The boy Presley, backstage at dress rehearsals for The Ed Sullivan Show, 28th October 1956. Yes, that IS Joyce Grenfell standing just behind him. "Elvis... don't do that"

One thing that irks me: people keep calling the folks on the streets in Minneapolis protestors. They are not generally there to protest, they are there to observe and document. This is the product of organizing and mutual aid. It is telling that these acts of citizenship are seen as protest!

In case you missed it: My suggestion that Farage was whispering to Trump behind the scenes while Trump was going after Greenland has been essentially confirmed. As @jamesdaustin.bsky.social notes: Working against your country's interest with a semi-hostile state - there's a word for that.

Read this thread for the lived experience of what it's like in almost all UK universities now - just an internal implosion. Organisationally, morally, in terms of capacity and morale.

Archive poster chat for the BFI from me here: www.bfi.org.uk/inside-the-a...

I've had enough.

Also today, it’s the 28th anniversary of it being established in a court of law that you can call ‘politician’ Rupert Allason a “conniving little shit” if you want to. But who would you want to do such a terrible, unkind thing? Well, the creators of Have I Got News For You, in fact...

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence. "It pulls at my clothing and sometimes I feel I've got to pick it up, cuddle and kiss it."

"enigmatic and expansive". For pity's sake.

"Whoo. I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker. That could've dome some damage but you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain. I would've gone back. Boy did you hear that? That was nasty. But I would not have shown the pain. I would've acted like nothing happens as my finger fell off."

It is even worse than it looks

They really need to turn his 'member' into a Blue Peter style totaliser

Letter in Times today

When Nottingham's overseas campuses are cited as evidence without any reference to Nottingham's UK campus woes, you know you have a half-baked, politically convenient policy in the oven. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Not sure this is quite the message they intended to send with their America250/Freedom250 swag — or maybe the good folks at the Smithsonian are WAY more subversive than we gave them credit for 😂😭🤯

I think a good strategy for your non-leftist social media presence (ie everywhere but here) is to give this photo - the remains of Danish soldiers returning in coffins after being killed in America's war in Afghanistan - as wide an audience as possible. Remind people who we're betraying

If only there had been some clue that he was like this.

"I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace"

Great lost art projects: Imagining Philip Larkin played by Arthur Askey with Arthur doing his thing reading the poetry, and letters to Kingsley amis.

Manchester, there, boasting about giving everyone on campus access to something that is already (a) ubiquitous and (b) disliked. It's like boasting "The first university in the world where you're never more than 50m away from a rat."

some of us are old enough to remember that theresa may used to call a press conference in order to say absolutely nothing of substance all the time

It might sound silly, but I mean it: The easiest and most potent way for Europe to hurt Trump this year is to once again use its cultural soft power and to threaten a boycott of the World Cup. It would become a completely meaningless event and would hurt him where he is most vulnerable - his vanity.

Starmer's prob is that this sounds like a holding speech in the midst of a huge realignment (or, more accurately,a nutter President causing chaos). Fair dos. But ppl will also hear very Starmer-esque denial of the need for agility & imagination. The moment demands v. rare skills (that he hasn't got)

And another thing: that this letter was sent via official channels and not tweeted out. Nobody in State stepped in to soften or tidy it up, or to keep it quiet. Instead they blasted it out to all the other European nations.

I still can’t quite believe that this reported Trump-Norway letter is real.

Being prepared to go to war with your closest allies because you were not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize does seem like the clearest possible vindication of the decision that you didn’t deserve it.

Me, an idiot: I'm worried about these parties that seem really hostile to darker-skinned people. James Orr, an actual associate professor at actual Cambridge University: It is impossible for populists to be undemocratic, because of the Greek origins of the word "democracy".

Its interesting how seriously the Thatcher government considered withdrawing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the 1982 World Cup (having established the Football Associations would withdraw if Cabinet recommended it) before deciding would be an own goal www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014...

It’s the 122nd anniversary of Cary Grant’s birthday so I’m obligated to share Mel Brooks’s beloved Cary Grant story. I don’t think there’s a chat show that he hasn’t told it on but my first and favourite was on Clive James. youtu.be/9QbATFlTaZs?...

Like a spy drop, my brilliant editor Rebecca Bardem at Bloomsbury has specially come to hand over the very first preview copy of my BFI Classics book. Where else but at the BFI? 🎥 (Out April 2nd)

You will not regret scrolling up for the rest of this thread about the sheer audacity of cats to walk into houses they don't live in and swan around like they own the place Honestly, excellent cat behaviour 💯

Like so many MPs, Jenrick 'thinks he’s Francis Urquhart, when in fact he’s Baldrick'. Marvellous from @roberthutton.co.uk thecritic.co.uk/francis-urqu...

‘War for Greenland is boring, let’s talk about the Tories’ is genuinely the weirdest thing for a former ambassador *to Denmark* to say, apart from anything else

"Like so many MPs, he thinks he’s Francis Urquhart, when in fact he’s Baldrick" - @roberthutton.co.uk in his defection sketch thecritic.co.uk/francis-urqu...

A lovely episode of @backlisted.bsky.social with a fantastic Beatles revelation that will leave you exclaiming "Of course!" A wonderful way with words plus an exquisite guitar player too, as you'll hear here youtu.be/qryuTCMET-U?...

It’s actually three guys but they’re all Peter Sellers

A week today, I shall be at the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, talking about Britain between the wars. It'd be lovely if you came along.

Tbf that is half of our entire army.

And that is why Harriet is an *ex* barrister.

Dirk Bogarde, Accident, @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social, 10.10pm.

Three short paragraphs, and you've got the whole mind-bending mess that is #UKHE finance & governance neatly laid out. This is why it's all so exhausting: our managers declare there's only one static frame, while we know their framing is part of the issue. 💡 www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/01/10/w...

Did you last visit when we were spraying the Mary Rose with water? Time for a return visit... maryrose.org/visit/

Bluntly, this government looks like toast without big changes. What is in question is Labour’s future as a party that can aspire to govt, that it won’t simply become irrelevant after the next election. Luke’s monomania which he thinks is going to save the party only looks like it will destroy it.

Since becoming leader Starmer has prioritised winning back ‘hero voters’ - & completely failed. Lab won in 2024 despite that busted strategy & we can see the results of persisting with it. Luke et al are more of a danger to Lab than Corbyn ever was. magazine.newstatesman.com/2026/01/09/o...

Love near the Tripe Works, 1963, painting by Alan Lowndes, 1921-78, Stockport-born artist.

never been one for consent, has he

“We believe this to be the work of thieves”

'You're wrong', 'Mother!', 'Gangway!'.