"a spiral into madness and pain for the protagonist takes a gruesome turn as some gangsters find out that they’re just amateurs in horror compared to a London estate agent" @annodracula.bsky.social is right - a powerhouse performance from Polly Maberly in the lead johnnyalucard.com/2025/08/25/f...

While the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Defender of the Faith have contented themselves with mouthing the usual seasonal platitudes, the Trumpster and his head-tribble have celebrated the birth of Baby Jesus in the proper style thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/not-...

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Tiny Tim R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

From the conquest of the native savages to the liberation of Latin America, re-writing history has always been a deeply un-American act thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/nomi...

Considering that Christ's entire purpose is to divide us into a minority of saved sheep and a majority of combustible goats, this seems at best disingenuous www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Well, that was money well spent www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...

Along with thirteen lesser nations, the UK has very pluckily braved the inevitable squeals of antisemitism from the Righteous State by having words thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/anot...

Two Frankenweenies: the @buck-theorem.bsky.social review bucktheorem.blogspot.com/2025/12/fran...

Because we are a kindly race And sentimental nation, We'll loose no dogs on deadly chase Nor boil a live crustacean. thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/ther...

Isn't efficiency a wonderful thing www.theguardian.com/business/202...

If the cost of living was prioritised at the beginning of Starmer's premiership, Labour would now be in a much better position. Can this belated shift save them?

Barely had I got over the discovery that it was another Caleb Williams when I discovered that it was also another James Cook

Comptez les cuillères www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Oysters oysters oysters reef reef reef www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

People love to do their hot take/controversial opinions on here. Well here's mine: Mahna Mahna by The Muppets is good but Hugga Wugga is superior. All you mainstream fools probably don't even know half of the deep cuts of the original 1977 Muppets Album. youtu.be/JN5Mqr6tRlw?...

Came across Clarissa Dickson-Wright’s autobiography in a charity shop. It is everything a devotee of weird history could hope for

Oh, the insidious Oriental subtlety of it

Brexit cutting bureaucracy after its usual manner, because UK again demands club privileges without wishing to pay the membership fee www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Benefits claimants, like asylum seekers, are bogus by default www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Don't recall seeing this on any lists of Christmas films, but you could do a lot worse

Just fucking suck it up, Kent www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"never before has Labour done as bad as this. Not even during the bleakest moments of the Corbyn years when the party was assailed by the media, and its coalition split by Brexit"

Don't write off young people - just keep making them poorer www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In Kent, the county where they suck things up, the Farage Falange flagship foray into local government seems to have run into another bit of bilge trouble thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/curr...

Flagship Farage Falange local authority running on future-conditional budget www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

An example from the previous generation of how the power of sycophancy can help the most ludicrously unpleasant incompetents just to keep on failing upwards www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"If Gravity’s Rainbow embodied the Enlightenment dream of total knowledge these late works embody its inversion: the recognition that knowledge itself has become noise" lithub.com/studies-in-u... via www.blckdgrd.com/2025/12/one-...

Still, no price is too high for being able to sack more staff and cut more salaries www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Lee Child doesn't think he's sold enough yet www.theguardian.com/education/20...

It's a lot more Darabont than Romero: Stebbins' mind-games omitted, screw-up McVries transformed into a magical black man, and an astoundingly silly ending www.empireonline.com/movies/revie...

Even if Australia do retain the Ashes, England still has every chance of going out on penalties in the World Cup quarter finals

The Nightmare Before Christmas: the @buck-theorem.bsky.social review bucktheorem.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

Good families www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not when Skynet becomes sentient But when they mechanise dissent thejudge.me.uk/Raves/Raves_...

Indulgence in the biographical-speculation genre of "analysis" becomes, in this context, supremely crass www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

They'll be needed to water our AI hubs and invade Russia and China

Tolerance through gritted teeth is a famous component of British decency thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/but-...

The early stages of the pandemic were difficult for Fishy Rishi, but with hard work and pluck and gumption he managed to make them difficult for the little people instead www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Big of them www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

When They do it: crimes, aggression, deliberate and wilful offences against world peace When We do it: mistakes, sleepwalks, life's little ironies t.co/MaIRbZw8JG

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that capitalism's beasts of burden have only one valid reason for objecting to the policies of their drivers and owners thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/just...

Now that @shabanamahmood.bsky.social has earned the Tommy Robinson Compassionate Award for asylum policy, the Home Office will doubtless be more amenable to publishing its achievements in this regard www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Presumably saw the screw-up coming and doesn't intend to take the fall for it www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The fact is no presenter has ever had to leave the BBC for expressing conservative views, or even explicitly endorsing a right-wing party. Was never a problem for Jeremy Clarkson. Was never a problem for Andrew Neil. Was never a problem for Alan Sugar

"If Wes Streeting is the answer, is the question 'can Labour do even worse?'"

Because of course it won't

A potential leader on the order of James Cleverly, Penny Mordaunt or Tommy Tugendhat? Starmer must be quaking in his boots www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Who's the next shrewd choice going to be, then? Jacqui Smith? Michael Gove? The strutting Caudillo of the Farage Falange himself?

Of course workers have the right to strike! But not in ways that deliberately and wilfully underscore why their pay and conditions should be improved! www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The vast unauthorised waste dump in Oxfordshire is to be cleared at the taxpayer's expense, while leaving less refined populations in full possession of similar amenities thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2025/12/one-...