Two more #AdventAngels by Hardman & Co, this time in St John's Catholic Cathedral, Portsmouth, flanking the Blessed Virgin. She's crowned, standing on a crescent moon as the Woman of the Apocalypse, holding a rather jolly Christchild.

The Government’s new Mayoral Revolving Growth Fund marks a serious place-based shift in industrial policy.

Our latest blog explains why focusing on big-city centres is essential for attracting high-value firms and raising productivity👇
buff.ly/p87bVUv

#UrbanPolicy #IndustrialStrategy

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10th December minimum temperatures and anomalies (compared to '91-'20 average) from SYNOP observations.

#Baltasound No 2 was the coldest low-level (<=300m) location with a min #temperature of 1.5C.

https://www.roostweather.com/ukobs/mintemp_map.php?date=2025-12-10

The Home Office also recognise that this may have an impact on user of care services who are likely to be older people and those with disabilities. The Home Office believes that despite these points the changes are justified for a number of policy reasons including reducing net migration and ending reliance on overseas recruitment.

Home Office Ministers state publicly, on the record, that they are deliberately making life worse for older people and people with disabilities who depend on care services, but it's worth it because it reduces net migration.

TONIGHT, 6pm! Come and explore:

- How Labour won a record majority on 34% of the vote;

- Why the Conservatives suffered the worst defeat in their history;

- How the Lib Dems lost votes but gained 61 seats;

- Why such an earth-shaking election already feels like it belongs to a different age.

"Dunkirk Joe" Tennant was Admiral Ramsay's man on the beaches running the evac at Dunkirk. Almost the last man to get out. Sunk by the Japanese as captain of Repulse. Fought the Vichy French at Madagascar.

In 1944, was Ramsay's right hand AGAIN for the Normandy landings.

The dude lived. A. Life.

Opens TONIGHT at Barons
Court Theatre (on until Saturday 13th)
All dates & tickets at mitchbenn.com/tour-
dates #mitchbenn #achristmascarol #christmas #dickens #londontheatre #christmasinlondon

Fantastic, as long as no one comes to harm.

Had to venture out to try and get some better videos before the light vanished of Storm Bram hitting Loch Long in Argyll Scotland 🌊

Stay safe everyone 💙

#Scotland #StormBram #StormHour

'Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Snow in Chelsea' (1876) by James McNeill Whistler

(Harvard Art Museums)

Another notorious world record from Turkey: the regime is bragging about building the largest courtroom (capacity 2900!) in the Silivri Prison Complex known for housing hundreds of political detainees since 2010s

An unexciting picture of an allotment covered with chopped veg foliage

I cleared a bed of carrots and left the chopped tops to cover the soil over the winter, I'll add a layer of compost/manure in early spring, this video from Huw Richards has convinced me that leaving additions of soil improver until later is a good approach.
#Allotment
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu6s...

Prisoner of war's letters reveal longing for home and family Australian soldier Jack Corey was a prisoner of war during World War II — and while the details of his time in Changi prison are vague, his spirit and love for his family live on through the beautiful...

2/2: He would spend years separated from his wife & young son, longing for a life that seemed impossibly far away. Through small everyday words, he tried to weave normal life back into the nightmare of imprisonment. Read more about Jack's experiences here: tinyurl.com/yc4dsvw5

Inside a well-lit exhibition space, two people stand side by side wearing white virtual-reality headsets, experiencing a VR demonstration. A third person in the background, wearing a long coat, looks at items in a display case. To the right, a man in a jacket leans over a wooden table, interacting with a tablet. On the table are additional VR headsets and a large camera with a zoom lens. Behind them on the wall hang several large photos showing underground cave-exploration scenes.

“Underground worlds – caves of the Yorkshire Dales and Vietnam” is a new exhibition showcasing how Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and the Yorkshire Dales boast some of the largest and longest cave systems 👇

https://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/international-caving-exhibition-opens-in-hawes/

📷 A Shop Named "Mektepliler Pazarı" (Students’ Bazaar) in Istanbul, Necati & Memduh Brothers, 1908

How Renaissance Italy fought plague Venice, Milan, Florence and other Renaissance cities forged the earliest public-health states, which still shape how we govern disease today.

