Ho! Ho! Ho! I put down some words “It’s mid-December 2025. The lights are up on Regent Street, the John Lewis ad has already made half the country cry into its early mince pies, and somewhere in the background a brass band is murdering “Fairytale of New York” Almost Christmas!

Halowe’en leftovers

I did another Substack thing … “Orwell’s 1984 is without doubt a masterpiece, a warning about totalitarianism, surveillance, and the manipulation of truth In modern Britain, it has been co-opted as a rhetorical bludgeon, wielded by those who see dystopia in every policy they dislike

I wrote a thing… “many simply don’t believe in the future or at worst believe that the future will be worse than today - that loss of hope drives the retreat into nostalgia - no matter how false or partial the memories are” substack.com/@newspenguin...

Dinner at Kennington Lane Cafe An old favourite: corned beef with Branston pickle, baked beans and mash

Listen up - I did a thing that everyone should read open.substack.com/pub/newspeng...

Random pic from my wandering today

Reform gain Surrey County Council seat from tories

Out to E17 today to visit one of my Top Five #London #Cafes to satisfy my craving for beef stew and suet dumplings - served with bread & butter I had to have a pudding and decided to have a banana split (‘cos I can)

Today was a bit different Greggs Sausage Roll and KFC Gravy A classic combo and it was free

Harsh by Dan Hodges www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic...

Yeah baby … it’s back! The Regency Cafe! Westminster Council and the new owners deserve a lot of credit here The council for honouring their promise to keep a #Cafe here And the new owners for sticking with proper cafe food and prices Good to see it busy on the first full day after reopening

Margot Fonteyn bronze statuein Reigate today Statue by Nathan David FRBS Unveiled: 1980 by Dame Margot Simply stunning

Today this actually happened to me in Belgravia The four people at table across from me were staring at me/my plate I asked if everything was ok - the older male replied in a ‘very posh’ voice “can I ask if the green stuff is avocado or mushy peas?” 😂😂😂😁

A few clips of #VE80 flypast from earlier First my favourite

A thing I posted on the other place on those election results and what I think caused it, what it means and what didn’t happen This might mention “Change” a lot The easy bit first - the tories The electorate kicked them out in 2024 and their entire brand in still seen as toxic and associated with

Bits of public art in London from my daily walk

Happy St George’s Day’ St George was out walking He met a dragon on a hill, It was wise and wonderful Too glorious to kill   It slept amongst the wild thyme Where the oxlips and violets grow Its skin was a luminous fire That made the English landscape glow

Officially “Leaping Hare on Crescent and Bell” but to me it will always be Harebell A stunning work by Barry Flanagan in Broadgate Circle

My day included this - I popped into the Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch looking for a giant egg and saw this beautiful thing

A bumper day for blue plaques is lovely sunshine

Mike Amesbury appeal successful in so far as his prison sentence has been replaced with a suspended prison sentence Doesn’t affect any potential recall petition as it applies to suspended prison sentences Rules here

Never has Bluesky been more of an echo chamber than a hundred blithe comments saying “but why oh WHY has Labour not just announced an emergency tax increase to fund defence spending?”

Keir Starmer: "Nigel Farage didn't even turn up for the debate in parliament today. Nigel Farage is fawning over Putin. That's not patriotism, that is not what working people need." www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/putins...

Overwhelmed at home? Undervalued at work? Wondering what the **** happened to your once flourishing career? If your life is evaporating in the juggle, I wrote a feature just for you. In @theipaper.com today inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...

Thoughts on Runcorn from the other place this morning Subject to any appeal, a recall ballot will be triggered by the 10 week custodial sentence but I would’ve thought Mike Amesbury will resign and trigger a by election without need for a recall petition

BREAKING: Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana will not have his sentence of 52 years reviewed by the Court of Appeal. The Attorney General says it won’t be referred under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Sitting having a coffee earlier , youngish (mid teens I think) on a first date So far everything she has said she likes he has eagerly answered “me too” First couple of times she smiled and looked happy On about the sixth occasion she started looking at her phone Changing tactics he

Brrr… might stay in bed

Grown-up behaviour from the leader of the opposition at prime ministers question-time

Far from being a hermit, the great JD Salinger used to enjoy going out for a burger, bus trips to Niagara Falls, and - I still marvel at this - following the tennis career of Tim Henman! Who'd have thought it?

Saturday afternoon memory - I used to love this phone, almost cried when work stopped issuing them

Callum Parslow, the neo-Nazi terrorist who stabbed an asylum seeker at a Worcestershire hotel last year, is being sentenced today I revealed how he was also an online stalker who had targeted at least 11 women and girls, and was on bail at the time of the attack www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A bit of culture for me today, a trip to an exhibition

A lovely London Cafe

100% this. I am incredibly patriotic. I love my country, my city, my neighbourhood. I see trying to improve these as a left wing patriotism. And I refuse to cede this word to those who hate my country and many of its people up to and including me.

Saturday afternoon #HeronGuard with the adopted gull - adopted during lockdown

This 👇

Somebody asked me what to do with leftover bacon. I'd never heard of such a thing.

My New Year UK political predictions 1: the easy one: Starmer will still be PM on January 1 2026 2: Reeves will still be chancellor, Lammy Foreign Secretary and Phillipson will still be at education 3: Badenoch will still be tory leader on January 1 2026

A long run of Wordle success comes to an end on a day I had 2nd, 3rd and last letters right after two guesses and 2nd, 3rd, 4th and last after three

Latest moan: Labour commentators referring to Farage as “Nige” they’ve obviously learned nothing from the “Bozo/Boris” nonsense

Have a good one

Over on the other place, they are frothing about MPs doing casework. I’ll just say this: me and my office are proud to help local people - 1000s so far. But the vast majority of cases involve state failure, despite the dedication of public servants (1/2)

It’s CHRIIIIIIIISSSTMAAAAAAAASSSS!

"hey lads, hope you've got something good lined up for my stag night" "Dave, you are not going to be disappointed" "Prague?" "not quite"