Gustav Klimt was 17 years old in 1879 when he drew (with charcoal and black chalk) this portrait of a young girl. His superb technical ability as a draughtsman is evident even as a teenager in the way he uses shadow to create a three-dimensional picture on paper.

I miss my 2CV 😢

This morning I think the main thing we should be celebrating is sharing a planet with David Attenborough. Happy birthday to a gentle, wise, stalwart defender of all that is right, and fierce critic of what could be a lot better. A century of learning and teaching. He must know how we all love him.

Today’s automotive top spot from La Belle France - a Fiat Panda that’s managed to survive here for 40 years without acquiring a single dent!

Is it too late to offer a candidate for #thicktrunkthursday?

I’m just glad I only accepted £5 million rather than a pair of glasses, otherwise the media would have given me Hell.

For those lovers of automotive oddities, this was my spot of the day - a Renault 5 Belle Ile in La Belle France. Perfect for a sunny Provence day 😎

The Jackdaw Road

A trip down memory lane for @thealso.bsky.social - spotted in Toulon this evening, with its less eccentric stablemate in tow. Some classic French interference-fit parking in evidence there, too 🤣

I have just watched a yet-to-be-broadcast BBC documentary, set in Wales. The narrator, Yorkshire actress Angela Griffin, absolutely nails almost all of the Welsh pronunciations of names and places. Credit to her. Please send her round the Today programme studio.

He found studying law ‘boring.’ He joined a 150-year-old firm full of rich clients—'why they took me on, I have no idea.’ And then he changed British legal history forever. Peter Kandler is one of a kind. He was recently awarded Honorary KC. Read his profile in the Law Society Gazette. 👇

Happy #MayDay #CalanMai. I’m taking a moment to enjoy the Hawthorn (also known as May or Mayblossom), the powerfully symbolic & sacred tree used throughout history to repel evil. Perhaps needed today more than ever.

Next year is the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, and tickets for the 2027 Star Wars Celebration being held in LA go on sale next week Guess which date? Go on, guess Bet you can't That's right, they're going on sale May 6th Because Disney never miss an opportunity to fuck things up

Mayday! Mayday! Mood.

This is horrific www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Well done her for fighting it but no one should have to go through this

From St Helens to Southwark, Law Centre caseworkers are seeing a surge in Section 21 evictions ahead of the 1 May ban. Here's what they're telling us. 🧵 #RentersRightsAct #Section21 #AccessToJustice #LawCentres #HousingCrisis #RentersRightsAwarenessWeek

Just when you think you couldn’t despise someone more…

I had a most delightful serendipidous experience today, visiting the studio of a local artist to look at his raku pots (still warm from the kiln!). In conversation, we discovered that I taught his daughter at UEA 20+ yrs ago. I bought one of his lovely pots, and would happily have taken the lot 😍

A query today from a former student (LLB, 2004) who worked in the HO for a decade drafting immigration legislation, and is now interested in doing a PhD on proportionality of detention for immigration purposes. Does anyone know of potential supervisors in that area that I could suggest to her?

Almost all of the questions the Today programme put to Nigel Farage this morning were with a right wing framing. Even the question on his plan to import ICE to the UK was about whether it would cost too much

Interesting reference just now to "the left-leaning Daily Mirror" on the Today Programme. I hope this practice is going to become routine, & that we'll be reminded of the political affiliations of The Daily Telegraph, The Mail, The Sun, The Express & The Times. It would actually be quite healthy.

I like to think of senior members of Trump's team putting the King's speech to Congress into the UK-US English translator.

The centenary of Sir J.G. Parry-Thomas' World Land Speed Record was marked at Pendine beach yesterday. Our volunteer Ian Robinson sent us this photo of #Babs on the sands. #OnThisDay 28 April, in 1926, Parry-Thomas drove the legendary Babs to 172.09 mph to claim a new World Land Speed Record.

