Philip Brown

This is so much a continental European election result it’s almost funny. True Britain Democrats (PfE) 26% Ecology/Planet Action (G-EFA) 18% Christian Democrat Union (EPP) 17% Socialist Workers Revolutionary Party (S&D) 17% Europe Liberalism! (Renew) 16% Others 6%

Knockouts took centre stage this week, Newcastle claimed their spot and Sheffield looked set for the final four, but it's London and Bristol who complete the quartet. Whilst Surrey had a massive victory in the Cup. @shieldsbrief.bsky.social and I look back over it all linktr.ee/sundaynightb...

Hardly the main point here, but apparently I am now so old and out of touch that I am learning slang (‘serving lewks’) from MPs’ BlueSky accounts.

Quite the correction by the Telegraph. The publication in question is @freemovement.bsky.social

Fawlty Towers still the go-to reference. And to think people ask whether Britain has soft power.

Even Maj-Gen Robert Ross and his troops of blessed memory didn't manage this.

Geoff interviewing senior management at Transport for London and the Docklands Light Railway may sound pretty dry; but it was actually really nice to see the various execs each having some childlike enthusiasm for their new trains. A fun (and informative!) watch!

This isn’t a picture of Mel Stride and the shadow chancellor being misidentified on ConHome feels quite indicative of where the Tories are at.

Every so often the song "Fat Bottomed Girls" comes on and I'm reminded that the first verse is a casual jokey story of (very young) child abuse, and I realise all over again that the 70s were a more fucked up time than I thought possible

This is largely because of Reform voters completely switching. They really are very responsive to their leaders/media.

After Ming Campbell's passing today, it's time for one last airing of "Ming's Bling" - one of Jeremy Vine's unusual segments from the BBC's coverage of the 2007 UK Local Elections... www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E9c...

Hussein is consistently one of the smartest people on what the internet has done to us and this thread is worth reading. (Aside from the final point, no idea what he’s on about with that reference, probably something the younger millennials did.)

Interesting to discover that the Commons Library note on "influencing the planning process" has a section on what makes a good objection, but nothing at all about supporting an application. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/influencing-...

"I rise to speak" is to MPs' speeches what "delve" is to students' essays...

What a planning application.

DJ at the Mystics-Storm game impressively quick on the trigger with Bad Blood during the infection control timeout. #WNBA

I see what they did there… (from thejournal.ie).

Got to keep up with the Joneses over here on Bluesky

Same as it ever was. (And also true in wider life; not just social media).

It's not too often that something occurs for the first time in 334 years.

A hypothesis that perhaps somebody in academia might one day test. I wonder if some people object to planning applications because of a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging that they might not find elsewhere. samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2024/10/lone...

It's IMO an underrated argument for PR that it makes significantly easier for legislators to actually just be legislators.

It's a really remarkable achievement that an essential piece of technical literacy has become: "You MUST ignore the first two inches of the Google result."

I will buy a decent bottle of wine for the first counsel or Lord or Lady Justice of Appeal who turns to the Court of Appeal YouTube streaming camera and says “Don’t forget to click on like and subscribe and let us know what you’d argue in the comments”.

The ad-supported news industry is soooooo screwed. I just opened a MailOnline story and they've increased the number of ads to the point where it makes Reach's local sites look like they're minimalist designs - and the biggest advert is some insane libellous slop about Zoe Ball.

We should remember that in the eyes of modern-day owners (private equity funds, speculators et al), season-ticket holders are both useful (the fervour! the songs! the *history*!) and a complete nuisance, as they prevent clubs from selling seats at the prices they'd fetch on an open market.

It's the equinox on Sunday, here is an animation showing the path of the sun on the equinox and the solstices

Was once at a work-adjacent drinks reception where, on leaving, guests were given a custom jute bag containing a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. A colleague expressed concern it would hit our registrable gift threshold (£20). We Googled the price of the bottle of wine. £6.99 at Morrisons.

The housing crisis in numbers. (From The Sunday Times today: www.thetimes.com/life-style/p...)

I'm not the first person to say this, but it's just stunning that Google is so excited to put mostly wrong answers at the top of every search

A fascinating video onboard a vital piece of engineering technology - also great to see Network Rail so pleased to show an outsider how their helicopter fleet keeps Britain's railways working!

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson says one case of alleged terrorism is “actively under consideration” following the disorder across the country

Bonkers section from the Wikipedia page for Suggs from Madness

my pick for greatest modern-era nba photo used to be wade posing in foreground / lebron dunking in the background, but i think the new #1 is obvious. it wouldn't work nearly as well if wemby wasn't 7'4. the spurs are going nuts for the basketball head man like barney the dinosaur just came to life

New post - as Labour take a gamble on housebuilding, how does the electoral politics of the Green Belt stack up for them? barneystringer.wordpress.com/2023/10/21/l...

Well that was quite a decade, if it hadn’t help upend an industry/society/whatever then it’d be quite funny. Absolutely catastrophic for sites that don’t have homepage audiences coming straight to them. digiday.com/media/publis...