Migrants are at the heart of our art, our music, our whole history. That’s what the right won’t admit to you | Rowan Williams

The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela

Scottish Government wants to buy Ardrossan Harbour. This would, in fact, be a renationalisation- scandalously, the harbour belonged to Clydeport, which operated the major Clyde harbours until it was sold off by a Tory government in 1992 news.stv.tv/west-central...

It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month. It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from his sinking under Epstein and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Good thread.

“The calendar in Unthank is based on sunlight, but only administrators use it. The majority have forgotten the sun…” Unthank – a nightmarish fantasy mirror-Glasgow from Alasdair Gray’s LANARK – is explored in this episode of Five Imaginary Scottish Places #BookWormSat www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

So, actual end of year poll tracker, given the poll released today. SNP projected one short of a majority. Seats (+/- 2021): SNP: 64 (-) Ref: 19 (+19) Lab: 17 (-5) Grn: 13 (+5) Con: 9 (-22) LD: 7 (+3) Alba: 0 (-) 21 marginals: 17 SNP, 3 Labour, 1 Conservative. 1/3

Scotland is set to elect a large pro-independence majority of MSPs at the next Holyrood elections

#tec On Holy Innocents' Day: "Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy, all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace." I think of the children in Gaza, Ukraine,....

900 years since the first Scottish coins were issued - and surviving ones will go into the national collection. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In #Gaza, tens of thousands of displaced families are sheltering in fragile tents and overcrowded sites, surrounded by destruction. Around 79,000 people are sheltering in UNRWA emergency shelters and nearby areas, many under severe access constraints. Humanitarian needs remain immense. #UNRWAworks

“The news where we are is the news. It comes first. The news where you are is the news where you are. It comes after. We do not have the news where you are. The news where you are may be news to you but it is not news to us…” James Robertson, “The news where you are” m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhL5...

Happy Birthday to the brilliant Liz Lochhead 🎉📚 One of Scotland’s most influential poets and playwrights—and a former Makar—Liz Lochhead’s work has powerfully explored Scottish identity, gender, and language.

Some December midnight Christ, lord, lie warm in our byre. Here are stars, an ox, poverty enough. —George Mackay Brown, “A Child’s Calendar” published in FISHERMEN WITH PLOUGHS (Hogarth Press 1971) #Christmas #poem #poetry #Orkney

At midday on the year’s midnight into my mind came I saw the new moon late yestreen wi the auld moon in her airms… —Liz Lochhead, “In the Mid-Midwinter” published in FUGITIVE COLOURS (Polygon 2016) #poem #poetry #StLucysDay birlinn.co.uk/product/fugi...

BREAKING: Independence has taken a four-point lead while Labour support has dropped off in a new Ipsos poll Story to follow

Skint, baw ragged, poackets ful eh ma fingers, cannae afford tae burn toast an it’s November. Christmas is close… —William Letford, “This is it” Published in DIRT, @carcanet.bsky.social 2016 #poem #poetry www.carcanet.co.uk/978178410200...

Calls are being made for a mural of 'Scotland's best goal ever', just a stone's throw from where it was scored in Glasgow

The war will end when Russia stops fighting. Therefore, pressure has to be put on Russia, so that they stop believing that they will win. Why is that so hard to understand?

Net migration to UK drops 69% year on year, ONS says

Dinnae get mad at this patronising twaddle – it’s a sure sign of Labour’s nerves, writes Lesley Riddoch ✍️ 🔗 www.thenational.scot/politi...

NEW: I wrote about Thermify's HeatHub technology, which acts as a mini data centre. Installed in sheds or outhouses, it gets hot enough to heat people's homes! www.thereengineer.pro/p/sheds-and-...

New net migration figures at 930am. Net migration fell half a million to 344,000 in 2024 from 848k in 2023 56% of people think it went up last year 17% think stayed the same 14% think it went down 2025 figure to be lower again 16% expect that 38% think it will be up 31% about the same

"What is the best-kept secret in British politics? It must be falling immigration. Almost everyone knows that immigration hit record highs... Few realise the last couple of years have seen some of the biggest ever reductions too." @sundersays.bsky.social www.easterneye.biz/uk-immigrati...

