Every year, people mock this tree. But I love it anyway.

It reminds us that if we stand together in tough times, we can overcome anything.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. 🎄✨

I know personally what the chilling effects of racism can be, and today on @bbclaurak.bsky.social I called for unity and leadership in the face of hatred.

Now more than ever, we must celebrate our diversity as a nation and stand united in our communities against all forms of prejudice.

Musk is inciting violence on London's streets.Tommy Robinson is financed by US tech bros. These are all very direct attempts to destabilise the British state.

Starmer needs to stand up to this. A government that doesn't defend its country's values against these blatant attacks is not doing its job.

For there to be no comment from the government on Musk's call for violence, let alone action against X, is unconscionable. An utter dereliction of its responsibility for national security and an affront to every member of an ethnic minority, who is being put at risk by this rhetoric.

Elon Musk openly called for violence on our streets yesterday.

I hope politicians from all parties come together to condemn his deeply dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric.

Britain must stand united against this clear attempt to undermine our democracy.

Given the context and the crowd, despite Musk’s weasel words, this was a call for violence against the British state, from a foreign national who controls a major propaganda engine, and has engineered it to monetise hate

Radio historians, please sign this. The BBC WAC is an invaluable resource for research not only into British and Commonwealth broadcasting history. Not vetting files upon request is cutting independent research off from a truly global history of radio that has just started to be written.

Would be wonderful if some kind person with a Wikipedia account and lots of patience could change this, or at least add a massive health warning..

On the longest day of the year, and one of the hottest too, many of us will be heading outside for al fresco dining.

Remember, leave your BBQs at home - the landscape is tinder-dry and just a small spark can lead to miles of devastating damage.

Spread a love of nature, not a fire. Thank you.

"I'm disappointed by it, to put it mildly."

"I felt the opposition could have just [said]: 'yes, we will all come together behind you'."

Baroness Louise Casey, author of the Government's audit on grooming gangs, condemns the "politicisation" of the conversation.

#Newsnight

In case you missed it, here’s the Hymnus Eucharisticus sung from the top of the Great Tower for May Morning by Magdalen College Choir!

📢 WE'RE HIRING! We need an energetic, personable, resourceful person experienced in practical countryside work with volunteers to look after the Ridgeway and Thames Path National Trails. Info: oxfordshire.wm-jobs.co.uk/members/modu...
@theridgewaynt.bsky.social @countrysidejobs.bsky.social

✍️I visited British Steel last week - just as workers were discovering that the plant's Chinese owners were effectively planning to starve the blast furnaces to death.
It was a strange, unsettling experience. With deep ramifications. Some thoughts: edconway.substack.com/p/the-strang...

🧵 Journalists keep saying this morning that it’s rare for a Bill to pass through Parliament in a single day. That’s worth unpicking. 👇

Does anyone who regularly walks the @thamespathnt.bsky.social know whether you can walk all along the riverside path behind Battersea Power Station now or is there still a diversion in place? Thank you!

It's that time of year again...I try to play (a bit of) all this year’s Eurovision Song Contest entries on the piano. All 37 of them. @eurovision.tv #Eurovision2025

A shocking if not surprising headline - what’s really depressing is that none of the newspapers have it as their headline

19 January 1963 – a hugely important day in the history of music and one of the cultural turning points of the 20th century. The appearance on ITV's Thank Your Lucky Stars that launched the Beatles.