1. From NESTA, the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Future Signals – what we (NESTA) are watching for in 2025 https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/future-signals-2025/ Their list includes, among others

The Minister’s menu: could the government subsidise healthy food through public restaurants? by Jonathan Bone and Sarah Davies: “Many Brits eat out regularly and tend to eat less healthily when they do. Could public diners help to provide balanced diets and more?” https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/future-signals-2025/could-government-subsidise-healthy-food-through-public-restaurants/

Leavesdropping: translating the hidden language of plants by William Woodward: “Scientists have made big strides in understanding how plants communicate with each other. Could this help solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges?” https://www.nesta.org.uk/feature/future-signals-2025/translating-the-hidden-language-of-plants/

Of those two, the latter seems more likely to deliver a dividend, I think!

2. An interesting proposal from Timothy Snyder, the American historian of Central Europe (and, more recently, prompted by contemporary events, of tyranny and despotism) Shadow Cabinet: A Positive Form of Opposition https://snyder.substack.com/p/shadow-cabinet

When I moved to Great Britain to study, I found the politics very exciting. The parliamentary system was different, so that new elections immediately led to new governments. The press was excellent but political, so that one could read the newspapers and be informed both of the facts and the sentiments. And, when reporting government policy, journalists always had an opposition voice to quote: members of the “shadow cabinet.” Like so much else in British public life, the institution of the shadow cabinet was unfamiliar to me, but I soon grew to appreciate and admire it.

3. Hope this works: New Statesman writers pick the 26 best science fiction short stories of all time https://www.newscientist.com/article/2460679-our-writers-pick-the-26-best-science-fiction-short-stories-of-all-time/

Lots of new ones, for me at least!

4. The Know Your Place podcast from The Conversation has just devoted four episodes to the topic of Know your place: what happened to class in British politics https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/know-your-place-the-conversation-documentaries/id1114423002

The relationship between class and political preference in Britain used to be clear cut – Labour for the working class, the Conservatives for the middle class. But not any more. In a new five-part series, Laura Hood, senior politics editor at The Conversation, explores what fractured the relationship between class and voting in the UK, and why no politicians can take the working class vote for granted.

5. And, finally, a tale of eccentricity, exceptional even by the standards of the county in which I find myself today https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/dec/19/humphreys-world-how-the-samuel-smith-beer-baron-built-britains-strangest-pub-chain