— a once in a lifetime shot..

captured by wildlife photographer Alan McFadyen

It’s making me proper nostalgic for the cones hotline….

The Kingsteignton Figure, found in 1867 by workmen digging for ball clay. Placed in a pool 2400 years ago, he looks somewhat belligerent. (RAMM, Exeter.) #Woodensday

🎼it was jiggery pokery, Aussie skulduggery….🎶

When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease YouTube video by Roy Harper - Topic

There is also the related field of cricket-inspired songs - this one, from
Roy Harper, certainly crosses into poetic territory …. music.youtube.com/watch?v=usLQ...

The Onion launches new bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars and turn it into a parody platform Satirical news site The Onion said it has reached an agreement to take over conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' InfoWars company.

ground.news/article/the-...
The Onion won the IP known as InfoWars when it was auctioned off to pay the Sandy Hook families that Alex Jones TERRORIZED after their children were massacred. Alex Jones sued to stop the Onion from taking InfoWars. He lost. 🤣 The NEW InfoWars will be a Satire Site. 😂

A Substack post from Lewes Goodall today saying precisely that - only with more words…

Fair. Starmer will come out of this clean on misleading parliament (opposition already rowed back) but v damaged goods in terms of relations with civil servants and most backbenchers. Deafening silence behind him yesterday was telling. I wouldn’t put money on him leading Labour next election.

Stephen Bush argues the appointment was just another favour for someone, in same mould as attempted Matthew Doyle appointment. I don’t buy that, I think Trump whisperer thesis is correct - with a dollop of MM returning favours. But if he is correct, it is far more crass and reprehensible.

It’s all got overtones of “ do not underestimate this quiet man” - except this one is in office….

Lookalike: Comedian and Chatty Man

From the latest Private Eye, out now.

At the time of the appointment there were remarkably few politicians of any persuasion, let alone journos, coming out to say what a terrible idea it was. Funny how they are all so much wiser now….. Still unsure if this was primarily a KS or MM thing….the unseemly haste to appoint almost certainly MM

Spotted this excellent mural on a school building today while on a bike ride.

Does this count as classical reception?

#AncientBlueSky 🏺

Yes, odd given failings of 5 Tory predecessors- from Cameron enabling Brexit in a bid to quell UKIP to Johnson partying while the bodies piled high, to the lettuce & mortgage rises. Maybe it’s a combo of 0% charisma, unforced errors that “stick” with voters & above all not giving a message of hope?

The Malaysian Dead Leaf Mantis mimicking a mouth with teeth to scare off predators.

Original post

I am not sure you understand the niceties of how vetting works. But let me put this to you - if, as Starmer claims, he would not have appointed Mandleson had he known the UKSV recommendation - why didn’t he follow Simon Cases’s advice to vet Mandleson before announcing the appointment?

Yes, I have made same point elsewhere - without the revelations from release of Epstein papers, most of the current hand wringing commentators would be saying - as they did at time - appointment was a smart move. The risks in appointment were partly known, they ended worse than expected.

If, by “pleasing people”, you mean making the will of the government happen - with the appropriate checks and balances - as a civil servant, I am sure you know that is in essence what the civil service is there to do.

As Jonathan Powell noted, whole thing “weirdly rushed”.

In this case, it would seem there wouldn’t have been particularly receptive ears….

Starmer has a lot more integrity than Johnson, but is pretty much on a par when it comes to discarding colleagues no longer of use - Corbyn, Gray, McSweeney, Rayner, Wormald, Robbins….all reminds me of that shin poisoning scene from “From Russia with Love”….

That is not how vetting process works. And if you are prepared to break the fundamental confidentiality process on which that relies, why should anyone go through it?

Starmerism in a nutshell…..

Complain to Ofcom….probably a lonely voice crying in the wilderness, but with a try

I checked this too.

*20 seconds* of Reform logo display.

*No other* party logo displayed.

In local election purdah.

This is not normal. At all.

The Infowars news is funny, yes. But more importantly, it is an outright rebuke of Alex Jones' evil.

It's testament to the strength and resilience of the Sandy Hook families who survived this bullshit for more than a decade as well as the Onion, which didn't give up on this for the last 18 months.

He is so, so good in this- and love the cigar lighting device!

Maybe, but I think it would be a big mistake - Labour is not a united church, and all the potential rival candidates just open up that division in a very public way. Much as Labour won in ‘24 not because people loved them but because they hated the alternatives, Starmer remains best option.

Well, depends - a bad guy in Good the Bad and the Ugly (he us the middle one) it a good guy as Colonel Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More….