Left: Nigel Farage using the murder of Henry Nowak to sew division in society, "rights of white people matter less than ethnic minorities" Right: Henry Nowak's father, "We do not want his death used to create further division hated or tension"

I went to see Paul Simon play his songs, but I wasn't really watching Paul Simon play his songs. I was watching the audience saying "thank you," and "goodbye": www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

this book is pure magic

When you're just not picking up on the signals

It’s all kicking off in Richmond.

And our non-Reform politicians could get together, recognise the common threat they face and stop this now. What’s to stop them, other than their inherent spinelessness and the tantalising example of TBI?

Also, if you borrow an author's book from a library in the UK, that author gets more than 12 pence per loan in Public Lending Rights. Any author can earn up to £6,600 per year this way. That’s more than I’ve been paid by any publisher this year.

Bruce Springsteen does Heroes.

The way we pick new leaders and Prime Ministers is just depressing. Where's the conversations and agreements and admin and paperwork and research on where things went wrong BEFORE we start picking a new one? 6 Prime Ministers in 10 years is insane: www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

Bidding closes in nine hours: if you want me to dedicate my next book, How To be Hopeful, to you or a loved one - to mark a wedding! To welcome a new baby! - bid here, to support Beauty Banks: uk.givergy.com/beautybanksh...

I am auctioning off the dedication in my next book - How To Be Hopeful, out in September - to raise money for charity. This is your opportunity for literary immortality. Or revenge: www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

A really lovely, seemingly random paen to Paul Heaton and The Housemartins that encompasses Ben Elton, political principles, generosity, Morrissey, 6 Music, Southern Soul and leaving £1000 behind the bar in 60 pubs: www.patreon.com/posts/159356...

Am enjoying reading as much about Andy Burnham as possible, as I still don't know what I think about him. This is a good piece: manchestermill.co.uk/stop-looking...

If you are a "fan" of "me" - THANKS! - I urge you to follow @thebeautybanks charity on Instagram, who are about to launch THE greatest raffle of all time, which includes a moment of genuine immortality for one amazing person. All will be revealed on 28th May. Follow & get excited.

I feel like the photographer could have gotten a little closer tbh

↑↑ @iandunt.bsky.social is not fəcking about here.

Lovely, fascinating thread — the crucial takeaway is how incredibly chaotic the act of artistic creation is A film requires hundreds of people, each making hundreds of daily choices, and the iconic final product is often born from collaboration/compromise/improvisations AI does none of this

The English community that brought its river back from the brink: ‘If we can get it right here, we can do it everywhere’

No notes.

I truly believe Euston is built on cursed ground and everything that ever happens there will be shit.

Very proud of the extraordinary hard work my other half has put into this investigation. You wouldn't believe how long these things take.

Me as I push my enemy into a ravine

If you totted up the sums for every financial scandal in British politics (£2k per parliamentary question for cash-for-questions, £200k for Johnson’s No 10 renovation, the cost of that very nice campervan) even with second tier stuff like Rayner and Polanski, would you get close to £5mn *in total*?

Okay listing Liz Truss here like some kind of natural disaster is quite funny

Wesignation!

As The Kerfuffle continues, I made my wish-list for what would be optimal in our next Prime Minister, if we're about to have one: www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-r...

That is also just a fact of geography.

Colonel Mustard, in the feels, with the diss track

That is a truly excellent piece of artwork.

I hope the person who made this fitted sheet always has a perfectly ripe avocado exactly when they need it

roses are red, hold all my calls,

Samantha Niblett, the MP who asked for us to have a "Summer of Sex," might well be the hero we need right now. My interview in The Times: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

✍️ @thebsme.bsky.social Young Writers' Prize w/ @mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social A fantastic opportunity. Last chance to enter - closing 8 May. Good luck!

Are there any ideas or proposals for tackling anti-semitism? As David Toube wrote in his Substack this week, "a country in which Jews cannot walk safely through Golders Green is not merely failing Jews. It is failing itself." What do we need to be talking about, and supporting?

Internet shopping is all very well. Convenient. Modern. But - what if you're stupid? www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Both Greens and Reform are suffering from this. Failure to police it becomes embarrassing, but it also undermines faith in elected positions, and gives sanction to unacceptable views and attitudes.

New parties attract a sub-group of sharp elbowed people with odd views and odd personalities. The unsuitable but determined who have often kicked around between other parties, and know how to work their way through an organisation. You have to guard against them.

More on the intervention: the mother of Martha Mills, journalist Merope Mills, had a platform to write very powerfully about the family's tragedy, but going on to pursue the investigation + then to develop a workable response involve different kinds of further challenge bsky.app/profile/heta...

me, explaining my trash screenplay draft to the producers

It's a good point Farage claimed he can't hold constituency surgeries because of security Farage also claims the £5 million was for security Soooo, which is it? It's also the single biggest donation in British history to a politician but Farage didn't declare it

I like the cut of Chonkers' jib

Some useful public speaking tips from Freud here.

“These days it is also, to an extent, a disease of people who have only known war through mawkish sentiment and Hollywood. The disease of the children of Michael Bay.” So true.

Pretty sure everyone will be able to identify their entire street WhatsApp here

Early cases like this, about relatively "small" things - benefits, cash-flow, school places - which still none-the-less ruined, and ended, lives - are deeply alarming given that we plan to go on and use algorithms to plan health, economies and wars.

“Dick Institute: not too busy” has finally beaten “for sale: baby shoes, never worn”

This is some pretty crazy shit... This admin is using US tax payer money to PAY OFF the companies building infrastructure for renewables, so they DON'T build renewables in the US. I guess the free market where best ideas wins was too hard for the fossil fuel industry to take on.

the party of "a whole civilization will die tonight" fake-rending their garments over violent rhetoric is funnier than the entire history of saturday night live

Why do people get love-scammed online? Why do we find it so hard, when we're young, to know what love actually is? Because it's incredibly hard to show in movies: www.thetimes.com/article/20b9...

My favourite bit in the trailer for "Michael": the reaction-shot from Bubbles the first time he hears "Billie Jean." True movie genius. Chimp reaction shot.