Military spending produces an average of five jobs per $1 million in spending. By contrast, 13 jobs are created for every $1 million in education spending – nearly three times more.

misread at first glance: #Rangers close to re-signing #McCoist could do worse

Hard to believe this place could be threatened with closure. The Botanics .. jings. #Dundee folk .. get your click in. one rarely-acknowledged thing is it's near Ninewells. I know we're not alone in, thank God, being able to stop there and spend a while taking in bad news. c.org/X58njQK7gB

Are you an #exvangelical? Still a bit inhibited about swearing? I will swear for you. Let me know what's pissing you off and I will swear for you. It's the least I can do, after fifty fucking years in that world.

Andy Burnham wins Makerfield with a 20% lead over Reform UK. But this result wasn't just about Burnham. It was shored up by thousands of Green and Lib Dem voters who crossed party lines to keep the far-right out, delivering the Labour candidate an outright majority.🧵

🚨 A TRILLION TIMES THIS ➡️ "It is time to break decisively with the perverse logic in which retirees, the poor or immigrants are expected to balance the budget, while the rich are to be allowed to live tax-free in their own parallel society." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Imagine taking the few Bible verses on human sexuality and women being silent in church as literal divine commands from God for all society, but minimizing the +2,000 verses calling for a generous economy and redistribution of wealth for the sake of the poor to a personal choice.

reposting because as Al Carns' resignation shows, this is the problem

finally got to the big clearout of art college stuff, this was 2nd year when I started with Chinese ink and either brush or bamboo pen. Transformed my drawing, because it forces you to commit to the line / stroke, no hesitation. #lifedrawing

@bbcnewsnight.bsky.social switched off tonight, rarely happens, but uncontrolled heckling from the Reform candidate was unbearable. Gross disrespect to the family, gaslighting, talking over everyone. Predictably. It'll be great TV, you clearly thought. Shame on you, #Newsnight

If #VAWG concerns you, and you can spare a little money, consider supporting Sisi's campaign. gofund.me/fbc024214

time for fresh legs #lufc

with Cariad Celis in 2016 #fineartnude #nudephotography

with Cariad Celis in 2019 strong temptation to crop this but I've resisted #photography #figure #figurephotography #garden

#Newsnight Could someone ask Kemi Badenoch how long she thinks it would take to 'bring Aberdeen back to what it was'? When oil companies have disinvested, infrastructure has been wound down ..

nice little literary note there from Chappers at the end of #MOTD

#Newsnight. Disappointed that you allowed the young woman from MAFS to be talked over and ignored. It was offensive and Victoria should have given her chance to ask her question. She was the only person in the room who could speak for non-wealthy, non-professional and younger people.

with Kat Folan in 2014 improvised reflector: one of those 'eastern' brass tray tabletops; gave a quirky highlight on the wall to complement the dress, and a touch of infill on Kat's face. #photography, #fashion, #fashionphotography, #modelphotography

with Scarlot Rose in 2017 #photography #nudephotography #fineartnude #fashion

"all countries [are] even more deeply exposed to the grave, inevitable health, social and economic impacts witnessed in the last pandemic" - due to a more fractured global community. From #WHO board on #pandemic preparedness. HT: @kakape.bsky.social gpmb.org/reports/m/it...

Do what's right for your own healing. Always. Whether or not you forgive is your thing. But NB "forgive" doesn't HAVE to mean "tell them you forgive them" & it CERTAINLY doesn't have to mean "let them back in your life" & ABSOLUTELY doesn't have to mean "give them a chance to do that shit again."

to be fair, with Newcastle 2 up and West Ham heads down, this is currently looking unlikely. Can we not get them a few cans of Red Bull? #lufc

Hammers beat barcodes: we stay above Newcastle and Spurs more likely to go down. This could be a sweet evening #lufc

Should get me through the first half. #LUFC

Bizarre. Why would a sinking ship want to keep itself afloat? Imagine wanting to repair the damage caused by the country's most disastrous decision of modern times. Cabinet members live in fear of Nandy's white hot intellect. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

