Aaaaaargh!

We are in a restaurant and there is a very loud American informing everyone present that she’s a Scouser.

that wonderful and sacred mystery;

British control of the North Sea - via battleships - absolutely fucked up the Great War for Germany, but you do you

I’m not sure I’m an expert, but I am a priest, and this is blasphemous and from the pit.

The Papay airfield at 2.30am. The lights in the North. #orkney #papay #aurora

This is in fact how the state having a monopoly on violence works but normally the state isn't supposed to Post about it like they're the Navy Seal copypasta guy.

Still Life in Window Nora Collyer n.d.

Are you located in the DC-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York corridor? Have you always wanted to have your very own 11 foot long papier-mâché hammerhead shark? Now available for free! Perfect for museums, community centers, or your living room! Save this lovely creature from imminent destruction!

beseeching thee to inspire continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord; and grant that all those who do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word

It is mental that civil servants can't accept a fruit basket but MPs can receive gifts of under £300 and not declare them

Trying to imagine what Dante and the translators of the KJV would make of all this. Dante would have done something interesting, I’m sure…

Say to the anxious, 'Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God, coming with judgment to save you.'

I have nothing of value or interest to say, so here’s a sword-billed hummingbird.

It is the 14th of November. It is tipping it down outside and has been all day. Nonetheless someone is letting off fireworks. Unbelievable.

Please God can we go back to the days of Budget purdah. Two months of quiet from Treasury ministers, spads, and officials whilst they put the budget together might help to wind down this incessant speculation.

Again, if they can learn from Mamdani, it's stay on message. If Rufo says Democrats want to teach homosexuality manuals, the response is not 500 words about sensitivity and so forth. It's, "I won't dignify that. I'm busy fighting for equal rights, equal protection, and money in your pocket."

My mum has been making needle felted mice for a few years and enjoys challenging herself with new themes and ideas. She's just set up her first exhibition at the stately home she volunteers at, with a family of period mice. Incredible.

I was at Manchester Cathedral today for a round table discussion on poverty - part of this year’s events marking 40 years since the Church’s landmark Faith in the City report. Its call to action remains as urgent as ever — to build a bold vision and a clear plan to end poverty.

I have been trying to avoid finding out what that latest Epstein emails based story (the one involving Trump and Clinton). My luck has run out and it is a terrible day to be literate. (Though it should be added THIS ONE doesn’t involve any crimes. Just a terrible mental image).

Yesterday I learned that the US Navy has a tiara option for female sailors to wear in dress uniform and I for one think they are missing a huge opportunity for recruitment by not making this more well-known. I did not know the Navy had tiaras when I was picking my service branch. I feel cheated.

Your occasional reminder, if you’re in the UK, that it is shaping up to be a hideous bird flu season, with many wildlife casualties (including resident birds, not just winter migrants), and, however soft your heart, it is a Really Bad Idea to handle sick or ‘injured’ birds or bring them inside.

I expected this podcast festival to feel like a funeral, but it was surprisingly optimistic. Once you hit rock bottom, you can only really go up. defector.com/resonate-pod...

My phone keeps trying to make me write “the great god Pam.”

Pray, and let God worry. —Martin Luther

Calling all educators! Are you involved in delivering education in theology/biblical studies/religious studies etc? Librarians, this includes you! We want your feedback on our books - and there's a prize draw to enter at the end. Survey closes 2nd January. Click here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

all I’m gonna say is that I am a life-long slightly edgy poster and I’ve never caught a suspension or a ban anywhere - because it is in fact quite easy to avoid crossing the “this joke could possibly be construed as a violent threat” line on social media

Under new plans to be unveiled by Labour, UK citizenship test has a whole section on Northern Ireland. If you get any of them right, you don't get citizenship.

All that I am asking is that City Hall's Conservatives note that New York and Paris both have taller barriers than the Londeron Underground and *more* fare evasion!

They market their cars as weapons and we allow them on the same roads as children cycling to school. And I still get weird middle-aged men in my notifications obfuscating for and defending this. This is not a serious society.

Mr Bingley from 1995 P&P is now an English teacher and deputy head at a state school in North London. Who knew?

Today the Church of England commemorates the REAL hero of the musical #Hamilton … Samuel Seabury …

"What is certain, and felt instinctively by almost everybody, is that things cannot go on in their present way" – The Times, May 1975 “It is difficult to imagine a previous period when such an all-pervasive hopelessness was exhibited at all levels of British life” – Professor Stephen Haseler, 1975

This is just someone making “I remember the corned beef of my childhood” into a column (and approximately as accurate).

There were rolling bin strikes throughout the 70s which left the streets groaning under piles of rubbish.

While this budget psychodrama is playing out, my LinkedIn feed is full of heat pump engineers worrying their business is doomed because of an HMT briefing yesterday, and there’s a prominent story about the imminent collapse of the SEND system. Bad fiscal policy has real world consequences

There is such a peculiar psychology associated with it too. In places where car dependency is high (and I don't just mean the United States, which I have visited exactly once) people will actively judge you if you don't enjoy using a car on a purely personal level.

Sickening rhetoric by Home Secretary. Denying access to human rights isn't "protecting the public". This is Labour further demonising those seeking asylum in language very reminiscent of the far right. Yes, some break the law, so should be prosecuted within the law. Removing rights is not the answer

Further citation, since I was curious! (Seems like the researcher elaborated in press interviews) archive.org/details/chri...

The combination of needing to raise at least *£30bn* and deciding to try and do this via nickle and dime measures is utterly toxic. The pastry tax on speed.

There are a handful of people who are genetically short sleepers (they can sleep less than the recommended 7-9ish hours and feel fine). Pointing to bags under her eyes suggest she's not one of them. Sleeping that little is worse than being drunk

When you’re looking at workers as just another bit of the plant machinery.

“Listen out for their calls and you’re sure to see some field fares over the next weeks” says Tom McKinney on Radio 3. Have you _met_ birds, Tom?

I have a nasty feeling that if we do make another trip to the US I’m going to be bringing gluten free pasta to my coeliac mother-in-law…

This was fun, but: if you’re in Paris and go to Brasserie Lipp (which is worth it), for goodness’s sake don’t have steak frites, you’d be much better off with the Alsatian dishes they specialise in. Though that said, the roast chicken’s really good… www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

That it may please thee to illumine all bishops, priests, and deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy Word;

Im just not sure I know how to do a prime ministerial crisis which doesn’t revolve around vaguely ominous reports about the number of letters being sent to Graham Brady

you could fact check this — there aren’t 30 million illegal immigrants and there is no evidence that the presence of an immigrant in say houston has any impact on housing in madison, wisconsin — or you could note straightforwardly that this is just nazi rhetoric

I remember going nuts last year when the New York Times straightforwardly described mass deportations as a way to address the cost of housing.