Turning Point UK (TPUK) are a bunch of wankers. Prove me wrong.

AI taking all the joy out of doing your own research. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The dark underbelly of #baking which they never show on the #gbbo Spectator #cartoon #interrogation #soggybottom

It's pastry week on The Great British Bake Off, & I have no idea who will be exiting the tent tonight - they're all so good. So it'll be down to someone's medieval castle showstopper ending up like this. #GBBO

Also, that second wall on Only Connect! Like the Keyboard Worriers, we didn't have a scooby.

Disappointing performance. Only 7 questions answered correctly - shouted out before both the sofa & studio opposition (& there's 2 teams of bright young things in the studio). I now trail 6-7. Never look pleased when you think you're on a winner just because the teams are stuffed with scientists.

Coming up on Quizzy Monday - University Challenge. After 12 matches it is all square, 6 all in our sofa competition. We are pretty well matched. Both going gaga at the same rate. Followed by recording of Only Connect as the BBC refuse to reinstate the proper order of things. Team game is second!

It depends. The images lack fiducial markers, so one has no point of reference and no real sense of scale. That stack of suitcases could be from the platform of a railway modeller's miniature station.

30 years ago today, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet detected orbiting a main-sequence star, and (this is the important bit) verified and confirmed. 🔭 🧪 theconversation.com/how-to-disco...

(In the style of Michael Parkinson.) My next book off the shelf needs no introduction... 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', 1979, by the late, great, & all too soon whisked away Douglas Adams. A welcome re-read. A new issue to replace my 40 yo, much fingered & time abused copy. BookSky 📚💙

He's never going to get the Nobel Peace Prize though. Jog on.

Arrived home. Built fire. Attended to mail. Opened new Private Eye. Completed PE crossword in one session. A personal best. Strong evidence for the restorative powers of taking a short holiday, or is the CW in current issue easier than the norm?

You've only 9 days left to listen to this exemplary performance by the BBC Scottish SO of the ever popular Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 (from about 1h14m in, although the rest of the concert is vg too). The sound engineers have done a top-notch job this year at BBC Proms.🎻 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

LEGO Space Heroine and her dog hope the rest of your weekend is out of this world!

Doh! 🧪🔭

An enjoyable read but- Felt cheated as killer is essentially a new character introduced very late in story. I'm sure this happens in reality too, but in fiction it comes across as being bolted on (there are probably better written exceptions to this). Weakest of the 3 I've read so far. #BookSky 📚💙

Suffolk was okay. Saw what I wanted to see, & probably won't return - unless I end up doing a book tour! Lovely countryside, pleasant locals. Flat. Surprised by a relative lack of wildlife. Didn't feel I belonged there. Now back in Warwickshire, to cold house. Fire lit. Feet up.

Southwold was bracing today. Some of these beach huts in Southwold, Suffolk sell at roughly the same price as an average house in the UK - c.£250,000 (summer 2025). Think about that. Some people are not paying enough tax. VAT on private schools and private health is not enough. Wealth tax now.

Researching the latest More Jam Tomorrow, I was struck by what an amazing thing it was for the Home Office to support prisoners who wanted to study – which was impossible before the Open University was founded. Just the most decent and humanitarian thing to do. morejamtomorrow.com/episode/milt...

Not only should Michelle Mone be stripped of her title, but she should have to hand it back in public - a disinvestiture, if you will. This should be the procedure for here on, for all others who pick up a gong then fall spectacularly from grace.

Trump spotted outside the amusements arcade on Southwold pier.

It is not okay to abuse, threaten, or harm ordinary, innocent people, whether they are jewish, muslim, christian, or sith. It is, however, okay to call out fuckwits such as Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu, Charlie Kirk, & Darth Vader, who are undeniably part of the problem.

