a pixel art of a taco with a face and legs Alt: a pixel art of a taco with a face and legs bouncing

TACO bounce

Tree of the day

Can’t decide on #TreeOfTheDay - Mrs B prefers the ‘small but perfectly formed’ on the left - I like the one to the right

Tree of the Day

The Universities’ Doom Spiral – Can Britain avert disaster? by Oh God, What Now?

In case you missed it earlier, I've been talking to the
@ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social podcast about my new book on the Blair governments and the crisis in Higher Education... Take a listen!
megaphone.link/NSR1340804685

New Labour, New Britain: How the Blair Government Reshaped the Country Join Glen O'Hara at the Gilded Acorn, where he will be discussing his new book: New Labour, New Britain!

I'll be launching my book on the Blair governments in London on Monday 9 March! Between 6.30pm and 8pm. We'll be at the Gilded Acorn bookshop between LSE and the Hunterian... Come along! Booking details below:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-labour...

As you see the reports out of Texas SD-9, keep in mind: This was the cash discrepancy.

Money speaks -- but it's not as loud as it used to be.

Oh yes!! Moved back to Cumbria from Vienna in June so will check the calendar 😊

Screenshot of dm to QR reads Sunday at 17:31 Great Sunday school today May I suggest that is with call Trumps Vanity UN 'Bored of Peace' - it makes much more sense than the other spelling *if we* call 5:33 PM

So good to hear @snellarthur.bsky.social on the pod today
Probably should have asked him about
Bored of Peace suggestion 😬😉

Superb guest and conversation on this episode of BTL.

Bravo, @snellarthur.bsky.social!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I have just listened to this. It was my first time listening to a Behind the Lines podcast with @snellarthur.bsky.social , and after listening I feel approximately 95% better informed than I was before. Highly recommended.

If only the ‘sic semper tyrannis’ crowd could identify some acts of governmental tyranny
😳
(other than Covid mask mandates)

Might even his previous PB of disagreeing with himself

bsky.app/profile/coli...

another

Nationalise Turnberry

🎄 Merry Christmas, dear supporters, gorgeous friends, and precious listeners.

Check your apps first thing, for a cracker 2025 Review, with @mrjamesob.bsky.social. We'd never abandon you without company, on what can be a pretty stressful day. 🎁

☃️ We love you lots! A, N, K & other A x

Photograph of my garden with light-up deer and fairy lights

By this time tonight I was meant to have made my bread sauce, cranberry sauce and begun the gingerbread stuffing, and yet I find myself, tasks still undone, on my sofa, with drink and cake to hand, happily gazing at my Christmas-Grotto-garden. Rather thrilled with my new light-up deer, I must say.

Perfect Roast Potatoes Needs must and all that, so I have always been an open anti-perfectionist, but in truth (and I’m sorry to repeat what I’ve said before) it is impossible to cook roast potatoes without needing them to ...

You could argue that the roast potatoes are the most important element to get right at Christmas. Perfect Roast Potatoes create perfect happiness. Which is why they are, indeed, #RecipeOfTheDay!
www.nigella.com/recipes/perf...

agreed 👍
(until I remembered the gravy 😂)

Oh James sorry to hear that - haven’t been on here for a while so sorry if I had missed it 🤦‍♂️
Isaac was only 4 when we got to Vienna so for him this is almost like his first Uk Christmas which is also new (and quite surreal at times) start here too.
Feel free to dm if ever need someone to
listen

Breaking the yolk on a bacon and egg breakfast roll

a great Christmas to you and yours James - we’re missing the wandering around Christmas markets this year, but bacon and egg butties for breakfast at the local farm shops are a nice alternative
Frohe Weihnachten!🎄🎄

Full text of peace plan 🇺🇦🇺🇸

The UK Trade and Business Commission’s new report sets out how the UK and the EU could implement a Youth Experience Scheme.

“The report is likely to give weight to the arguments of Britain’s negotiators in talks over the deal,” writes Arj Singh.

Read: https://bit.ly/48tqyTY

This is a significant report on UK-EU youth experience / mobility as the first to be released from either side on how the scheme outlined in May's common understanding could actually work in practice.

I'm pleased to have been involved as an adviser.

#ShatGTP

Unpicking the most-leaked Budget in history, with Vicky Pryce Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 26/11/2025 · 1h 18m

🆕 SPOILER ALERT - Unpicking the Budget 📈

The good stuff
The less good stuff
The economic rationale
The political consequences

Balance, humour, @pimlicat.bsky.social , @sturdyalex.bsky.social & top economist Vicky Pryce.

🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/05mP...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...

Sorry, everyone. I think we've gone and done a thoughtful, balanced episode on #Budget2026, that is more about the economics and the politics, rather than the gossippy nonsense that gets hacks excited. #NotSorry

You may have seen some headlines about welfare spending going up to £406.2bn by 2030/31.
That is correct, it is the OBR figure.

Here is what you may not have seen.
Of the £406.2bn
A) £195.4bn goes to pensioners
B) £13.9bn goes on child benefit.

Facts matter.

Does that mean that foreign immigrants are changing the traditional way of life and introducing their own laws? 😉

T’publican is a bar owner in Yorkshire