My Spotify wrapped summary is that my band took all our music off Spotify because the company’s CEO invests the billions which he doesn’t pay artists on AI drone weapons tech. Ditch Spotify. Pay artists. Redistribute wealth. Stop war. Happy Christmas!

Gee, all the Christmas cards on sale are so twee. Having a hard job finding any I would put my name to.

@jameshoggwriter.bsky.social We could do with some James Hogg here…

Oh yay for me

This new/old masthead warms my heart @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Just watched first Netflix Sesame Street — seems 100% authentic and true to its values and also reinvented once again. Really those guys are the finest. Now they just need to get off Xitter and come to this new place.

Good line from this Obs leader: "Davie and Turness were Faithfuls." observer.co.uk/opinion-and-...

Everything on our news agenda is being driven by a corrupted disinformation machine, run by a billionaire who sponsors Tommy Robinson and who keeps trying to foment civil war in the UK. And incredibly our MPs & news providers stay there. THAT is the problem. Not some bad editing choice on the BBC.

The alternative Ode to Joy lyrics @billybragg.bsky.social mentioned on Jools’ @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social programme www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...

He’s incredibly destructive for someone who calls themselves a builder

Hey BBC News pals. You know Traitors isn’t actually the news, right?

Excellent beard action!

The best party of the 2025 @wansteadfringe.bsky.social book festival was chatting with the great @alanconnor.bsky.social about crosswords, quizzing, Monty Python, Bach, suits, and 100 other things.

The finale of the @wansteadfringe.bsky.social book festival — an uncommonly pleasant evening talking Bazball with @nickhoultcricket.bsky.social and @boothcricket.bsky.social

@billybragg.bsky.social Thanks for Saturday night Billy, was very moving —and a magical moment when BBC News flashed above your head. Best ever Great Leap Forwards. Regards from Wanstead.

Went for a walk to where the fires raged this summer in Wanstead Flats. Happy to see new growth: toadflax, ragwort and yarrow, which together sound like a line from an olde English fairy tale. #wansteadflats #afterthefires #regeneration #toadflax #ragwort #yarrow #autumn #transition

Excellent to spend the evening with my old friend @rorycj.bsky.social for @wansteadfringe.bsky.social chatting about #sophiefromromania, Parkinson’s, and that other place

This! “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

CHANGE OF VENUE FOR WANSTEAD BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT! I will be in conversation with the wonderful writer, film-maker, walker John Rogers @thelostbyway.bsky.social upstairs at the Bull at 129 Wanstead High Street (close to Wanstead underground station) this Sunday.

I love #TheHundred. Bite me.

Just read VJ Day as JD Vance

I’ve only just realised the Oval Invincibles logo is an oval.

@stephencollins.bsky.social Hey Collilo thank you for today’s Guardian cartoon. It’s a new tyranny.

Read the room, Brewdog

Weird, huh (for UK readers): a week dominated by Maxwell and Murdoch.

Amazing. Every word counts.

@dauntbooks.bsky.social Got to love a bookshop that files this under Italy :

What a weekend for old Baxters. Stanley, still with us at 99. And Biddy, 92 tomorrow.

The alternative Ode to Joy lyrics @billybragg.bsky.social mentioned on Jools’ @bbcradio3bot.bsky.social programme www.reddit.com/r/europe/com...

Fantastically curt advice from Alan Titchmarsh in today’s @thetimes.com

Cool album art from cousin John’s new release. It’s the sort of thing you could have taken out of your parents’ record cabinet in the mid-70s.

I like you but you don’t *need* to say ‘quintessentially’. Or ‘visceral’.

Mayoral. Two syllables, people.

Keep people watching. You won’t believe what’s coming next! Have a big dramatic showdown on screen! Tensions have been brewing and now they’re at boiling point! Ah but now the contestants get a treat, as long as they remember to thank the sponsor.

@markforrestradio.bsky.social bravo for today Mark, you’re a pro

#30DayChartChallenge Day2 Slope – Google search interest in “How to remove Meta AI from Whatsapp”. As Meta AI’s chatbot is rolled out across Europe, many users are wondering how they can turn it off --> you cant, upsetting quite a few users www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/whatsa... Made in Figma

Oi Meta, NO! I don’t want your stupid AI mush in my Whatsapp. That’s a place for messaging my friends, not you lot.

Beautiful everyday Ladybird things. Round-tipped school scissors Artist: Harry Wingfield (yes, it’s a painting) ‘Third Picture Book’, 1971

Look I’m not one to brag but I do need to tell someone that in the past seven days I have got Wordle in 2/6 FOUR TIMES. Without changing my start word.

Way to spend a Sunday evening

Best possible construction on Trump’s motives from @thetimes.com — is there any evidence for it, I wonder?

@maddow.msnbc.com Gotta do the first 200 days, surely?? Can’t manage this on a once-a-week dose.

TIL never ever buy a tour or anything else from Viator as you may well just get conned with no refund.

Something is shifting. They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. (1/2)

@jonathancoe.bsky.social EastEnders is responsible for “See It, Say It, Sorted” according to the Eye.

I predict a wave of sermons this Sunday on the historicity of Jonah and the biblical narrative of the “big fish”. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

An eternal truth in this week's @iandunt.bsky.social newsletter: "[M]ost people are idiots. And even the people who aren't idiots will often act idiotically." iandunt.substack.com/p/journalism...

@danbarker.bsky.social More Bluesky Dan!

September 2025 is the bi-centennial of when #Wanstead lost its tragic heiress Catherine Tylney-Long - Here is a run down of her final tragic days wp.me/p4jj2g-h5