Oh woe is me. First it was Nigel Farage, now it's Michelle Mone playing the victim card. Do these people have no shame? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looking south from RSPB Minsmere one has a good view of Sizewell B (dome & low building) & behind it the taller block of Sizewell A (being decommisioned). Groundworks for Sizewell C are underway. Jolly decent of Suffolk to take one for the team. Keep the home fires burning & all that.

Regrettably, this petition has been removed. Perhaps someone could start a new one? Maybe shove a bog-brush up Nigel Farage's arse?

Spot the red deer. Minsmere, Suffolk.

On the plus side... I am enjoying the half-dozen emergency lights on the stairs, each of which is triggered in turn, illuminating my tap-dance descent, like I'm Fred Astaire in any one of several Hollywood musicals.

Spoiler alert for US viewers: Feel a bit sorry for any GBBO contestant that makes it through the first couple of weeks & then has a horror of a week. I would have troughed any of last night's chocolate themed bakes. Might not have gone back for seconds, though. Right decision, Nadia had to leave.

Hold on, hang the futtock on ... Maybe what's actually happened is that I hit an anomaly on that new stretch of the A14 near Cambridge, the bit where my sat nav complained I was 'off road', and I've actually travelled back in time to 2016, and those freeze-dried & bottled herbs are totally fine!

In other Suffolk news ... Today I visited Snape Maltings, so you don't need to bother. Yeah, there's a few cafes and nifty gifts shops but nothing special about the place unless some music is happening. Regrettably, my week in this part of Anglia did not coincide with a happening.

For vacations 7 days + I prefer a holiday let. Never AirB&B or in a village awash with 2nd homes & similar lets. This one is an annex to a farmhouse. Not the best I've stayed in, but comfortable, homely. And though I never use stuff from herb racks, this array is a shocker. Use by dates 2018 & 2019.

Ooo... saved £13 for a ticket in the main house at RST Stratford upon Avon because I'm over 65! Something else for the gen Xs, Ys, Zs, etc to get upset about. They ought to be protesting. I'd join them!

Hard to believe Loeb could be more embarrassing but here we are

🚨Have you seen this man?

A ghost of a ship. A shadow of a man. I've been to Sutton Hoo.

Its a good year for the Quinces! Would anyone nearby be able to use some when we pick them?

Sign this, please.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

The one & only pub in walkable distance bigs up its food. Reader, it was disappointing, & will remain anon. Tomorrow's adventures will now include a visit to Waitrose in nearby Saxmundham.

I was mistaking him for Alex Salmond. Apologies to all concerned!🤣

Second cake of the day was another coffee & walnut. This time at the Riverside Cafe, Orford. An independent that deserves support.

Wardrobe malfunction.

I know what you're thinking! Cake? For breakfast? Yeah! You got a problem with that? If it's okay for Italian's then it's okay for me. Also, my BMI & cholesterol are all good, & plenty of spare. So yahboo sucks. (I have also had my oats - not a euphemism)

I thought George Galloway had died a few months back. Who am I confusing him with? www.bbc.com/news/article...

The griffin does not approve.

Suffolk. Holed up in a cottage dressed in rustic chic - tired chintz, throws, old, painted, distressed furniture, curtains that don't quite meet across windows, mice scurrying under floorboards, spiders lurking in high corners, & squadrons of tiny golden moths. Pray for my woolies.

First stop, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge (ish)

Early start. Pink sky. Alt: Chewbacca, a sentient shag-pile from Carpet World, says I have a very bad feeling about this to his young human friend, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the film Star Wars.

🚨 These are not even the worst, but cant show ones reported to the police. The far right think they’re winning. They’re wrong! We are the firewall. Join my fight against the far right. ✊🏾 Are you with us, or with them? #ButlerBlocks

🔴 Reform UK’s Crypto Donations Put Under Spotlight as Experts Warn It’s ‘Impossible to Trace’ Foreign Cash Anti-corruption campaigners raise the alarm over loopholes that could allow large sums of untraceable money to slip past checks bylinetimes.com/2025/09/26/r...