Reminder that Xmas is 12 days long. Rest.

We know the importance of kindness, listening, relationships in NHS. These are the foundation for everything else- & they're simple & 'free', right? No! They take time, emotional capacity, & supportive conditions. We need to properly invest, eg the physical & social infrastructure to enable this.

America has 925 billionaires as of this year. Collectively they have a record $6.9 trillion in wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans control $4.2 trillion in wealth. When 925 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

The only way Russia can win in Ukraine is if they destroy the will of the population to live or defend. This is why it deploys millions of bots and thousands of propagandists across every nation and language. They lie to create despair, disillusionment, and turn populations against Ukraine.

LLM systems have legitimate use cases (ethical and environmental considerations aside) but it's not the case they're being sold for e.g. LLM systems can help check large data sets to help find a needle in a haystack. HOWEVER any finds must be verified, and no negative results should ever be trusted

I hope everyone has a peaceful and calm Christmas day today. My morning walk in Glastonbury. It looks calm but I nearly got blown off my feet up on the top of the hill 😂

📌 Gaping Gill is the highest unbroken underground waterfall in the UK Fell Beck crashes 100m to the floor of the cavern before draining through to Ingleborough Cave. The main chamber measures 129m long, 31m high, and 25m wide. 📸Martyn Farr #ChristmasCalendar #YorkshireDales

Why light matters this Christmas youtu.be/sx6Auou_L4U?... This is the first in a six-video Christmas series exploring light, not just as a festival symbol, but as a political and economic necessity.

Mijn paddenstoelenmaatje vond het grappig mij met de rode kelkzwammen te fotograferen omdat ik volgens hem op een paddenstoel leek met die muts. #Winterfotofestival #23Mutsendag

I have used Little but Fierce with adults and children and it works great for both. It is a fabulous entry into D&D style roleplay without the mountains of things to learn. It is accessible, great fun to play and highly recommended, and this new version looks fab.

Post Office had deal with Fujitsu to fix Horizon errors 19 years ago. They lied to courts, parliamentary committees. Postmasters knowingly wrongfully prosecuted, Lives destroyed. Compensation being paid from public purse, none by those who profited from the scandal. No one charged for conspiracy.

NEW: False reports are likely shaping Russian President Vladimir Putin’s understanding of the battlefield situation. Read the full Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 22, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar122225 More Key Takeaways ⬇️ (1/5)

Rajan Menon in @theguardian.com gives a very balanced and insightful view of the EU deal on Ukraine aid. The 90billion is useful, but Europe must do more. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Poorest Britons lose right to financial privacy. The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 empowers the state to 24/7 snoop on the bank accounts of recipients of universal credit; employment and support allowance; state pension credit. No court order needed. No right of appeal.

The push for wealth taxes has been one of the defining economic debates of 2025. The question now is how to create policies that work. If we are serious about justice, democracy and effective government, this is the path we should take. youtu.be/iSE8GsNZgBU?...

I would like the choice for when it is my time, but that choice needs to be balanced with genuine protections. We already have seen in the UK for example DNR's put on neurodivergent individuals records without our consent. Assisted dying is important, but it needs serious safeguards in place.

It's hard for schools to not fly them. Our system is based around bogus competition between schools. Bogus as in the judgements are silly. And competition genuinely does not help standards. The pressure is toxic. Very hard to be the school that isn't dragged into it as everything is distorted by it.

They definitely do 'push' schools but it's worth remembering that some schools refuse to play the game. If nobody played it, the game wouldn't work. The profession needs to reflect on that imo along with 'outstanding' Ofsted banners while complaining about Ofsted.

"If the safeguarding principles of professional curiosity and challenge are lost to the white noise of such a zealot-like approach, we have truly lost our way." Hackney safeguarding chair Jim Gamble lambasts DfE's school behaviour ambassador Tom Bennett. chscp.org.uk/wp-content/u...

Ah, Scotland: where the post-boxes have knitted Christmas cosies. Proper lovely idea. (Spotted in Glasgow Central Station, but apparently happening elsewhere across the UK as well.)

It took a little while this morning for some colour to appear but we got there in the end. Sunrise on Glastonbury Tor. Bitterly cold and windy up there as we approach Winter Solstice tomorrow.

UK CEO salary increases outstripping those of the workforce. Remuneration Committees & non-execs perpetuate fat-cattery as rises provide a benchmark for their greed. Need worker-elected directors on boards of large companies, workers to vote on exec pay to secure equitable distribution of income.

Christmas is economically strange. We stop working. Spending surges. Profit stops mattering. Time off is normalised. Family and care come first. And we accept all of this without question. The real tragedy is not Christmas excess. It is forgetting the lesson in January. youtu.be/pgFUNnP0Tj4?...

A recent modeling study in JAMA showed that if MMR vaccine rates drop 10% (easy to see happen with this), we’re back to 400,000-500,000 cases a year. Our current outbreak is 2,000. This turns the clock back to 1950 🚨🚨🚨

Alan Milburn to review rise in youth minimum wage. Will he oppose all adults getting the same rate? Says welfare bill is “unsustainable fiscally and economically”. Expect real cuts. Silence on corporate welfare, redistribution, progressive taxation, taxing the rich.

