New post just out:
I talked to Alan Milburn on why the government is struggling, how politics has changed since he was in Blair's cabinet, and how he's proposing to tackle youth unemplyoment.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/m...
I’m horribly late reading this. Better late than never, as it’s a great pleasure to read.
And again from Polanski (in @pronouncedalva.bsky.social's @newstatesman1913.bsky.social profile) balancing dealing with antisemitism - like Green candidates defending attacking synagogues - with the need to "push back against false allegations of antisemitism".
These two things are not the same
Yeah. And yet so many people think we should turn back the clock. Rather than recognising that the old days were good only because they were young, energetic, free. And the world had not yet failed them and their hopes, like for most, were not yet a chimera.
Ah, of course. And also featuring the ‘Blagdon Groper and Nuisance'. An everyday story of country folk.
What was the Bill Tidy tidbit?
The other Georges are George Frampton, the sculptor (who did-amongst other things, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens) and it was unveiled by George V.
Sculpture in bronze shows St George slaying the dragon. It’s on top of the full statue showing King Edward VII.
As it's St George's Day, here's a picture of the fine sculpture outside Northampton General Hospital. It shows St George slaying the dragon of disease, as well as featuring two more Georges.
Juicy stuff. Tried to find an example quote but had too many choices.
#AdoorableThursday All Saints', Northampton
Politicians just seem to have given up trying to explain the world as it is to people. It's a huge problem.
I know that’s really po-faced of me but hey ho.
It is genuinely so damaging to Democratic politics to have idiot shitheads like this putting out "ackshually stealing is good and what we on the left stand for" messaging in the New York Times. You can pooh-pooh any individual instance, but this sort of thing adds up.
It’s a demonstration that if you run a cracking pub, even one in a terraced backstreet, you can have success.
Wins a massive majority and cracks on immediately sorting out problems identified when in opposition.
I’m worse, I still find myself referring to it as the ‘Overstone Arms.’
Rosie is great.
Timandra Harkness (who seems to have given up on here) goes to Chernobyl, and writes very well about her experience.
substack.com/@timandrahar...
J. H. Prynne wrote a guide to reading works of literature for Cambridge students. This was the postscript:
Our good friends Ukraine Charity are organising an evening of Ukrainian classical music in London's Mayfair on Friday. Proceeds will go to Misto Dobra (City of Kindness), a shelter for vulnerable women and children. Please spread the word 🙏🏼🇺🇦
Tickets & more info:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/let-there-...
Hear me talk about the importance of rural pubs - economically, socially, culturally, & historically - to local communities, and what can be done to help sustain them @charlotte2153.bsky.social @matthew-wright.bsky.social
@drinkingstudies.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2...
Farewell, J.H. Prynne. I remember watching two poets in Cambridge almost come to blows over the merits and intelligibility of his poems. It was like being in Paris in 1913, at the premiere of THE RITE OF SPRING. Well, a little bit.
"Keir is your manager. His friend Waheed has offered him lots of expensive suits in exchange for a pass to the office. What should Keir do?
A) Turn down the offer and report it
B) Cut the Winter Fuel Allowance"
Still of the view that the biggest risk in this whole mess is widespread hunger in poorer countries leading to political instability.
use everything you've got to bag that job
Can I just say that if Reform get in, the idea of anyone being vetted for anything will not exist. And we'll all scream that they are criminals.. but no one will do a thing.
Not knowing what the worst people in the world were thinking every fucking day
You’re living in hope again. No chance.
Yes, it’s on show at the local cinema.
Pleased he’s putting money in, although I’d rather see money going into the county game over the franchises.