Superb insight into pub closures by @laurenleek.eu Thanks @ppudney.bsky.social for sharing. #SavePubs

FWIW, after 2+ decades in 🇬🇧 diplomacy my settled view is that BBCWS is *the* (not *a*) vital element of British soft power and the continued attacks on its funding are nothing short of barbaric and self defeating.

My book about Britain ends with a memory. Of the first time I ever worked at Broadcasting House as a guest commentator, what that meant to me, and what the BBC means for 🇬🇧’s place in the world. The idea that the World Service could end is awful, and frankly embarrassing for the British Government.

Print framed and ready for delivery to exhibition in Birmingham, UK

SOS save the #bbcworldservice ‘Perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world”in the 20th century’: Kofi Annan. Money runs out in 7 weeks. No plan. Pls lobby YvetteCooperMP Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer John Healey MP Please Email: [email protected] [email protected]

I can just about remember the New Cavendish Club, which folded 12 years ago, but started life in 1920 as the VAD Ladies’ Club, for nursing veterans of the Voluntary Aid Detachment. This is their story. clubland.substack.com/p/lost-clubs...

post @dieworkwear.bsky.social's excellent idea, if you prove with a screenshot that you've donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, I will give you one (1) recipe of your choice. Only one per day but I will get to them all. rnli.org/support-us/g...

Pub 3268, Garibaldi, Northampton. Amazing. Phipped on my chips. Hairy. Happy. Sweaty. Doggy. Choc orange drank well. I love Northampton cos people just can't help it.

Oh, so much this.

#SteepleSunday St Mary's, Far Cotton, Northampton.

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19.

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. #ijustfancythosethatdo

Thank you. 🙏🏿❤️ P.S. I've posted the full video on my channel too, for those who want to see/hear it. 😁

Inevitably, their affair ended: Howard worried excessively about what the pack would think, and Agnes simply ate the flowers.

The Texas / 2nd Amendment flag is a particularly unhinged touch seeing as the protest was in Poole

Kenneth Horne died on this day in 1969. My February 2019 blog post on one of Britain's best-loved entertainers who also maintained a totally separate career as a successful businessman bit.ly/4jZJUnm

Had the pleasure of meeting Brewdog at a charity do once. They were surprisingly down to earth, and VERY funny.

That moving, open interview with Tracey Emin. I remember her stumbling down the stairs at the Colony Room, propping up the bar at the French, glaring drunkenly at people staring at her. I was too young & stupid to realise she was like that because she was damaged by her life, & not just indulgent.

Thoughts in Brief: - Even if AI can do a job, humans may still be able to provide a premium service. - Modern depictions of the Victorian era. - How lack of trust leads to fettered discretion. www.edrith.co.uk/p/thoughts-i...

This is a fantastic interview:

Australia: we’re going to lose ridiculously to a highly-motivated lower-ranked team. Nothing funnier will happen in this World Cup. England: hold our beer #TheCricket

And here’s a cartoon which takes us full circle

Join me tomorrow for a spectacular movie flop, and in the meantime, a footnote about butter-and-egg men:

On Valentines Day, a poem to the city he loves, by Norwich poet Ron Nevett

Reminds me of this from the old place a few years ago

Think there is a basic argument for legal gambling as a buffer against an illegal industry. But the 24/7, always online, algorithmically incentivised, permanently advertised addiction machine is just causing huge social ills.

AU190 Cathedral radio. Manu Emerson. 1937. Image: Bonhams.

Currently watching a couple of old boys making a right old shambles of a game of Northamptonshire skittles at the Albion Brewery bar. Thought about showing them this video. youtu.be/fB-FJPxNDBE

What I can never understand, is why useless bloody loonies like this Fuentes weirdo keep getting taken seriously by people.

At the halfway point of the Men's T20 World Cup group stages, neither England nor Australia are in the top two spots needed to make the next round. If both don't qualify, expect the next World Cup to be restructured to ensure the Big Three are guaranteed more matches.

support british farming

If they ever have hustings here I’ll ask them what their favourite Bauhaus track is.

Read the first of the reviews here by Old Man of Huy. I think this might be one of the best prankster fake reviews I've ever read. I tip my hat to you OMOH whoever and wherever you are. www.whisky-online.com/collections/...

Our Northants Pre-Season Scout Report is OUT: 📉2025 Analysis 🔄Player Ins & Outs 📝2026 Full Squad List 📊Essential Stats 🗓️Fixture Difficulty 🔗 medium.com/@TheCricketD... #NorthantsCricket #CricketDraft #CountyChampionship

I’ve started using the bell notification button on here for a few accounts I don’t seem to see as often as I’d expect. It lets me know whenever they post something.

Chapter 13 of my cancer diary is up 🙏 njbrannigan-zvxuy.wordpress.com/2026/02/11/d...

And so it came to pass.

Lawnmowers eh. This senile old crook has mauled our unobtrusive world Unmendably. “we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time.”

Two beautiful poems by Don Paterson about his son Jamie. ‘The Thread’ (from Landing Light, 2003) and ‘The Circle’ (from Rain, 2009).

This is something I hadn't considered but makes sense. Theres also the aspect of the US largely fighting wars far away from its home shores. There has never been a Blitz or equivalent that required a strong state.

I have this (sadly completely uncredited) cartoon on my office wall and it’s always been true

Fantastico, bene fatto Italia. Remarkable how Nepal got a bit of a stuffing by a country with no cricket infrastructure to speak of, and a team of global flotsam. Whilst nearly beating England. Not sure what this indicates.

Marie Maynard Daly co-discovered the link between high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and the clogged arteries that can cause heart disease and strokes. She also studied the damage that cigarettes have on the heart & lungs. adalovelaceday.subst...

"The voter is always right.“ A 🧵 about a popular yet misleading sentence, the nature of representation, and a personal argument that got me thinking about (British) democracy.

Someone told me lately "Bluesky is just like Twitter." I argued that was untrue on the basis that last time I had a Twitter account most times I got a new follower their bio said "single & looking for fun" & here when I get a new follower it tends to say something like "professor of rare moths".

(Outburst prompted by this piece: thecritic.co.uk/bring-back-d... )

Depends on your definition. Alan Moore, Francis Crick, Matt Smith, Malcolm Arnold, Courtney Lawes…