Ex Dresdner Kleinwort investment banker Tim Horlick, who was previously married to City Superwoman Nicola Horlick (née Gayford), bought an £8.5m Pimlico flat after supplying 50 million faulty PPE masks. He has now had a criminal restraint order imposed on the property. Ben Ellery in @thetimes.com

A gable and turret from a neighbouring 1860s Victorian gothic church reflected in a window of the 2010s Gurdwara Singh Sahba on Claremonth Street in the West End of Glasgow. Cont./ #glasgow #architecture #architecturephotography #reflection

Portrait of Frances Eaton (mid 19th c) by British painter Joanna Boyce. The sitter was a Jamaican-born Londoner & artists´ model for the Pre-Raphaelites who moved to England as a child, and appeared in a number of paintings #womensart

The five they haven't done: Allow councils to keep right to buy money; scrap tuition fees for teacher training; halt HS2 sell-offs; scrap salary rule for foreign partners of British citizens). They had to be ideas that didn't require legislation and were collectively broadly cost neutral.

Just occured to me that following the budget the government has now done five of the ten "quick wins" I suggested for their their first few months. Took them a little longer... (Two child limit; processing asylum seekers; indexing tuition fees; increasing depts delegated authority; ethics rules)

Also new today @migrationscotland.bsky.social is their latest study of Scottish attitudes: 45% would like reduced overall numbers, but favour maintaining current flows for work & study. Some hardening & some political polarisation in Scotland but nuanced public views beneath the political clashes

i mean not to prejudge this, but the cyber expert is likely to say 'yeah you hit publish, mate'

Given that the BBC endlessly gives platforms to lobbyists from the dark money junktanks without revealing their interests, shouldn't we be seeing such apologies every day? Better still, how about not doing it? If they want to appear, we should know on whose behalf they are speaking.

“Scottishness is not some pedigree lineage. This is a mongrel tradition!” William McIlvanney (1936–2015) – author & poet (& provider, at a rally in Edinburgh in 1992, of our profile header, as quoted in Neal Ascherson’s 2002 book STONE VOICES) – was born #OTD, 25 November A 🎂 🧵 💙📚 1/9

The case of Hungary shows how autocrats can rig elections legally, using legislative majorities to change the law and neutralize the opposition at every turn, no matter what strategy they adopt.

1/ This is a devastatingly good article on RFK Jr by @michaelscherer.bsky.social. Even if you’re someone, like me, who has followed this arc and his devastating impact on public health, it’s a must read. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

In 2023/24, UK govt gave £78.2bn tax relief on pension contributions. 32% benefitted 29.2m basic rate (20%) taxpayers. 68% went to higher and additional rate (40% and 45%) tax payers. Equalizing tax relief at 20% to all, leaves govt £14.5bn spare to alleviate poverty.

Scrapping the two-child limit *is* welfare reform. Defining ‘reform’ solely as ‘cut’ is one reason why it’s proved so difficult

Smoke in the woods like someone walking in a silent film beside the tracks… —John Burnside, “Signal Stop, Near Horsley” published in SELECTED POEMS (Cape, 2006) #poem #poetry www.penguin.co.uk/books/389400...

More than four in 10 girls (44%) in Scotland do not feel safe outside by themselves, new research has found

Wan o the 1%: Ian Hamilton Finlay FOX see me wan time ah wis a fox an wis ah sleekit! ah gaed slinkin heh an snappin yeh the blokes aa sayed ah wis a GREAT fox aw nae kiddin ah wis pretty good had a whole damn wood in them days hen

She and Labour certainly weren’t honest with Scottish voters about tax or the Brexit drag on the economy at the Westminster election… hoist by their own disingenuous petard

Private rent in UK now swallows 44% of the average wage. Monthly cost jumps to record £1,385 outside London, £2,736 in the capital. Lack of social and affordable housing, no rent controls, as govts appease corporations and the rich. Profiteering creating poverty/despair, stifling economic growth.

Also highlights a point I spend a lot of time on in my book - the government is woefully bad at managing private contractors who endlessly rip us off. This is not more efficient.

Trump's enthusiasm for tariffs has never been principally about economics. It's about power. Tariffs give him a tool with which to punish enemies, reward allies, lift himself above Congress & give businesses an incentive to curry his favour. They are more a constitutional than an economic strategy

Excellent topic for a conference, though personally I will not be touching "financial elements of the devolution settlements" with a bargepole.

People are losing faith in democracy’s ability to deliver social progress. But are democracies better than autocracies at promoting economic growth, alleviating poverty, and creating healthier, more educated, and more peaceful societies? On all counts, the answer is yes. muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/a...

María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize has made her the face of the struggle for democracy in Venezuela. But throughout the opposition, women are the backbone of the fight against Nicolás Maduro’s corrupt authoritarian regime.

Electrification, smart home tech, and domestic renewables all promise to bring energy production and control to the individual. It’s about, quite literally, empowering yourself. www.thereengineer.pro/p/gonna-have...

Mamdani vs Cuomo. Their debate in 3 minutes. From Zeteo. zeteo.com/subscribe