A council’s £1 asset deal on a $4.6m centre has triggered police arrests and a criminal probe. The fallout now includes £1m in irregular payments and governance failures. @eastangliabylines.co.uk

🔴Why Is the Government Really Refusing to Investigate Russian Interference in Brexit? Keir Starmer’s decision to exclude Russian interference in the EU referendum from his inquiry into foreign interference in UK elections should ring alarm bells, argues Sergei Cristo bylinetimes.com/2025/12/19/r...

"These women in Calais are in crisis, but they are not a crisis. Each is a person. And how we treat them tells us everything about the kind of country we are choosing to be." Read the rest here 👇 bylinetimes.com/2025/12/18/i... @bylinetimes.bsky.social @greenparty.org.uk @care4calais.org

Michelle Mone-linked PPE Medpro wound up after order to repay £148m for faulty goods. Company has £600,000 assets. Govt is unsecured creditor, won't recover anything. Hard to trace money in offshore bank accounts. Govt could sue directors for fraud, will take years, what will it recover?

For 5 years Britain has tiptoed around Europe, afraid to admit what was lost. Erasmus+ is the first honest step towards rebuilding trust – through people, not tariffs. More in our latest article ⤵️ @eastangliabylines.co.uk

German prosecutors bring criminal charges against three Greensill Bank officials for role in the 2021 collapse of the lender. UK would have given them public honours, crony contracts, buried prosecutions; just like the Post Office and Grenfell scandals.

I do understand the reaction of some people complaining about lobby journalists, but this is a really bad move. It's a shift to a more US style and does limit transparency of government, which is limited enough as it is. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

People living with long term health conditions have to adjust & accommodate constantly. Services should aim to have meaningful relationships with people, be available & responsive through tough times, understand the ongoing frustration & grief. Overwhelmed services can't offer anything like this.

#SundaySquirrel seems to have a bit of a knowing look in this shot 🤔 I hope he is safely tucked up in a well built drey today as we enter a 36 hour amber rain warning - time for me to go and move my hide further away from the river in case of flooding Cumbrian red squirrel #UKwildlife #mammals

Show me the incentives, I’ll show you the outcome… As long as algorithms serve this up and allow it to be monetized despite the harm to the targets in the videos, you’ll see plenty of it. The demand is there — because it’s not stigmatized as a shitty thing to do to other people.

Ireland has one of the world's highest concentrations of data centers. The expansion has reshaped the grid & deepened fossil fuel use. As the EU pushes to triple data center capacity, Ireland offers a warning, writes Louis Boyd-Madsen. Read our investigation with @algorithmwatch.org:

"Just like Brexit, the Tories and Reform need a scapegoat for the country’s problems. This time they are selling the deceptive promise that leaving the ECHR will magically solve the problems their policies and governments have created," writes @marshadecordova.bsky.social. https://bit.ly/4qjX6G0

I'd done my own calculation that a 20% saving on 25% of cases amounted to a 5% saving overall. @cassiarowland.bsky.social has factored in that a lot of Crown Court time is not jury trials, so it is even worse than that. Such constitutional vandalism for such marginal gains is extraordinary.

The missing evidence of systemic maladministration in SEND—Teachers speak out Educators, share your experiences! www.specialneedsjungle.com/teachers-add...

This is obscene. Why can't other politicians say that? The 25 richest families are collectively $358.7 billion richer than a year ago, with a combined fortune totaling $2.9 trillion.

Yorkshire Water boss said "not being transparent" about receiving £1.3m payments from the parent company was a "mistake". They carefully planned to circumvent the rules, civil society exposed it. No retribution Customer fleecing, sewage dumping continues for bigger profits and exec bonuses

Rejoining Erasmus+ won’t transform GDP. But it might transform something deeper: how a generation sees its place in Europe. A customs deal can’t do that. New analysis, by Camilla Cucinotta: eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/brexit/...

Something I say to teachers a lot is that it helps to focus on what you can *change*. There are a lot of things we can't change in our settings (often connected to external factors like DfE policies) but something we can change is how we choose to respond to the children we work with.

As more people speak up, the scale and depth of the issues become clearer. The picture being painted is not pretty and certainly not a vase of roses. www.specialneedsjungle.com/teachers-add...

Former UK chancellor George Osborne joins OpenAI Lucrative appointments for failed ministers. They aren't hired for technical know-how but to exploit political links acquired with public money. What is the return to taxpayers for that investment? Remember former PM Cameron lobbying for Greensill.

Red Dawn. This photo was taken about an hour and a quarter before sunrise. I lost a bit of clarity sadly as it was handheld and very high ISO so not the best image I have ever taken but I was blown away by the intensity of the colour so early in the morning.

🔴Keir Starmer Is Setting a Trap for Nigel Farage With Foreign Interference Inquiry As Reform opens the door to crypto funding, the Government is finally starting to take action against the threat of foreign political interference, reports @adambienkov.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/12/17/k...

Hedge funds pile into commodities in search of fresh source of returns. Translation: Expect more speculation. Households/Business will pay more for essentials. Hedge funds are part of shadow banking, highly leveraged and unregulated. archive.ph/x9QFw

Just released this piece. The VA story released yesterday about the inner workings of the Trump administration is the most important yet. For Ukraine and it supporters it confirms that Putin is planning to take all of Ukraine (and Trump is therefore helping him). open.substack.com/pub/phillips...