Bayesian Bacon Brit

How the 'red v blue school wars' exposed the social media gap between children and parents Parents were frightened by social posts that seemed to encourage violence at schools. But it was more complicated than it looked

Good longread on how a "social media war" was just teenagers shitposting, as they do, and it was their parents freaking out in the school WhatsApp that was the problem www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fire near Glasgow Central station causes major rail disruption Dozens of trains cancelled and station closed after blaze at building on Union Street

Horrifying fire in the centre of Glasgow. 🔥 Building collapse. Apparently started in a vape shop. #fire #architecture #Glasgow #Scotland
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The Secret History of Trump’s Private Cellphone “Who’s calling?” the president asks as he answers call after call from numbers he doesn’t know.

Yes unfortunately this is true
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Update: Trump starts war in Iran upon graduation

Let me guess, wealthy people who moved to Dubai to avoid paying taxes now want the countries they moved from to protect them?

Polanski and Farage have more in common than you might think Despite huge political differences, the Green and Reform leaders have much in common, writes Laura Kuenssberg.

“One is a former stockbroker from the south who, by his own proud admission, loves smoking, drinking and women
The other's a proud vegan, gay, northern former actor, who told me he'd never drunk a drop.”
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Holyrood is much better at Getting Things Done than Westminster

How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.

Worth the read…“What this means is that, by the time a foreigner cleans his #socialmedia in preparation for a trip to the U.S., as much of our news media has been urging us to do, it may already be too late”.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Personalized Cancer Vaccines Are Almost Here—But Federal Funding Cuts Could Derail Them Vaccines based on mRNA can be tailored to target a cancer patient’s unique tumor mutations. But crumbling support for cancer and mRNA vaccine research has endangered this promising therapy

Trump’s administration is slowing down cancer cures and letting many people die prematurely

Speaking with the WSJ, Trump claimed he takes high doses of aspirin, which he says is why his hands bruise so easily. Despite doctors advising him to take less, he refused, citing “superstition.”

“I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?” Trump said

David Lammy expected to water down plans to scrap most jury trials Justice secretary suggests he will stick to Leveson’s recommended three-year sentence threshold, after ‘cabinet feedback’

Juries are one of our most important safeguards against authoritarianism.

There is an emergency in our courts which needs tackling – but addressing that doesn’t require ripping up rights.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/dec/02/david-lammy-proposals-jury-trials

OBR calls in cyber expert over botched release of Budget analysis Rachel Reeves's statement was thrown into chaos after journalists were able to access the document early.

The error sprang from someone uploading the file in advance (reasonable enough) and the OBR using descriptive filenames (pretty stupid if you want to embargo releases). No "cyber" was involved in the making of this minor drama.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The government today announced that they would reform SEND funding by moving the risk associated with overspends (which have been persistent and large) from councils to central government from 2028-29"

Autumn Budget 2025: initial response | Institute for Fiscal Studies IFS researchers provide a response to the new economic forecast and major policy announcements contained in the 2025 Budget.

"a 1 percentage point increase in all rates of income tax would have raised a similar amount [to extending the thresholds freeze] while bringing in more from those at the very top" ifs.org.uk/articles/aut...

Income tax thresholds should be higher, not frozen - this is a regressive tax increase, hitting lower earners most - we take money from people on minimum wage and then give them 'in work benefits' - there’s no sense in that.

Lib Dem leader Edward Davey calls for a national investigation into Russian political interference in British politics:

"Given Reform won't, he must. So will he know launch a national investigation into Russian infiltration into our politics?"

Starmer: "Reform is riddled with pro-Putin propaganda"

The continued freeze on fuel duty is a scandal: a subsidy to the people who drive cars a lot, who are disproportionately wealthy, from those of us who pay taxes but never drive.

£8bn from extending the income tax thresholds freeze. Good job no one made any manifesto pledges around taxing working people…

This year's budget
• Mansion tax being introduced at £2bn
• Temporary cut to energy prices as treasury will pay some "policy costs"
• Two child cap abolished
• Tax thresholds frozen
• MILEAGE BASED CHARGE ON ELECTRIC CARS (fuel duty freeze kept, again, for now)
• NIC changes to pension contributions

As bad as your day might be, it could be worse, you could be the person who accidentally published the OBR's budget document a couple of hours early: obr.uk/docs/dlm_upl...

Screening Saves Lives! Right?? YouTube video by Medlife Crisis

Not looking to take political shots as I’m sure David Cameron was genuinely scared after his private prostate cancer screening, but the NHS does not offer it for good reason youtu.be/OQ7g1lQ26s0?...

UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.

Providing people with no incentive to "integrate" is a brain-dead immigration policy www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thanks to months of pitch rolling, the Labour government has now effectively told anyone paying attention that income tax rises are necessary, but they’re not going to do them because they’re politically weak. Let’s see how that plays!

UK borrowing costs up after markets spooked by Reeves’s income tax U-turn Pound down 0.5% against dollar in early trading after chancellor drops plans for upcoming budget

Can’t have your cake and eat it; can’t give up on tax rises after giving up on spending cuts www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Police and crime commissioners to be scrapped in England and Wales The government says it will save £100m over this Parliament and less than 20% of voters can name their PCC.

I'm very pleased to see the announcement that PCCs are being abolished at the end of their current term. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... - which was... (just checking notes)... a Lib Dem manifesto pledge! As was votes for 16 & 17 year olds. I never mind another party stealing our good ideas!

China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.

Crikey, this is a damming exposé of Chinese state interference in UK universities.

This is what happens when you make universities’ entire bottom line rest on recruitment of international students 😬

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Nobody cares about local government – but we can make them Four ideas to improve local authorities

Now free to read!

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/nobody-car...

We list industrial infrastructure such as pottery and brick kilns, but Historic England refuses to get behind the listing of, even a representative example, of one of the most sculptural elements of our industrial past, cooling towers, which international experience shows can also be repurposed.

Why young people are giving up on work before they’ve even started Spike in young people not working or studying is more complex than simply personal choice

"Smith has found that whenever he comes across a job suitable for his age and experience, it is already overwhelmed with applications. [...] The data backs up his point: in 2024, each entry-level role received an average of 140 applications, up from 86 in 2023" www.telegraph.co.uk/money/jobs/c...