Ollie Robbins was previously sacked by Theresa May: now we know why. Didn’t read the report, didn’t say what was in it, didn’t like the job, calls being expected to do his job, ‘pressure’. That was the worst, weakest performance of any civil servant, ever.

Dysphoria. One of my favourite paintings, this morning I went to catch up and say hello. It’s an old and familiar friend in the Laing. Then I read the updated caption. Has it been so long since I was here? Home now, and quite disorientated.

Look. I’m a bit impetuous. But the French cook without cooking. Nothing ever boils. Stuff kind of comes about with a shrug. So, ce soir I’m being laid back …

I dreamed I wrote something and it made the world alright.

But how did they know it was a Mark One?

As ever, a grand piece by Ian Penman in @lrb.co.uk - this on a new Beach Boys book. But I am beginning to wonder about pop music … did you have to be there?

I have sometimes reflected that Paul Theroux is a little … unseemly: his sweaty bollocks and locomotive arousals are, off putting. (And I am suspicious of his son, too.) But today, he tells me he shoots pigs with an AK47 and fire bullets at cardboard while complaining about the price of bullets.

The sheriff of Nottingham must have been an arse … all those signs to Robin Hood land.

Chris Mason “The UK economy grew by 0.5% in February…” Laura Kuenssberg “Shut your mouth, Ratso”

Anyway, the staff are keen to tell me this is “the famous room”. Maybe Hugh Grant has a better grasp of hotel heating controls than me.

Dear BBC… Chris Mason … not the UK, not the government, not Europe, not the world … not even Trump … but the Labour Party. Well done Ratso Rizzo, you did it again

Age 6, dad would explain the world to me. “Buried up to his neck in arena, the slave faced a massive charging lion … but at the last moment he ducked his head, the lions jaws snapped on air … and the slave bit the animal in the balls.. . FIGHT FAIR YOU BASTARD! screamed the Romans.”

This is why they invented the radio …

I’ve heard of Justin Bieber … but thought he was a pair of shoes.

Trump makes it … youtu.be/4t4YiXWPBpo?...

Trump strafes Vatican … and tells Starmer he’ll flatten Babingtons.

Gosh, sexy Georgia Brown on the Good Old Days. La route est dure! (And Warf’s mum!)

Unlike the Guardian, which i cancel almost weekly, @financialtimes.com Times doesn’t fill its pages with whinging and hyperbole. Reading the weekend edition is a little like listening to Vaughan Williams - or watching Clive James or reading Gore Vidal: there is comfort in the calm intelligence.

Just watched an episode of Z Cars from 1962. Stratford Johns, Frank Windsor and the brilliant Jeremy Kemp. A lot better than the embarassing Beyond Paradise.

How stupid are southerners? This stupid …

We have the best Defence Secretary in the world. Brilliant.

And a song for our times …

“Hi Mr Sinatra, this is the latest record with your daughter ….”

Oh another …

All together …

Trump sues for the peace Biden already had - but at the cost of $billions and the last remnants of USA reputation. Meanwhile Netanyahu continues his Bronze Age slaughters in Lebanon and Gaza - and Putin thanks America for the world mis-direction.

Presenting the reopening the Strait of Hormuz as a victory is like the Greeks failing to take Troy but celebrating the safe return of their wooden horse

Time to make the bank holiday salad .. featuring zuchiolo !

Much-loved 940 GL snowed in, in Scarborough to the astonishing v90 Cross Country Ulitimate in Seaton Sluice. With three XC 70s in between. With a drummer and a bass player who needs a Labrador?

Clash of the Titans is a much better film than Dr Zhivago.

Watching the Pitt. Crumbs.

* Gallic shrug .. Wordle 1,751 2/6 🟨🟨⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

You will all recall my insistence some years back the RSC should do Arturo Ui. They had better give me a credit.

Christ Dead … Starmer facing scrutiny” Daily Mail

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle (owned by REACH) is now charging for digital access to information we have already paid for through the BBC licence fee - which is top sliced to fund local newspaper jobs - known as Local Democracy reporters.

Last time America bombed another country back to the Stone Age….

It’s true: folk really appreciate councillors who get the jobs done

“Now. To be sure … “

Dear BBC, Never heard of him. Not the top story.

@edwardluce.bsky.social this is a brilliant piece, thank you. Please ask the paper to make it more widely available.

In the future, unsigned copies will be rarer …

Wonderful. Wonderful Mary Rand, first British woman to win Olympic athletics gold, dies aged 86 www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/m...

I don’t mind Paddy O’Connell on R4 Sunday morning “What did you read in the Mail on Sunday?” But last night, on Newsnight, he was dreadful. Three very informed & differentiated guests, he persisted in asking a question they politely ignored as meaningless. But which he eventually tried to “re-ask”.

Ok someone … Volvo fails to update 12times to 5.05, telling me the car is unlocked. It isn’t. This is what Volvo said to me last night …. Any thoughts?

Up aloft …

O2 trying to tell me something ….

Hail … and hearty

Reviewers repeat the old line that Alan Bennett kept us guessing about his sexuality. Maybe they missed his wonderful (deleted?) BBC2 comedy series. Emerging from the back of the antique shop, Bennett, hands aloft, speaks to camera: “Oh hello, I won’t shake hands I’ve been stripping a tall boy”

The great Joe Meek did Wuthering Heights better (and quicker) than any of them … and with possibly the world’s most delightfully bad singer … bliss youtube.com/watch?v=sI5p...

Close both grounds, 5 matches.