10k PBs all round this morning - very proud of @sianelvin.bsky.social going well under an hour barely two years after having her knee rebuilt, and quite pleased with my own (just about) sub-45 minute effort. Great preparation for this afternoon’s cricket match…

Anthony Head is my go-to incredibly mundane celebrity encounter, in that I saw him on the platform at Bath Spa station once. I didn’t approach him, he looked grumpy (which, if he’d been on a GWR train, I can well understand).

All The Money In The World Is Not Enough

Marc Bolland drafted in to help the Government get young people into work. That's former M&S chief exec Marc Bolland and not, as I definitely didn't think when I first saw this release, the late T-Rex frontman Marc Bolan. www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home...

Trevor Phillips has just described the Prime Minister as "the country's leading Gooner". It's going to be a long morning.

www.maptap.gg May 31 95🏅 100🎯 100🎯 95🏆 99🎯 Final score: 977 Feeling quite pleased with this one.

Someone is playing North London Forever outside my window, which given I live in South London I am taking as an act of gross imperialism.

God to see football learning from the superior sport of cricket and incorporating drinks breaks. Next stop, sandwiches and cake served at half time.

Really not great given the decision to take bread off prescription for coeliacs (not that you could even get that in a lot of places...)

This is what I pay my FT subscription fee for.

I may not longer be on holiday, but I can still enjoy the sun (and Surrey preparing to give Durham a hammering)

One consequence of the Iran war - the Illicit Finance Summit planned to take place in London next month has been postponed until December as the conflict is drawing diplomatic capacity and political attention here and abroad away from everything else.

Nus Ghani here, announcing the Liberal Democrats have drawn Manchester United in the third round of the cup.

I probably shouldn't be surprised, but it is amazing how many councils seem to have absolutely no interest in telling people who's in charge. Found several where control has changed, they've met to pick the new leader and nothing on their websites to communicate what happened.

Days like this I’m quite glad I have limited exposure to American Bluesky, so I’ve missed whatever nonsense you’re all talking about today

Apropos, oh, nothing very much, “coronate” is not a verb. The word you’re looking for is “crown”.

Andy Burnham's path to Parliament becomes ever narrower - both Afzal Khan and Jeff Smith, Manchester MPs rumoured to be considering making way for him, have denied to PA that they intend to stand down.

Every time a military helicopter flies over Westminster, I say "the coup's started". Never fails not to get a laugh from colleagues. Anyway, a wildcat's just gone over Parliament Square, so the coup is definitely on.

I am given to understand Chuka Umunna is in Downing Street for a "routine meeting" and is not meeting the Prime Minister. Stand down everybody.

This incident has prompted the distressing realisation that some (non-lobby) colleagues are not old enough to remember Chuka Umunna.

PM was supposed to meet Labour-affiliated unions this afternoon, but it appears that meeting has now been cancelled.

If you want an illustration of how useful Twitter's AI is, it is currently serving me as its number 1 news story...a joke about Keir Starmer visiting an owl sanctuary, which it is of course reporting as fact.

Thoughts and prayers with those sending press releases to lobby journalists today about, well, anything really.

Away from the day job, I want to say I think it is incredibly cool the UK can literally parachute doctors onto a remote island thousands of miles away to deal with a health crisis. Anyway, that’s enough cringe sincerity from me, back to politics.

Tom Watson backs the PM (or possibly just negatively compares the current PLP's coup-staging talents with his own) substack.com/@tomwatsonof...

What election?

Richmond is now a one party state - the Lib Dems have swept all 54 seats, defeating the five remaining Green councillors to achieve total dominance.

Here's a stat from our election experts - in the first 10 councils to declare their full results, Labour won just 17% of the seats it was defending.

A rare trip to PA headquarters, where our overnight election coverage will mostly be fuelled by copious amounts of sugar.

Spotlight, which might be heresy for a journalist but I don’t care, it was dull and absolutely did not deserve best picture. This is connected to my wider, strongly held belief that almost all films about journalists are bad.

Top 10 sci-fi films, in no particular order: Alien Aliens Blade Runner District 9 The World’s End The Thing Gattaca Starship Troopers Edge of Tomorrow Mad Max: Fury Road Bonus TV play: The Year Of The Sex Olympics

You had better believe this incredibly transparent newspaper sales tactic absolutely worked on me

4:07.20 is the time - a new PB by five minutes, despite everything feeling even harder than last year. If you’re doing this, I recommend not getting sick the week before and being unable to eat until Thursday.

Always enjoy the quirky marathon records - fastest rhino and such. Today Bluesky's very own @cjmckeon.bsky.social aims to be the quickest JD Vance look-a-like across 26.2 miles. He's doing it for a good cause, so show him any support you can. 2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/christoph...

Last Saturday, I had food poisoning. Tomorrow, I run the London Marathon. This is going to be fine.

Saw someone here accusing the BBC of acting like pre-election "purdah" rules don't apply to them. Huge, as they say, if true.

I feel more people need to know that the logo of the Joint Maritime Information Centre is a ship being menaced by the world's largest and most sinister octopus like it's actually a front for SPECTRE.

Thoroughly enjoyed @barristersecret.bsky.social’s Cut Throat Trial. Gripping, and manages to convey the reality of court (without tedious days of cell site analysis). The “music from the 2000s that old people like” line was upsetting though.

Final long run before the marathon - c.31km from Ashford to Folkestone. Only mildly blustery down the shoreline as well.

A pretty stark conclusion from Parliament's national security strategy committee - Britain must prepare for a 'worst-case scenario' in which it and Europe cannot rely on US support in a crisis www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Top reporting from inside Dubai www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Also, didn’t we already know this? I swear I saw @watsoncomedian.bsky.social doing stand-up about Banksy’s identity years ago.

Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived at No10, where the PM has told him the UK’s resolve remains “unbreakable” and the focus must stay on Ukraine despite the war in Iran. They’re expected to be joined by NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte shortly.

New remit for the Low Pay Commission is out - talks about giving LPC 'flexibility' on pace and timing of scrapping age bands in the minimum wage for adults and prioritising youth employment prospects. Slight change from 'take account of' youth employment in previous years www.gov.uk/government/p...

Return to Liverpool for the half-marathon and a 1:40:11 finish. About 33 seconds off my PB and, given the hills, a very pleasing result. Six weeks to London. Thanks to @sianelvin.bsky.social for coming, cheering and waving a sign

More from the Gulf, where Yvette Cooper tells me Russia and Iran are trying to “hijack the global economy” as the Strait of Hormuz shows no sign of opening www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Not how I thought I’d be spending my Thursday - with the Foreign Secretary in Riyadh, where she’s been to the embassy to thank the crisis team helping Brits get out of the Gulf - including civil servants scrambled at about 3 hours notice on the first Sunday of the war.

Tell me you’ve never looked at a map without telling me etc etc

Well that was a busy 5 minutes. Starmer says the UK *will* allow the US to use British bases to hit Iran, but only to target Tehran's missile sites in order to defend allies in the Gulf. Britain still won't take part in strikes directly.

Big operation underway at the Foreign Office to help Brits in the Gulf. 76,000 so far registered their presence, mostly in the UAE - unprecedented numbers already. Officials looking at possible evacuation routes, but current advice is follow travel guidance and local authorities.