All of the kids at my daughters’ nursery are still singing “no Scotland, no party”. Which tells you something about how national self-impressions form.

Pitch theatre. Twelve filmmakers pitch their projects to funders and distributors in front of an audience. They were all great, but there was a common factor that set the best ones apart... newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/the-...

The irony of such care and attention being given to doing Bad Services so well.

Nick Cave gives brand strategy advice to Kylie. And an example of when Purpose has a place. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/word...

Loving that @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social is running a short David Byrne season ahead of his Edinburgh gig next month. It means I can see Stop Making Sense (4K) on the big screen for the second time. Can't wait. It's magical. Perhaps even transcendental. Talking Heads as David Byrne's warm-up act.

Lies, damn lies, and "so-far" statistics. Then again, the way he's going... xkcd.com/3260/

Spent yesterday at Scottish Documentary Institute's Edinburgh Pitch. Twelve film projects pitching for funds, partners, and distribution to a panel of A-List funders, producers, and distributors. Each production team had received expert coaching on their pitch beforehand.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Clueless people. www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle/bo...

Open goal.

I get a weekly email with view/read stats for my Medium posts. This one, which I'd forgotten I'd written, has gotten some action in the last seven days. It will be ten years old on Sunday. Sheesh. And it's not bad if I do say so myself. Both videos are worth a watch too. medium.com/a-longing-lo...?

Throwback to when a TV station in Iceland accidentally aired an episode of Teletubbies with subtitles from the Sopranos 👌🏼

"This kind of employer brand work makes things worse rather than better. It draws attention to the gap between how things should be and how they are. Employees feel bad. Management looks bad. The EVP is a downer that should’ve been an upper."

The Sofa Dispatch. The wisdom, or otherwise, of the blanket. https://volcanobase.co/articles/the-sofa-dispatch/

Tom Gray is amazing at this sort of thing. An impassioned speech to the Ivors Academy. Inspiring stuff.

Why most employer brand projects are downers that should have been uppers. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/estr...

This tallies empirically with everything I’ve seen and anecdotally with everything I’ve heard.

I just signed this. Only needs another 23k signatures to force a parliamentary debate. Aside from the general benefits of the UK rejoining the largest trade bloc in the world - economic growth, anyone? - it is also the Achilles Heel for Farage and co

"John Bartle once said to me that the greatest value of ad agencies isn’t creativity, it’s their willingness and ability to move mountains to get creativity out into the world, to get stuff made."

Doggedness is next to did-it-ness. Stalking Yanis Varoufakis and getting great ads made. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/stal...

Just finished Careless People. Lots to aim off for, no doubt. But it's well written and full of ripping yarns. For me, this passage, more than any other, epitomises the innate absurdity that lies at the heart of the thing.

Jim being Jim. www.jimcarrollsblog.com/blog/2026/5/...

Very good, as usual, by the alter ego of @herdmeister.bsky.social. markearls267269.substack.com/p/guest-post...

"80% of Finns say they would defend their country if attacked. In Britain, the figure is closer to 33%. That gap is not an accident... Finland has spent decades building a society in which people have a genuine stake in what they are being asked to defend." www.bylinesupplement.com/p/andy-burnh...

Yep. "The reason voters don’t trust the Westminster system is that it stinks... The place is teaming with corporate lobbyists, drowning in dark money and whipped into line by millionaire-funded party machines."

Hard to disagree with this thread.

What I made of that music video. (Quite a lot). newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/i-kn...

Vote Reform. Or we will house *dangerous migrant centres* in your village. And if you vote Green, it will be even worse for you. It's beyond disturbing. The chill wind of threat, thuggery and menace of a kind never before seen in Britain.

“Might as well be Chopin, honestly.” Loved this dissection, explanation, and appreciation of Radiohead’s Kid A. Infectious, accessible nerdiness. youllhearit.com/episodes/kida

There's more to working with ideas than having them. In which I go off on one about Dave Trott, mostly in praise, but taking exception to his tarring of all clients and strategists with the same brush. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/livi...

"usefulness is not the same as neutrality." Amen.

I don't usually get this personal in a blog post. I try to keep it about the music. However, as I said, April has been quite a month. And I realised that I needed to talk about personal things because they relate to this project. Here is the post I finally wrote: unspunheroes.com/2026/04/27/u...

Apparently this is being shared far and wide, but I haven't seen it on here yet. Crazily powerful choreography. Sorry if you've seen it ten times already. www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_m...

This is cool. Are you watching, the producers of Traitors? www.screen.scot/skills-and-t...

Whoever you support, with one possible exception, this is very funny.

When you refuse to sell a dogmatic process, you risk alienating potential clients who need the reassurance of a template or framework. Good. Latest newsletter: principles beat process, and stealing from feature writing. Title by @willsh.bsky.social. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/mint...

I bought this because I heard Jonathan Franzen say it’s the funniest thing he’s read in ages. I can see why. It’s outrageously funny in places. And utterly vicious, as Zadie Smith says on the cover. The title is perfect.

John Lanchester at the wonderful Portobello Bookshop last night. Very sharp. Very witty. “The structure of life is tragic. The texture of life is comic.” Kim Sherwood had done her homework and did a fine job of making him interested and hence animated.

A strange and distressing feeling, expecting Liverpool to have their arses handed to them at Anfield. Obviously trying to tempt fate to prove me wrong, which is not the most robust or reassuring strategy I’ve ever devised.

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"power should be at the most local possible level" The article states that the Greens would be the only explicitly English party in Westminster if the Welsh Greens were to become independent. But this philosophy of local power also makes them the most explicitly democratic party.

Happy April 5th, everyone. Here she comes… medium.com/a-longing-lo...

The first national poll putting @greenparty.org.uk in first place (just) is an utterly extraordinary moment in British politics.

Familiarity, patriotism, deviance, colonialism, notoriety, and glorified pack shots. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/get-...

According to Buttondown's analytics, Bluesky refers only 1% of my newsletter page views, versus 47% from LinkedIn (like the Yellow Pages, it's not just for the nasty things in life). But here I am plugging the next post which goes out Friday. Subscribe here to get it: newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk

"I’d regard it as crass and impersonal—because it would be crass and impersonal." I could have pull-quoted pretty much every sentence of this article. heffernanm.substack.com/p/use-it-or-...

Adios Seville, the final destination on our grown-up inter-rail trip from Edinburgh. Europe by rail is fabulous if you have the time.

The Boomtown Rats school of brand strategy. A reference that carbon dates me but I don’t care because it’s perfect. newsletter.lowfalutin.co.uk/archive/the-...

Quite the comeback in Lisbon. Extra time jeopardising our restaurant booking.

Hanging out in Lisbon for a few days. Enjoying the vibe and the 23 degrees temperature.

Fabulous bike ride into the hills of the Duoro Valley. A bucolic weekend to break up our train tour of Iberian cities.