Tom fighting the good fight here against a depressingly Victorian view of the UK economy.

In the end, a Constitution’s just a bunch of pretty words on a piece of paper. It’s not a magic spell or a suit of armour or a ballistic vest. It’s a consensual hallucination and it’s only as strong as the people who are supposed to uphold it.

I have a few questions for all the Greenland experts on here. What about the agency of the 60,000 Greenlanders? What is the US plan for dealing with an uncooperative population with a lot of guns? Is it martial law and an air-supplied garrison in every town? How is this not South Armagh on steroids?

So that's where Abrdn's went

This place was the inspiration for much of John Ford’s cinematography in his cavalry movies.

The medium is the message.

One for VAR surely.

Just playing with a present from Santa. It’s taking photos from the garden while I’m sitting in the kitchen. This is a stack of twenty short exposures added together to make one photo. Not processed apart from sticking the frame on.

First book finished in 2026. Very enjoyable. Unclear where things are landing until - possibly - the last page (or a sequel). In a very @hutchinsondave.bsky.social Europe, just not fractured in the usual way. Part espionage story, part shaggy-dog story.

What are the consequences of not having those things? - What’s our long-term energy policy without “excess” renewable capacity? - What’s our long-term pension policy without a strong state element? These are huge collective problems. They are not opportunities to move fast and break things.

Contrails over east London spreading disinformation.

A tricky book this year: Priest - Fugue for a darkening island. He thought it a near miss. Massively unsympathetic, incurious narrator. Written not long after the rivers of blood. I think he was kicking some of those themes around. It’s not supposed to be prescient.

Some books I read this year that I’d recommend to anyone. I’m way behind the times on these. @egangoonsquad.bsky.social A visit from the goon squad. @unlikelyworlds.bsky.social Austral. @tadethompson.bsky.social Far from the light of heaven. @adamroberts.bsky.social The thing itself. 1/2

Surprisingly not entirely crazed piece in Telegraph about Irish language. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12...

Using the term "AI" to describe the entire umbrella of algorithmic tools, from spellcheck to Sora, for example. Either you're snowing me, in which case I can't trust anything you say, or you yourself are confused about what AI means. Whichever one it is, we can't have an intelligent conversation.

“But then she made her move into political activism, one of the most intensely French moments in the country’s postwar history.” Followed by a story of a dog biting VGDE. Bizarre piece.

I don’t think The Big Four will continue to invest as much trust in a university system that undertakes a ridiculous amount of rationalising to avoid the same conclusion. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Accounting body scraps remote exams to combat cheating

On this day in 1978, the final episode of The Sweeney (Jack or Knave) was broadcast.

It was great to speak to Nature about the growing problem of atmospheric pollution by satellite megaconstellations.

Just came across this via @connorbarker.bsky.social Light pollution and climate pollution too. For a lot of dumb short-life satellites.

¡Viva la revolución!

I dunno. Looks a lot like a cow to me.

JFC.

We have nothing to fear from non-existent artificial intelligence. But we should be petrified of very real artificial stupidity.

Merry Christmas!

Went to see One Battle After Another. Fine.

The Guardian has discovered Raw files. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Manchester, Leeds, etc must be allowed to raise money from local taxation in the same way that London does for Crossrail.

Started to realise I don’t know much of anything about much of anything.

This is fun. Obviously Labour are incompetent. Who hasn’t been since 2010? But - in terms of effective policy - they’ve moved the threshold to a place that better reflects the family business/Jeremy Clarkson divide. Probably Treasury should have consulted DEFRA colleagues first.

Went to the matinee today. It’s a very good production, strong cast. Not perfect, but what is. The G’s review is odd. Complaining about a play set in Mayo being spoken in Mayo accents. Really?

Reminder that the Brits introduced PR in Ireland because of the 1918 FPTP result.

Some astoundingly good takes in here. John Ford and Powell & Pressburger in the pantheon. Just missing Hitch & the Coens. And needs a Christmas movie list.

Cartoon by Stephen Collins

Even if LLMs are owned by good people they’re not reliable. “Hallucinations“ are not errors. They have exactly the same standing as “correct“ text. The LLM can’t tell you when it’s lying because it isn’t lying.

Boulton Paul had a design for a successor to their Defiant suicide plane. Thankfully not built. dingeraviation.net/bpp100/bpp92...

The first comment under this is “Oh shit it’s him”.

This important to remember. The techbros have deliberately subverted the field of AI.

Having a quick pint with the dogs. Werewolves of London has pooped on. Actually feels Christmassy.

Some people need to understand this. If you find that I'm generally in agreement with you on political matters, don't jump down my throat the moment I'm not. If you cannot stand any criticism of your beloved Starmer/Davey/Polanski at all, then you're no longer engaged in politics, but tribalism.

Winter solstice just passed - 15:03 UTC. Days getting longer (slowly) and each of them brings us one day closer to death. Happy Christmas.

Somebody just took irony into the woods, made it dig its own grave, and then shot it in the head and buried it.

"It said the woman had presented a “fit to fly” medical certificate and had shown signs of life when she embarked."

Workers’ rights sap dynamism say an incredibly stupid bunch of cosplaying clowns with no business experience. www.thetimes.com/article/b26a...

Woh! This - “probable existence of material misstatement within the underlying transactions” - is polite auditor language for “it’s a complete shit show and someone should be prosecuted”.

Went to a showing of The Ballad of Narayama at Japan House. Features snow, but definitely not a Christmas movie.