Julian Cole

The liar of the land is at it again, telling Trump-like whoppers

Your tenacious colleague wins a follow from me for her willingness to stand up to Farage

Another year in blogging with those usual suspects… THIS time last year, I looked back at what this blog had covered in the previous 12 months. Nigel Farage was mentioned 20 times, Donald Trump 73 times – another ‘win’ to go with his fake peace priz…

manonledge.co.uk/another-year...

No, I don’t live here… and Happy Christmas… We are where my mother lives before driving back to York for Christmas. Dashing out on a mission I pass one of the neighbours. We’ve spoken before but she’s forgotten that. ‘Are you a new resident?…

manonledge.co.uk/no-i-dont-li...

Looks like Trump is not letting around half of us in… LET this all make sense. Donald Trump now seems to think Europe is the enemy. Or this week’s enemy. It can be hard to keep up. Any day now he’ll be shouting at his own shadow – “If you don’t stop f…

manonledge.co.uk/looks-like-t...

The ‘lies’ that Rachel Reeves did not in fact tell… LOOK, I can’t claim to understand how budgets work. I barely comprehend my own. I squint at the banking app and look away until my wife sidles over with a quaver of concern in her voice. I trust my…

manonledge.co.uk/the-lies-tha...
Here is my latest blog

Strange case of the words missing from the BBC’s Reith Lecture… Are you a glass half-full person or has someone drilled a hole in the bottom of that glass? I’d call myself a foolish optimist, certain everything will turn out right in the end. And when it doesn’…

manonledge.co.uk/strange-case...

What a lifetime of trying to play the guitar teaches you… I HAVE played the guitar for ever, not that you’d know it some stumble finger days. At my boys’ grammar school in the early 1970s, I gave a mini-recital of a study by Matteo Carcassi, an Italian gu…

Mostly I blog in and around politics. This one instead considers a lifetime of trying to play the guitar

manonledge.co.uk/what-a-lifet...

Trump sues BBC over programme he never watches… Donald Trump vs the BBC is a thing now swollen like an appendix fit to burst. Let’s prod and see where we get. The US president has threatened to sue the BBC for a billion dollars over an edition o…

manonledge.co.uk/trump-sues-b...

My blog on Trump vs the BBC

Never mind the TV adverts. We’re being dragged back to the 1970s by Farage and co… I don’t know if Reform UK MP Sarah Pochin has been to Scarborough, but she won’t like what was written in the sand. Pochin is the MP for Runcorn. What Runcorn did to deserve her is a mystery. Only …

manonledge.co.uk/never-mind-t...
Here is my latest blog. I publish one most weeks and they’re all up there. Ten years’ worth now

This notion of continual shallow distraction certainly resonates with me… Image by Erik Lucatero from Pixabay   I was skimming an article when three words popped out of the grey text. They were “continuous partial attention”. That pings a bell, I thought, pausing on…

manonledge.co.uk/this-notion-...

I really tried not to distract myself while writing this

manonledge.co.uk/now-heres-a-...

Hello @london.gov.uk
Just back from a long weekend and wrote this blog in praise of London and never mind what Farage thinks

Ignore the right-whingers and you’ll have a lovely time in London… JUST back from a weekend in London, that infamous hellhole. I took a spare Rolex in case one was stolen. That’s a joke, naturally, as I am more likely to wrap a cobra round my wrist than a Rolex. I…

manonledge.co.uk/ignore-the-r...

How we bravely survived a long weekend in London

A few thoughts on Musk, Charlie Kirk and why I finally quit X… I have finally deactivated my X account. This was the day after Elon Musk attempted to deactivate our democracy. Musk’s sin was greater than mine but having an X account still felt unclean. I shoul…

manonledge.co.uk/a-few-though...
Here is my latest blog. Give it a read, you might enjoy it, especially if you are woke

Balance the BBC The BBC is our national broadcaster, people expect and deserve balanced news coverage.

www.libdems.org.uk/bbc
While I don’t usually vote LibDem I am more than happy to sign this petition

The BBC gets back about my complaint… sad to see Rayner go… some caffeinated claptrap about coffee… As mentioned here last time, I complained to the BBC about “the endless slavish and unquestioning coverage” given to Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Now the BBC has got back to me. Or, rather, to mysel…

manonledge.co.uk/the-bbc-gets...

