The lower value coins had baby animals on them because they were the ones children were more likely to have 🥹
In 1926, as a member of the Irish Senate, W.B. Yeats enthusiastically took charge of the committee designing new coinage for the Irish Free State. Yeats decided the different denominations should be symbolised by different animals (was he consciously thinking of this as the “tails” side?) 1/2
Yet more proof the general public do not know what they are talking about.
“When I was twenty-two, I was the number one competitive debater on the continent of Europe.”
Sally Rooney’s ‘Even if you beat me’, from 2015
1940 Irish language scif-fi book Manannán by Máiréad Ní Ghráda
It is the first Mecha Robot outside of Japan and mention of a Gravity assist in fiction. It was never republished or translated.
Why do we keep pretending that ‘cost-saving’ is at the top of what matters to us in public health? This is an economic priority, not necessarily a health one. We get too sucked into trying to be ‘pragmatic’ & lose sight of the notion that such an ideological stance is a choice not an inevitability.
British values
"...interventions characterised by low agentic demand: welfare reform, housing support, and legislative measures; yield the most consistent reductions in inequity"
Jatinder Hayre, Ellie Canning, Helen Pearce, Raj Khera & John Ford
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#SDoH
Love the le Brocquy Táin illustrations. They're a gorgeous collection, and this one is a great choice! Looking forward to reading this.
Nothing like enjoying your slightly cheaper pint while imagining the toddler crying from hunger that paid for it.
Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster services in England, ‘bleeding the sector of money’.
Profits margins of 19%. Money extracted in interest payments, intragroup charges. Children suffer.
Ban profit-taking entities from foster services.
Half the battle with this guy is just reiterating government can and already does good things that are so ubiquitous they’ve become invisible. He’s able to remind you in a way that you understand that good government can exist outside of a 24/7 vengeance operation, and in NYC already does.
Bad idea, or just back-and-forth policymaking?
A picture is worth 1000 words...
This appeared on the BBC News today, showing the increase in solar electric generation in the UK.
Not sure who produced it, but genuinely think this is a genius piece of scientific communication - the construct and choice of colour scale is near-perfect.
Chapeau!
This thread has been saved from the wastes of Twitter!
Go on; have a read, it’s a lovely Christmas Eve tale.
Perfect Tom Stoppard story from DTel obituary:
His response to a letter from Harold Pinter canvassing support for a proposal to have the Comedy Theatre in London rechristened the Pinter Theatre, “Have you thought, instead, of changing your name to Harold Comedy?”
Is welfare spending ''out of control''?
Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP.
That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️
buff.ly/s5mz97u
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.
He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
"you cannot measure the soul of a nation in capital flows. It breathes in the child warmed by a public health nurse, the pensioner safe on a winter night, the worker who does not fear tomorrow. Not in airports and equity markets.”
Colin Sheridan going for the jugular today... Perfectly said
This is terrible
Vaccinations to prevent cervical cancer have plummeted in Britain
www.economist.com/britain/2025...
The fun thing about having a small team working with you is you can say "hey you're spending this week digging for stolen mobile phones in London flowerbeds, I promise you it's a thing". www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho...