This is a fascinating piece looking at how a century of clever people found ways to reduce disease without modern epidemiological ideas.

healthchecksonhistory.substack.com/p/italy-buil...

Old Photograph Appletreehall Scotland

Old Tour #Scotland #Ancestry Travel Visit #Genealogy #Scottish Family #History Blog #photography of cottages, horses and people in Appletreehall village located North East of Hawick. And story of Robert Livingston born on December 13, 1654 tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com/2014/05/old-...

Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse in the UK I never cease to be amazed at how bad Labour politicians are at politics. It may seem arrogant for an economist to say that, but it’s not ...

New post: Labour, a supply side explanation for the rise of populism, and the growing acceptability of xenophobic discourse in the UK
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/12/labo...
Labour's 'tougher' stance on immigration/asylum and right wing populists' response has shifted the Overton window.

Christmas cards, prints, bookmarks and postcards of my photographs are all available from my shop, explore it all here www.andrewbrooksartist.com/shop

A vintage postcard shows a smiling mailman in uniform holding a letter and a large brown mailbag. Red script reads "Wishing you a Merry Xmas." Text below says, "Raise the bag and you will view The budget that he brings to you.

We know from the days of #MuseumTwitter that there's lots of weird and wonderful Christmas cards out there.

For old times sake and as its #ChristmasCardDay share your best and worst with us!

Would you like to see what is in our postman's bag?

"Raise the bag and you will view..."
#WeekXForXmas

Handwritten 1920s financial ledger, showing sums of money (£17 or £18) provided to suppliers including Mohawk Radio Company, Edison Swan Electric Company, Whiteley Boneham and Company and others

Our #ArchiveOfTheWeek is the Radio Scheme accounts of Derbyshire Association For the Blind, founded 1914, still going strong as Sight Support Derbyshire. The idea in 1927 was making the new world of wireless broadcasting accessible to people with visual impairments by providing radio sets.

Old Photograph Minto Scotland

Old Tour #Scotland #Ancestry Travel Visit #Genealogy #Scottish Family #History Blog #photography of Minto located between Hawick and Jedburgh, Borders. The church was designed by William Playfair and dates from 1830 tour-scotland-photographs.blogspot.com/2014/10/old-...

METOP-B, 1030 UTC Overpass: @lindahughes.bsky.social @metoffice.gov.uk @drgeoffsmith.bsky.social @simonleewx.com @winchesterweather.bsky.social @wessexweather.net @wansteadweather.bsky.social @chadweather.bsky.social @fifeweather.co.uk @wgoodf.bsky.social @weathermizu.bsky.social

Me in this crowd is like me in that crowd: evidence for a crowd self Research suggests that crowds can be psychologically meaningful and present a pathway to social connection. Based on that research and research on relational selves, we propose that there are “crow...

Me in this crowd is like me in that crowd: evidence for a crowd self

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🚨 Just five days left in our campaign! We’re 303 members away from our target 🎯

Please share the link manchestermill.co.uk or join up now for a price you choose to help us get there.

Alcohol availability is one of the strongest drivers of harm.

England & Wales have one of the most permissive licensing systems in the world, with soaring numbers of 24-hour and off-trade premises.

See our Availability page for updated info and charts: www.ias.org.uk/factsheet/av...

looking out my velux window at the blue grey dawn. how can light be dark?

December in Scottish Gaelic is An Dùbhlachd meaning the darkness or blackness. They're not wrong. Fucking horrible out there.

Struggling to deal with debt? Our money and debt advice service is free and open to single parents across all of Scotland💸

Find out more and get in touch⬇️
opfs.org.uk/support-and-...

#Debt #Scotland #SingleParents #DealingWithDebt #MoneyWorries

📬 Ward 21 By-Election

👀 Postal voting packs have been issued — keep an eye on your post!

Return your completed pack as early as you can.

🗳️ Deadline: Thu 11 Dec

If you miss the post, you can hand it in at any Ward 21 polling station on Polling Day.

#Ward21 #ByElection

I've just been sent the slides from a talk by @rowena-mathscieng.bsky.social on Indigenous smoke telegraphy in Australia.

Pre-print here: heartily recommended for anyone who's trying to broaden their base of historical mathematics.

arxiv.org/pdf/2502.15350