Neat summary of the last 18 months

“Yet again our country's discourse is being poisoned and polluted by the racist rhetoric coming from Reform - pitting communities against one another and sowing division to suit their own ends. They should be apologising, not doubling down." Better from #Starmer.

This is very good. "In ideology (if not in practice) our society is a meritocracy and to feel comfortable at the top, the wealthy need to believe they’ve earned their position through creativity and brilliance."

What’s this? #Arsenal playing at 3pm on a Saturday AGAIN??? What on earth is going on

Received this text message from my father yesterday. Panicked that he had had a stroke, or similar. Turns out it was my iPhone trying to transcribe the Irish language.

Every single one of these cases is about someone deciding to have very limited contact with their mother. The word 'father' does not even occur in the article www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Just been reading @thetimes.com. Whoah. Big news.

PRIVATE EYE NAMED IN EPSTEIN FILES In the latest files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released by the US Justice Department, the Eye is denounced as “an absolute rag of a publication” by Epstein’s then lawyer, Paul Tweed… 🧵1/5

He "loved to be the centre of attention … any group of people that gives him the time of day, he gets very excited by”. Explains a lot www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Rael Braverman, the husband of failed Tory Home Secretary and new Reform MP Suella Braverman, has joined Reform. Six months after he quit Reform.

Well. If this doesn’t persuade the Norwegian government to give #Trump the ‘Noble’ peace prize, nothing will 🤬

Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power

You have five unread posts from yesterday

New Board of Peace shaping up nicely

He seems nice.

The thing that amazed me the most about all this is that David B is currently in Davos - why??

‘Welcome to your new-look Sainsbury’s.’ It hasn’t got a new look though, has it, cos it still looks exactly the flippin’ same - the only difference is that you’ve moved all the stuff around so no one can find anything 😩

Compare and contrast with the witless letter we’ve all seen from #Trump today… 🙄

“I talk to producers about this and say: ‘Tell the director you’re making the film for an audience, not the directors,’” she said. “There’s always exceptions, but I look at a lot of films and think: ‘You could take 20 minutes out of that.’ There’s no need for films to be that long.” Spot on.

😮

This is what #Farage and his ilk want for the UK. London would be the first place to be targeted

Who’d’ve thought that using an iPhone 7 and wired earbuds would feel so edgy and retro in 2026

Very good 😄

‘Robert is a highly talented man’ 😂 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Could’ve sworn Nick Robinson just called the #Musk AI offering ‘Grot’ - Freudian slip perhaps #R4Today

Can relate

Very useful

"Trump’s growth strategy appears to rely on an AI sector that looks exceedingly like a bubble, fossil fuels with which the world is currently amply supplied and a pointless attempt to reshore basic manufacturing through tariffs."

Impressive prank by someone at Bournemouth...

In this Year of Reading, a gentle reminder: The best way to get your kids reading is to let them see *you* reading. The way to *stop* your kids reading is to criticize their choices, or to make reading a competition, or a punishment, or a race, or a learning tool. Let it be fun. Let them read.

Probably something like this youtu.be/GlpYz3XNgJU?...

“Good evening, you’re watching CBS. Here is the news for morons.”

Guess who switched off at half time 🙄😵‍💫😳

"Aha!" said Thomas Becket #OnThisDay 1170. "NOW we see the violence inherent in the system!"

What doesn’t kill you gives you a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms and a really dark sense of humour

What was Jesus in for?

‘If Test cricket is art, the pitch is the canvas on which the players paint their masterpiece. The… Test between Australia and England at the MCG was Test cricket cubism, the great game broken apart and stuck back together in abstract form, with a hint of Brydon Carse batting at number three.’ 🤔

“… every time [politicians] post on X, they are putting a buck in Mr Musk’s pocket, and I think they need to question their own consciences and ask themselves whether or not they think they can carry on doing that.” - @imranahmed.bsky.social

‘Milk before the party helps you enjoy the fun’

‘The recipe is best made with either Kraft Velveeta or Kraft Cheddar but you can make it with ordinary cheese.’ Good to know. WTF is/was Velveeta?

‘Any minute now he will rename Thursday after himself or make a horse a senator,’ says Lady Liberty in @privateeyenews.bsky.social re #Trump, whom she describes as a ‘lame duck à l’orange’ 😄

In the US it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which would be cool, as that suggests Nazis will be defeated in 2026. However in the UK it was this 🤔

Go Jofra! Always felt there was a decent batter in there somewhere

‘Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered’ - Thomas Paine

"Maybe print’s salvation is being an escape from screens. You’ve spent too much time online; then you sit in a chair or a garden with a copy of your magazine – that’s different. That’s downtime. That’s for you." - Ian Hislop

Just did this and found that NONE of my contacts is on Bluesky! Oh well, I never really liked any of them all that much anyway 🙂

Still not here. Now a week late 😪 Am I to be forced to endure Christmas without any cutting-edge satire?

When Omar was elected in 2019, ‘Trump’s attacks led to her having the highest level of death threats of any member of Congress. “Now, in the four years when [Joe] Biden was president, my death threats went to almost zero,” she said.’ Getting her killed is clearly one of Trump’s key objectives

Oh, so it's a $10bn lawsuit now, is it? The damages seem to be growing by the minute. Could have sworn it was 'only' $1bn a few weeks ago #BBC #Trump

Every time you think Trump can’t possibly get any worse, he gets worse.