Paris in 40C heat is absolutely as unpleasant as you can imagine. The city is radiating heat from every building.

I’m assuming the TL;DR is “ignored and patronised their core voter base for decades and they eventually fecked off”

Starting the journey home. Only Eurostar we could get was 0830 tomorrow so we’re heading to Paris today and staying right next to Gare du Nord. Problem today is the heatwave. Trains travelling slower as a precaution. Already 10 mins late and told we could be up to an hour late into Paris.

Gonna miss St Jean de Luz. Have definitely fallen in love with Pays Basque over the last couple weeks

Exactly this. The fundamental issue is that the Labour Party is unpopular cos it’s completely forgotten that it’s meant to be a left wing party This won’t change & people will continue to ditch it for parties (Green, Plaid, SNP) that advocate policies that will fundamentally improve people’s lives

Few things better than landing in a random French (actually Basque) town on its festival day. Dancing to Nirvana played by a brass band in 32c heat at 10pm wasn’t on my bingo card for today. Currently sweating like a Tory MP in an expenses audit 😂

SNCF waiting rooms for passengers and pigeons alike 🙂

Why building safe routes to walk and cycle is really good value for money. [From my newsletter: diagramclub.substack.com ]

I see we are still encountering difficulty using the T word when it comes to violent racist rampages by white men

Spaghetti hoops are basically Alphabetti Spaghetti for backing singers

Last night in Bilbao & there’s rain / thunderstorms so we didn’t want to go too far @nikkip51.bsky.social suggests the plain looking restaurant next to the hotel Turns out the menu is “there’s no menu, we keep bringing you small plates until you say when” Currently in a very happy food coma

It’s that time again

Pinxos & vino FTW

“Puppy” at the Guggenheim in Bilbao is my new favourite thing

After extending our stay in St Jean de Luz (and booking a couple of days there on the way back), we’re now off to Bilbao. 3 more trains today - first to Hendaye on the Spanish border, then narrow gauge local trains on to Donostia (San Sebastian) where we change for the 2h45 ride to Bilbao

Our kids would be safer if they'd banned Land Rovers instead of Instagram.

Baked Beans, especially on a cooked breakfast. Just a waste of plate space that could be occupied by something tasty

Monkey business

Current mood

People don’t realise that you lose 1C-ish for every 100m of elevation. Just cos it’s 18c and sunny in the car park, doesn’t mean it’ll be like that up top. Factor in changeable weather and those converse and shorts don’t look like such a good idea suddenly

Did you see the sign today about hobbies?

I can't stop thinking about this utterly delicious anecdote in last week's Guardian Q&A with Mark Williams...

And we’re off 🙂 Today’s #Interrail trip is hopefully Newport to Paddington, St Pancras to Paris, lunch in Paris and then the train from Gare du Montparnasse down to St Jean de Luz - just south of Biarritz.

Always makes me feel happy activating a new Interrail pass in the app. Tomorrow's trip is Newport to St Jean de Luz (just south of Biarritz) via lunch in Paris

Wow. BBC accurately reporting this incident as being caused by the rider of an electric motorbike - and talking about the illegal modifications which meant it wasn't an e-bike . I'm actually stunned. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“Not all of us want new cars. Some of us want trains and buses that come every 5 minutes.” - @myvoicemychoice.bsky.social

I see you and raise you this abomination 😳

Related: weird as shit coming home from a gig and it’s still light outside

Lesser spotted tidy gig photo Catty is an absolute star that needs to be playing bigger stages.

Anyone got any eat/stay/see recommendations for the stretch down from Biarritz, through San Sebastián to Bilbao? Off down that way on an Interrail trip soon

Anyone got any eat/stay/see recommendations for the stretch down from Biarritz, through San Sebastián to Bilbao? Off down that way on an Interrail trip soon

We spent a bit of time earlier sorting out our vinyl and realised that we hadn't played loads of stuff on there in a while. I rigged up a random number generator in Excel to pick albums at random. Album x from shelf y Which is why we're now listening to the The Jungle Book soundtrack 😂

Dear BBC journalists, you really do not have to 'debate' every far-right talking point that pops up on your X feed. It is not "deeply contentious" to suggest non-white people can't be English. It's racist. The word you're looking for is racist

Another great afternoon helping out at a Roller Derby event. I love the community and how inclusive it is to everyone, regardless of everything - not least gender. If you want to show up and be part of the community, you're part of the community.

Cardiff Bus running their “Cardiff City” bus on the #30 Newport to Cardiff route is basically a declaration of war

Been working in this area for the last few months & would absolutely agree with the findings from what I've seen. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... A few fundamental issues 

(a 🧵).....

I really hope in my lifetime we can go back to making racism something to be ashamed of again, rather than something that’ll get you a regular slot on rolling news.

I am once again wondering whether "no, the legitimate concerns racists don't have a point, fuck off, they're racist" might have been a better way of combating the far right.

More importantly why do these consumers of energy not have minimum self generation targets through solar and wind built into their planning conditions. All the ones by me have massive roof space and zero solar

Cardiff food people - friend of a friend will be visiting from Germany and is after "afternoon tea" recommendations for Cardiff. Proper scones and sandwiches in a nice location, not "bottomless brunch" kind of thing. Was gonna recommend Pettigrew Tea Rooms but they seem to have closed

This is a great campaign by @musicvenuetrust.bsky.social The arrogant, inflexible attitude from PRS is exactly what we encountered from them when we had our B&B. They were charging us multiple times the cost of a TV license for our premises licence, despite our only method of broadcast ...(1/2)

Listening to Don Letts 6 Music show from last night and he dropped Firesmoke by Kae Tempest which, for my money, is one of the finest love songs ever written. Floors me every time

I never thought that I’d think it was time to move on from a manager that won the league a year ago, but this is the right decision. Last season was up there with the end of the Rodgers & Hodgson eras for dreadful football, and you just couldn’t see him turning it round

FAO @swilua.bsky.social

Aggghhhhhhhhhh

Moving from Mclusky to Bonnie Prince Billy might be a left-field choice but there’s definitely a similarity in the album covers

Starting the weekend right (Not pictured: cider)

Absolutely this.

The National Rail journey planner surreptitiously popping up a b**king.com window whenever you search train times is possibly even more annoying than AI. It's proper early-2000s internet behaviour.

Guarding the seat next to you with your bag on a busy train is an absolute guarantee that I’ll ask you to shift it so I can sit there.