Andy Beckett · ‘We used to have fun’: Gordon Brown Reconsidered Brown’s premiership was left as a bit of a mystery: an example of formidable talent, experience and hard work somehow...

‘We used to have fun’ www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Happy anniversary to both of you. I got engaged over Christmas - can’t wait to start putting years in the bank!

Exciting times for college!

Former UK PM Gordon Brown is providing - voluntarily and not for the first time - information to the police about abuses of power relating to the Epstein files. As PM Brown was briefed against by people such as Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson as being ‘psychologically flawed’ ….1/

But Fergie served as a way in to Andrew, rather than being cultivated in her own right, surely?

I feel compelled to write a review thread 🧵 for The Liz Truss Show because in the madness of the content, other aspects - vital aspects - are being missed.

1. The Aesthetics

Unless they were aiming for "Harley Street urologist waiting room circa 1992" this interview area is just unacceptable. 1/

Well said.

I've built a socioeconomic system that depends on everyone to do useful work and act ethically except the people at the top, who get unimaginable rewards for being antisocial frauds and criminals. And I think it will stand the test of time

Many happy returns to you. Shall there be cake?

A Symphony for Yorkshire - BBC YouTube video by BBC

Happy Yorkshire Day, one and all. 14 years ago the BBC put together this lovely Symphony for Yorkshire. The old lady reading her poem in the last movement still makes me well up: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx4T...

It’s Not Just a Game Anymore How new monetization models changed gaming, and what parents need to know

open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

This is one of the absolutely most interesting threads I’ve ever encountered on social media. Yes it about Mamdani but so much more

Did not realise you were a horror writer.

Your piece on Grimsby a decade or so ago really stuck with me. There’s not much to keep anyone with resources there, or attract anyone new.

Sea Stories! Love it.

I am, much to my own surprise, becoming a vinyl person?

It's not about sound quality really. It's that it feels absolutely amazing to be able to put on music made by an artist in the order they chose and no tech company watching.

And paying them £20 for it feels just really really great.

“As Trump Attacks Diversity, a Racist Undercurrent Surfaces” President Trump has promised a "colorblind and merit-based" society, while also equating diversity with incompetence .

Dante described a special place in hell for NYT headline writers, where they experience burning pain but there are no devils, no agents of torment, just weird ‘undercurrents’ like bad smells. Who is torturing them? No one in particular

I had some lovely tinned hake recently from a company called Sea Sisters - you probably already know of them - but I believe they do smoked rainbow trout preserved in oil

called it

Her confidence that Charlotte wouldn’t throw her under the bus is misplaced. She absolutely would!

(elon unveiling his new martian flag design) well as you uh can, you know, see. there's red which of course uh is the mars color. duh ha ha. and then here a white circle, and this is um representing the bright future for the ahh, human race. and then uh you have so, this is a hindu symbol,

Baffled by the elaborate descriptions of doors. Just number them 1 to 4 from the left?? #TheTraitorsUK

Elon Musk and the red lines of rightwing politics Tory calls for new national probe into child rape gangs — that it did not make in government — expose opposition anxieties

Q: At what point did Kemi Badenoch’s Tories decide that Alexis Jay's exhaustive, 460-page report on child sexual abuse, published in October 2022, was inadequate?

A: When they decided they wanted to curry favour with Elon Musk.

by @stephenkb.bsky.social

My pet peeve is journos asking the question and then continuing to talk, explaining why they are asking. Just ask the Q and then stop talking. If you really must set the scene, do it before you ask the Q, not after.

Politicians perhaps - but we can hold out more hope for Timpson, surely?

Tabtastic - I’m nabbing that word! Oh, I hope you’re back up and running soon. Do you have an external monitor / second screen (in order to ascertain whether the issue is with the computer itself or just the screen)?

Send help.

Everything’s open for a reason…