Earlier this evening: “Your Party have not yet named a candidate to fight Gorton and Denton because they probably have still to elect the committee that will select the candidate,” said my wife, jokingly. Er….

How is the Spurs crowd somehow worse than the Royal Rumble one?

Light on European academics, presumably due to their having to book flights to Epstein Island via the department’s travel agency

Is it OK to both be against Saudi sportwashing but to be happy that the Royal Rumble is on at a reasonable time in the UK for once?

I think what bothers me most about Starmer's Govt is that it is in a unique position of having a huge majority that can pass anything, but also knowing they will lose the next election, so they could go for any OTT reforms they want for 3 years and not have to worry about the consequences

Good to see that my hometown is now the Guardian's stock image for decline

Grew up there and Newton Aycliffe was always grim (Hello, Royston Vasey) but the town centre really is one of the most depressing places you could possibly have the misfortune to visit www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...

Given the habit of repeating the same trick over and over I give it a week before Reform have started a war with Del Amitri, Aztec Camera and Postcard Records www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Tories down to 116 MPs now. Ed Davey 45 Reform defections from being Leader of the Opposition....

Been wondering what's missing from Bluesky discourse for a while and its that we never seem to get those viral 'how much I spend in a week' or 'my insane morning routine' things that kept Twitter fun in the old days

English cricket remains a metaphor for the country as travelling circus rolls on | Jonathan Liew

Will someone, once, just stand up and correct him on the 'eight wars' thing

How is Trump capable of talking for longer than a Springsteen concert with encores while saying absolutely nothing?

Did he just say you would all be speaking German now in a German speaking canton?

If world leaders wanted to make an impact at Davos they just wouldn't show up for Trump's speech and go skiing or do some Hot Tub Time Machine selfies for socials while he is rambling on about whatever best at he is today

Between Jenrick and Lutnick that's two politicians confirming their ineptitude by claiming there is 'a new sheriff in town' in the last week www.ft.com/content/e2ae...

I think it would be quite nice for me to be able to wake up in the morning and think about my plans for the day, and more broadly about my own little life, instead of immediately having to ponder the overnight actions of The Guy Over There

Cannot believe I'm going to endorse a Doug Ford policy, but does the whole of the UK/EU need to do an Ontario with US goods?

The biggest giveaway that Stephen is a traitor is that he saved his ABBA Arrival orange-panelled jumpsuit for so late in the series. Anyone frightened of murder or banishment would have worn that wonder on day two. Can’t believe nobody in the castle has clocked this. #Traitors

Thanks @vinyloffers.bsky.social for the heads up on the perfect rainy January soundtrack. Love how it being on 'black vinyl' gets it's own special sticker on the front now

Hoping Reform taking on all the members of the last unpopular government has a whiff of that season Liverpool bought half of the Southampton first team and were suddenly only as good as Southampton

Convinced this non-story about the time someone was barred from a Wetherspoons for a single day is some kind of psy-op to make us better appreciate Adrian Chiles' articles www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Somehow its already the time of the year where I have to skip the videos and guess the answers to online refresher courses that have nothing to do with my job all over again

@stephencollins.bsky.social made the point best

Breaking news: Nadhim Zahwani to announce he is coming out of retirement from international football

Yeah, the northern soul scene as a scene doesn’t appeal to me, but unless you are already an expert in deep cut soul and R&B tracks. just about any decent Northern soul compilation out there is almost certainly going to introduce you to a song you’ve never heard that you can’t believe wasn’t HUGE.

And the glasses mean he is finally a real professor...

Look at that friggin ‘stache legend! Clearly just back from stress testing Spitfires over the Channel! 😂

Catching up on the Traitors and mad that the former copper is determined to pin it on a person who has nothing to do with it

Did the Met Office order Storm Goretti from Temu?

What day do I stop starting emails with an insincere 'Happy New Year' and return to an even less sincere 'I hope you are well'?

Why are they hunting Gollum? Is it for sport? If there is a Middle Earth remake of Hard Target I'm in, otherwise meh

Man U directors: “now comes the tricky bit - finding a new manager who plays with a tactical style as different as possible from those of his predecessors”

This is so obviously true. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

First email of the new year is a rejection email for a paper submitted in 2024. Happy New Academic Year!!

Anyone else old enough to remember that bit in Mad Max 2 where The Humungus demands all the oil as an honourable compromise?

Pretty sure that's not how this works

Again, no Maduro fan, but how do you charge the leader of a foreign state and military (however legitimate) with possession of weapons while based in his own territory?

Just to check, on Monday Trump declared that attacking Putin in his home crossed a line, then on Saturday Trump attacked Maduro in his home?

‘Sir, it’s the UN, and the EU called as well…’ ‘Oh, the UN, boohoo. And the EU, bunch of cry babies. I’m busy here wiping my ass with the War Powers resolution, launching an unprovoked attack on another country and kidnapping its leader. Then I need to bomb some empty fields in Nigeria before golf.’

Worst part is now Trump will claim he has ended 9 wars

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war

So if Trump invades Venezuela does the UK government have to seize Chelsea's assets and force them to have a new owner again? Did Maresco know something?

2026 research aims: Funding into an ethnography of people who stand next to the toilets on trains when there are loads of seats free

It's time for my New Year's Eve Toast. Which is actually Patricia Highsmith's New Year's Eve Toast from 1947, but I defy anyone to come up with a better toast for a crime writer

Anxious me at 4am: Don't spend any money till the end of January and it will all be fine. Awake Me at 9am: Ooh, an email about a knitwear sail at Octobre

Top Adrian Chiles Columns of 2025: I’ve given up wild swimming. So why does my Volvo smell like mince? Should I tell the postman he has halitosis? My first wife wouldn’t let me wear shorts. I buried my father with my bare hands. It’s time we stopped talking about glamping. 1/3

Avatar is going to come out and once again top the box office and make 2 billion dollars, yet nobody I know will ever mention or discuss it, let alone actually go and see it www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

By Christmas 2027 hearing Trump still talking about Sleepy Joe Boden and ending eight wars will be part of the modern crap christmas pantheon like Elf On The Shelf and matching PJs