A good day to listen to our proud, joyous history of the BBC: One of the greatest British inventions of the 20th Century. An institution which, even at its worst, is far better than its detractors podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

I can't imagine a job i'd like to do less. Managing an organisation held to a ludicrous standard by roaring idiots on a daily basis, while the main mediums it uses are all in decline and it's starved of resources.

This is a question I've been asking a lot of the BBC political coverage in recent months. I love the BBC and would pay the licence fee for Radio 4 alone, but I do appreciate balance and fairness too please.

6. Pick candidates who look like they actually want to run for public office.

Day off tomorrow and so I'm staying up late watching the election results come in from the US. What else would I be doing? So far, so good.

Day off and apartment to myself and Otis is playing loud and long. Life is wonderful right now. (Ts and Cs suggest this may change but I'm enjoying the moment.)

We have to find ways of countering this racist shit.

🎵 For this is Thriller, Thriller Evening, and no person ventures forth to rescue you from the monstrous creature about to pounce upon thee 🎵

This won't be popular but popularity is never some I've sought. I can't help feeling good when listening to a Carpenter's song. I'm too young to have known them in their prime but their songs are just lovely. There. I've said it.

So offended by this suggestion. These cars were ruled dangerous in certain weather conditions, they are not suitable for a family (disabled people do have families), and they reinforce the suffocating and ignorant stigma which destroys the life chances of disabled people.

This from X is a striking example of what I argue in today’s column. Reform and the Tories are out here gleefully saying disabled people on Motability should be forced to drive a 3-wheeler, like a scarlet letter. The stigma is not an accident - it’s the design.

Reform are into Day Three of Racismsplaining. It's harder than it looks. thecritic.co.uk/easy...

Over 5% of the Reform councillors elected in May have now either resigned or been fired. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New post just out: "Never again?" On how the radical right are trying to change our collective memory about World War Two as part of their assault on the postwar order. And why that memory remains a critical defence against nationalism. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/n...

Beth Rigby: "Keir Starmer has changed his top team more than I've had hot dinners." In two years before Starmer we had 3 PMs, 4 Chancellors, 3 Foreign Secretaries, 5 Home Secretaries, 5 Education Secretaries, 5 Cabinet Secretaries, etc. - total 221 ministerial departures. Maybe Beth is on a diet.

I was looking at Reform's policy again the other day. They're proposing a £60k salary for people on ILR keeping their visa. Which means pretty much every nurse on ILR would be a risk. It's insane.

The old Saudi brand was “austere theocracy,” but the new one is “fun, fun, fun, but still with beheading.” - brilliant piece with so many laugh out loud moments:

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. One for practice and the other one is the "main" grave.

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist." www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

So pleased I sent my nomination through just in time.

Party donor Nick Candy says "I cherish the values we grew up with here in the West. But today you are more likely to find the values we grew up with in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.’ Via Sam Leith in the Spectator www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

Oh dear! If I was so inclined I might feel sorry for them.

The Board of Deputies’ response to the Israeli government inviting Tommy Robinson to visit

Remember, kids, say no to drugs.

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Astonishing bravery from security and worshippers outside the synagogue in Manchester looks to have prevented an appalling attack being even worse.

Both my grandfathers fought in the war and my grandmothers served too. Their parents would all have been deported under Reform's policies.

I'm getting really really fed up at constant reassertion that welfare spending is "out of control" when it is the same as the average for the past few decades. One reason disability benefit costs have risen is because core support has fallen.

Shane Lowry holing an eagle putt and shouting "fuck you" at the American crowd is the highlight of the Ryder Cup so far. Even better than McIlroy telling to "shut the fuck up" earlier.

I don't think 'the same magical thinking on tax and spend, with a more charismatic leader' is going to get Labour out of their mess, and more importantly, my read is that not enough people in the PLP think that it would either:

I do hope when Andy Burnham was approached by Lab MPs suggesting he should be leader that he reminded them that they already had one and that voters absolutely detest divided political Parties.

Vaccine scepticism / daft health scares do not have the audience in the UK that they have in the US and there is huge trust in doctors/nurses.

This is what medical science can achieve.

I feel this video should be on Only Cats. The guy is bathing. I should not be enjoying this.

“Your countries are going to hell. I can tell you, I’m really good at this stuff” is a 10/10 United Nations appearance. Just objectively fantastic stuff.

Something I would never do. Honest.

BREAKING: DISNEY AGREES TO AIR CHANCLETA IN PERPETUITY

I cannot emphasize this enough: The regime has overextended itself. It is vulnerable to protest and dissent. They have not consolidated power and we are entirely capable of keeping them from doing so. Doomers are not realists.

Little victories are so important.

Deporting groups of people, ripping them out of the society they are part of, is always ugly and cruel. I published an off cut of Borderlines about it some months ago when Americans were cheering and chanting for it. Now the darkness is spreading here. lewisbaston.substack.com/p/mass-depor...

The fact they don't have detailed plans. The fact it's ethically repugnant. The fact that it would be an economic disaster. All of these things are what chaotic authoritarianism looks like. As we're seeing in the US.

Decent Sun article from Keir tbf

Been pondering Sheep Dogs. Has anyone considered whether they would prefer a different career? Maybe they want to move to a city? Become a stockbroker? Bus driver? What if they don't even like sheep? These are issues which are seldom addressed.

It’s been sad this year watching how the White House press corps refuses to back each other up. Here a female journalist is insulted and denigrated and the next male reporter just moves on to a new question. You’re all in this together, folks. Time & again, they won’t stand up for their colleagues.

Great message to Jimmy Kimmel (and anyone commenting on the Trump regime in media really) on the Late Late Show last night. Well said, Patrick Kielty.

It was this tweet which brought me to this account. I don't have a cat or a dog but I love to see other people's cats and dogs in Zoom or Teams meetings, especially as they are mostly unnecessary and tedious.

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

this is quite genuinely insane, and I want to believe the backlash to this will be severe

Today is the day of the special election to fill the seat of former MN State Rep Melissa Hortman, who was shot by a right-wing extremist.

Should be studied by professionals, quite frankly.