For crying out loud. It’s 8:00pm on Christmas Eve. Can we please not give all the royal soft-sell PR non-news stories a rest? Princess Charlotte plays the piano with Kate for family carol service www.thetimes.com/article/e300...

The more that emerges about Andrew, the worse it becomes for the family. Such behaviour, over so many years, some of it in royal residences, can’t have gone unnoticed. And yet they only cut him loose this year? Come on.

We’ve reached the stage at which Christmas cards arrive from people we forgot and to whom it’s too late to reply

I think Denmark should appoint a Maine envoy Denmark furious as Trump appoints ‘totally unacceptable’ Greenland envoy www.thetimes.com/article/f987...

Andrew-Epstein, side by side on the BBC News app with a manufactured royal story. So much momentum behind this scandal I’m not sure the Buckingham Palace PR machine will win this time. Sandringham? Balmoral? Over so many years? How can the rest of the family hierarchy plausibly deny knowledge?

#BarackObama: The Audacity of Hope #DonaldTrump: The Mendacity of Dope

The BBC offers UK people a Royal Watch news service - but I don’t see any way we can do the opposite, and turn it all off www.bbc.co.uk/newsletters/...

I’m reading about the Edwardian era in the excellent Little Englanders by @alwynturner.bsky.social. The Parliament act of 1911: “It is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a second chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis.” We’re still waiting…

@empirepoduk.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @anitaanand.bsky.social A big chunk of the British Empire & Commonwealth collection has been stolen from the Bristol Museum archive, including East India Company artefacts. Thought you’d like to know www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You know how some children (and adults tbf) have a problem with maths logic? I just read the deets on today’s World Cup draw, and it would make a great entry point in a classroom lesson… www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

Last week, ICE arrested and separated a father and son after a routine check-in. Six-year-old Yuanxin had just enrolled in the first grade at an elementary school in Astoria. Now he's in custody, alone. ICE won't say where. This cruelty serves no one. It must end.

Happy St Andrew’s Day, everyone. Scotland: the only home nation to have its saint’s day at this time of year. “We don’t p*ss around with springtime, pal.” 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Listening to Thatcher Part 1 on @ppfideas.bsky.social. Re the U-turn speech, I heard once she didn’t get the joke: she had to be persuaded not to say “you can turn if you want to” 😉

Just finished today’s episode of @ppfideas.bsky.social: The Rise and Fall of Homo Sapiens Part 2. Oh my goodness: the species is doomed to decline, but what a wild ride. Worth subscribing to PPF+ for this episode alone - but there are so many other gems here…

Just opened the photos of atrocities in the Belgian Congo in today’s newsletter from @empirepoduk.bsky.social and there’s one there (9 of 12) that I can’t unsee. Just awful

Let’s imagine Russia invaded the USA from the NW and after 2-3 yrs China said it had brokered a deal: Russia would pull out of Oregon, N California, and W Montana, and in exchange the US would let them keep Alaska. What would any US President say to that? And why should Ukraine be any different?

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen. Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

I hear @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social is in the running to succeed Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time. I can’t think of a safer pair of hands.

Trump's White House & fawning hacks here don't really care about the 0.001% that the BBC gets wrong. They care about all the stuff it gets right.

We are so far through the looking glass that the man who tried to overthrow an election becomes president, the people who attacked the Capitol are turned into martyrs, & it's the BBC that gets punished - cheered on by the worst news outlets in the UK & the two most dishonest politicians of our age.

What’s infuriating about the departures of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness is that the Telegraph and the Mail etc will crow over them. The BBC resigns over things for which they wouldn’t even apologise.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and dozens of emails each day announcing Black Friday deals

A film you’ve seen more than seven times with a GIF

Hello @agcallard.bsky.social - I am reading Open Socrates and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. On p336 you talk of the world you shared with Steve being simultaneously there and not there, and it reminded me of Song of the Peach Tree Spring, an 8thC poem by Wang Wei. I thought you might like it.

@empirepoduk.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @anitaanand.bsky.social Thought you would like to know that Ronald Hyam, Emeritus Professor in British Imperial History at Cambridge, died yesterday. He was 89.

Hello @empirepoduk.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @anitaanand.bsky.social - thought this might be worth mentioning in a bonus edition: www.hrp.org.uk/schools/insp...

@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social FYI

Unable to reply, so I’m reposting so I can say we have a copy of this picture on our wall here at home 😊👍

Whatever happened to Boris Johnson’s book on Shakespeare? It’s been at least ten years since it was mooted, hasn’t it?

The mad world of Richard Tights.🤪 Part 187 of an occasional series: You SHOULD jail a person who threatens to kill Jewish people. You SHOULDN’T jail a person (Lucy Connolly) who threatens to kill migrants because that’s free speech. Hmmmm…🤔

Tonight’s early evening BBC News: a plug for Open AI; a plug for a book; a plug for The Traitors; a celeb gossip story about Dolly Parton; and just one real news item, about the Stephen Lawrence case. Hmm.

Hey @empirepoduk.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @anitaanand.bsky.social I have a joke for you: Why didn’t the Crusaders like doner kebabs? Because they had salad in.

Prince Andrew named in the #EpsteinFiles, and so of course today’s British front pages are all about the tough year Prince William has had. “Look, everyone! No, look over here!”

But apparently Andrew can. In more senses than one

@j-amesmarriott.bsky.social Lovely piece about Tennyson’s Ulysses. Possibly / probably my favourite poem. We went to Farringford this summer - Tennyson’s home on the Isle of Wight. Well worth a visit.

#BBCToday - I don’t know where Justin Webb has been looking on this platform, but most reactions to the news about Charlie Kirk have been like this:

We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.

The BBC covered the Reform UK conf last night. But did they mention Aseem Malhotra’s tirade against Covid vaccines? He suggested they gave the Royals cancer. Did they mention Farage is said to be using a private co. to reduce his tax bill on GB News earnings? No. Thank goodness for @thetimes.com

Hey @octopus.energy - where has the wheel of fortune gone?

Why is BBC Points West acting as an echo chamber for Arron Banks, amplifying his recent local radio interviews on immigration? No Points West coverage of LibDems or Greens on this issue. It’s almost as though they want to raise the political temperature.

Quote with a GIF from the last show / movie you watched

I see #TheArchers is trending. I used to listen but I’m all better now 😉 youtu.be/VdOr5FpLKR8?...

Drop an old person that you’re going to turn into in the future. (In my case, the near future.)

What’s with the Empire podcast? First Yalta, now rivers in myth and fiction. When is it going to get back to… empire? It’s not as though it’s run out of imperial histories. The Spanish in America, the British and Germans in Africa, the Romans and more. All still untouched @empirepoduk.bsky.social

Is it just me or is the Empire podcast approaching Peak Witter? The last Q&A episode featured ‘which mythical creature would you be’; this week we have ‘what are you wearing’ and irrelevant back-stories. It’s like breakfast radio. Come on, producers - please sort it out @empirepoduk.bsky.social

Well the party doesn’t start ‘til I walk in

This is a 🧵 about the importance of context. Last weekend we walked along the prom at Minehead. There was a family on the beach - a couple and two girls, about 10 and 12. The man looked exasperated and spoke urgently. He said to the older girl, “Where did you bury your sisters?”

Implement a 100% tariff and ruin a movie. You Only Live Four Times, featuring James Bond, 014.