The Sound of Music. I was 6 when it came out and I have never seen it - except for the opening sequence. I burst into tears when Julie Andrews reached the top of the hill, flung her arms out and sang, 'The hills are alive, with the sound of music...'. I had to leave the room.

This is Andy Burnham in a nutshell. Big headline! Yay! Bold! Then the inevitable caveat: He wants to rejoin the EU "in his lifetime". He's 55 ffs. He wasn't the answer in 2015 and he's not the answer now. He's just as timorous as Starmer. He just talks better. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

What do you do when your media org is captured? You start your own. Introducing....The Nerve!!! @thenerve-news.bsky.social We're all-female, journalist-owned & launching next week. Please help us build a truly independent, progressive new media!👊👊👊

Vikingur Olafsson gave a lovely speech tonight at the end of his concert at Saffron Hall - like an acceptance speech. As for the concert: I have no words. No - I do, actually. I have 3 words: Bach, Schubert, Beethoven.

Can't quite believe I'm going to be listening, live, in 4 hours' time, to Bach, Beethoven and Schubert. Strictly speaking, to Vikingur Olafsson playing Bach, Beethoven and Schubert. But he doesn't get in the way.

I wonder whether this is what the reference to 'national security' means in the press release for Starmer's 'new strategic partnership' with Palantir, released a week ago... Terrible idea either way. #IDCards

When the BBC made this appointment it was not by accident. You can see the shift in news reporting since it was made. BBC News is now GB News lite

Yes! "Words matter," says Victoria Derbyshire. And when you knock out conjunctions and articles, the word most frequently uttered on this programme seems to be, "Farage". #Newsnight

Well this looks great! I'm settling in now... #TheHack

Naughty Nick Watt, misquoting - oh sorry, that was a 'slip of the tongue': I meant, 'making a slip of the tongue'. #Newsnight

That that little montage of clips of Ed Davey saying 'Farage' repeatedly actually describes the output of #Newsnight.

Come on Ed Davey. You're not my pol but the more you go for the BBC and its poster boy, Nigel Farage, and for Elon Musk, the more I like you.

Oh no look what I did with my Like. #terrified

The Daily Rothno is looking over the fence at the bottom of the garden at sunset last evening

This programme is even uglier than it was before. #bbcqt

It's always the ones you most expect www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Nick Watt's delivery is manic: he's almost shouting with excitement. #Newsnight

Speaking as someone who has just accidentally wolfed down a cheese sandwich while waiting for my Mac cheese to brown, I am dubious about the likelihood of having croissants *left over*.

This explains everything. We're all dead. We've been dead the whole time.

This is gorgeous.

"It is my first duty as Prime Minister to keep our country safe." That's how the Strategic Defence Review 2025 starts. I don't feel safe, Keir Starmer.

My quickest reaction yet to turning on the TV, seeing Nick Robinson, and turning off. Not even a recognisable syllable: just a tiny fleeting nyuk sound.

🔴BBC Accused of Pro-Reform Bias as Lib Dems Launch Campaign to End ‘Wall to Wall’ Farage Coverage They accuse the BBC of “following Farage around like a lost puppy” and have complained to Ofcom to demand fair coverage bylinetimes.com/2025/09/09/b...

I can't work out if I'm more upset with Starmer for things Labour has done that it shouldn't; things it hasn't done, and should; or for its supine defeatism in the face of a hostile media and failure to talk about the good things it has done. It's deeply upsetting, @darrenpjones.bsky.social.

This "exhausted viewer" is exhausted by the superficiality and the bias of #Newsnight.

I remember this. What happened next was that Will Self suddenly pointed up into the sky and said, 'Look!...'. (The other 2 looked up.) '...Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Boris Johnson come to deliver you social democracy and a more equal society'. 1st time I laughed since the EU ref.

This elegant, autumnal thing is a Victorian 'stinkpipe' designed to mitigate foul sewer smells.

Today. Headspace. Chatsworth.

This is what I feel – after nearly 40 years of piano teaching – when people ask for a piano lesson to be rescheduled in what they imagine is my spare time. Terms and Conditions, innit.

the warning sign at the end of the road is now creating its own short story

I bet there are commissioning execs texting each other about this right now.

Dreadful. The apotheosis of E P Thompson's description of a university administration so "enmeshed with the upper reaches of consumer capitalist society" that it threatens the purpose & integrity - the idea - of a university. (I think he left Warwick in 1971 in protest at its commercialisation.)

Canal Reflection, Venice #BlueSkyArtShow #Smooth

Am I hallucinating? Is that Damian Green – who made "inaccurate statements" about porn on his work computer at the HoC – pontificating about the BBC's ability to police scandal? Kinell. #Newsnight

I've noticed this too. I'm even seeing red admiral butterflies (or something like them). It might have something to do with the Govt banning (or no longer authorising) use of neonicotinoid pesticides from 2025.

Edible theory. It goes down a treat. #PianoTeaching

And there it is: the political choice in the UK laid out bare. As soon as I reach the end of my tether with Labour, I remember that there is something much worse.

Also, I may have said this before, but mass communal singing is one of the most incredible, odd, brilliant things that humans do.

The entire debate - and I use the term loosely - was about what young people should be STOPPED from doing. Not what they should be empowered to do. #bbcqt

"I can play this *perfectly* when I'm at home," say the (mostly men) students, rather often. Nah, think I. You're just not listening, men. #PianoTeaching

I sat close to the stage during a lecture/performance Alfred Brendel gave in Cambridge once, and his phrasing and touch - his ability to express his understanding of the music without anything superfluous - was unreal. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

#BlueSkyArtShow #Joy

Essential Equipment of a Piano Teacher: Theory books; Brahms (always out); Basil plant (to ward off flies); Balloon pump (to clear dust off the strings), Teddy band & stickers (for little pianists), Tottering & Frankly Dangerous Pile of music on floor (research for the Blog I Will Never Write).

“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport” By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry. Genius. Click in.

I’m stunned - floored - by my new 8yo piano student. After a term of lessons at school then 4 with me, he played me a bit of a Chopin etude. He read - deciphered - the notes his own, then played me the opening by ear. No awareness of what he has. He is open, sweet, hopeful, ardent, natural.

Lolling at the perfunctory courtesy my nephew showed to Santa, when he was 6: 'Dear St Nicholous, I hope you are well, and nearly finished work'. 🤣

Exactly the problem with this silly programme: 'My oh-so-clever essay question'. #Newsnight

Light doing its thing in Tate Modern again.

Because of you, Newsnight! Reform "beats" Green because of the endless attention that you pay to them. #Newsnight

Why does this Reform story matter? Does it matter? Who is this man? Should I care? Because I don't. #Newsnight