E3G is on the front page of the Guardian website today with 60 other organisations, from energy suppliers to consumer groups, fuel poverty charities and climate NGOs, urging the government not to cut one of its major decarbonisation schemes, ECO, in the budget. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Though curiously Emily Bronte was the worst offender for this. Well, her and 90s music hacks who used write Noel Gallagher’s swearing as “fook”

Also he publicly insulted my science comedian sister by implying that women couldn't do either science or comedy, so fuck that guy.

I think we can all agree that you can publish a game-changing bit of science (especially if you have more than a bit of help with the tricky crystal structures) but also be a massive fucking prick. We contain multitudes, yeah?

Boris Johnson is worried about editorial standards now

Is there a crossword person in your life? Would you like to get them a unique gift? PERHAPS FOR CHRISTMAS? Well maybe a bespoke quiz or cryptic crossword would fit the bill, on any theme, of any size, by the author of [counts on fingers] more than 900 published crosswords, i.e. Me. Give me a shout!

Without DEI, we would only make merit-based hires, like the genius strategist who decided to pick a fight with his boss’s new young wife.

The true meaning of exile is not having anyone at hand with whom to discuss the DJ Carey sentencing in excruciating detail for several hours

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I’ve been reading The God That Failed, and my word, Koestler was a great writer wasn’t he? But one does bristle slightly every time he mentions a woman he encounters, even though he doesn’t write anything untoward

Note absence of roads in the area of a Little Gaulish Village…

Haven't seen a Kennedy get out of dodge that fast since Chappaquiddick.

Emails seen by The Lead show the councillor, through Lancashire County Council staff, issuing legal threats after his role in private care was questioned.

Reform’s Free Speech warriors strike again open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

Another one gone in Kent. Cllr Isabella Kemp, elected for Reform in May, is now listed as an independent. It is unclear at this point precisely why Cllr Kemp has exited the party. This means Reform has now lost 9 of the 57 councillors they saw elected only six months ago.

Far be it from me to say, but the easiest possible article to write after an event is one tut-tutting anyone happy about said event. It’s the journalistic equivalent of “Needless to say, I had the last laugh”

Quoting Eugene Debs in his victory speech. Ridiculous hipster. Love it.

The John Lewis ad ripping off that scene in Aftersun is really fucking weird

Oh come on. As it Matt Goodwin has friends

This is attempted murder of children www.rte.ie/news/2025/11...

Parents of Bluesky! Where can I find a long-sleeves nightie that won’t make my daughter look like a Victorian ghost child?

Things get "lost in translation" *because of the act of translation*. Often, it's completely unavoidable! They're doing the thing where they believe AI is not just better than it is, but better than what's even possible. Like it's some kind of actual magic.

And I’ve set my sights on playing out half for Munster next season

Lovely obit for Judith Vidal-Hall, former Index on Censorship editor. An absolute force of nature who pioneered the platforming of global voices and always remembered journalism was supposed to be fun and deadly serious at the same time www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/10/exce...

“Right wing blogger Matt Goodwin”

Leonard and Hungry Paul on iplayer is great if you’re looking for something nice and calm and funny and a tiny bit sad. Congratulations @ronanhession.bsky.social

Removed: article

Prunella Scales at the first Charter 88 vigil for a democratic constitution also Marina Warner, Margaret Drabble Ian McEwan and I think Julian Barnes...

I think this is absolutely right. Also, so many of these guys do actually understand that 'a mixed-race family in an advert' is there to sell people things. They absolutely cannot stand that some minorities are successful. It is resentment all the way down.

In the office on my own with full control of The Big Speaker. What’s the best recording of Mozart’s Requiem?

X won't be removing the dangerous defamatory fake clip which manipulates a clip about football to pretend I said something crass about grooming in Rotherham

Jesus fucking Christ there’s another AI Christopher Hitchens m.youtube.com/@Christopher...

ICYMI: wrote about the Youtube AI Christopher Hitchens and how the Hitch Cult sees what it wants to see. Oh and the Statesman diary thing too. open.substack.com/pub/padraigr...

My five year old has appointed herself a fifth #Strictky judge meaning we have to add her score to the studio judges’ total. She is much much harsher than them

Honestly, not wanting to have to go back up to Dublin for a work thing he’s not going to enjoy, when it’s an intermittently sunny Jazz Weekend in Cork, and his club are in a County Final tomorrow? It’s the most relatable MM has been in months.

I guess I don’t think she’ll be a disaster, in that the office provides limited scope for disaster (and Lord knows Michael D has tested the boundaries) but I can’t get past the fact the new president voluntarily went to Syria as a guest of the regime in 2018, when we knew all to there was to know

Wrote about the Statesman, AI Christopher Hitchens, and why writers need heroes but not idols open.substack.com/pub/padraigr...

I honestly don’t see how we come back from this

I’ll miss Tess and Claudia, but this might just work

Looking forward to seeing in which direction Amol Rajan takes Strictly

lol im burial

Here’s food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels

If pouring coffee down the drain is pollution, why aren’t Fergal Sharkey and Chris Packham launching a massive class action against Costa?

Is this what they mean when they say recollections may vary

If you’re Morgan McSweeney seriously contemplating packing it all in and moving home, to the point of searching daft.ie, it’s Macroom Scrolling

Spoke to @theleaduk.bsky.social about ethnicity & child poverty 24% of white children are in poverty - rates are much higher for Bangladeshi (67%) Pakistani (61%) & Black African (49%) children. Govt must consider how racism drives hardship for ethnic minority families substack.com/home/post/p-...

Global polling suggests young people are becoming more nationalist, reactionary and authoritarian. I’m sure the average Irish young person would imagine they are not part of this trend, but…

Let’s cut to the chase: you all just want to talk about bread knives so someone can make it about class (“we only ever had sliced Kingsmill”/“my parents both picked cabbages for a living but we had fresh sourdough every day”) and eventually we can have three lovely days of Oxbridge discourse