This is Benjamin Zephaniah at his very best. Funny, subversive, political, fierce A parody of Larkin’s poem, but rather than addressing inherited family trauma, he directs his anger towards class, religion, wealth, and political control What other parody poems do you like? #poetry #poemoftheday

Israel won’t stop at 70% of Gaza. Or at Gaza. It’s blindingly clear that its goal is to ethnically cleanse all Palestinian land. Western democracies will continue their hand-wringing.

You can always tell when The Stranglers have been in to return their books.

Once in Number 10 Prime Ministers have a habit of abandoning commitments and Burnham, I fear, will be no different. That pledge to stand on a manifesto that pledges PR? Watch it get whittled down to a commission or enquiry located in long grass.

We’re on a visit to Strawberry Hill House. The interpretation material stresses the Gothic dimension. But it’s disappointingly un-macabre. As my OH said, ‘it’s the house that the child of Dracula and Barbie built.’

After reading an interview with the author, I bought "How to kill a language" by Sophia Smith Galer. I must admit, it's starting off strong. #linguistics #language #multilingualism

This is the President of the United States using the country’s legal system to pursue a vendetta against one of the many women he raped. Just another day in the US, 2026.

I think about this a lot.

Labour politicos seem to be jostling to get what they think are ‘think pieces’ in The Guardian. This evening there’s one by slippery Wes Streeting (I don’t trust him) and this one, clunky but better from Clive Lewis (likeable-ish?) who’s rowing in behind Burnham (nah, don’t trust him either.)

This from @dannybate.com is about how Indo-European split elements of words and rearranged them (for phono, for fun?) across an utterance: tmesis, the common ancestors of prefixes and prepositions, that sort of thing… And it’s abso-bloody-lutely fasci-bloody-nating! #langsky

Fascinating story. It would make an intriguing film with a courtroom scene at the end where she rails against capitalism and the patriarchy.

Tony Blair Institute after being funded by the ‘early circumcision causes autism’ lobby: We agree.

this side effect of the war is not even part of the US conversation

Surreal idiocy.

Polanski is right. If the leaders of our long-established political parties cannot condemn Reform’s Nazi-style proposals they become complicit in them. And Andy Burnham, if he is serious about leading this country, cannot duck his responsibilities by appeasing racist voters.

Deeply pathetic that BBC is reporting this as a Reform power struggle rather than explaining that Reform's policies would require deporting people -including pensioners - who have lived and worked here legally for decades. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting that the idea of another EU referendum is regularly discussed on broascast media as something that would cause division and thus a bad idea. But plans to deport literally millions of people are discussed as administrative questions.

My sense from my travels and my reading is that the UK is right now maybe the world’s most successful multiracial success story - which doesn’t mean that it isn’t susceptible to white supremacist fascism. I can see exactly how it could install itself here - and we’re on that dark path.

Two questions: 1. Why is a corner shop in Wimbledon selling roasted sunflower seeds in Russian packaging? 2. Why is there a hard sign at the end of товарищ and волк? My guess it’s a retro thing, designed to convey ‘old school, pre-Soviet’ yum? #langsky #русский

I haven’t yet read Emily Wilson’s translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey but they’re on my list. And this review by Blake Morrison of Wilson’s latest book has fascinating insights into her approach to translation. #booksky #langsky

Sooo many disgusting things hanging round the necks of so many Reform candidates, councillors, MPs and their leader. Their rise has stalled but it hasn’t stopped. Reform’s scumbag candidate will get thousands of votes and might yet win in Makerfield.

The Clash The Buzzcocks The Sex Pistols Elvis Costello The Specials David Bowie Bill Withers Elbow Chemical Brothers NINA SIMONE (the most transcendent bliss)

I always read and often agree with Polly Toynbee but her hopes here for Andy Burnham are delusional. He’s a shape shifter who - if he ever becomes Prime Minister (big if) - will renege on his pledges, including to electoral reform. Hope I’m wrong.

Ooh, yes please.

I always enjoy these etymology infographics - and I like both the trickle down style of Word Family Friday and the spider diagram approach of Yoïn van Spijk. What other possible ways of drawing these relationships could there be?

Beautiful people fighting for the right to marry who you love. ✊🏽🏳️‍🌈

A fitting tribute to base the trophy lift on a corner routine

In Chinese #folklore, rain is born from the breath of the cloud worm (雲蟲), a strange lizard-like being said to hide in the mountain crevices of Henan. When rain is near, it climbs upward, raises its head, and exhales threads of mist, blue and white like strings of beads. 1/2

Money’s a bit tight at month’s end so we got cheap white wine, spritzed it up with fizzy water and plonked in some frozen grapes. A festive vibe to the evening as we sit in a still very warm London garden.

Russian savagery, again.

Mural on the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, Detroit, 2018 by international muralist Bunnie Reiss who is influenced by her Polish heritage, especially Poland's brightly coloured folk art #womensart

Some thoughtful person provided a link to a non-paywalled version of this article: gcaptain.com/drowning/

The muqarnas ceiling at the Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran.

I mean, the malice and cruelty are the point, no? It’s very calculated humiliation of people who want to build their lives in America and to - how shall I put this? - make America great again.

Imagine for a moment what he could do if he were the prime minister, had a legislative majority, and appointed both the Chancellor and the Culture Secretary.

Looking for a good assessment of Tuchel’s squad selection? You won’t find it in Barney Ronay’s almost unreadable, preening prose. Shockingly bad sports journalism.

She’s called Sophia Money-Coutts? That’s her real name? Sophia MONEY Coutts? My flabber has never been so gasted.

The Chancellor wanting to keep her job if the Prime Minister loses his is pitched as calming bond markets but it’s really all just playground bickering. UK politics is so utterly tedious.

I can’t forgive Starmer for aping Reform. Burnham is doing the same. I can’t vote Labour while they are in the grubby place.

Obviously there are historical examples for such attacks. But they are extremely rare, inconsequential in the larger picture, and are revealed for what they are very quickly. If your go-to explanation for any attack that is inconvenient for your world view is "false flag", you're a crank.

This is classy from Pep as he leaves City. Magnificent guy. (And I say that as a United fan.)

Historically, there’s a case for Calcutta.

I would very much like to visit.

The toilets thing is so silly. Where there are gendered toilets there’s a long, snaking line for women and usually walk-right-in for men. Just make all loos with a door unisex and partition off urinals.

Politicians endlessly blame immigration for their own failures. So, when immigration is reduced, their ‘success’ isn’t recognised. No one’s life has particularly improved. Because no one’s life was ever going to improve by reducing immigration. Because our problems were never caused by immigration.

This is an astonishing story of kindness and love. I felt my eyes prickle with tears. Yours will, too.

Won’t pay his debts, happy to take colossal bribes, grubs for petty cash with dodgy wheezes. If he becomes Prime Minister he will steal public money on a scale and in ways no other corrupt politician could even imagine.

See, I doubt Burnham will even be good at political theatre. What worked for him in Manchester - Manc nationalism - won’t work for him in number 10. Simply can’t see him galvanising Labour’s progressive base, let alone the country.

This is a really good, sensible policy. I would give my right leg for the Labour leadership fight to be composed of ideas like this.

A lot of our discourse seems to assume that 1) these wrong beliefs somehow arise naturally and 2) politicians have a duty to behave as if these wrong beliefs are true. It saves asking questions about old and new media, or doing anything brave, but it’s rotting our society and economy.