I reviewed tonight’s Finding Father Christmas - a lovely one off special starring Lenny Rush and James Buckley, with cameos from Stephen Fry and more being Very Good Sports. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

A really touching piece by @jaseokundaye.bsky.social on balancing the often complex family dynamics and emotions that Christmas can bring up. (With a side note of celebrity gossip.) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@thechiller.bsky.social I sent the book about a week ago second class. Hope it arrives and no fox disasters occur!

I love this letter from a reader on why “we’re not doing presents this year!” is often a miserable, middle class pursuit. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

The last bit from me for 2025 is the (Christmas) Opinion newsletter where a different columnist writes each Saturday. On the 27th, I’ll be reflecting on a bonfire year in news and why the Radio Times double issue should actually be longer. Sign up here: www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...

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...

I’m unflinching in my belief in the right to strike but there surely has to be a line when it comes to cancelling people’s chemotherapy and radiotherapy. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, has accused Wes Streeting of “scaremongering the public into thinking that the NHS will not be able to look after them and their loved ones”. Are you going to tell Dr. Fletcher or should I? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

What horrific news about Rob Reiner and his wife. I only watched When Harry Met Sally again last week. Reiner surely had one of the best runs of any modern creative: This is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, WHMS, Misery, and A Few Good Men in just eight years. Terribly sad end but immovable legacy.

There can’t be a more horrific insight into the sickness of the US’s gun crime epidemic than the fact two survivors of Brown University had already survived school shootings. One was shot in the abdomen in 2016, while her best friend died. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

For those who don`t have a Lidl nearby , think of donating to actionforchilfren.org.uk . They operate a Secret Santa this time of year for children living in poverty .

[12hrs into my ice interrogation] agent: in 2021 you posted “they should call him matt hardcock am i right fellas” can you explain that? me: do you know who matt hancock is? a:… [43mins later] a: he had his own app? for parkour? me: no the parkour was a separate issue

This is truly horrific. Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her three children, Denisty, 9, Oscar, 5, and baby Aubree were murdered by her sister’s ex-boyfriend. He blamed Bryonie for helping her sister leave him and set her house on fire with everyone inside. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Lidl has put Toy Banks in stores where you can donate a gift for a child who wouldn’t otherwise have one on Christmas Day. Must be unopened and dropped off by 15th. Wonderful thing to do if you can (and there’s loads of cheap but great toy deals online still). www.lidl.co.uk/c/christmas-...

Finally saw Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. A wonderful return to form after the third but I worry it’s permanently ruined my Christmas rewatch of the original. Run, Bridget! There’s only heartbreak ahead!

Good on NHS leader, Daniel Elkeles, calling for a revival of mask-wearing during the current “tidal wave of flu.” That trying to save lives is going to be highly controversial - and No. 10 are already sitting on the fence - is deeply depressing. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Over the last year, myths about the Motability scheme have spread online and in the right wing media. Now, some of it is government policy.  In today’s Guardian, I set about finding the facts and why the idea of “free cars for the disabled” has taken hold. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“I know a disabled person who takes their Motability car on holiday” is an absolute zinger of a comeback. Famously, disabled people only go to the supermarket and hospital. I’d personally put a ban on mainland Europe.

Welcome to Britain’s new benefits lie: disabled people are driving BMWs and Mercedes on the taxpayer’s dime. My column on Motability and the truth behind the headlines and social media myths. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

My unpopular opinion is “previous dance experience” doesn’t matter. 8/10 people in showbiz went to theatre school. Even sports players like Karen have dance history. If you cut out a guy who danced at 11, why not all actors? All musicians? I don’t need justice. I just want to see a lovely dance.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Strictly proves that the British public can’t be trusted with democracy.

This is really interesting by @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social exploring idea men are more likely to leave if a partner gets sick. I cover this in my book and the wider context that disabled women are treated differently than men full stop, especially in dating. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

This is a genuinely welcome policy that could enormously improve people’s lives: families will be offered help to leave temporary accommodation, one of the worst conditions imposed on children by years of Tory housing and benefits policies. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Look forward to seeing 95% of NHS staff not wearing a mask around clinically vulnerable patients! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Always a pleasure to be in the Bedside Guardian - our round up of 2025 with “the most revealing interviews, thought-provoking commentary and incisive reporting from the last 12 months.” My bit is July’s column on the welfare reform debate. Other more cheerful topics are available.

