.uk/news/ace-bac...

Important statement on value of public investment in culture from Arts Council England’s governing bodies.

This sounds terrific and a fruitful way forward for thinking about EDI. Can’t think of anything our world needs more right now than deep thinking about compassion.

Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley has responded to renewed criticism that the funding body prioritises community engagement over artistic excellence, calling the characterisation “skewed” and “exclusive”.

It’s not quite clear to me what communities are at the bottom of here - just below humdrum - John Tusa? www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

“The curious reality is that, in every sphere of life actually devoted to the collective pursuit of truth, the greatest freedom of enquiry goes hand in hand with clear rules of expression”

Well deserved Myles Smith on his Brit win. Good to see public investment help underwrite the risk early on for a working class barnstormer with talent. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/f...

Looking for a bit of respite in these harrowing times: "Together, they represent the best of what novels can do: challenge us, delight us, pull us in and then release us, a little smarter and a little more alive than we were before" www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

Anyone can dance. As you read this comic, follow each step — and you'll be moving and grooving in no time.

Just looked up the word “nacreous” thinking it sounds nasty, but it means shimmering, like mother of pearl. On that pleasing learning I can end a difficult day. (Thank you Samantha Harvey)

Rules for researching Harriet Hand 🩵

AND new @creativepec.bsky.social report dropped today too, with ind with analysis of the employer skills survey and detailed policy recommendations too pec.ac.uk/state_of_the...

For writers of many kinds seeking inspiration, this is so psychologically astute. substack.com/@helenlewis/...

yes I think the correct course of action is always to let yourself simmer with fury for five to ten minutes at the thought of someone tampering with your beautiful words, then put your big boy pants on, do the edits and realise the edited piece is actually noticeably better

I got through all of last year, and I'm here!

This is a remarkable website, launching Jan 1 , that will look at a different plant that can be found in London each day. A lifetime’s work by a distinguished botanist and true friend Tom Maxwell. Start subscribing on Jan1…. www.londonnaturedaybyday.com

If there were ever a #DuvetKnowItsChristmas theatre production, the set would look like this

#duvetknowitschristmas bingo card!

I’m 53. #DuvetKnowItsChristmas www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

So I'll be back around then. We'll be trying to raise a bit of money for Centrepoint, bearing in mind that there are a bunch of people who have nowhere to go this evening. gofund.me/637d21d0 ENDS FOR NOW 🎄🛏️

Yes, people will post pictures on social media of sleeping arrangements on Xmas Eve and I will once again attempt to leverage this to raise money for charity — just pinning this to my profile to head off the relentless (i.e. sporadic) enquiries

Stop what you're doing and read this which is brilliant and fascinating and contains this snippet that will be of interest to all public technologists

“While people acknowledged the unintended, regrettable trade-offs in their own side’s policies, they believed the other side’s policies were deliberately harmful.” If we could get over our intention bias, we’d do away with a lot of polarization. Happy 2025. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/o...

Marking 20 years at The Stage, our editor Alistair Smith toured the UK, visiting more than 20 theatres to uncover how the past two decades have defined today’s theatre landscape 👇 www.thestage.co.uk/long-reads/f...

“We report, for the first time, that a child’s behavior actually improves as Christmas Day approaches, and though the effect is small it is reliably observed, and is primarily attributable to participation in yuletide rituals.”

Dark stuff on my home turf. And from an academic perspective seems to illustrate minimal group paradigm nicely, as well as illustrating importance of institutions. May see if I can leadenly lever into my thesis. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...