Excellent evening enjoying Matt Forde's @matt-forde.bsky.social hilarious take on current events and amongst many other things, his erectile disfunction (cue Trump and Starmer giving him advice on erections, life expectancy etc!) - it was a bit of light relief amongst todays hysteria. Recommended!

The full clip, including McKellen's setup of the scene, is here, along with info about the riots (Evil May Day) and the text of the speech itself. kottke.org/26/02/the-st...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

This is quite something - hope this also is going into the enquiry.

There's more. On 31 March 2010, Lord Mandelson's principal private secretary sent him a note of a meeting between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Larry Summers, US Treasury Secretary. Lord Mandelson forwarded it to Jeffrey Epstein five minutes later.

MEANWHILE OVER ON TWITTER: He does the Kennedy name proud, and is handling the whole Trump destroying the Kennedy legacy thing much better than I am.

A beautifully crafted podcast. Alex and his guest start with the universal human drives that cause ancient stories and artefacts to be made. He immerses himself in the topic, considers it from every angle…then, to cap it all, his beautiful expressive voice makes me hang on every word.

Hurrah. Podyssey is back. Such a wonderful pot pourri of legends, analysis, culture and humour. It really is a uniquely fascinating podcast.

The excellent Podyssey is back for season 2- how lovely!

President Trump, your Melania movie has bombed

This should never, under any circumstances, ever, be considered ‘normal’.

I'm pondering what the white nationalist element in Reform think about another non-native defector @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Statement from the Obamas:

NEW: Andy Burnham *blocked* from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Of nine voting members on NEC group was 8-1 against him.

Canada ⬇️

Great cartoon.. and interesting to see how Martin and Ella create cartoons in different ways (in guardian link)

Latest Graun toon - you can read about its genesis here www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Board of Peace - Season 1

The Walkhighlands faithful tell me that this walk is the one to share with you today. Full route and details: www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ullapool/fyr...

at last- a good use of AI! www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ln...

Eloquently articulates damage US is doing to world order. Refuses to elaborate further. Leaves.

Lutnick heckled in Davos. FT: “The gathering on Tuesday night descended into uproar after combative remarks from Lutnick, the people said, with widespread jeering, some guests walking out and appeals for calm from Fink.”

Aw, don’t be mean. Just let him have it.

‘Nostalgia is not a strategy’: Mark Carney is emerging as the unflinching realist ready to tackle Trump

Mark Carney earned a rare standing ovation in Davos. Read the full text of his speech here

Mark Carney gave the best speech at Davos by far. He understands the situation with clarity while others prevaricate, appease, and send late-night “Dear Donald” texts or call him “daddy.”

CARNEY: “.. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.” 🔥

Danish Parliament Deputy Speaker Lars-Christian Brask: "If I could come with some advice, it would be for the Senate & House to start to take control of political power in America because with this erratic & mad behaviour, you have to ask the question, is the President capable of running the US?"

Not for the first time, it looks like Channel 4 just handed the keys to their socials to an evil genius:

Focus at the moment is on the prospect of a trade war but the US's real leverage over Europe is security. Both in support for Ukraine but also in maintanence + support of militaries/intellingence. This could spiral in very ugly ways.

This is much the province of historian of fairy tales, as it is that of the constitutional lawyer or historian. Once upon a time there was this mad, bad ruler who wanted a prize…

Not the sort of letter committed to paper by a well man. "Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

This is bonkers! So its the Norwegian governments fault now. King Trump hasn't got his toy, so he's destroying world order.

I think the White House badly underestimates the strength of the pan-European folk memory of 1930s appeasement, and how deep it still cuts. I suppose this is what happens when you learn in school that WW2 started in 1941 in Hawaii.

A joke for the history buffs: Germany’s satirical newspaper @der-postillon.com titles: “Vienna Academy of the Arts offers Trump admission as a student — They don’t want to get blamed again“

A robust response.. phew

Nicked from FB

Robert Jenrick is like someone who was planning to leave his wife for his mistress but got kicked out first and had to turn up at his mistress's house in the middle of the night with a suitcase pretending it was his decision

In the footsteps of Goebbels.....

This from former British diplomat @alexhh.bsky.social, who now is now based in the US, really hits home about the nightmare currently playing out in Trump's America bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...

Ah yes, I remember it well. #TimeTrumpet

Reform now has 2 Nads and a Dick. Amazing recruitment skills.

❤️‍🔥Tory sources confirm that Nadhim Zahawi made approaches to senior members of Kemi Badenoch's team about getting a peerage just weeks before defecting to Reform UK - but was turned down.

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.