NEWS! Ballrooms to be installed in American high schools to protect against shootings newsthump.com/2026/04/27/b...

This overreach surely warrants an Arkell v Pressdram response?

Film you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, DC, Marvel, Disney, Pixar, Spielberg, Cameron, Wachowskis, or Ghibli.

Breathtaking carelessness. These are not serious people.

Da iawn!

This has moved me to tears. In a world where the news is dominated by the appalling acts of malignant narcissists we need more people like Jane Goodall.

the irony is that there are many journalists who are threatened and killed for their work globally, except they don’t overlap at all with the people willing to attend the MAGA White House correspondent’s dinner

Seriously Trump’s taken less damage from two assassination attempts than my 11-year-old self did from a trip to Claire’s Accessories

University management spent £80 million on new building that wasn't needed (presently for sale at £14 million) and now decide 600 staff should go to 'save' £50 million. This is the math currently shaping future of UK HE. Staff paying the price for mismanagement. Govt looking the other way

This is the *real* crisis in fostering that we need to talk about. Children’s services paid almost £400 million to the private equity owners of National Fostering Group over two years, of which £50 million disappeared into investors’ bank accounts (much of it offshore).

An institution that pays administrators more than professors isn't a university, it's a business centre with a motto.

If only the Bible were divided up into, say, chapters, and verses, to make it easier to find the all-important exculpatory bits.

On Saturday, I'll be one of 60 musicians doing something completely mad: singing the complete choral music of Thomas Tallis (by sight) in 1 day. 10 hours of fabulous music, including The Lamentations, "If Ye Love Me" & the titanic, 40-part "Spem in Alium". All livestreamed here: bit.ly/TallisMags

The decision of Piers Morgan to let this play out and keep filming is a spectacular bit of comedy of embarrassment. An anxiety dream of comedy.

this account is run by a human at NASA JPL who only posts real images with their receipts. it only has 11k followers compared to the 200k the ai slop space account has

If a team like, for the purposes of argument and purely hypotheticallly, Man City, were found to have infringed financial fair play rules, what are the chances that it would suffer a points deduction at a critical point in the season, while fighting for a title, or to avoid relegation? Yeah, right

An expert opinion that the scam reported by the BBC wouldn’t work, and so was a scam on applicants not the system, seems like important context

Read and weep for the creeping destruction of higher education in the UK.

I’ve been hearing so much anger and disappointment from frontline workers about the BBC investigation into fraudulent asylum claims. One of the most damning responses has come from one of the experts they interviewed, solicitor Ana Gonzalez. It’s really worth reading her response in full:

While I’ve been away this week, the hedge garlic in my small patch of woodland has shot up. Left to its own devices in our fertile soil, it forms an impenetrable chest-high thicket, smothering all else, so it gets carefully pulled up by hand. It’s a thug of a plant - never ever let it go to seed!

My university hasn’t reached this level of clarity yet. Managers tell themselves it’s all going brilliantly *because* they’ve sacked so many people.

I got my permanent job at a university in 2008 (after 8 years hourly-paid) and now face redundancy. My salary has declined in real terms for my entire career. The graph for senior management pay in a broken sector looks very, very different. This is not an accident.

Pick up the nearest book, turn to p. 42, and post the second sentence: “He finds his way there by disguising himself as a minor angel and begging directions from Uriel, regent of the Sun, who foolishly points out ‘Paradise, Adams abode’.”

So proud of the fine, innovative work being done in support of neurodivergent people by our amazing Discrimination team at Suffolk Law Centre 😊

Neurodivergent people can face barriers at work because employers don’t make reasonable adjustments. Learn how Suffolk Law Centre is helping employers build more inclusive workplaces, and supporting neurodivergent people to thrive.

A lovely birthday walk just now at NT Anglesey Abbey, which included being showered with blossom from their glorious Prunus Tai-haku (Great White Cherry) 😍

Three score years and ten 😳 How the hell did that happen all of a sudden?