Zia Yusuf - the unelected multimillionaire policy chief of Reform - makes his fourth Question Time appearance tonight. The party has five MPs

We right minded decent people do

When a poem becomes a prayer. Siegfried Sassoon (1934)

Muscular Christianity. “Wear some headphones, kid. And put your shoes back on”

This thread is SO worth a read

I’m tired of people griping about paying a bit more tax. If this is you - find out how much health insurance would cost for you, or by how much your wages would fall if your employer paid it. Add in the costs of excess for any claims you might have made, oh yes, and the costs of any drugs you take

Frost beside the Foss

Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.

A stone from a Bronze Age stone row, Ringmoor Down #Dartmoor #StandingStoneSunday

#OriginalRollCall Friday 21st November

Helen Birch is a multitalented #artist and author who teaches weekly LIVE classes at AIR. Give her a follow at @drawdrawdraw.bsky.social and come join AIR for Inspiration. This was a class about Picasso's #drawings and African #masks.

🎨: Tamsin Abbott, “Night and Day”

Remember Emily Maitlis’ statement

BBC Bias is often in the eye of the beholder So let’s stick to measurable facts During 10 yrs of debate about Brexit, BBC QuestionTime had Britain’s Members of the European Parliament on the show 50 times Every single one was from the pro Brexit minority 47 were from UKIP/BP 23 times Farage

Monday 17th November #OriginalRollCall

First light with Moon Worthing 6:10

The NHS has kept me alive and I love it; the BBC has made my life worth living. I would put every drop of energy I have into defending both of them.

Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms. He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.

I’ve never seen this picture before. It is so moving, and justifies being PHOTO OF THE DAY

At some point we probably do have to ask whether relentless interference in UK democratic institutions and processes by Trump and his fellow travelers (inc Vance and Musk) is a price worth paying for a marginally less damaging tariff rate than the EU.

Interesting paragraph from a long tweet just posted by Nick Robinson.

The real scandal here is not the confected claim of systemic bias, it’s that the BBC Board caved to pressure from a foreign government. The resignations should come from those who did the caving particularly far right Robbie Gibb who should be nowhere near the BBC www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

To quote @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social in another place, on point as usual:

Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …

From what I understand, it was meant as an absurdity because it is physically impossible to pull yourself up by your own boot straps. We don’t have boot straps anymore, really. So try untying your shoes then pull really hard on your shoelaces and see if you’re able to get off the ground.

the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever

Nobody can set right a mismanaged life with a few words. But there is no pit you cannot climb out of provided you make the right effort at the right place.~CG Jung, 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 1

Kuenssberg and Mason must resign as well.

I would fully support the appointment of Gary Lineker as Director General of the BBC

Black grapes and blackbird

Tree Reflections, Hazel McNab 2022

Stained glass shadows, St Mary’s Church, Wreay. #WeekSforShadows 📷 #photography

One of oldest Quaker Meeting Houses in country saved in Cornwall | Falmouth Packet share.google/jPiyPTvc7jpk...

A November in days gone by The everlasting dance of these two #Trees

Anyway, we need some joy, so here's the Egyptian foreign minister being given a Lego Pyramid by the Danish foreign minister.

Good morning

Partly because so many formerly leftwing parties have turned to the right, there's a lot of confusion about what right and left mean in politics. I hope this helps: The right defends economic power. The left resists economic power.

A friend told me he had been clearing out his gran’s house. The most amazing thing he found there was this knitted effigy of the man who had run off and abandoned my friend’s pregnant aunt. Into the effigy had been stuck twenty knitting needles: one for every year since the man had vanished.

Rien n'arrête l'imagination

Some Cheif Executives have come out & condemned this policy (& policies like it), calling them 'anti-talent'. I think we all know that after a certain point, pay doesn't reflect talent. I hope other CEOs (who care about their employees & their society) will denounce these greed apologists.

An extraordinary realignment of British politics If you want to see @TheGreenParty take on Reform - this is the moment Join.greenparty.org.uk

I joined the Greens in mid Suffolk some years ago. I’ve been so impressed with meeting great people. They understand complex issues: sustainable buildings, soil health, insects, ecology, economics, business, social housing, history, geopolitic, healthcare, diversity and especially valuing people

You can’t beat a good graveyard - at any time of year

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

IMPORTANT: The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart governments do the math on investing in better mobility. Let’s be clear— it wastes public money to NOT do it. #CityMakingMath HT @modacitylife.com

Lovely illuminations for the #EchosOfYorkshire display in #MuseumGardens #York last night. I’m not sure the soundscape quite matches the beautifully curated projections but a pleasant experience nonetheless.

💯 agree. UK is long overdue a constitutional overhaul. We’ve taken our democracy for granted, and trusted too much in the absurd “good chap” theory. Time for a serious national debate about what kind of country we want to be, what to preserve of our best traditions, and what we can improve on. 🧵

2/2 The logic is as simple as it is relentless. Enforce homogeneous identities, go after difference, ambiguity, and hybridity. Push complex belonging out of sight. Increase stigma & scapegoating. Introduce walls inside the fortress, with the creation of insecure second-class citizens.