On an unrelated point, great to see a World Dryer Corp Model A in the wild, not many around these days

Has the rapture happened yet, I have an onsite meeting later and it would be a real pain if it happened while I'm on the DLR or something

real talk: if Zack Polanski wanted to cement the Greens as the new leading party of the left, he would make a total ban on normal golf a tentpole policy

Incredible scenes

It's fascinating how incorrect this is, and the disingenuity of the straw man embodied in "traditional political communications" (a set of descriptions which I don't think describe how any politician has communicated since possibly the 1950s)

pff, I remember making the argument to upgrade to *four*

trying to book a ferry to Ireland and noting with pleasure that the sailing times have shifted ever so slightly because of port maintenance work which means that none of the connecting rail services at Holyhead now match up, beautiful stuff

Bear with me, I anticipate your disagreement. There is a clear pattern to the advice given to those who want to press back against rising racism. What it boils down to is that if you point out that racism is often being dressed up as “legitimate concerns” you will alienate people. /1

All this stuff reminds me of the long-forgotten and deeply weird Comic Strip episode "Les Dogs", where at the beginning Britain's dictator (played by Peter Richardson) comes on TV to casually announce that he's banning cars

What if Morgan McSweeney is *literally* very very gingerly carrying a Ming vase around all the time, and these tactical errors are because he's really distracted trying to avoid dropping it?

in lighter news, some proper public service journalism here from Adrian Chiles. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Government's unwillingness to fund what would seem (on the face of it) to be a new burden for committee system authorities is, on the face of it, a bit of a surprise (1/) www.themj.co.uk/lack-governm...

All a bit "DANGER WILL ROBINSON!"

"reopen Wantage Road station* klaxon

You may have missed it (and I don't have a clip) but at the second reading of the Devo Bill Abtisam Mohamed MP (Sheffield Central) highlighted the inequity of Government's abolition of the cttee system... (1/2)

"Questions at council" is something which has come up a few times recently in bits of work we've done for councils in England. Some thoughts... (1/)

for me, the "COW" is the Computer Originated World, the rotating globe graphic used in the 1986-1991 BBC1 ident, but I suspect that I may be in the minority

2nd reading of the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill currently happening... www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...

Oh god, has British food discourse started up *again*?

Normal bread - produced industrially using the Chorleywood process, with the texture of an overused kitchen sponge, and that is of course still available in every supermarket and corner shop in Britain

(Vance is sitting at his desk one morning, a diffident knock comes at the door) "Sir? Lieutenant Columbo, I'm from the police sir, I'm afraid I have some real bad news about your boss sir, the President. Well, he was found dead, and... I just have a couple of questions for you sir, real quick"

for the criticism of the GBR plans (eg, it's hobbled because it doesn't change the ownership model for rolling stock) practical things like this give a really good sense of the direction of travel - that is, treating the railway as a "whole system"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1... is this the first time the BBC have run a live blog on a planning committee meeting?

"Hello, computer!"

(Helen Willetts grabs your shoulder with a vice like grip, pushing the blade of a shiv against your stomach) "I think you'll find it's actually BRIGHT AND SUNNY outside, pal"

PEDRO PASCAL is PENELOPE KEITH in

If this is overnight, furthest I've been is N: Ullapool (UK) E: Esfahan (IR) S: Cape Town (SA) W: San Francisco (US)

Surely this is a Tim Robinson bit, it has to be

we put in a little bit in our July newsletter about what we're all reading over the summer and I'm worried that my submission here makes me look too much like a try-hard swot, the kind of person who would ostentatiously carry an unread copy of Derrida's "On Grammatology" under his arm

Nice bit of proactive comms from the council

Think the best thing about Chloe Kelly dropping the f-bomb on live TV just now is how supremely unbothered she was about having done it

a late contribution to the interminable "cooking vs DoorDash" discourse

One of those rare occasions when something is literally quixotic

Enjoying coming up to my in-laws near Oxford and watching the BBC "local news" in which every item is about Southampton, sixty miles away

How are you meant to do the age verification thing if you don't have a face because you've sublimated into a being of pure energy

who remembers all this insanity? 6 years ago this week

Ex was best woman at my wedding. Power move.

Fantastic piece of (ongoing) public interest journalism. Feels like in London at least with Jim's outlet (and others) we're finally getting the development of a local media landscape that was previously strangled by the (London) (Evening) Standard

Tsar Nicholas II has entered the chat

me watching a pride fumble a straightforward attack on a group of wildebeeste near a watering hole

Not mine but someone I know was clerking a polling station and got in an argument with Michael Winner who wanted to take his ballot paper home with him to think about his vote and bring it back later (this is, um, not allowed)

A lot to be said for this: 1) recognises economic links forged by the ECML / M1 / A19 corridor 2) bringing together London and Birmingham acts as an accelerator for the underproductive WM economy 3) Pennine / Northumbrian regions mean proper focus on econ consequences of rurality

A "Code Amber" has been issued for the inner subsurface lines on the Tube. Not sure if this is actually network-wide

Excited to announce that I will be acting as a new Masterchef judge - bringing to the table 1) my ability to loudly list the ingredients of a meal I'm eating (including saying "I'm really getting that celeriac") and 2) shouting "BIG FLAVOURS!"

In all the plaudits given to the quality of French railways (the TGV in particular) no-one mentioned this, which while it is not quite as bad as the Izal stuff is not far off

Fantastic second mention for the word "tortoise" in this article www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"The Taste of Fear" (dir. Seth Holt, Hammer 1961)

Ok this is extremely good (though it would have been nice to be reminded to turn my computer off at the wall before going to bed)

This is either untrue or students have gone off the boil since my day. On days when I had no lectures I would get up, religiously, at 12.30pm. I had a 9am tutorial in 2nd year that I attended twice

I have been Very Good while on leave and have only subjected the Bill to the most cursory read, and have read zero analysis of it, in the interests of work life balance - but it has been *very* difficult