Surely there’s an explanatory chapter on percentages in “his” book?

National League table as at 22 April, showing York City top with 107 points, Rochdale second with 105, and Carlisle United a distant third with 92.

Here’s another, with one game to go - which happens to be Rochdale v York

This for me is one of the remaining mysteries. The Collard-Robbins meeting seems to have been decisive in the approval of clearance. Robbins recalls that Collard briefed him that the UKSV recommendation was ‘borderline’, which looks to have been a serious misrepresentation.
All unminuted of course.

Helluva sentence “If you …”

So, not the remains of previous training dig students from Oxford University.

I agree you.

Some can be very painful for all concerned.
Agree that a good one can be a joy, though. Especially if all done and dusted by lunchtime.

According to Robbins he himself didn’t know. At the crucial meeting where it was finally decided to give clearance, he was briefed by FCDO security chief Ian Collard who told him that the UKSV recommendation was only borderline.
That meeting seems to be unminuted, though.

Sometimes

So the main unanswered questions revolve around:
1. No10 publicly appoints Mandy, despite evident risks, and in advance of security vetting.
2. FCDO officials, in an unminuted meeting, approve security clearance, despite UKSV recommendation to the contrary.

Shoemakers, Trawsfynydd, north-west Wales, 1885, photo by John Thomas (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/National Library of Wales).

So it seems that UKSV did indeed recommend denying clearance.
But that this recommendation was not made clearly known to Robbins when briefed orally by FCDO’s own Security chief, in their decisive meeting.

I suppose there’s some slight ambiguity.
Paraphrasing: “Give us the name, and we’ll arrange security clearances, and do due diligence on any issues you need to know about before confirming”.
Could be more explicit in advising to wait for not only the due diligence but also the security clearances.

The median voter’s position is defined in terms of issue/ideology space. Without any reference to the number or positions of parties.

Seems to be agreement here that ministers are not allowed to see any details behind the UKSV recommendation.
But Gov is saying that Robbins was under no obligation to withhold info on the recommendation itself.
While O’Donnell is saying he was under no obligation to disclose it.
No inconsistency?

The definition of ‘median voter’ is independent of the number or positions of parties. It’s the median of voters’ most preferred positions on some issue, or maybe ideology, scale.
And makes unambiguous sense only in a single dimension.

Prose and poetry in brick and stone — a story without words. Alfred Lord Tennyson once noted this wall at Louth as “an old wall covered with weeds opposite the school windows.” Once seen, you can't unsee it - there's beauty all around us.

Mooie tentoonstelling Jazzjaren in Amsterdams Stadsarchief.
Over jazz in de jaren 30.

Louis Armstrong komt aan op Centraal Station, november 1933.

Idk who did this comic but it's hilarious

A display of a well preserved object resembling a bucket, with a triangular handle and rough, decayed texture. The object is mounted upright in a glass case within a modern museum setting.

A Neolithic well bucket made of lime bast and a willow handle, dating back some 7000 years ago.
Lime bast fibre is a strong and flexible inner bark of a lime (linden) tree that was, for example, used to make textiles or ropes.
Found in a well in Eythra, dating 5100-5000 BC. 🧵1/2

📷 me

Interesting discussion in 🇩🇪. No car maker will generate serious income by selling combustion engines after 2035. But some parties believe that it generates votes if they fight for it still.

(What they don‘t say: it’s ok if you pay for the damage.)

dog’s dinner of a frontage

“the dying gasps of a desperate regime”
Indeed.

It’s his pants.

Richard.
Your new profile pic.
Yes it’s all very nice but did you know someone has set fire to your trousers?😳

Would we have heard of him at all, if he hadn’t happened to be quite good at ping-pong?

Close-up of the Escrick Ring against a black background.

The early medieval gold Escrick Ring was found by detectorist Michael Greenhorn in a field near York #OTD in 2009. The sapphire seems to have originally been surrounded by a red glass cloisonné. 📸York Museums Trust

and depressing

Anglo-Saxon Crypt, Ripon Cathedral. An extraordinary survivor from St Wilfrid's original AD 672 church.
📸2025

Quarter mill as ‘brand ambassador’.
Hell’s teeth.