Where is Darlington? Now, I know where Darlington is. I used to work there. But if I asked you ‘where is Darlington’ in the sense of which local authority, administrative geography or region then you might struggle. And this map shows why. 🧵 1/10

Confusing my kids with bad 90s songs based on video games. This one is super weird: 1: Lyrics based specifically on the off-brand Game Boy version of Mario 2: Mario Land recreated via the medium of the Wild West bit at Chessington World of Adventures www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nF...

(A) incredible and (B) an excuse to post this

Just been told I'm being investigated for speeding in the pit lane at Monaco

The Ally MacLeod quote about Scotland winning the World Cup that comes up again here sounds mad, then you look at the squad and it's basically the Forest and Liverpool sides that dominated Europe for years www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Its what the people of Makerfield are calling for

Has there ever been less hype for a World Cup? It starts in five days and I haven't seen a single marketing tie in, pub with flags up (the good flags) and couldn't tell you what channel or days England's games are on

Those who voted for Brexit will never be forgiven.

I have one job to do today which is a bit complicated but will take all of ten minutes once I get into it. Let the procrastination begin....

Duncan Fletcher's 90mph fixation bears some responsibility for this as well

Persepolis - Eye of the Tiger (2007)

Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis,' dies at 56

This is grim on so many levels. Can we stop with the 'might this be fascism?' conversations now www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Love Michelle, but she has clearly never been northern and/or working class in British academia or media www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

How is it that EE, a company that provides internet, has a website and an app so broken that it is impossible to ever make a payment

The BBC are really going out of their way to not call these The Peter Files.

Yeah, the time to worry about this stuff was *at any time in the past ten years of escalating fake terror screaming at the public about Left Wing Extremism And Hate*. We are now firmly in the “find out” phase that was always going to follow ten-plus years of extremely committed fucking around.

Cant believe I'm going to defend Streeting but Mandelson defining 'hey, are we supporting war crimes?' as a mid life crisis is not a great look

This hill I will die on is that the most heartbreaking scene possible is the one they should have ended Toy Story 3 with. Incinerator, Andy goes to college, credits.

I’ve seen some poorly understood summaries of the Manchester story, so I thought I’d explain what was going on when Burnham arrived, the politics of it, and a little about what’s happened since as.ft.com/r/d7e11a31-2...

I don't think there's a bad era of Daffy Duck. I love wacky Daffy, I love grifter Daffy, I love anti-Bugs Daffy, I love oddly sentimental yet easily flummoxed Daffy, I love them all. The best cartoon evolution in Looney Tunes.

But why is Detective Benoit Blanc there and who invited him? Find out in Knives Out IV, only on Netflix

I just learned that Richard O'Brien posted his original ROCKY HORROR demos on Bandcamp, and it just sounds like a legendary lost folk punk album. Like if you told me this was actually Neutral Milk Hotel or @evangreer.bsky.social, I'd probably believe you. richardobrien.bandcamp.com/album/the-ro...

This is a pretty depressing but pretty accurate summary of the state of British academia www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Is there any point in replacing Starmer if Labour are just going to offer the same shit policies but delivered in a slightly more blokey accent?

Imagine telling ten year old me that one day they'll release a Star Wars film and you won't give less of a shit.

ok truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT...

I read constantly but I have read about 12 of these and started and put down another handful, and not sure any outside Catch-22 and Master and Magherita would make my list

Its my usual moan but why is a weekend off-peak return rail ticket from Leicester to Bristol via the joys of New Street somehow £204

If this was about democracy the people of #Makerfield would be keeping the MP they voted for. Instead they are told to vote for a guy who won't have any time for them, because he'll be busy in Westminster. Labour are treating them like pawns, with lives that don't matter. That's not democracy.

So in the not improbable scenario that Manchester soon has a Reform or Green Mayor, ditto for an MP in Makerfield, can we stop talking about Andy Burnham?

PHOTO OF THE DAY. Louis Armstrong performing for his wife at the Great Sphinx of Giza (1961). 📷 Bettmann/Corbis

Trying to think what it must be like working in the Manchester Mayor's office when your boss has spent the week openly going for another job and assuming one of his female colleagues will happily quit their well paid job to facilitate this

The Today program hitting that key debate of the day, what would Harold Wilson do?

best spiritual trilogy: - my girl (1991) - the wicker man (2006) - bee movie (2007)

Is the real Labour party battle the bad right parting over the bad left parting? Is there someone on the back benches with normal person hair that can stand up?

In amongst the Labour chaos have discovered there is a 'Minister for devolution, faith and communities' which is quite the diverse portfolio. Three days a week on local mayors and freeports, one on 'can we all get along' and then one talking about Vape Shops?

Do we at least get the win of Mahmood going this week?

So the challengers for Starmer are no women (because Labour), a guy who barely won his own seat & is widely disliked, a guy who is liked but doesn't have a seat & has badly lost two leadership elections, and a guy who was leader once before and did the exact same Blue Labour thing as Starmer. Fun

Surely Mahmood is number one on the list for being out of a job if and when Starmer does go?

Hantavirus is no joke 😂 That's why I've started washing my hands after touching rat feces 🐀 What are doing differently to fight hantavirus?💪

Tom Tom League

I spent way too long this weekend correlating 81 census variables with local election results, so you don't have to. Enjoy! datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QQQ3D/7/

this really does make me despair. this is a woman who has just got elected as a Reform councillor. she works for the NHS and wants to know “where the money is going”. it’s going on social care, babe

My review of Anton Jager's Hyperpolitics appears in the next @lrb.co.uk and is online now www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Love the song, love the month, love this time of year Bealtaine Nua Shona daoibh youtu.be/6f_6Wf2abms?...

I'm starting to think political analysis and playing the banjo are quite separate, maybe even totally unrelated, skills.