@thechiller.bsky.social You won a copy of my book! Thank you for playing the low paying lottery. Email me your address and who you’d like me to dedicate it to when you get chance to [email protected] and I’ll post.

Even people who have concerns about sport or refuge spaces would do well to justify why trans women should be excluded from the Women’s Institute or Guides. Just cruelty and spite. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Happy International Day of People with Disabilities to all who celebrate by buying a book by a disabled author for everyone on their Christmas list.

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY. If you’d like to gift a copy of Who Wants Normal? to someone who needs it this Christmas (but can’t afford it), I’m giving away my last author copy I just found. I’ll sign and dedicate it. RT and I’ll pick an account at random. Ends Wednesday 3rd December 8pm. U.K. only.

“By the 25th, you’ll be grabbing a novelty bowl and devouring Christmas pudding off baby Jesus’s face.” The Guardian is here with 25 ways to get you in the Christmas spirit. Mine: festive dinnerware. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY. If you’d like to gift a copy of Who Wants Normal? to someone who needs it this Christmas (but can’t afford it), I’m giving away my last author copy I just found. I’ll sign and dedicate it. RT and I’ll pick an account at random. Ends Wednesday 3rd December 8pm. U.K. only.

After the success of “should you buy your dog a birthday present?” in The Guardian, we’ve stepped things up a gear by giving Mabel her first advent calendar. Result? She doesn’t know what Christmas is either.

I so enjoyed Trespasses (Ch4), though “enjoy” is probably the wrong word for a story of love, religion, and death that leaves you aching. Wonderful two leads. Gillian Anderson working hard not to be sexy. More than worth the four episode investment.

Huge respect to the papers for finding both an 88 year old worried about the tax bill on her 6 bedroom Kensington house and a 20 year old fretting about only being able to save £12k a year tax free. Top work all around. These are not easy case studies to find.

Bang on, @bjennings90.bsky.social

“There are moments to celebrate and there are moments to not be complacent. Sometimes, it is both. Eight years of work have at last rid the country of the benefit limit. And yet the backlash it provokes shows starkly how progress is an uphill battle.” My col. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A key part of the backlash to ending the two child limit is the idea parents won’t actually spend the extra money on their kids. Why not give them vouchers for food and clothes instead? critics ask. Because it’s paternalistic classism that believes being poor means you’re a bad parent.

“No one can pretend they didn’t know the harm it was causing. Politicians – both those with a blue or a red rosette – let it continue anyway.” My col. on the end of the two child benefit limit (and a climate that means even feeding toddlers gets a backlash). www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Cheering the two child limit ending isn’t patting Starmer’s Labour on the back or ignoring his record. It’s acknowledging 8 years of hard campaigning and ridding the country of a cruel, toxic policy. Half a million children won’t be hungry anymore. Celebrate today. Tomorrow, pick the next fight.

And the two child benefit limit is abolished. An enormous victory for those who have campaigned tirelessly for eight long years through successive governments. This will lift at least 450,000 children out of poverty. Fewer kids will be hungry. No more women forced to disclose their rape.

“The Motability scheme was set up to protect the most vulnerable. Not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes Benz,” Reeves says. Misleading and nasty in equal measure.

Why the two-child limit has to go, in a chart.

The Times has a piece on the two child benefit limit that genuinely blames the fact Bangladeshi or Pakistani parents often have more children than “White British” people. The dog whistle could hardly be louder.

Turned 40 and asked for some of my front pages to be framed as a self-esteem boost.

Re-watching Sleepless In Seattle and Walter really deserved better. Sure, he’s allergic to everything but he’ll also take you to New York for Valentines and resize a diamond ring at Tiffany’s. Meanwhile, Tom Hanks lives on a houseboat.

“Viewers of a certain age may find themselves experiencing a flashback to Tomorrow’s World unveiling a new invention called “the cassette player” and feel the fabric of time fold in on itself.” I reviewed Chris McCausland’s doc on mind-blowing accessible tech. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

I reviewed Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future - a mind-blowing doc that does a great job of showing how tech can transform disabled people’s lives (but could do more on the tension in how much of it is made by The Worst Men On Earth). www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

I’m officially no longer a young columnist. Watch out for my new era in the British commentariat with pieces including, “why house prices are very reasonable, actually” and “keep your hands off my pension.”

Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.