Apparently serious response to @theobserveruk.bsky.social ring-round on policy on dogs in offices. Anything on deep background?

Thin-skinned & combative. Wasted opportunity to discuss valid concerns about BBC coverage of, and arguably part in, Starmer’s demise.

Is Bob Servant back?

‘There will be [older] people on wards right now that are so hot, so unhydrated, and will anybody be taking them water to stay alive today? That’s how bad I think it is’ - Baroness Louise Casey at Commons health & social care cttee on the ‘unloved’ policy of elder care

Nick Robinson so affronted that Starmer failed to time his resignation to suit the Today programme. Excellent.

Six bylines on a 600-word [email protected]

Brave words now … www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Not sure I’m ready for prime minister Burnham at this point www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Kind of neat that Noddy Holder (80) tops today’s @thetimes.com birthday list and Xi Jinping (73) brings up the rear

TOTAL VICTORY

Always a good idea to stay off LinkedIn on honours list day if you are easily triggered

BBC Verify seeming not to understand percentages and percentage points … “… the planned defence investment plan intends to increase defence spending in 2030 to 2.68% of GDP. That implies an 0.08% increase on the existing 2027 commitment of 2.6% of GDP - around £2.4bn in today’s money.”

Listening to Hilary Benn striking precisely the right note on Belfast disorder & not for the first time puzzling why he hasn’t risen higher in the Labour pecking order

@royalsociety.org I hear you’re blocking people calling on you to cancel Elon Musk’s fellowship. His presence besmirches your name. He’s a danger to British democracy. Reconsider.

Since October 1, 2025, the US has accepted 6,668 refugees. Of those, 6,665 were white South Africans. Three—admitted last November—were from Afghanistan. No other refugees were admitted.

Would he have got beyond his second sentence on the Today programme before Robinson or Webb interrupted him?

I know it’s not as simple as this, but should there really be a crisis in our maternity services? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What have successive governments done to free innocent people from being locked up since the abuse at Winterbourne View inpatient unit was exposed? Not much. Despite evidence, personal testimonies and government-commissioned reports. 15 years.

Oops - BBC (8am news R4) reporting Next boss Simon Wolfson’s attack on government’s employment rights measures, employer's NI and minimum wage rises without pointing out he’s a Tory peer

Any mention of more occupational therapists? Pound for pound the key role if the gov’t is to deliver its shift from hospital to community

60 today - peerless

Well maybe we’ll now get a health AND SOCIAL CARE secretary

Pretty much wall-to-wall ‘keep Starmer/has everyone gone mad?’ on @bbc5live.bsky.social phone-in

The underrated Twenty Twenty Six got here first - I liked the hats for players option

Truly we are where we are

Nice one @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Zia Yusuf repeatedly refusing to answer @mattchorley.bsky.social on whether Farage received any other large ‘personal’ donations in the 12 months before he became an MP @bbc5live.bsky.social

Thought my @theobserveruk.bsky.social was chunky - then found its 48-page listing of all last week’s London Marathon finishers’ times. All hail M Liu whoever you are …

Good

Should we be surprised any longer that the BBC website is leading with this opinion piece during an elections campaign?

‘Despite the dedication of our amazing volunteers and supporters, we have reached a point where closing is the only viable option’ - another vital local charity, Home-Start Staffordshire Moorlands, goes under after almost 30 years. In 2024-25 it supported 96 struggling families with young children.

Quite the obituary - includes the wonderfully euphemistic ‘During the marriage both parties had, to a greater or lesser degree, enjoyed the attentions of the opposite sex’ @thetimes.com

Record low death rates in England & Wales in first quarter of 2026, actuaries say. Mild winter, better prevention or continuing effect of abnormally high rates during pandemic? www.actuaries.org.uk/learn-and-de...

New two party system just arrived in Cliftonville. Wonder how many wards will become Green vs Reform battlegrounds in local elections next month. Suspect quite a few (plus plenty of other new two party contests springing up)

Interviews with rock gods are not what they were … Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson in @theipaper.com

Congratulations Tony Gallagher - your mission to turn The Times into the Daily Mail is now complete

Sadly and no doubt due to pressure of space @thetimes couldn’t find a more prominent slot for this ad than p34 opposite the obituaries

‘Team Kemi or Team Miliband?’ asks Simon Jack on BBC R4 Today re North Sea drilling. It’s matey Boris all over again …

Goodness gracious he was a board member of Homes England for almost five years and its interim chair for 15 months! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

predicting one heck of a hangover

Thomas Skinner has tweeted at the other place that he was paid £2k to appear on Question Time. Excellent use of licence fee payers’ money.

Scary @theipaper.com

The unique & irrepressible @clentonf.bsky.social battles through tech problems to tell a @local.gov.uk seminar that social care reform must be all about Place, Power (for the individual) & Possibility

What to believe in today’s @thetimes.com ??

RIP Tom Georgeson aka Detective Harry Naylor in Between the Lines - still the best TV police drama ever. I shall be taking no questions.

"and is this game plan in the room with us now?"

Maximum fine 40 shillings www.countypress.co.uk/news/2592704...

£1.80 from April

A couple of weeks ago we brought together leaders in adult social care to work out if, and how, they could help break the logjam on reform. You can now read me & @blimeysimon.bsky.social on what happened www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...