What you’re witnessing is a populist assault on the BBC. This is not an institutional scandal in any meaningful sense of the word. It is an attack on public service broadcasting. iandunt.substack.com/p/extra-edit...

Thus far the average max at London Heathrow has been 16.2C +5C above already warmed 1991-2020 monthly average high. So the outlook will be a shock - expecting widespread frosts into early next week with temperatures more typical of January values. Feeling even more chillier as it has been so mild.

Can the U's still make the playoffs? 🤔 Guest Claire has a very compelling argument with a legendary story about a handshake! "Aggie looked me in the eye and he told me we were making the playoffs. And he shook my hand on it." 🤝

🍺 Northumberland Arms, Brentford: rather desolate-looking pub, west of the River Brent, with a modernised interior and two of the three handpumps partly hidden behind a pillar. Three blokes at the bar discuss trips to the western USA. I can't fault my pint of Oakham Original Pale Ale.

🍺 White Swan, Richmond, Gtr London: yet another pub I'm returning to after a long absence (I recall it being a Courage house in the 80s), this cosy, C18th hostelry, up a back street from the river, serves a decent pint of Surrey Hills Shere Drop. Clientele are decidedly middle-aged and middle class.

Shrewsbury tie on the goggle box and 60k banked for the privilege. Nice. #suttonunited www.suttonunited.net/news-shrewsb...

⚽️ Sutton Utd 2 Eastleigh 1: beneath a supermoon and fireworks we grab only our second league win of the season, the first half graced with two fine home goals, the rather rocky second seeing us give away our umpteenth penalty this term and spurn chances to get a third goal. We are off the bottom!

Deeply disappointed by AELTC. They should be working with Save Wimbledon Park & the community to find a compromise, not conspiring with Tory Lords to re-write the law to push their industrial scale tennis expansion plans through. www.paulkohler.uk/news/article...

🐍 The mild November weather had tempted out this young Grass Snake at the London Wetland Centre, Barnes, today. 🐦‍⬛ The Glossy Ibis was still present on the grazing marsh and two Redpolls were in the birches by the sheltered lagoon. No sighting of yesterday's Long-eared Owl.

Shrewsbury at GGL in Round 2. Not bad, they're having almost as shocking a season as us! 😆 #suttonunited

🍺 Old Shades, Whitehall, London: acquired by Young's since my last visit (thus a Beer Guide re-tick) and it was pleasing to see six different breweries represented on the handpumps, my Southwark London Pale Ale somewhat underwhelming. Handsome, late Victorian pub, long and narrow, moderately busy.

Garden wildlife. It's that time of year when fallen leaves should be left where they fall, and where they will provide food/shelter for various invertebrates (the worms in my garden like them!), and which in turn provides some more food for birds. #LeaveTheLeaves #LeafLitterLove

Amid all the horror of the attack on Saturday we see the very, very best of human beings. The passengers who helped each other, the heroic train worker who put himself in harms way and undoubtedly saved lives. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c9...

⚽️ FA Cup 1st round, Sutton Utd 2 AFC Telford Utd 1: full-blooded Cup tie against opponents one step below us. We went 2-0 up with well worked goals but it was no surprise when Telford pulled one back, and in the frenetic, final ten minutes both sides came close to scoring again. A pivotal win?

🐦‍⬛ A moody sky this morning over Beddington Farmlands, where pulses of seeping Redwings, the odd cackling Fieldfare and a Sparrowhawk took to the air. A Shelduck and a Kingfisher were on the North Lake. Airborne within the permit-only area were a Jack Snipe, a Green Sandpiper and two Water Pipits.

🐦‍⬛ An autumn-hued Wandle Meadow this morning yielded a cackling Fieldfare, a cronking Raven over west and a southbound Little Egret. Dozens of Woodpigeons were heading W/SW/S. Goldcrest, Grey Wagtail and Stock Dove were also among the 34 species present.

⚽️ Surrey Senior Cup 1st round, Guildford City 0 Sutton Utd 5: our third win of the season, against another club at the foot of their table, but four levels below ours, a relatively strong Sutton XI (wearing quarters) easing through, captain Harry Phipps and striker Brandon Njoku each scoring twice.

🍺 Bricklayers Arms, Shamley Green, Surrey: village local, busy with lunching OAPs, where the Surrey Hills Three Peaks (new to me) is both dry and refreshing. This is another pub I last visited decades ago and changes required a Good Beer Guide re-tick; I've now completed Surrey in the 2026 edition.🙂

🍺 Coach & Horses, Salisbury: pleasant, airy pub, of medieval origin, with traditional furniture (including a dresser) and relaxing, green decor. Decent menu. Alas, the Devils Backbone from the Frome brewery was not pleasant, its spine insidiously acidic.

🐦‍⬛ Salisbury Plain (west of Enford, Wilts): it took nearly two hours to locate them, but I spotted four then another eleven Great Bustards, distant but unmistakable. Although reintroduced, the species is still a thrill to see in the wild, and a 'lifer' for me. 😀 11 Golden Plover were a nice bonus.

🐦‍⬛ I also recall seeing this bird, its location flagged by a bunch of birders with optics trained on a stretch of reeds.

⚽️ Wealdstone 4 Sutton Utd 2: false dawn as we went 2-0 up in the first half, only to suffer a second-half collapse. That's seven goals conceded in our last two league games, and we stay rooted to the foot of the table. 😣

🐦‍⬛ Three Little Egrets were perched in Wandle Park's trees this morning, with a Kingfisher (thought to be a juvenile) and a pair of Egyptian Geese also visiting. Alas, there was no further sighting of the Firecrest that I saw here on Monday.

