Waitrose Christmas ad. A romcom staring Joe Wilkinson & Keira Knightley. I think it’s fab. www.waitrose.com/ecom/content...

🏉👖🩳 Fabulous Joe Marler interview in @thetimes.com Including this gem about his hatred of trousers…

🎄📺 I’ve been to see Waitrose’s Christmas advert. In a cinema. I’m not allowed to say anything yet, but… A) it’s genuinely very good & fun B) if you search Wed TV schedules you’ll see they’ve paid for a broadcast slot. You’ll have to wait to see if it’s worth this hoopla

I regret to inform you that Wagamama has committed a Christmas crime. As bad as @sainsburys.bsky.social mince pie wrap? That would be hard. But I give you the Wagamama chicken cranberry katsu...

Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments: One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.

"They're looking for someone with a thick skin and recent experience of flagship BBC news programming."

Glad that someone has finally taken responsibility for the appalling assault on democracy that was the Jan. 6 insurrection. Slightly confused that it's the Director-General of the BBC, but what do I know?

📻 I’m back presenting @listentotimesradio.bsky.social 1pm-4pm today. We’ll be chatting the amazing success of Siberian tigers being saved from brink of extinction, doctors strikes and much more. Do tune in!

🍣 You can read all about these amazing, strange sushi facts and why UK supermarket sushi is booming here. By me for D.Mail. 🧵/ends www.dailymail.co.uk/lifestyle/fo...

🍣🫑 🥒 🐓 In fact (after rice) the biggest ingredient isn’t even chicken – even though one of M&S’s most popular sushi lines is ‘Chicken Caesar dragon roll’. Top ingredient at Ichiban? Peppers. Cheap and colourful. 🧵4/5

🍣 But here’s another fascinating fact about UK supermarket sushi. Hardly any of it is raw. Nearly all salmon is either cured or smoked. Why? It’s complicated. But most Brits don’t like raw fish. The biggest ingredient by weight is chicken, not salmon 🧵3/5

❄️🍣 All supermarket sushi salmon is frozen. Why? A) food safety laws. Freezing kills pathogens B) frozen fish is easier to cut. Here’s the machine which ensures every salmon slice for nigiri is 7g 🧵2/5

🍣 I visited the factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk which makes all of Tesco’s sushi. And discovered some fascinating facts about UK supermarket sushi. The biggest ingredient is obviously rice. But all of it comes from Australia. High quality & cheap 🇦🇺 🧵1/5

🍣 I visited the factory in Stowmarket, Suffolk which makes all of Tesco’s sushi. And discovered some fascinating facts about UK supermarket sushi. The biggest ingredient is obviously rice. But all of it comes from Australia. High quality & cheap 🇦🇺 🧵1/5

BBC really burying the lede there

📱📆 Should we ban phones from meetings? Lots of bosses, such as JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, would like to stop people texting in meetings. But maybe the problem isn’t phones. It’s meetings… This week’s @thetimes.com biz column: www.thetimes.com/article/4242...

My favourite bit of the v enjoyable #CelebrityTraitors final – the use of Nicholas Brittell’s superb score from ‘Succession’

Waitrose has launched a range of packaged food with Angela Hartnett. Which I was a bit sceptical about – great chef, but is she as *destination* as Ottolenghi? Whose range at Waitrose has been a big hit, but…

welcome to the White House Golf Club & Spa

Peter Cheese, the head of the HR's trade body, @cipd.bsky.social, has announced his retirement. He's the man whom some partly blame for HR becoming a bloated industry in the UK, more interested in campaigning for changes to workplace 'culture' than making workplaces more productive.

The John Lewis Christmas advert. More Adolescence than Monty the Penguin. Yes, it's the first time John Lewis has featured a father-son relationship in 18 years. And it's all very anxiety-inducing. My thoughts...

That's just Jolyon Maugham KC, happily reposting a fake image of Hitler, that's been widely acknowledged to be photoshopped, to suggest Trump staged his assination attempt...🙄 www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

🎄📺I've seen the Christmas advert. No, I can't tell you about it until 6am tomorrow. Some people will love it. I'm really not convinced....

Such a good piece of old fashioned, proper journalism by the (increasingly must-read) @londoncentric.media. About stolen mobile phones being hidden in a West End public park. And the police failing to do any investigating...

🕵️Private detectives. Men in grubby macs lurking in bushes? Or highly paid spooks who will investigate your business partner and potential date? I looked into the strange world of upmarket private detectives for @thetimes.com Luxx…

🎬 Fans of Amandaland. Good news! A second season is being filmed. In my street again (with Islington, N5 standing in for ‘SoHa’ or South Harlesden NW10). I can reveal that Joanna Lumley has a stunt driver for her Mini and…

Fascinating political doodle chat on TimesRadio with @mortenmorland.bsky.social @harrywallop.co.uk and Verity Babbs today. Here are my doodles by Clement Atlee from 1940. Given to me by my father in law whose uncle was a senior civil servant and used to scoop them up after meetings…

📻 I’m back presenting @listentotimesradio.bsky.social Friday – Hallowe’en – 10am-1pm, Where we’ll no doubt be discussing Mr Andrew Windsor-Mountbatten (is that we now call him?), Rachel Reeves, and the best horror movies of all time…🎃 Do tune in!

