Matthew 26 v52: those who live by the sword die by the sword!

15th Jan 2026 was highly emotional as Lord Cashman delivered the 1st public reading of The Etherton Lecture: Lifting The ban

An insightful, work of empathy & compassion discussing the legal & human path to justice

The lecture is now available.

lgbt-armed-forces-memorial.uk/lord-etherto...

Outed veterans share harrowing stories of Armed Forces' gay ban as memorial marks overdue ‘homecoming’: 'Turns out I did count' Decades after being interrogated and dismissed for their sexuality, RAF vet Graeme Grady and Navy Wren Sharon Pickering speak to Attitude.

Excellent piece in Attitude about the gay ban and the importance of this weeks events

www.attitude.co.uk/news/outed-v...

No doubt saved by Trump when he stopped the war between Cambodia and Armenia 😂

Letter of the day (in the Times)

If you know, you know

Liz truss meeting the queen just before she died.

Jd Vance meeting the pope hours before his death

I’m not saying anything but I’ll let you connect the dots. #PopeFrancis

Likely outcome is that US economy will end up on its Chinstraps

And the Macaronis are an Italian attempt to evade tariffs on EU via the back door

The former ambassador to Denmark for the United States, Rufus Gifford, posted this video on his Facebook account:

Ht: @hpsc24.bsky.social

Wow. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde fearlessly calls out Trump and Vance to their faces. This is heroic.

(posting in 3 parts due to Bluesky's 1 minute limit)

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

More a limp lettuce than a letter 🥬😂😂

National security vetting: clearance levels

I firmly believe that everyone who stands for political office should have to undergo at least BPSS checking with SC/CTC mandatory for all elected MPs

www.gov.uk/government/p...

This is such a great story amidst all the crap in the world. Well done the fantastic team in Dudley Zoo and thank you @theguardian.com for reporting it - far more important than immigration figures or loony Tories defecting to Reform.

But hang on, I hear (some of) you say... what about small boats? They're the main thing most politicians talk about after all...
So how DO small boat arrivals compare with legal migration?
Here's your answer in a chart 👇

I always thought Philp WAS a robot - just not a very well programmed one

This is such a great story amidst all the crap in the world. Well done the fantastic team in Dudley Zoo and thank you @theguardian.com for reporting it - far more important than immigration figures or loony Tories defecting to Reform.

"Having him in the Royal Society seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society. And I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it.”

Huge respect for Prof Dorothy Bishop, given Musk's avid promotion of vaccine conspiracy theories.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Genius

Terrific thread. Thank you so much.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke delivers maiden speech YouTube video by Te Ao News

This is how to do a maiden speech:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOI...

New Labour MPs yet to do theirs might like to learn from this

The Horizon Inquiry having ended last week, it is very striking that the brilliant Jason Beer KC has now moved seamlessly on to the Salisbury Novichok Poisonings Inquiry. Busy guy!

Thank you but I’ll follow who I like (including respected impartial journalists like your good self) and block whoever I like. It’s not just that I disagree with her but many of her views are vile and I have learned that it’s bad for mental health to be exposed to people like her.

Brilliant- justice for Aunt Lucy I say. Is there any dispensation in the rules for a Royal pardon bearing in mind Paddington’s relationship with our late Monarch? Or is she also somehow complicit in his serial offending ?

C4’s just-announced US election night coverage America Decides started out so well. Maitlis, Guru-Murthy, Frei and Vine, linked with CNN, plus Stormy Daniels as guest. Then they inexplicably decided to add Boris Johnson which makes it unwatchable.

Service personnel and veterans urged to take part in survey on LGBT Memorial A monument honouring the contribution of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered military personnel will be built at the NMA next year.

Been on the TV again.

Well BFBS so it’s as good as!

An interview I did at my reparations ceremony about the National LGBT Armed Forces Community Memorial I am project manager for

www.forcesnews.com/lgbtq/servic...

Every new prime minister gets to celebrate their 50th day in office by restoring Liz Truss's rightful title of 'UK's shortest serving prime minister'.

Congrats, Keir Starmer!

There are lots of people worth listening to about upholding standards in public life but I'm not entirely convinced that friends and former senior advisers to Boris Johnson are among them