My husband just turned to my bearded uncle at the dinner table and said "I will fight you, Santa!". Christmas eve is going well.

Jo Cox was murdered before the vote by a far-right terrorist & this is the language this complete disgrace chooses to use

I'm the leaseholder of a ground floor flat in a 5-floor block. My situation is pretty different from (I'm fairly sure) all of those who died in the Grenfell tragedy. That said, can you imagine anyone living in a block of flats in London would even consider following this advice? Sod you Clarion.

Well I was today years old when I discovered Pepto Bismol tastes like Deep Heat milkshake...

Well, The Telegraph got its scalp.

Disney Plus will be stopping funding for Doctor Who! Insight Editor at Broadcast @rebeccakcooney.bsky.social runs us through what's happened on the Media Club with @mattdeegan.com. Listen and watch now: 📺 https://youtu.be/fCNF89efyLM 🔈 https://podfollow.com/themediaclub #Podcast

Close Labour, close, but could we perhaps stop pandering to the right by pretending/implying that Indefinite Leave to Remain is anywhere close to being automatic? (it costs thousands in visa fees to get anywhere near ILR for a start)

Nice water feature outside South Norwood Station @thameswater.bsky.social...

Almost every place you go on holiday - no matter how full of artisan boutiques - will have one or more shops selling these lovingly crafted wooden knob bottle openers. But back home, I've never had someone hand me one of those to open a drink with. Own up: who is it that's buying these??

"…and Magda Goebbels made a great strudel.”

This is the thing: the political exploitation of migration is entirely cynical and not related to reality. Both Immigration and net migration fell from 2023 to 2024 - net drastically from 860,000 to 431,000. Did you notice people calming down about it or saying it now felt under control?

Oh bollocks. She absolutely doesn't deserve this.

Oh bollocks. She absolutely doesn't deserve this.

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but the blanket assertion that "words will never hurt you" rather overlooks the fact that the guy saying, "Break their bones with sticks and stones," was probably a major contributing factor to the current state of your bones...

CHEESES (Palindrome) Decide "No edam," I did. I ate feta, I did. I made one diced.

The Bitchiest Edinburgh TV Festival Ever ☠️ @rebeccakcooney.bsky.social on the new Media Club with @mattdeegan.com ft. @heatherfallon.bsky.social & @farazosman.bsky.social. Listen and watch now... 📺 https://youtu.be/stME7LtL2K4 🔈 https://podfollow.com/themediaclub

Bit of congestion on the way to my desk this morning...

So my awesome writing group is putting together an anthology of our work, and to promote it, we've launched a newsletter. Fancy getting fantastical short stories, poetry and writing advice (plus gorgeous illustrations) in your inbox? Sign up here open.substack.com/pub/fantasti...

The family of Bebe King, one of the girls killed in the Southport attack, have urged ministers to reconsider disclosing ethnicity of suspects. They say family were failed by “despicable” actions of far right, who “tried to make political gain from our tragedy” www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Proud of y’all for the 50+ puns in the quote tweets - big shout to Masturchef - but a pal just texted me LonelyFans so I’m afraid we have a winner

Christopher Reeve advertising camcorders in 1989, culminating in THE GREATEST SLOGAN OF ALL TIME

I don't think "exonerated" means what Gregg Wallace thinks it means...

Review of the new Superman film: This is a film that dares to ask the big questions. What if Palestine was in Ukraine? What if Superman could be defeated by randomly shouting out bra sizes? What if selfies could save the world?

The cat's in his pre-raphealite era 🪷🌿🌸

On the podcast this week... Kate Phillips gets the BBC Chief Content Officer role, self service ads are coming to TV, Netflix streams TF1 and Maisie McCabe joins us from Cannes (whilst me, @farazosman.bsky.social and @rebeccakcooney.bsky.social are stuck in the studio).

Abolish the Home Office.

TOON TUESDAY #ToonTuesday

"Old fashioned print media is in decline everywhere but in the mind of the nation’s political class. The result is that our leaders are getting a very warped sense of what the average voter thinks, reads and cares about."

So basically just sort of banning people who enjoy a sport for fun really?

All those Brexiters are gonna be super mad at this foreign unelected Govt interfering in our sovereign laws. Looking forward to the outraged blogs on Mail+ and Telegraph any second.

For the avoidance of doubt, trans women are women, trans men are men, NBs exist & y'day's ruling makes all women a bit less free to dress & present as they want. And it does nothing to tackle the behaviour of cis men or patriarchy(you know, the reason mixed sex spaces might feel unsafe in 1st place)

In years to come we'll look at this era and wonder why in light of a global pandemic, economic inflation, growing inequality and technological upheaval we decided to make the private lives of a minority considerably worse.

you see, the fact he's still talking is how you know there's no deep state

Great to have @janemartinson.bsky.social and @rebeccakcooney.bsky.social on the show this week.

I want everyone who said they couldn't vote for Harris, because her policies didn't go far enough in one or several areas, and concluded "they're all the same", to make themselves a little scrapbook over the next four years. As an aide-mémoire for next time.

That last paragraph is astonishing

Come to hear me and the excellent @rebeccakcooney.bsky.social talk with the delightful @mattdeegan.com about media… stuff. Stay to hear Rebecca and I both process our grief after reading That Vulture Article…

There are around 10k private school kids in Edinburgh. 51 have moved to state schools in January. As I've repeatedly said the effects of VAT on fees are going to be minimal. www.thetimes.com/article/ab42...

Every woman journalist I know has a MeToo story we couldn’t publish because the legal risks were strangling.

Not a single Reform MP has bothered to turn up to today's House of Commons debate on tackling violence against women and girls

I am a climate scientist and this is correct ⬇️

Nothing good can come of Musk getting involved in the UK's far right politics but this is really quite funny.

My brother has just discovered the existence of Legomasters and it has made his Christmas.

It's Christmas party night at the bar I'm in. Two older women are dancing with glorious abandon to the band in the middle of the bar. Its moderately busy but they're the only dancers. One is in bright pink wearing tinsel as a boa & the other in bright orange dress. 1/2

You know when the lights come up at the bar/club and it's the universal signal for "Night's over, GTFO"? Bars in Connemara have a variation on that, which is very effective in the winter months: turning the heating off.

I know I shouldn't rise to it but the "you lost, get over it" thing is unbelievably irritating. It's not like winning a bloody football match, it's about the ongoing ramifications & it's deeply fucking childish & petulant for the key architect to pretend ever mentioning it is "being a bad loser".

Hard not to read into the fact that, after however many years in TV, Gregg Wallace seems to have no one around him who is both PR-savvy and likes him enough to go "MATE NO! Absolutely do not respond by implying they're all whinging menopausal Karens who you don't fancy anyway."

Gregg Wallace is in trouble. I would tell him to put a sock on it, but isn’t that what caused the problem? | Marina Hyde

"Some jobs are productive and others less so," says Kemi Badenoch, whose own job has involved trying to start a culture war with autistic children, calling for civil servants to be locked up, and attempting to start an online spat with Doctor Who