This slightly longer than normal Free Resources message will be the last one till Tuesday 6^th January. If you’re celebrating Christmas, be sure to make the most of it, and I wish everyone peace and happiness for 2026!

1. The UK Parliament has a good reputation for the quality of its reports and the staff responsible pride themselves on their political independence. Here’s a recent one by the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Home-Based Working, Is working from home working? https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ldselect/ldhomework/196/196.pdf Two PDFs below: one of the summary only and one of the whole report.

Since the pandemic, the UK’s workforce appears to have settled into a “new normal”, where a large minority work from home at least some of the time; according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, 13% of working adults in Great Britain work from home all of the time, and a further 26% work from home some of the time (known as hybrid working). The UK is also estimated to have one of the highest levels of home working in the world. However, not everyone can, or wants to, work from home—many jobs still have to be done in person, with significant variation across industries. Access to remote and hybrid working is unequal, with levels higher among professionals, university graduates, and those living in London. For example, data from one study suggests that 55% of those working in occupations associated with office working practise hybrid working—more than twice the figure for the working population at large.

2. A good short video from the British Council on their annual Global Perceptions survey for 2025 https://youtu.be/QbbY4ngdG1o

plus a PDF of the whole report here (and below) https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/global_perceptions_2025.pdf

The findings from multiple metrics suggest that in an increasingly unstable, multipolar world, there is a growing preference among young people for predictability, security, and capability – qualities increasingly associated with non-Western governance models – over the perceived instability, paralysis and polarisation of many Western democracies.

3. Not totally unrelated, here’s the Ipsos UK Veracity Index for 2025 https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/ipsos-veracity-index-2025

Nurses, engineers and doctors remain Britain’s most trusted professions while advertising execs, government ministers, politicians, and social media influencers are the least trusted.

Real geeks can download the charts and tables behind the report at the bottom of the page.

4. English UK, the trade body for English language schools in the UK, publishes a quarterly ‘QUIC’ report which gives a snapshot picture of the industry, and they’ve kindly allowed me to share the most recent report, for the third quarter of 2025. PDF below. 2019 was the last ‘normal’, i.e. pre-Covid year, and the data shows that the 2025 numbers remain significantly below 2019. Before you look at Chart 6, which shows the top ten countries by student weeks spent in the UK, see if you can guess what those ten countries are.

5. The Pesticide Action Network here in the UK publishes annually its Dirty Dozen report, naming and shaming the twelve most sprayed (and otherwise got at) fruit and vegetables sold in the UK. Think twice before eating grapefruit and grapes! PDF here (and below) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/89ad9dbab6f70b59

6. From The Telegraph, a gift article with Britain’s 20 best high streets https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/ced3acd9fa98a0fe

Away from the Starbucks and Specsavers monotony of many town centres are thoroughfares filled with history, charm and independent businesses.

I’d not have guessed many of them, and I can think of at least one friend who will be less than pleased to see their hometown’s high street included!

7. It’s not you – some typefaces feel different by Andrea Piovesan for The Conversation https://theconversation.com/its-not-you-some-typefaces-feel-different-270192

Have you ever thought a font looked “friendly” or “elegant”? Or felt that Comic Sans was somehow unserious? You’re not imagining it. Typefaces carry personalities, and we react to them more than we realise. My work explores how the shapes of letters can subtly influence our feelings. When we read, we are not just processing the words. We are also taking in the typeface, which can shape how we interpret a message and even what we think of the person who wrote it.

8. And, finally, this Globe of History is fun – click on the two icons in the top left-hand corner to find your way around https://www.globeofhistory.com/