📻 I’m back presenting @listentotimesradio.bsky.social Friday – Hallowe’en – 10am-1pm, Where we’ll no doubt be discussing Mr Andrew Windsor-Mountbatten (is that we now call him?), Rachel Reeves, and the best horror movies of all time…🎃 Do tune in!

⌚️🍝I think this is very clever move by Cafe Murano (Angela Hartnett's mini chain of Italian restaurants) – to attact customers who are cutting back on eating out. Turn up at 9pm or later: £5 martinis, £15 plate of pasta. I mean, a £5 martini in St James's! That's amazing value.

What are you best (non-miserable) tips to save money? I’m on Radio4 #moneybox at 3pm discussing cost of living crisis. And how it is still making many of us feel poorer. And keen to hear best your advice to make savings…

Always fascinating watching people underestimate the size of London vs other UK ciries. On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool. If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.

An average pay of £787,000. And it's the "the lowest paid of the Big Four firms to report so far." I really am in the wrong job... www.ft.com/content/3b08...

Pedantic? That's a giant glaring mistake. It's like asking "another word for sunset" and saying the correct answer in "Dawn" Doesn't the FT have any chemists?

Wonderfully pedantic letter in today’s @financialtimes.com

Are you enough of a super fan of @boothscountry.bsky.social supermarket’s iconic tote bags to buy a Christmas decoration version for £10?

The encapsulation of Britain’s post-industrialised economy morphing into a experiential/wellness one. Visit the excellent @beamishmuseum.bsky.social, go down a 1910s mine and then luxuriate in Coal Mine bath salts from the gift shop 🧐

Amazing figures showing how bulk of people entering jobs are foreign born. Which does suggest some of anxieties of Reform voters are based in reality. (Via @frasernellson.bsky.social reliably interesting @thetimes.com Saturday column)

The importance of holding a pen and making shapes on a piece of paper while at work. Those shapes could be words. Or even some doodles. In defence of mindless scribbling in meetings – the last refuge from AI-note taking. This week's @thetimes.com biz column: www.thetimes.com/business-mon...

🎄🦃🐛To Marks & Spencer Christmas dinner where the star of the show was not Tom Kerridge’s turkey wellington (sous vide meat 🤷) but the Colin the caterpillar bauble. Sorry, Tom. And I got to try an amazing pudding…🧵

I can't work out what weird scam this is. It is possible I really do have a meeting with an Alan Smith next week (it wouldn't be the first time I've failed to put something in my diary). But I'm sure this is a bot/phising of some sort. But how?

Sunday Times Culture says Jamie Oliver is one of only 15 authors to have been in bestseller charts for 500 weeks. But who are they? JK Rowling? Delia Smith? EL James? Dan Brown?

Stoke Newington sometimes out parodies itself

🍕🍜💷 Eating out at a high street restaurant chain with the kids. When a once regular, affordable treat becomes a luxury… I’ve investigated the psychology and economics of “bill shock”. In today’s @telegraphnews.bsky.social Magazine 🧵

Trump was not snubbed. The nominations closed in January and the Nobel Prize is for stuff undertaken pre-2025. So...if this Gaza peace deal holds, I am sure Trump stands a v good chance of winning the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. And considering Kissinger won it, Trump prob deserves it.

🧹⏱️ A cleaner was “sacked” from Parliament because she was secretly working 17hr long days. 5 days a week. For 16 years. Why is it illegal to work very long hours if you choose to do so? And you’re not an airline pilot? This week’s @thetimes.com biz column. On hard work…

To Aldi Christmas showcase. Where I got to see / taste some of the very best innovation in the UK. And some of the worst. Strap in… (cheese is involved)

🌱🍔🍳Vegan "meat". The EU has now voted to ban manufacturers from using the terms "burger", "sausage" and "egg yolk" when descibing plant-based alternatives. A cowardly move to protect farmers? Or sensible? I am discussing this on Radio 4 PM programme at 5.15pm...

Great fun interviewing the irrepressible Gyles Brandteth on stage at The Reform Club for the annual @nspcc.bsky.social literary lunch. Where he talked about his wonderful new book ‘Somewhere a Boy’, a biography of AA Milne. Gyles knew the real Christopher Robin!

I'm intrigued by the outrage that Nando's has stopped consumers getting free re-fills of full-sugar Coca Cola. This isn't the "nanny state gone mad". If you want 2nd glass of sugary coke you can pay for it. KFC stopped selling *all* full-sugar drinks in 2021 www.lbc.co.uk/article/nand...