Have a weird suspicion that the US genuinely thinks that Pahlavi will be able to do a reverse Khomeini and swing into Tehran on an Air France flight next week, ascending to his rightful place atop the Peacock Throne the following day

£11.37, for cost-of-living watchers

great example here of why setting up a live blog isn't always the best response to a developing news story

This is probably in the interests of local democracy but I wouldn't want to be working in electoral services in one of these councils right now

(thoughtfully) "my favourite Oasis song? I think I'd have to pick the Grease Megamix"

reminds me of Rimmer in the Red Dwarf books developing an obsession with spending every spare hour in a stasis chamber so that he isn't "wasting time" on hobbies, friendships etc

oh reviewed over 50 NHS sustainability and transformation plans? That'll be an interesting exercise, to track health priorities over time and explore how (if at all) they have filtered into more recent policy documents like the NHS 10 Year Plan. Ohhhh - *sticky toffee* - right, right

is it just me or does he have John Inman's hair?

The noble David hath told you Brooklyn was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

PM sounding here worryingly like Apollo Creed in Rocky II

"when the British people have their backs against the wall, they turn around and start fighting"

Best bit of the Winter Olympics is being able to turn to your significant other while watching it and say things like "lovely rotation" and "the thing about Big Air is that it takes no prisoners"

have to say I thought that "Al Carns" was the fictional, control MP that pollsters ask about in voter sentiment surveys to flush out people who have opinions of politicians they have never heard of

V exciting to have shifted our @re-state.bsky.social blog, Re:Think, to Substack. Even more exciting to have such a corker for a first post from @jo3hill.bsky.social dissecting why mission government has failed 👇 substack.com/home/post/p-...

there's an obvious word in today's NYT Spelling Bee that would have made for a fantastic pangram, were it not for American prurience in claiming it isn't valid

Looks a bit like a power bloc logo in Victoria 3, which is I suppose appropriate

important to note that within 24 hours he will absolutely walk this back

"[Big Local] let local people decide how to govern the work. This didn’t just allow more space to do the work; it also meant that governance was cultivated as a local capacity, growing like a supporting structure around the work, and enduring beyond it." - this feels highly salient (1/)

the issue is that this sort of light, daft filler used to be the main preserve of the Magazine section of the BBC News website (remember that?) and often with a highly ironic tone to it - now it's done in earnest, and indistinguishable in look from "heavy" news output www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Going back in time to 1990 to tell Francis Fukuyama that "deploy the crowned heads of Europe to dissuade the US President from attacking Greenland" is a thing in 2026, just to mess with him

Marine Ices, probably? Italian restaurant in Chalk Farm. A shadow of its former self in its later years (the food got progressively worse and worse) but the ice cream was obvs excellent

I'm sort of personally affronted by this because a reasonably close relative was an ambassador to Denmark (not for the UK) and I do therefore feel that Frost has let the "ambassador to Denmark" community down

The Royal Oak pub in Wantage (named after this ship) was itself torpedoed a few weeks back when a car crashed through its side wall, in an interesting historical echo

the man with the easiest job in the British media strikes again

I have been to plenty of roundtables in my time, and in the past decade 100% of them - whatever the topic under discussion - has involved someone bringing up the abolition of the Audit Commission (this is not a criticism)

interesting because if I were Home Sec I would do everything I could to avoid having this power, for hopefully obvious reasons

I think this is right but it depends on who "you" is. There is something fundamental about public administration in this country - a sort of learned helplessness arising from large numbers of professionals having little autonomy and responsibility for "doing" things

worked well for Ceaucescu this, as I recall www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

when I screw up my zoning in Cities Skylines

large scale construction of social housing

this is going to get confusing for us Brits

Fun fact: state capacity is indeed broken and it's mainly because of well-intentioned people thinking that all decisions in this country need to be made by civil servants working in offices within 250 yards of Horseferry Road

Allo Allo

Watching "Pretty Woman" for the first time in about thirty years and I'm not sure I appreciated previously how utterly unhinged it is in literally every respect

incredible, incredible

Ppl who laud the Lords for being independent, expert, measured etc etc might direct their attention to two recentish debates - the debate over the proposed repeal of section 28 which formed part of the passage of the Local Gov Act 2000 and the 2018 debate on the conduct of Lord Lester

At the Smithfield Market Christmas Eve meat auction. Already a capacity crowd

Read this and thought, "oh, ha ha, it'll be a different Michael Crawford obviously" but no! It's the actual Michael Crawford you're thinking of

from one perspective this is true because trans women have always been women, they just had physical characteristics that were misaligned with this fact, and which were corrected by surgery and other medical interventions. So men aren't becoming women, or women men, at all!

ok, here's the answer - dismantle Hammersmith Bridge and re-erect it in Moray as a replacement for the Spey Viaduct

Ceefax, the Audit Commission, those anti-static strip that people used to fix to their car bumpers

This is a grim, dispiriting (but important) thread

21. Boxed the Ears of Some Low Down Heel Making Swell on Your Old Lady in a Trolley Car

(me pointing at an aspidistra) "how very orwellian"

Baffling and deeply frustrating for local residents that this issue will seemingly not be resolved until *two years* from the date of the original problem have passed greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/12/10/l...

Photo looks like Liam is a mid-80s incarnation of Doctor Who. Come to think of it I would have enjoyed seeing his interpretation in "Vengeance on Varos", I can see him playing well against Martin Jarvis

Free online learning event! The role of constitutions in democratic change 11:00-12:30 pm, Dec 17 Explore how to: - check that your constitution still reflects current practice, - remains easy to navigate, - and supports councillors in their role www.cfgs.org.uk/constitution...

You will be visited by three spirits

I'm a particular fan of the word "cleave" because it mean two completely opposite things at the same time