Proud to announce @the-independent.com and @missingpeopleuk.bsky.social have hit our fundraising target of £165,000 to launch the SafeCall helpline while also raising awareness of those still missing this Christmas. With thanks to the incredible generosity of our readers in 2025 ❤️

16th annual Christmas Day run complete, so now time to sit down and do very little. Merry Christmas everyone

Genuinely baffled at how these adverts got signed off. Who is it meant to appeal to? What message is it intended to send about the product? Why do the people responsible still have jobs?

Thursday night outrage in the lobby as No10 says it will cancel the daily afternoon press briefing and replace it with "occasional" press conferences open to, among others, "content creators". (Yes, we're finishing term with the most insidery of insidery stories)

Today in government bodies I had no idea existed - the King Scallop Implementation Group. When was Keir Starmer going to tell us of his plan to replace the King with a shellfish?

Kemi’s been flying drones in Farnham to plug her £50bn sovereign defence fund plan. She also told me that we don’t need national service, but young people won’t fight for Britain if all the country offers them is youth unemployment.

My kingdom for a PMQs question that doesn't involve a tenuous Christmas "joke".

I remember when £9k fees came in and it made a huge difference to students’ socialising patterns. Can only imagine it’s got worse for the pandemic generation - though not sure it gets better once they’ve worked their way through the system

Father Christmas watches over tonight’s Green Party presser welcoming 5 defecting Labour councillors in Brent. I’ll say this, it’s a marked contrast from the Reform pressers I’ve been to.

I have somehow ended up on a routemaster.

Every day we stray further from God’s light

Preparing Friday night dinner (no, I didn’t buy an unnecessarily large quantity of pork shoulder because I panicked at the butcher’s, don’t be silly)

The singing is really not helping my mood as I try to write about this, if anyone wants an indication of how not in the Christmas spirit I am at this stage.

My main comment on today is: Let he who has never accidentally broken an embargo cast the first stone

I’m not sure I find this at all surprising - the report didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know, and involves people who have largely left the national stage. Not sure this would have got many more days of coverage in the past either.

Well at least I was wrong to be worried about this specific thing

Just had a quick look at the Australian media, and apparently Starc's spell is going to "haunt the Poms forever". Who's going to be doing the haunting if Australia can't even manage a first innings lead?

This podcast episode made me commit that gravest of offences - laughing out loud on public transport

Constantly disappointed whenever I receive a press release about "SAS doctors" that they are not, in fact, about doctors in the SAS.

I remember when the Chancellor was telling the BBC she could only stick to Labour's manifesto commitments on tax by making "deep cuts" to public investment. Because it was Monday.

People who work in comms - please, please explain to me why you are still asking wire/online journalists what their deadline is. We have had years of 24-hour news, the deadline is as soon as you possibly can.

I mean, this is nonsense isn’t it? They kicked off the Craig films by pretending he’d just become a 00 agent and it was fine. Nobody needs consistency from Bond.

Went for a very hilly run round Valletta. Nice and quiet on a Sunday morning though, for the most part…

I have an announcement to make

Going to see Nick Mohammed on Tuesday. Already drawing up heckles.

Voting to end the game early is always an error, what is wrong with these people?

Nick what have you done!!??

Weirdly surprised by the identity of the only recipient of a zero-star album review from the Guardian

People who know about tanks/AI - this isn't real, is it?

Outstanding scenes on ITV, where actual minister Chris Bryant’s interview has been delayed by a member of the public repeatedly hanging up on Andi Peters ringing to say they’ve won £100k. Only in Britain.

I still think The Traitors would be improved if the traitors were incentivised to sabotage the missions - would add some more jeopardy and might give the faithful at least some basis for their decisions

The use of "unimpressed" as a verb has, well, unimpressed me.

Britain’s class system in action - in the House of Commons cafeteria, they have spaghetti bolognese; in the Lords’ restaurant, it’s beef ragout

Observations on returning to the shopping centre in the place I grew up (Wimbledon). Firstly, the sheer amount of dead space. This empty seating area used to be a Lakeland, now they’re not even trying to rent it out.

Further vindication for my total ban on Alexa in the flat

This did not disappoint - truly bizarre

I am watching John Carpenter’s Halloween for the first time, and I have questions. Questions like “how old am I supposed to believe obviously-in-her-20s Jamie Lee Curtis is?” and “did they use the same dubbing as Garth Marenghi?”

This is great. Also makes me think of the Rumble in the Jungle (although possibly that did less for Zaire's reputation than Saudi Arabia's many cultural and sporting efforts are appearing to achieve).

NEW: The PM has asked Lord Mann, the Government's advisor on antisemitism, to conduct a review of the NHS. Starmer told the Community Security Trust this morning there were too many "clear cases" of antisemitism not being dealt with properly.

“Do you have a Pinterest or mood board?” asks the wedding planner. Cue panicked signing up to Pinterest and an evening staring at photos of decor. Comfortably the most stressful part of the planning experience so far.

You will be shocked to learn that one of the men sanctioned today for alleged involvement in massive fraud has purchased multiple flats in the new Nine Elms development. www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home...

I have received an email praising my ability to write with “humility and conviction” and describing my work as a “luminous testament to the power of awareness, love and curiosity”. Which would be great if they weren’t trying to contact an entirely different Christopher McKeon.

Spoke to Kevin Hollinrake just before he went on stage - insisted the PM needs to explain himself to Parliament over the collapse of the Chinese spying case. Also insisted the Tories had always called China a threat 'in certain areas', which is not my memory of the Integrated Review refresh

Today in things I didn't expect to hear or write at this conference: "Lettuce doesn't poo." www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home...

Following today’s defections, Chris Philp tells one of my PA colleagues the Tories shouldn’t worry too much about Reform say because Farage “was boasting about MP defections during our conference, which has not happened.” Feels a bit like a hostage to fortune that.

A bit of drama in the Conservative Party conference hall earlier, as London Assembly member Andrew Boff heckled a 'gender critical' session he later said was ‘curated hatred’ www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Fair to say, Kemi Badenoch's response to 20 Tory councillors joining Reform has not been universally popular here - one Tory source tells me it's made them "sound like a protest party", and there's a widespread assumption that there's more to come before her speech tomorrow.

Scenes from Tory conference, including a tractor, Margaret Thatcher’s wardrobe, “Labour’s Circus of Despair” and what appears to be an AI Winston Churchill

What, no heckler?

Insert joke about ministers’ “grip” here