This made me look up the origin of the word "second" for a unit of time. Which is an odd word given it means between first and third. Turns out "minute" was "prime minute" in Latin, the first ("prime") tiny, minute, division of an hour into 60, and second was the second division of an hour into 60.

Kind of extraordinary that the new Local Growth Fund is to be distributed by the Welsh Government in Wales, but directly by the UK Government in Scotland, and that the rationale for the difference seems to be no more than "we don't trust the Scottish Government".

The BBC is doing it again. On both the Radio 3 & Radio 6 news it reported Vance's story about that video of Renee Good's murder and denials of it, without telling us the facts. It should have the same approach to weather forecasting: "some say it'll rain, some say it won't. Who can tell, eh?"

Welcome to Minnesota, fuckers. Also this is super disturbing because the ICE agent's assault rifle appears to fire as he falls down. This was filmed by a friend near Chicago and Lake last night.

Ah here. The 10 o’clock news on BBV Radio 4 is leading with ‘JD Vance has described a woman shot dead by an ICE officer in Minnesota as a deranged leftist carrying out a terrorist attack’ This is not public service broadcasting

Yes, our partnership with the US *is* the most important relationship we have. Because we've allowed ourselves to become dependent on an unreliable and sometimes hostile foreign state. The answer to that isn't unyielding Atlanticism, it's working with our actual allies to unravel that dependence.

It's the hypocrisy that bugs me. By all means go with "might is right"; cynical realpolitik has its place. But don't then lecture us on law & morality. You can't ride two horses with one arse.

Never a more vindicated group in human history than those who have spent years saying Europe needs to move away from reliance on the US. Fantastic our closest ally is a fascist regime that has torn up international law, great stuff, thanks Atlanticists.

I mean look at these graphs - 82% of 2024 Green voters disapprove of Starmer, 64% of LDs and 53% of the Labour voters *who explicitly voted for him less than two years ago.* That is not normal. I suspect it may be unprecedented.

Y’all might not appreciate it, but it took him 87 moves and 14 hours to get here

our current system has a strong chance of putting a far-right government in complete power with about a quarter of the vote. electoral reform *must* be a Labour priority. FPTP is simply not set up to deal with a system with five competitive parties.

📊 Ref lead of 10pts Westminster voting intention REF: 28% (+1) LAB: 18% (-1) CON: 17% (-1) GRN: 17% (+2) LDEM: 14% (-) via @YouGov, 14 - 15 Dec Chgs. w/ 08 Dec britainelects.com

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Seen a lot of comments about Reform voters not caring what Farage said at school, which is probably true. But you've also got to consider people who aren't going to vote Reform but you want to turnout or vote tactically against them.

I’m old enough to remember the Bosnian war, which was regarded as bringing irredeemable shame on all of Europe. This stuff is *massively* worse than that - far more cruel, calculated and deliberately intended as cull of the civilian populace - and it’s been done with our active aid and complicity.

Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands to boycott Eurovision 2026 as Israel cleared to compete

If Russia is banned for its war of aggression and atrocities against civilians in Ukraine, Israel should be banned for its genocide in Gaza. This should not be hard for anyone with a shred of moral/intellectual integrity. www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

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 Palestine. Will the BBC tell us how they voted and will they now follow the Dutch & withdraw?

Considering Streeting's well stated belief autism, ADHD etc, along with mental health issues, are "overdiagnosed", I won't hold my breath for this doing anything other than being used to cut support, along with opportunities for diagnosis, for people who need it. #r4today www.bbc.com/news/article...

One of the people leading this likely farce is Simon Wessley whose previous work includes a reasonably well debunked study of ME which was used to make it harder for sufferers to get support or recognition. Streeting knows exactly what outcome he wants from this meassociation.org.uk/2018/02/gove....

BREAKING NEWS Over a third of Welsh Labour Senedd Members have written to Keir Starmer to stop undermining devolution. They say: "If this was being done by a Tory Government, we would be calling for a judicial review. This must never happen again." 1/2

"Somewhat implausibly"

The tax rises in this Budget’s are backloaded. They're largely kick in in what is likely to be a pre-election year, somewhat implausibly.

install a conservatory to own the libs. perfect. www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...

Three more ex-pupils at school with Nigel Farage reject ‘banter’ claims

Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? It was years ago. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not in a hurtful way. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not with intent. Did you ever racially abuse fellow pupils? Not genuine abuse. 😮🫣😬😱 ~AA

the nominees were -a campaign to get lifechanging medication for extremely sick children -a campaign to improve access to justice for victims of rape and sexual assault -a transphobic hate campaign that managed to convince some judges to make the worst ruling in Supreme Court history* (*winner)

Systematic torture and murder, with no consequences. news.sky.com/story/report...

The BBC Scotland commentary for Kenny McLean’s halfway line goal is glorious. Stuff of dreams. 🔥 Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.

reminded of eric williams's observation about britain's relationship to its history with slavery. "British historians wrote almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it."

I know it’s always like this. But one striking thing from the budget kite flying and kite pulling back in, is how major policy decisions are constantly being buffeted around by iterative forecast changes. All feels a bit of a silly way to be making major economic policy & political decisions.

I truly believe that Wes Streeting has the ideas, the charisma, and the likeability to be an even more historically hated Prime Minister than Keir Starmer

It's hard for outsiders to quantify the horrific or fraudulent social media content. Well: Meta shows an "estimated 15 billion 'higher risk' scam" ads with signs of fraud daily. "Meta earns about $7 billion in annualized revenue" from this scam ad category www.reuters.com/investigatio...

The reason for this is multi-factorial, but the fact that Long Covid is not mentioned once is extremely telling. Especially since the article makes an explicit comparison with 2019. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Here's a Milky Way shot from a Joshua Tree forest in Death Valley back in July. Already dreaming about next season! #Photography

Acute and chronic viral infections, including Herpes Zoster (Shingles), Hepatitis C, HIV, CMV, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2, are linked with a substantial increased risk of cardiovascular events, from a systematic review. Figure for SARS-CoV-2 below newsroom.heart.org/news/some-ac...

Killer chart from Gregor Semeiniuk and co-authors showing where in the income distribution pandemic windfall oil profits ended up.

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.

Every islander on Orkney expected to benefit from a major windfarm built and owned by the local council after it won £62m from the UK’s national wealth fund 👇🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #Orkney #windpower #renewable #climatecrisis www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU

So, another week when we'll continue to ignore the increasingly obvious issue of political radicalisation via social media? And indeed the tied issue of the large tech companies who promote this, and the tech bros who see this as some sort of move to a utopian paradise governed by them?

They don't look like this. This is some AI pish, particularly the reflection. This is what they actually look like

Sigh.

Cardiff will be the first UK city to introduce a surcharge for oversized SUVs and trucks, "while very large vehicles – those over 3,500kg – will be excluded from residential permits entirely."

I'm often surprised how many people don't know that Covid infection damages your immune system (for between 8 to 12 months estimated), making you much more vulnerable to infections immediately after. See all the mostly older people who "have a cold", then follow that up with sepsis and pneumonia.

Israel Agrees To Go Back To Killing Palestinians On Less Frequent Basis

Just seen a headline which asks "Thatcher was born 100 years ago and her reign feels a lifetime away. Why is her effect on the country still so huge?" It's because she was a massive bastard. Hope that helps x

The stupidity of British authoritarianism. Imagine the despotic state of the UK if such protesters as the Suffragettes, Chartists, anti-slavery campaigners, LGBT community and equal pay advocates had restricted themselves to making their point on one occasion.

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.