The decision to end the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme has created real uncertainty for churches and faith buildings, many of which rely on local donations for essential repairs. Ministers must now make clear how they will be supported if this VAT relief ends.

A lot of people on Bluesky sneering at this. But Russia has no interest in helping Iran, apart from the fact they're a key regional ally, they sell them Shahed drones, and that a prolonged war and with it rising energy costs help the Russian economy.

Omar supervising me upside down

All power to Caroline. I still find it extraordinary that the banks were able to abandon the high street with barely a raised eyebrow from our politicians.

There are five bespoke training sessions at this weekend's Conference: - Tackling Reform in Labour-facing areas - Tackling Reform in Conservative-facing areas - Winning against the Greens - Winning in Remain Areas - Winning with Words: Intro to AI www.libdems.org.uk/conference/p...

We have a looming animal welfare crisis in our sheep flocks due to a lack of access to shearers, caused by the Home Office. When I raised these issues with DEFRA senior civil servants last week it was clear that they were not aware of the issue, let alone on top of it - they must get a grip of it.

I was just hurrying across at Kennington from the City branch of the Northern Line to the Charing Cross branch when the doors of the train in front me closed. In frustration I yelled out ‘oh for f**k’s sake!’ - and the doors opened! I’m a Train Whisperer and am going to pass my advice to tourists

Today I'm speaking with the legendary Laurie Taylor on BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed, about the magnificent Dorothy Pilley, and how she faced down contempt and ridicule in her pursuit of high altitude mountaineering. With brilliant author Carl Morris on distance running. share.google/jF4YZHseyZ35...

Anyone who's worked in the legal support industry-secretary, paralegal, gopher, etc-will enjoy Ch. 31 of Dickens' The Pickwick Papers. They called them all "clerks" back then. "There is the middle-aged copying clerk, with a large family, who is always shabby, and often drunk."

How I've learned that certainty is the thing to really fear www.bbc.com/news/article...

Former England footballer Eni Aluko wins case against Joey Barton for his social media posts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Further coverage of community efforts to save the historic Linton Kirk in the Scottish Borders, famous for its spectacular carved medieval tympanum featuring the "Linton Worm". Read more here 👇 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Dr Who – Tom Baker is mobbed by fans while filming The Android Invasion in East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Liberal England: Jonathan Meades on the BBC on the BBC's own buildings

Farage, one of the most duplicitous people alive today. A conman. Five days between these headlines. He’s despicable.

Elizabeth Warren: "I am a hard no on a supplemental. This is not a war the American people want us to engage in. This is not a war that makes us safer ... No. No more money. The only thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse."

Labour's assault on jury trials; the right's response to Gorton and Denton; a wind farm myth exploded; pupils' confessions on AI in schools; the unnerving Caravaggio; 15 top wyrd folk albums

Dentistry is on its knees, with millions of children unable to get a check-up last year. I'm proud our @libdems.org.uk pressure has forced the Government to act. Ministers must now back our £750m dental rescue plan to fix the broken NHS contract and recruit and retain more UK dentists.

Nigel Farage continues to deny the Local Election council tax pledge. Here’s the main Reform UK Twitter account stating it…

US vetoes most Ethiopian athletes for the World Crosscountry Championships in Florida by denying their visas. Ethiopia will be unable to record a team result in either the U20 men’s or U20 women’s races, ending its 44-year medal streak. I’m sure the Olympics and World Cup are going to be fine. 😡

Great news today: we were told that @libdems.org.uk have written to the Minister for Women and Equalities regarding the EHRC and Supreme Court ruling. Urging the Minister to appoint a joint committee of cross-party MPs and peers to conduct post-legislative scrutiny of both the

Ask A Bird…

On 17 July 1965 Class HA (later Class 71) No E5002 approaches Newhaven Harbour from the east light engine. I hope you have enjoyed this dip into the new issue of Southern Way, No 72, which is now available post free to UK post codes via our website. crecy.co.uk/product/sout...

I’ve had a press release about “Chalamet’s Opera Diss” which sounds like something funded by the Eastern Region Arts Council.

Pete Hegseth's "Department of War" spent $7.4 million on lobster tails, more than $15 million on ribeye steaks, and hundreds of thousands on doughnuts...in September. openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-s...

🔴EXCLUSIVE: The vape shop at the centre of the fire on Glasgow's Union Street had not paid business rates and does not appear on a legal register to sell tobacco or vaping products, The Ferret has found. Read the full story 👉 https://bit.ly/4d8pXcU

BREAKING - Big Story A memo from Keir Starmer to all members of the UK Gov Cabinet has been leaked. 1/5

Harlequin by Ralph Thurston, Market Harborough Theatre. Does anyone remember the blue tube lights behind this sculpture being on? #SculptureSaturday

Unimprovable English names, part 94: Sir Cloudsley Shovel.

March 10, 1969

*David Attenborough voice* ‘And now, as happens every few years, the council starts its regular consultation into transport in Cambridge. It is almost ritualistic. They will issue a grand report, make a grand plan, then do nothing at all. In a decade, the cycle will start again.’

"Glyn Preston's Lib Dems" sounds like the band member that lost the High Court battle over the name, and who's now gigging at every holiday camp in the land to try and pay the legal fees.

“Never once did Reform promise to cut council tax” insists an angry Nigel Farage to Sky News. Here's some of the leaflets Reform have been putting out ahead of the local elections

Mad king washing.

The whole of the Southern Television adaptation of Joan Aiken's Midnight is a Place from 1977 has turned up on YouTube. Aiken was a wonderful writer for children – her gothic tales were at once funny and scary. If she's pastiching anyone here, it's the Charles Dickens of Hard Times.

Trying real hard to passive voice terrorism here.

It's so bad that we've reached a point where members of Congress casually discuss stripping citizenship from and deporting people because they don't like their views.

BREAKING: Andrew Milne, the solicitor who has been buying up hundreds of freeholds in Sheffield and then demanding money from homeowners, has been sentenced to a 24 month community order and 300 hours of unpaid work for “grossly offensive and menacing” emails to the court reporter Daniel Cloake.

Wolfhampcote is mentioned. Here you will find a deserted medieval village whose church still survives, two abandoned railway lines (the one the video is about and the Great Central main line) and an abandoned meander of the Oxford Canal, complete with a tunnel.

Mrs MacLeod spinning wool inside her home in South #Uist, c1930s [photo: Margaret Fay Shaw, NTS Canna House]

Empty box. No cats in there. Oh no.

Look, I'm just saying that when the Govt sends out Mike Tapp to defend their immigration Reforms, they may not be sending their best

Your Reform PPC for Widnes and Halewood. Probably. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

#OtD 10 Mar 1906 the Catastrophe de Courrières occured in France. It was a mining disaster killing 1,060 workers and sparked 45,000 miners going on a 55 day strike, which was eventually crushed by the French Army stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8215...

A recent study led by Oliver Architecture has revealed that without significant investment, the church could face closure within 15 years.

Jean Seberg, 1960. Another victim of America.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell recounting how as 1 woman out of 50 physics undergrads at Glasgow Uni in 1960s, she learned not blush because male students wd whistle & catcall louder every time she entered lecture theatre. (A uni tradition to treat women this way at time. Teacher or student. Every time).

The Iran war should be a lesson for Keir Starmer's Government. If you take a clear line on an issue where the public agree with you then it's your opponents who end up having to back down, not you

Farage criticised over investment in bitcoin business run by failed Chancellor