🍺 Black Prince, New Haw, Surrey: solid, 1930s pub, now run by Greene King, with big screens and a mixed clientele mostly drinking lager or wine. My GK Yardbird was not so much Clapton as clapped-out, and was taken off soon after I left the bar. I won't be returning any time soon.

🍺 Falkland Arms, Dorking: two-bar, locals' pub up south from the town centre, with roaming, resident dog. Attractive, small garden. Three Surrey Hills beers are on handpump; the Greensand IPA is rich and robust.

🍺 Dolphin, Betchworth, Surrey: centuries-old, multi-roomed pub with flagstones, beams and inglenooks. I was last here about 30 years ago when it was owned by Young's; it's now run by Dorking Brewery, whose pleasant, undemanding Pilcrow Pale has a soft bitterness. The food is somewhat over-priced.

How is it taking them this long to work this out?

⚽️ Mike, Andy and I hustle through Hartlepool and size up Sutton's prospects in the Agutter era.

⚽️ Sutton Utd 3 Hartlepool Utd 3: another late goal from a centre back earns us a point against another side in poor form, some suspect goalkeeping letting them back into the game after we'd twice gone ahead. We're 2nd bottom; our new head coach has an uphill task to keep us at this level.

🍺 CAMRA London Pubs Group tour of Twickenham and (last pub) Teddington: Sussex Arms, Prince Albert, Rifleman, Builders Arms

🍺 GLC Real Ale Soc trip to Bristol

🍺 White Lion, Egham: another fresh Surrey entry in the Beer Guide, again the only cask offering palatable but decidedly dull, in this case Doom Bar. Handsome, fair-sized pub, rather under-used this Thursday evening.

🍺 Railway Arms, Frimley, Surrey: a pub I last visited way back in the last century, now back in the Good Beer Guide, a down-to-earth, two-bar, High Street boozer with lingering bar flies. Only one cask ale, Wadworth 6X, which is about as good as that gets these days.

⚽️ Sutton Utd 3 Farnham Town 2 after extra time: painful replay progress to the 1st round of the Cup, as we again had to come from behind (twice), our opponents twice hitting a post, but at least we scored three fine goals, the third (from a centre back) in the 120th minute to avert penalties.

🐦‍⬛ Several of us saw this splendid hunter over south London today. Voles beware!

Telford at home in the unlikely event we overcome Farnham. #suttonunited

⚽️ FA Cup 4th qualifying round, Farnham Town 3 Sutton Utd 3: ding-dong game against a side two divisions below us but in much better form. We thrice went behind (the first thanks to some Sunday league defending), our first equaliser arriving quickly from a corner, our third not until the 98th minute.

Denbies Hillside, Surrey: a sign of our times - October 9th, stood in a t-shirt watching Redwings and a Brambling at the same time as this Chalkhill Blue butterfly!! It’s all over the place…

These guys look adorable and their demand is very reasonable

Red-breasted Flycatcher at Quendale Mill today #birds #ukbirding #shetlandbirds

Lovely views of the first winter male Siberian Thrush as it feasted on elderberries at Asta, Shetland this afternoon. #BirdingScotland #UKbirding #RareBirdsUK #Birds #UKWildlife

From northern Fennoscandia (and Russia) with love. Nice to see my first migrant Jack Snipe of the Autumn here in Shetland. In typical habitat and in a typical pose. Amazing birds. #BirdingScotland #UKbirding #Birds #UKWildlife

🐦‍⬛ It's been an enthralling week on Shetland (photo is of Esha Ness) thanks to Shetland Wildlife and our excellent guide Dave Fairhurst. I managed 96 bird species, two of them 'lifers' (Common Rosefinch, Siberian Thrush), and my year list is up to 203. My personal highlight was the young Bluethroat.

Record shot of a very elusive Siberian Thrush at Scalloway today. #birds #ukbirding #shetlandbirds

🐦‍⬛ Shetland, Day 7: Great Northern Diver off Scousburgh Sands, better (though far from perfect) views of the Siberian Thrush near Scalloway, a hunkered-down Jack Snipe at Noss Farm, and finally at Grutness (pictured) a Common Rosefinch, Brambling, Siskins, an Eider and two Purple Sandpipers.

🐦‍⬛ Shetland Day 6: we joined the mass 'twitch' (pictured) north of Scalloway for the notoriously skulking (and very rare) Siberian Thrush; I managed two brief sightings in two hours. Later, we found the drake Ring-necked Duck on Tingwall Loch, then some Red Grouse and a Mountain Hare near Girlsta.

Snowball! Our Autumn birding group enjoyed lovely views of this beautiful Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll at Vaylie, Unst yesterday. Thanks to our good friend Rich Andrews @mrbristolian.bsky.social for the pic. #BirdingScotland #UKbirding #RareBirdsUK #Birds #UKWildlife

1 of 4 Glossy Ibis at Baltasound Unst today. #birds #ukbirding #shetlandbirds

🐦‍⬛🦦 Shetland, Day 5: a wet and windy day started with two Otters in the bay off Hillswick, then the Sullem plantation yielded a Pied Flycatcher. On Yell, a bedraggled Short-toed Lark eventually showed itself near Otterswick, and Golden Plovers flocked at West Sandwick (pictured).

That is now 14 home league wins in 60. SIXTY. And to be honest if you'd seen us play over the last 3yrs you'd be amazed it was that many.