this is very funny and very good, god bless all at @bashback.bsky.social

only by a certain self-adjusting buoyancy and simultaneousness of volition and action, can you escape

it's like the FIFA Peace Prize means nothing anymore

[Townes Van Zandt voice] the butter mines are closing and grandpaw's got nothin for his years of toil but popcorn lung and a foreclosure notice on his gingerbread shack

On hoardings and roadsigns between Backworth and Killingworth, someone with a marker pen has written the ominous words BOVINE INDEPENDENCE.

cool stuff that happened in 2k25: a book I wrote four years ago turned up on a BookTok(?) influencer(?)'s self-facilitated media node

tfw the world's going to be fed into a blender by a bunch of fucking idiot babies who are still annoyed that storybooks won't talk back to them

Watching THE GREEN KNIGHT again

Today, thoughts inevitably turn to a man whose life and death will always be associated with this time of year – a man whose purity of heart and good works alike contain, I think, the true spirit of the season.

the graduation of a cohort of gaza’s new medical professionals in front of the ruins of al shifa hospital. No words, really.

props to this christmas lad I’ve just spotted on @flightradar24.com

When MC Tazo tells you to have a belta Christmas and a waxa New Year you better sit your ass down and LISTEN youtube.com/shorts/lCwRs...

"Hearken to the tale of Rory Stewart & the Imperial Wonder Boy as a doctor opens your scrotum! Marvel at Prof Nigel Biggar's martyrdom as your vas deferens is carefully severed! Sigh over the melancholic construction of a national past as unborn millions clamour fr limbo against their annihilation!"

Excellent analysis from @dirkmoses.bsky.social of the implications of Western leaders devaluing Holocaust memory by invoking it to justify another genocide in Gaza: thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...

A very happy Christmas from LORT BURN SPECIALS

WTF are we doing here, BBC?

Found a whole archive of someone's early life in my loft - photo albums, first ballet shoes, letters, cards, schoolwork, National Record of Achievement (lol) etc. How the hell do I find this person to ask if they want it? Initial googling gets me nowhere.

what if shit is the way to restart the world‘s turd machine

that's the good shit, right there

Great to finally meet @pdkmitchell.bsky.social in person - in Newcastle for the Launch of the Race and Migration IDRT at Northumbria and drinks.

the Rip van Winkle horror of getting your first contact lenses in 15 years and beholding in a shop mirror your own naked face fifteen years older than you remember

scottish librarians, academics, writers etc see below

Angry, frustrated or just plain bewildered by the latest government asylum system proposals? You're not alone. Read our CEO, Duncan's thoughts over on our website today - then please support our Stand With Refugee Families appeal 🧡 tinyurl.com/muce5fep

Given it’s taking 7, 8 up to 23 years to make some determinations this actually had me laughing out loud in the absolute certainty this this is undeliverable on every level. It’s a broken policy on inception. The bureaucracy alone is unworkable.

Anyway join.greenparty.org.uk

I for one am quite glad my family was not told to go back to Bialystok or Kyiv when they were "safe" in 1922.

I guess that's a no

I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.

'Prof Nicola Ranger, the union’s general secretary, said: “A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.' 1/2

I'm in Nairobi this week for the opening of the inquest into my sister Kate's death here, almost four years ago, which is still very much unsolved. The case has been beset by obstructions and evasions; it's taken us a long time to get this far and there may be more to come.

Going to Nairobi next week. Very much not there for fun, but if anyone has any good advice or knows nice places to eat / relax (I'm staying in Westlands) I'm open to recommendations

wonder if this could have anything to do with the British press running a 24/7 hate campaign where typically a single newspaper might contain 3 anti-trans stories *a day*

Seen that video of a hundred-year-old veteran weeping over his lost country and being comforted by the 'D-Day Darlings' in a poppy-bedecked morning TV studio? Assailed by a profound sense of unease? Of distaste? Of dread, even? Allow me to make it worse: tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/afte...

someone described my cat as "unsexy" the other day and I'm still fucking furious tbqhwy

The lads at @neheritagelib.bsky.social do excellent work and I'm very chuffed to be representing @nenature.bsky.social in this year's NE History Compendium

Correct your maps: Newcastle is Mitteleuropa LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3 happened and it was great keep yr eyes peeled for LORT BURN SPECIALS: 4

"You need not wipe your knife to cut bread for the table, because in cutting a slice or two it will wipe itself." Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants.

I'm leaving my day job soon, but one of the cool things about it has been helping midwife stuff like this excellent blog on the Hancock Museum condor, a bird kidnapped from Chile in the 1880s who spent the rest of her life being gawped at by Geordies and glumly trying to bite children's fingers off

Best wishes to Christian in seeking treatment for his *checks diagnostic manual* racism

oh no

back in 2016 I was at some event and got introduced to Goodwin; he found out I worked for the Londoner's Diary and proceeded to follow me round the room like a puppy for the rest of the night, throwing quips in my direction in the hope of being quoted in the paper the next day

As many of you know, I collect Haitian art. The most famous painting in my collection is Frantz Zephirin’s *The Slave Ship Brooks*, which has been exhibited around the world, including the 2022 Venice Biennale. Here are photos of the painting and of Frantz when he had just completed it.

This is today! If you show up to buy a ticket on the door, you will be asked to buy one online. Skip that step and buy one before you leave the house. 🎟️ www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/venu...

I've been covering this story for the last three years and it's so frustrating how little people seem to care given the scale of what's happened at Teesworks. This report is superb, and lays it all out. It covers eight pages, but could easily cover more. I really recommend this.

In some canny good company in the GNM: Hancock library

Probably best to chase it indefinitely

“I got braver the more people came out. I know my neighbors have my back, and I have their back.” chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

2007: pretending a mobile phone and two roast potatoes from christmas dinner are a cock and balls, to hilarious effect