I mean it’s *possible* that these two fall beautifully into alignment and both get delivered. But it’s a heck of a narrow path to suggest that one might not have to be compromised to get the other one done

(and that in this case, FCDO fudged 2 to make 1 happen)

Robbins two lines are:

1. There was a huge amount of pressure from No10 to get this approved, and it would have been very bad for US-UK relations had Mandelson not been appointed

2. The UKSV process is scrupulously independent and always solely under control of FCDO and was done flawlessly

Hi, graph expert here, this isn’t funny, graphs only do this when they’re very distressed by their misleading y axis

*Dep, obviously

It’s odd that no one ever mentions Phillipson in these convos. Female, Northern, done a pretty good job in a major spending department, managed SEND reforms past Lab MPs, ran a pretty good rep leadership contest by all accounts….

Amazing to see there’s a 19 year old snooker player in the Worlds (who may be about to beat Kyren Wilson) with the name Stan Moody - a name that conjures up an image of some 80 year old chain-smoking Woodbines over the cue while talking about “the old snooker, my lad”

Right, come on City now please.

😂😂😂😂😂

I’m happy that in this, the shittest of all seasons, some things always shah the same

Just gutted for @stulock.bsky.social He can’t even console himself with his new vinyl

One of the brightest spots in the UK higher ed landscape is despite all the disruption, the UK is still seen as the destination of choice for Chinese students - with further polling for UCL coming from Public First very soon on this topic

It was all tied up with the upcoming millennium and a future focussed visionary perspective.

The only reason it didn’t dominate every day discourse as much as AI is today is because we didn’t have all encompassing social media. But it was 100% a thing for govt and businesses everywhere.

I temped for a whole number of small businesses in school and uni holidays. Every single one of them was being pushed to change their paper brochures to websites. The information superhighway was a thing. Lastminute.com was the single most famous example of the dotcom bubble and dominated the media!

Yes! Of course they were! The people very confidently arguing that we didn’t in Daniel’s mentions are just wrong!

I am resisting the temptation so much to comment on the bizarre smooshing together of your Nick Hornby-esque lifestyle from Fever Pitch and High Fidelity with your family responsibilities

6.30

Chegg?? Helping students CHEAT???? Oh my word, how on earth did students abuse the platform that much, this is not at all what it was meant for, Chegg must be so embarrassed……

Olly Robbins, snapping a SIM card in two and throwing it in the Thames as he walks along the path

Olly Robbins, skulking in a pub with a roll of twenties, asking some kid to knock over McSweeney and grab his phone

The thing about a life long civil servant - and one who has made their name in diplomacy - is that temperamentally they’re rule breakers. Mavericks. Not afraid to bend the law to get a result.

If Olly Robbins really unilaterally decided to overturn the failed vetting recommendation on his own…..boy, that’s chutzpah. I just can’t see how you wouldn’t *even implicitly* sense check this the Foreign Sec, w No10, w the Chief of Staff…..

I’m depressed about Diaz, depressed about few years ago that we were one of the best sides in Europe, depressed that there was three brilliant sides here on this side of the draw and none of them face bloody Arsenal until the final….

Goldsmiths need to save £20m a year on staffing (they say).

FOIs show Goldsmiths have spent £14-£16m over *seven years* on consultancy (£2m per year)

The spending of the second does not negate the cost pressures of the first.

Aye

One of our best performances of the season. Really thought we might do it. Ah well. Third in the league it’ll have to be.

Oh fuck off. Where did that goal come from

18 people in the audience, to hear someone say a load of very niche things about UK politics (many of them wrong) and almost nothing about their country.

Leave alone the ethics. Purely on a value for money basis, I’m not convinced £10k a month was buying the Orbanistas that much good stuff…..

Of the many things I love about Justin Rose, probably top is that in a golf world in which everyone else is backed by Callaway and Titleist and Rolex, he’s backed by an investment bank, a public affairs agency, and a computer based human resource
management system.

All the oil tankers queueing at 9.29 waiting for the off peak rate to kick in