Oh dear. It's years since I remembered how to Know My Place. I do hope the very clever gentlemen who tell me what to think have got this right.

A+ State of the Union counterprogramming by TCM.

The agency eliminated 240 hours of “vital classes” from a mandatory 580-hour training program, including instruction about the legal boundaries for the use of force, how to safely handle firearms, and the proper way to detain and arrest immigrants. wapo.st/4aS06mU

I’m sure that ‘We will ensure you can be sacked and/or evicted at a whim’ will be a huge vote winner. Nice of Tice to highlight this Govt’s achievements, when the Govt has been reluctant to do so.

Trump loves suing people.... so the PM should take a leaf out of his book. Starmer should sue the President for illegal damage to the British economy. Don’t worry Donald - we will settle for £100bn, that’s how it works right?

@alryanradio.bsky.social sadly for me 'España' brings memories of playing it in the school orchestra at half this speed and with dubious intonation!

2026 basically

Lost my phone in London, with four credit cards and £150 cash in the case. Returned to me within 21 minutes. This hellhole of a city eh.

Wednesday

So when thousands of women (and children) were being duplicated--including in non-consensual AI porn--it was no big deal. But it took "only a 15-sec clip" of these two famous white men to draw outrage and fear. Gotcha. Cool cool.

Quick point here: I really don't think people grasp how dangerous the security environment for MP's has become. When I worked for the JCF we found 80% of welsh MP/MS' had been threated while in office, and 43% had recieved death threats. That rose to 90% of female scottish MSP's...

Scotland’s Story Nigel Farage says 1 million people in Britain don’t speak English. The Census says otherwise. The number of people across these islands who do not speak English is around 190,000. Yet again, Farage is caught lying.

One in five children infected in the recent London measles outbreak were reportedly hospitalised. Don’t believe the anti-vaxxers when they say “it’s a mild disease” or “it’s better to get immunity naturally”. It isn’t.

"I can't be bought" Says man who sells video birthday greetings for £70 a time.

There's no patriot like a Monaco-based patriot.

“People used to be getting healthier year on year. Now we're getting sicker year on year. The difference is Covid.”

Always an exciting moment when we see les grues (the cranes) flying north over our part of France… a sign that spring is on the way.

“I think it’s a classic case of the devil you know” Investors warn unseating Starmer could derail post-Budget rally in gilts and sterling. Starmer’s allies say attempt to topple the prime minister would wreak havoc on the economy… as.ft.com/r/682f40b3-1...

What would the reaction be if this were Russia, or China?

If you are a government with a majority of over 100 and you are worrying about being able to get a vote through parliament, that should really be a wake-up call as to whether the thing you are doing is a good idea or not.

Truly chilling to have an agent walk up to someone filming and say 'Have you not learned?'

@stgilescathedral.bsky.social looking splendid!

the oldest adage in journalism is “follow the money” new in the FT:

I’m sure others have noticed this exchange between Michael Wolff and Epstein about exorbitant price Rybolovlev’ paid to Trump for his the Palm Beach Mansion and suspicious trades with MBS - but how many have twigged that Rybolovlev is part of the current Ukraine negotiating team?

Apparently 5 under par is referred to as an ostrich. Today I am 73.6% ostrich. Minute Cryptic - 30 January, 2026 "Fig 'n' ram!" (5,7) ⚪️🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 1 hints – 5 under the community par (77,243 solvers so far).

Security guarantees from Trump can’t be relied on. He treats any decision point as an opportunity for extortion.

Feels like Trump is pretty much unconditionally surrendering as support collapses

They owe her, and all of us, an apology.

Sad to learn of the death of former BBC foreign correspondent Sir Mark Tully. For so many years he was known as the ‘Voice of India.’ As a tribute I play one of the pieces Sir Mark selected on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs: Danny Boy.

I've done My Week: Donald Trump (again) for tomorrow. My first draft genuinely had a joke about Trump thinking there were penguins in Greenland but I took it out because it seemed too stupid.

The decline of the west, 1818-2025

David's sacrifice is still being recognised today because Trump has crossed a line which even he can perhaps identify He might choose to identify the fallen of his own country as 'losers'. We identify our war dead as better than we can ever be There's no need for a search party for the high ground

Extraordinary story: Henry Raeburn's portrait of Scottish poet Robert Burns which was lost for 220 years is put on public display for the first time at @nationalgalleries.bsky.social. The painting, which dates from 1803, resurfaced during a house clearance in Surrey.

Leaving NATO at a time like this would be absolutely nuts.

BREAKING: The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, just delivered the strongest rebuke of Donald Trump we’ve seen yet regarding Greenland. Wow.

If you’re a US city that invested in a big convention center and hotels to attract and host big conferences, you gotta be worried.

Every defector Farage unveils, swears up-and-down that they made no deal. Farage cocked up today and pulled back that curtain. A huge unforced error. Incredibly, when - rightly - pressed about it, he pretended, to journalists' faces, that he had never said what he said TO THEM an hour earlier.

I would really caution anyone against implying that paywalling this feature is a legitimate response to public outcry. The paywall is an endorsement, not a restriction. Musk is saying "this thing you're all talking about is valuable. Pay me for it." The actual material effect is just monetization.

Biggest story today? Oh just the US military flying over our heads to seize a Russian-flagged tanker off the Scottish coast after breaking the Venezuela oil blockade Full recap of our live reporting 👇

We used to have a Constitution, Congress, and the law. Now the limits of Trump’s power are self-determined. This is why we called our rallies ‘No Kings’.

There are always Trumps. And so that is why the United States constitution has checks and balances for the misuse of presidential power. The real story of Trump’s presidency is not only what he has done, but also what Congress and the Supreme Court have not done.

Walz: "I couldn't help but think, and it scares me a bit -- 'The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most important directive.' It certainly feels like that in this moment."

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

I understand the pressures on the BBC, but Radio 4's coverage of the Minneapolis shooting is an example of "bad balance". It's all "the Trump regime says she was a terrorist, but Democrats say it was murder". The BBC has the footage. It doesn't have to treat truth and falsehood as equally valid.

Spain's Youth and Children's Minister has asked the Public Prosecutor (DPP rough equivalent) to investigate X for peddling child pornography

The US government is now freely killing people at sea, in other lands, and on its own streets. It is difficult to see what more is needed for Congress and the Supreme Court to exercise their constitutional duty to check and balance what is now a rogue state abroad and a gangster state at home.

“Do you have no decency? Do you have no decency? We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever... Enough. Enough is enough.” —Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz