I was involved in one of the measures that encouraged this decline. It is one of my proudest achievements workwise.

Billy Hunt - The Jam
Not for Keith - Peter Hammill (though an elegy for a friend)

Several answers. Here are 4. Sale of principal house tax free. Our wealth taxes only apply when dispose of assets. Stocks and shares ISA gains tax free. Pension pots - only taxable when paid.

Good spot

God, how often could this be said about men?

The state pension is around half the UK's welfare spend.

Mr Dunt, in reading your piece I found echoes of what Prof Alec Ryrie writes in his latest book: In the Age of Hitler. A post is too short to explain the nuances, but Prof Ryrie wishes for what you do- a dissolving (be whole or part) of the blocs. He provides interesting challenges for both blocs.

Gladstone was the Blue Brother of politics - he was on a mission from god.

Brilliant @robertsaunders.bsky.social

I am reading A Portrait of Duke Ellington by Stuart Nicholson. Holding judgement on whether the oral history approach is as insightful as the normal third-person narrative.

A big yes to that. I love that album; especially Half Past France.

Indeed. That question is almost always about economics, but uni life is a lot more than that.

Near the end of All Fours by Miranda July; a frank exploration of middle-aged woman's sexuality.

I found All The Light enthralling too. It is one I recommend without hesitation. Have not read underland, but McFarlane writes beautifully about nature.

Good to hear it has reopened. The previous owners (a brother and sister) retired earlier this year. It was a legend and made it into a lot of guide books, if the queues of tourists were any guide.

Spot on. I remember AC saying Comms should test the policy. If the Comms is poor, it is normally because the policy is. AC was very strategic in his approach.

Agree. I can see it could be both as it is not obviously either.

I like the story her protection officer told. Queen and him walking nr Balmoral. Meet two US tourists. The tourists ask them have they ever met the Queen. She replies, "No, but he has."

Also most gifts given 7 or more years before dying are outside the scope of IHT.

The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clarke. A compelling story of the run up to World War 1. You know the ending, but....

Still reading Genius, the biography of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick. Highly recommend.

It's time to remove laptops from classrooms.

24 experiments: Students learn more and get better grades after taking notes by hand than typing. It's not just because they're less distracted—writing enables deeper processing and more images.

The pen is mightier than the keyboard.

The best bit of advice I received: delete them all; if it were important they will chase you.

Not sure if that works for you.

You are a graduate student. You have a cutting-edge theory and are asked to present it. It is your first such presentation. It's OK, the audience only includes: Einstein, Pauli and von Neumann.

That was Richard Feynman's experience in early 1941.

Great choice - not his best, but still Gabriel

A picture of Lea Ypi's brilliant book called Indignity about the life of her grandmother.

If it is a 2025 release, I would recommend this

100% agree

Your car is serviced annually - garage required to report mileage.

Budget time saving pro-tip: anyone whose argument amounts to go “The fiscal mess is largely due to spending money on (people and things I don’t like) and can be solved by raising taxes on (people and things I don’t like)” is not a serious person and their views can be ignored.

Similar to the potato only arriving in Britain because Walter Raleigh brought it back from one of his "tours".

Big agree - that story suits his priors. The other big winners were different.