One must imagine Sisyphus rolling the katamari. #AGDQ2026

Took my little guy to the zoo to say happy new year to the penguins!

My whole life, advocating war has been fed to me as “the adult position,” akin to drinking your coffee black or reading the business section of the newspaper. Let’s be very clear — war is the childish nonsense of impulsive destructive idiots playing baby-brained video games with real human lives.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve lovely phone family. How's everyone feeling? 🤗 I know this can be a really difficult time of year for many of you. Here are some great support charities (UK) if you need them. There's never any shame in asking for help. Have a fabulous day ☕️ #HaveCourageAndBeKind ❤️

poetry won’t bring you happiness but it will teach you how to recognize its scent

Cookies and pink milk left out for the big guy!

Went to the lights show at the Botanics, and even got to meet the big man himself!

Remember, Barclays were the biggest uk bank in South Africa during apartheid.

NEW: Barclays, a key target of pro-Palestine activism due to its financial ties to weapons firms, pressed the Scottish Government to crack down on Palestine Action before the group was proscribed www.thenational.scot/news/2...

What are the quality street that never get eaten in your house? No one in my family likes the purple ones.

Being queer is not a choice, just as being cis and straight is not a choice. But deciding what those identities mean, at the level of the individual and the collective, is a million choices. It’s hard work, but it’s human work. Limiting choices of what it means to be queer, or not, limits humanity.

Kids will die, for no reason other than the bigotry of billionaires. If you think the Trump Administration is wrong on everything except somehow angelically right on trans issues, then you need a good talk with yourself. You’re not who you think you are. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/h...

Funny that. When the Cass report came out and there was an opportunity to destroy an entire area of trans healthcare it was wall-to-wall headlines and opinion pieces. Now the Levy review says "current system just needs improved and lower waiting lists"... silence. Crickets. Open editorial bias.

If you stop being soulless you will reap the rewards of having a soul.

In nicer news, here are some of the Christmas card messages my young creative writers gave me this year, from the youngest to some of the oldest 🥹 (Alt text if you don't have Santa level skill at deciphering young folks' handwriting!)

"We do not know if Lepidoptera have episodic memories, or if it, too, would endure. Ma has always believed that it would—that the caterpillar remembered itself. She had to, if she found metamorphosis beautiful at all." Read 'Puparium' by @jyzh.bsky.social inner-worlds.ghost.io/issue-9-pupa...

18th December 1974: The 1st International Gay Rights Conference begins in Edinburgh. It led to the formation of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) in 1978. #OnThisDay #Queerstory

People in and near Glasgow, I’m thrilled to participate in this panel on Scottish Speculative Fiction next month at Waterstones Glasgow Argyle Street! Tickets available via link: www.waterstones.com/events/an-ev...

What a total disgrace that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and, above all, Sinn Féin voted this down. Very few want this terribly cruel colonial sport, which sees hordes of horses, riders, and dogs rampage across the countryside. The wishes of the majority were ignored. Again. share.google/GFZMEYpIfSe0...

I think one of the low points this year was when I pointed out that all the evidence we have indicates that gen ai is a danger to children, citing multiple sources for peer reviewed research, and a poetry festival higher up said they were gonna use it in workshops with kids anyway.

Mark my words, assess my words, feedback my words, grade my words.

Our last teen creative writing session of the term today! We wrote poems in cards thanking the librarians at the central library for hosting our writing group. (And yes, one of them is written in galactic standard alphabet 😅)

We spent the day in the forest having a pre-Christmas celebration with friends 🥰

I am a human being and I exist a human being and a citizen of the world responsible to that world – and responsible for that world —Tom Leonard, “Being a Human Being” First published in PN Review 32 (2005) Today, 10 December, is #HumanRightsDay #poem #poetry www.un.org/en/observanc...

What are your go-to comfort recipes? Food is feeling difficult lately and I think I need to trick my brain with something that's nice to make.

Silly guys

Home Office Ministers state publicly, on the record, that they are deliberately making life worse for older people and people with disabilities who depend on care services, but it's worth it because it reduces net migration.

A fun game for you- see if you can tell the difference between 80s anti-gay and modern anti-trans headlines haveigotphobiaforyou.com

I remember specifically being told that "normal" girls shouldn't have to share changing rooms with lesbians. It was a common experience for most sapphic women my age. You can tell me that up is down, but I know what I lived through and it's the same shit trans folk are being subjected to today.

A poem by Edwin Morgan inscribed into a flagstone on Candleriggs in Glasgow, just outside the City Halls. Born in 1920, Morgan became the city's first poet laureate in 1999. Cont./ #glasgow #streetart #poetry #edwinmorgan #glasgowcoatofarms #streetpoetry

The only person to come out of the SPeggie/NHS tribunal vindicated and with a completely untarnished reputation is Dr Beth Upton. Not SPeggie, Not the NHS management, Not Four Women Scotland, Not the media, Just Dr Upton.

Locally and nationally, @scottishgreens.org are representing working-class interests and providing a real left-wing alternative - the very things I had hoped to do as a Labour councillor. I will continue to spend every day trying my very best to serve the people of Sighthill/Gorgie.

If they aren’t a registered charity and they aren’t registered with the Fundraising Regulator (example logo below), it’s probably one of these scammy orgs where the ‘profit’ is a tiny fraction of the money you handed over and some bastard gets rich on your good intentions. Give to a real charity.

I think they should mull the unexplained Santa bone liquid. It's what he would have wanted.

I'd pay good money just to see her argument for these biscuits being "biologically male"

Today’s judgment in the Sandie Peggie case says exactly what we have been saying – For Women Scotland does not require a trans bathroom ban:

Decision in the Sandie Peggie case. She was not directly or indirectly discriminated against, her claim of victimisation fails entirely, her claim of harassment fails largely and her claim against Beth Upton fails entirely. www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sa...

#Glasgow Celebrate Scottish Speculative Fiction in 2026! On 22nd January, our Christopher Caldwell and Elaine Gallagher will join Angie Spoto and Lorraine Wilson for a special event at Waterstones Argyle ST. Ticket link below: @seraph76.bsky.social @theelaineg.bsky.social @rainewilson.bsky.social

Thank you all, the update than we can barely believe we get to make. To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all. Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡

Yeah, Edinburgh is a touristy city and there have been several times in town where tourists have taken photos of my kids without asking. It's creepy as fuck, and I hate that this is so normalised. Bring back shame.

Tree decorating day!

Ireland should be doing more for Palestine, boycotting the genocidal state of Israel on every level: trade, sporting, and cultural links. But RTE's stand on the Eurovision is still cause to be proud. share.google/O7eDraWZmvyf...

Eurovision members have just voted AGAINST excluding Israel from the contest. Russia was excluded the moment they attacked Ukraine in 2022, but apparently genocide is fine if its Israel inflicting it on Palestinians. Will the BBC tell us how they voted?

Me and Audrey about to watch The Fifth Elephant at the Pleasance 🥰

nothing hits like looking out the window on the train on the east coast of scotland

What do you do when the sun forgets to come out in the longest darkness of winter months? Bueno I go out into the frosted forest all things twinkling with ice like tiny eyes with a lust for life… —Juana Adcock, “What do you do…” SPLIT (Blue Diode, 2019) #poetry www.bluediode.co.uk/product-page...