To us all has been sent a dollop of corporate dung speak from which there rises an unpleasant smell

Nigel’s making plans for Nigel… What unlikely connection exists between the Taliban and the journalists of Nottinghamshire Live? Well, Reform UK suggested doing a deal with the former but won’t talk to the latter. To set this in …

manonledge.co.uk/nigels-makin...
Here is the latest edition of my blog…including my complaint to the BBC

manonledge.co.uk/hurrah-for-t...

From ‘lawless Britain’ to the new Naked Gun film… Here’s a nubby conundrum. Should my typing fingers address ‘lawless Britain’ – or go straight to the new Naked Gun film? Oh, with a tug of reluctance, let’s start in that Nigel Farage-fabricated la…

manonledge.co.uk/from-lawless...

Here is my latest blog. Give it a go, you might even enjoy it. Unless you are Nigel Farage

When a man is tired of Trump and Farage going on about London… Dr Johnson famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.” Well, don’t tell Donald Trump for he seems to hate London, reserving…

manonledge.co.uk/when-a-man-i...

Sticking up for London and ‘windmills’ in my latest blog

Yes, here it is… another essay on why you shouldn’t vote for Reform There is a file I keep for blog ideas. At present it’s swollen like an appendix fit to burst, but mostly that’s down to Nigel Farage. Many of the bits and pieces put into the ‘blog stuff’ folder ar…

manonledge.co.uk/yes-here-it-...
Here is my latest blog. It’s all in that headline really

AI worries… sticking up for our MP… and tired legs versus teeny legs… Here are pieces of flotsam found in the stagnant pool of my mind. You can’t move nowadays without tripping over two vowels yoked together in the name of progress. No prizes for guessing those lette…

manonledge.co.uk/ai-worries-s...
Here is the latest edition of my this and that blog. Give it a go if you have a mo

New parties from Musk and Corbyn, and the trashy scent of Trump… WHAT links Jeremy Corbyn and Elon Musk? Both have announced they are establishing a new political party, that’s what. Musk, former Trump buddy and backer turned fury-spitting frenemy, is setting up…

manonledge.co.uk/new-parties-...
A few thoughts on new parties from Musk and Corbyn. Plus a fragrant footnote

A year of Starmer and are these really U-turns?… U-turns seem to be having a moment, especially if you are the political editor of the BBC. That’s Chris Mason, by the way, that over-eager weasel with a scrap of something bloody caught in his teet…

manonledge.co.uk/a-year-of-st...
A few thoughts on a year of Labour and how the BBC reports so-called U-turns

Time for old men to stop ruining the world… Hate to say this as I’ll be one soon enough, but old men are ruining the world. Not all old men, just those who drag their stubborn tired legs into politics. At the last US election, voters were in…

manonledge.co.uk/time-for-old...

Here is the latest report from Man on Ledge

Yet again, the BBC displays an unhealthy obsession with Nigel Farage… What is it with the BBC and Reform UK? Those of us who habitually stick up for the BBC are having a hard time of it right now. It seems all news headlines must by decree mention that Nigel Farage’s…

manonledge.co.uk/yet-again-th...
Why is the BBC so keen on cosying up to Nigel Farage? My latest blog

Ha ha! That was always going to happen. Gripes of wrath and all that

And that’s how you end up writing a blog for ten years… Today it is ten years since I shuffled onto this ledge. Perhaps I should have a word with my slighter younger self. Are you sure you want to spend a whole decade writing a blog read by a handful of…

manonledge.co.uk/and-thats-ho...

The years ago I sat down to write a blog after being made redundant…

All power to Springsteen… and, no, this isn’t a betrayal of Brexit Repeats on the television, repeats in real life. Playing now on the American politics channel is the old Springsteen/Trump bout. Over here, GB Spews is dusting off old episodes of It Ain’t Half Bre…

manonledge.co.uk/all-power-to...

Here is my blog about Springsteen vs Trump and old. Brexit rows