These people are poison. They will unleash racist thugs on the streets of this country and call it security. They will subjugate us to the US and call it patriotism. They must be stopped. There is no more important task in politics.

Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.

Writing is thinking. It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.

!! … ah

Column in which I ask the important question: has Torsten Bell ever killed a man? economist.com/britain/2026...

Let's fix this for him. What he needed to say was: 'I am sorry that my choice of language was offensive and the statistics I quoted were complete bullshit.' Prick.

A bit long but here’s Marx from the 1844 manuscripts providing an exposition of Goethe and Shakespeare on the power of money that all happens to sum up exactly where we are right now. (Reminded of this passage by Epstein’s capture of prominent academics.)

Hello. Former Index On Censorship staffer here. To be very clear, having your request to speak at a society of which you are not a member does not count, in any sense whatsoever, as censorship. nation.cymru/news/uproar-...

I have no surprise left to summon that Donald Trump felt no moral restraint when posting vile, juvenile and hideously racist imagery of President Obama and his wife. I am, however, astonished that it remains up to this moment and the White House is even attempting to defend itself.

If you need a pick-me-up - and I'm certain you do - check this out from Philly's District Attorney.

and no I haven't put the Mandelson-Epstein-Reinaldo scoop on twitter we journalists *can* make Bluesky the place to break news

On almost everything – fraud, polarisation, radicalisation, misinformation – evidence suggests that over 60s are in much more urgent need of online protection and education than teenagers. But that issue gets zero political attention, and is a total non-starter. Nothing good will come of it.

Seen in Los Angeles (Credit: Zurita Carpio)

sure, no one is taking the piss out of you any more

I was struck, seeing this on the tube, by the contemporary resonance of Auden"s Epitaph on a Tyrant in this phase of the global projection of Trump’s sociopathic narcissism

Worth noting that TikTok is absolutely rammed with videos like this. Gen Z being radicalised rapidly.

I'm afraid there *is* an obvious answer: it can't.

feels weird given everything but apparently I’ve retained the ability to be shocked

Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.

I just came across (while looking for something else entirely) a sentence by Eimar McBride that I wrote down ages ago, and which now seems… relevant: “While a picture may paint a thousand words, a thousand considered words are more powerful than a thousand misleading pictures.”

In my school mums WhatsApp group one of the Muslim mums is helping one of the other mums assemble a last-minute Christmas Eve box and this is the country I am proud to live in and share x

Happy 79th anniversary to this diary entry from Evelyn Waugh, in which he drinks enough to make you wonder how he lived for a further 19 years:

Correct.

“In the last five years alone, the wealthiest 20 Americans increased their net worth from $1.3 trillion to $3 trillion… It’s as if the sheer scale of this wealth, which beggars even the riches of the Gilded Age, has induced a kind of class sociopathy.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/o...

Innocent people end up in our criminal courts. Completely, terrifyingly innocent. And all that stands between them and losing everything is a fair trial. Politicians would do well to remember this when they tell us that justice is all about processing “criminals” swiftly.

❌ "Brexit has made touring the EU almost impossible and grassroots venues are continuing to close." "Does she recognise that without meaningful action, we risk creating a music industry where only the privileged and rich can afford to build a career?"

while I’m being cranky, access journalism needs to go. When the president does his “I’m alpha because I insulted you” thing somebody needs to fall on his sword and say “what the fuck is wrong with you, old man?” on a hot mic. the hero of the wizard of Oz is Toto.

True tale: A Baltimore police colonel called a rival at 3 a.m. from a crime scene: "Leon, I got you now. You fucked up. You wrote "POLICE" backwards on the front of the EVU truck." "Eddie, that's so it reads correctly in a rear view mirror." Long pause. "Aw Leon, you got an answer for everything."

If you receive legal threats from Nigel Farage for your reporting of Reform, please get in touch. We have employed a defamation lawyer specifically for this purpose and would love to help (and we do so on non-commercial terms). www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This piece is good but the photo and choice to use it is perfection

very very interesting short video series on the importance of friction in the modern world esp in the AI era. young people are increasingly talking about 'agency' and working on strategies to make sure that their lives aren't just about clicking, swiping and consuming. vt.tiktok.com/ZSfRF6jH4/

Never mind theology. In these hard times of algorithms, AI, franchises and merch, I would dutifully take scripts notes from His Holiness. In fact, I want him to run a studio. bsky.app/profile/mark...

You know that time that a major British news organisation mistakenly sought out a random dude who happened to share a name with a former New York mayor in order to go after a left wing New York mayoral candidate? Did anyone resign?

Honestly TELL THE STORY. Won’t someone just tell the fucking story of how Brexit created this economic hardship, how a Muslim immigrant just saved the lives of those commuters on that train, won’t someone in politics or even media just connect the fucking dots and TELL THE STORY. IT’S RIGHT THERE

We've got you 👍

That scene of the Welsh BBC correspondent being the only person interviewing Caerphilly's new Plaid AM while the rest of the media interviewed Reform's loser in the background was far too on the nose.

Today's mood. (Image courtesy of the Snow Leopard Trust, whose work we support in Kyrgyzstan)

Reminder that back in July Katie Lam wrote an article for the Sun on Indefinite Leave to Remain and the Conservatives' proposals. It contained a number of blatant lies and the Sun published a detailed retraction.

The death of shame and its consequences, especially for public figures, is a huge reason why we are in this place as a country. Shame as a concept is imperfect and can be abused, but we should absolutely be able to say that people with horrific, hateful beliefs must be made pariahs.

🤣

"My school saves thousands of pounds every year from those solar panels." The TUC directly takes on Reform, a party funded by the fossil fuel Industry. Posted on IG by tradesunioncongress

I’ve been frustrated to see so much of the ongoing story about asylum seekers and the protests against them covered without hearing from those seeking asylum and now being met with hostility and hatred I set out to speak to those directly affected to find out about the impact this is having 👇

Let's be clear: The flood of hatred sloshing across Britain right now is 100% a product of the political and media elite scapegoating minorities for the harms that those elites have visited upon the country.