"Such a handful but loyal and never embarrassing." I wonder what Mandelson's husband thinks about being described as if he were a yet to be housebroken pet.

That Hitler DNA story just sounds like I'll be reading a debunking of it in the next few weeks. As if the Times transferred the person who did that Bill de Blasio piece from politics over to science. "sure, the tests showed he only had one ball, why not? And boy was he mixed up with it!"

This reminds me of the time the aircon in a server room at work failed so we had to install portable units that funnelled hot air through a tube and out a normally locked door. Some randomer thought it looked messy, closed the door leading to the whole room overheating and every server in it failing

This article has been up for over 3 hours. Does no one bother to read an article past the first few paragraphs?

"the problem with politicians today is they've never run a business"

A garden around the corner is getting a good going over with a pair of leaf-blowers and it sounds like two giant wasps indulging in a form of intense courtship display.

The ex MP for Tamworth, who was fired as deputy whip for drunkenly groping two men, and has the surname Pincher thinks we should bring the Carry On franchise back thecritic.co.uk/issues/novem...

Imagine being the Justice Minister having to explain to the press that yet another prisoner on release had worked out the walking upstairs trick

One of the peculiarities of the BBC is that almost everyone in UK public life has a preexisting, often rather complex, relationship with it. Currently listening to a podcast where the presenter, who worked at the Beeb, declares he knows Robbie Gibb and was at school with Michael Prescott...

Tim Davie tells BBC staff ‘we have to fight for our journalism’ as he clears desk, heads off to the pub.

The standard complaint for years from dullards about Soho was that it was too gay so it's refreshing to hear it's not now gay enough.

Am starting to wonder if this whole Prescott report thing doesn't end up backfiring as people start to ask increasingly loud questions about Robbie Gibb and right wing influence at the BBC

Trump threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion dollars and ending up with a Blankety Blank chequebook and pen.

It's hard not to think the handling of this budget has been an utter disaster. We've been talking about it for months yet Reeves still hasn't made a convincing case for breaking both a manifesto pledge and repeated statements after the last budget that all the tax raising was done.

Arkell v Pressdram comes to mind

Listening to a podcast person I know rant about "the algorithm" and struck by how frustrating it must be trying to be a creative person right now. There have always been blocks on getting your work out there but at least you knew what they were. Now the mysterious code just works against you.

I'm not that old but if we're talking about the poverty of the past I lived through most of the 1970s and I was struck then, as now, by how willing people are to cling to clearly outdated practices because they think they define us.

As much as I enjoy talking about politics I also really enjoy talking about culture. What's happened to that at the BBC?

Tim Davie resigning from the BBC over the edited Trump video is like Al Capone being jailed for tax evasion: sometimes the right thing happens for the wrong reason.

Banksy to be the new BBC DG. No one knows what next week schedule is going to be until the highlights are sprayed on a garage wall in Bristol.

I think Ed's instincts here are correct. There's a real opportunity for left of centre parties to push this as an example of overreach by an out of control MAGA right. People in this country detest Trump and are open to this message.

How do you even believe in religion if you think concern for the poor and the environment is misguided? I'm serious, who even are these people?

Mandelson and Prince Andrew paid the price for Epstein, Tim Davie and Deborah Turness sacked for January 6th. Now wondering who in the UK is going to take the brunt for Trump's tariffs and out of control ICE policy?

the cats were yowling at cross purposes at dinner tonight

The idea the BBC has an anti Trump bias is, of course, utterly absurd. But Labour shouldn't look a gift horse etc and need to take this moment seriously. I mean so seriously someone wakes Lisa Nandy up and tells her to do her sodding job.

November’s early darkness enfolds us. The smell of applewood fires and rot is a constant companion at twilight. We hurry between home and evensong, home and pub. Ghosts crowd the lanes, our folklore becomes filled with tales of cold teeth. Winter begins to growl. - #CLNolan

The 12 year old is recovering from the flu she had that, with a fever of 40.1, turned her into a babbling zombie. The only thing she said she could face eating for the first time in 2 days was steak. So, like a sadist, I fry one of those giant rump ones from Aldi, 45 minutes before the cats are fed.

Respect. I almost ended up like this at 15 because I watched too many James Cagney films as a child.

Got this eventually despite it not even being a real word. Minute Cryptic - 8 November, 2025 "Shivers after hour spent devouring "50 Shades of Grey"" (7) ⚪️🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 1 hints – 2 under the community par (75,108 solvers so far). www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...

You what?

pure personal experience but the poppy mania seems more tempered this year as if people looked at the flag mania of the summer and thought "well obviously we don't want to do anything like that..." Your mileage may have varied though

I'm sure he's a lovely caring guy, boring people often are, but Sunak is a genuinely terrible columnist.

I've been a fan of Mark Steel's work in the past (and once bumped into him in the Croydon branch of Richer Sounds) but this podcast title, and the accompanying facial expression, smugly disappointed, is almost everything I hate about the modern media environment in a single jpeg.

It's a similar issue to how Dem and Rep voters view of the US economy completely switched, almost overnight, when Trump was elected but in some ways worse as these people paint themselves as objective observers

The 12 year old has some flu type thing and as soon as I realised I was almost certainly going to get it next I could feel my body having flu like symptoms much like when someone talks about nits and I find myself unable to stop myself from itching.

After yesterday's complaint about expensive and shit pubs I've just discovered the local Joseph Holt's is selling their bitter for £3.95

Listening to Late Junction on Radio 3 and reminded that avant-garde music is the easiest avant-garde to pay your dues to.

As someone still getting used to owning a pair of cats, there's nothing more disconcerting than walking, increasingly frantically, room to room and realising you've no absolutely no idea where they are. (they're under that big cushion)

Fairly sure in the last few months I've read different pieces all blaming completely different age cohorts for the oncoming Reform government. It's everyone's fault by mine.

Before we had AI clickbait slop we had the online version of the Independent

If I were Labour I'd just ignore the details and take the opportunity to clear out largely failing leadership and put people with more public service broadcasting ethos in charge.

Trump likes to paint himself as an unignorable force who can solve global politics through tariffs, end multiple wars by tweets alone, but also too weak to bring the Democrats to the table to end the shutdown?

Obviously the date of Remembrance day wasn't chosen for this reason but I still find it interesting how it falls in November shortly after the Church's own remembrance of the dead on the 2nd

I know it isn't a comms issue but it is interesting talking to normal people and hearing how they hate the things they think they've heard about this government, love the things they haven't. Which now I've said it does actually sound like a comms issue.

Just seen a barmaid wipe the excess foam off the top of a pint of lager using her index finger before serving it to a customer and I couldn't think of a more perfect metaphor for the 'everything is very expensive and also shockingly shit' state of pubs right now.

No idea who this Tweeter is so maybe I've got their politics wrong but something notable about a pronatalist Right that actively hates teenagers

In the same way people say they need a holiday to recover from the holiday they've just got back from I now need a drink to recover from the Friday lunch drinks I've just had with my 82 year old drinking partner. The man is infuriating.

Heading into the weekend like David Bowie wrapped up in Bacofoil

As the only thing David Frost is truly interested in is self-advancement this feels like the type of move a man auditioning for a role in a future Reform govt might make.

Who even needs those inferring technocrats with their liberal agenda trying to stop you flying where you want, when you want or how you want?