#Norway. Poor lad has some broken bones. Maybe if he had a few more it would have kept him from performing. #harshbuttrue #eurovision

That thing where you misread #Sweden as #Swindon. Swindon's entry looking uncharacteristically glam for a Victorian railway town. But the mask sensible in case of steam trains. #eurovision

#Australia. That put me in mind of seeing Jerry Lee Lewis in #Hull, when he got up to bop on top of a grand piano and his back went. Top star though, kept singing as he clambered awkwardly down. #eurovision

The question isn't can Starmer survive, it's could any Labour government do better. #Newsnight, please ask that. The party's been bought by the Israel lobby and corporate interests. It's spent years parachuting in candidates as morally and intellectually void as Starmer. It's over.

and so 'business' for 'growth' rolls on: we pick up the tab for costs incurred by private business, paying by increased environmental risk, higher costs to public services, and higher insurance premiums. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

looking through old photos from Istanbul, 2009 The departure lounge at Ataturk airport, when it was still the main civil airport, before IST. #panorama, #streetphotography

the #medrese in #Istanbul, in 2009 #streetphotography #reportage I started shooting vertical panoramas after seeing Horst Hamann's photos of New York. I reposted one earlier, sadly not a great version; the book, New York Vertical, is well worth a look if you're into panoramas.

by Horst Hamann, from New York Vertical, 2003. #panorama #streetphotography

Dear #Newsnight. Anyone who's even half-followed the election results as they've come out has heard at least 73 discussions about whether Starmer should go. This is number 74. Surely there are other things to learn from this election.

careful observers of the background will see that the cezve (basket for coals) is being pressed onto the head of the #nargile with such force that the whole room is tilting. Important to capture these fleeting localised tectonic movements. #Istanbul #İstanbul #reportage #streetphotography

the #nargile cafe in the #medrese by day #Istanbul #streetphotography #reportage

Hard Day's Night - Beatles Light As The Breeze - Leonard Cohen Kashmir - Led Zep Caledonia - Dougie MacLean 99 Luftballons - Nena White Bird - It's A Beautiful Day Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall Cole's Corner - Richard Hawley Coney Island - Van Morrison Handle Me With Care - Traveling Wilburys

How little the world has changed. working on a novel, 1840s, Opium Wars in China. Opium and the 'coolie' trade. "Pig and poison" they called it. Drugs, slavery, trafficking. Nothing of that has changed. Not a fucking thing.

I've stopped watching the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic for what would have been the severalth time. I could argue it's a sensible decision given the lateness of the hour, but the truth is, that final scene has me in tears every time, and I know it so well know that I'm near greetin just typing this.

Ted Grant: “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls.” But a rug isn't a person; colour is part of its soul. Despite the appeal of composition. bw for the #medrese project, but with exceptions.

"I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life." Mandelson, interview w Kuenssberg, Jan 11th 2026. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

the ceiling of the medrese / nargile cafe in #Istanbul #streetphotography

Something shocking and out of the ordinary is happening in the UK. While in most comparable countries, healthy life expectancy is rising, here it is plunging steeply. Q. So what marks us out? A. 47 years of extreme neoliberalism, culminating in austerity. www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

the #medrese, #Istanbul, #streetphotography

last one for tonight, looking from the lower deck of the Galata Bridge / Galata Köprüsü, towards the Sultanahmet side of the Golden Horn, with Süleymaniye Mosque on the left. #Streetphotography #Istanbul

#Istanbul #Karaköy #GalataTower #streetphotography

the #medrese; late night attempts to photograph smoke from the nargile as its last faint trails disappear into shapes that look like Arabic calligraphy. Crazy ISO, prefocus, burst mode, chasing the smoke as it drifts, then extreme processing. #streetphotography #reportage #medrese #Istanbul

the ceiling of the #medrese, now a #nargile cafe. From #byzantine columns to #islamic calligraphy to aircon lines repaired with duct tape. In the building itself, as much as in the culture of the place, it's a metonymy for #Istanbul. #streetphotography

3am in the nargile cafe #Istanbul #medrese #streetphotography