Adam Chapman

Adam Fleming. Routinely dreadful.

SB+LWH: You never say "thank you"!

MI London…

Christopher Harborne has cemented Reform’s status as a mo... New political donation rules won’t stop him giving as much as he likes

In the second half of 2025, one man accounted for almost 40% of all money donated to political parties in the UK: a crypto-billionaire who lives in Thailand.

Britain desperately needs to rewrite its party funding rules.
observer.co.uk/news/the-sen...

Hereditary peer Lord Mancroft: ‘They don’t care about fox hunting. It’s about us’ The Conservative politician and former master of hounds on House of Lords reform, the pros and cons of privilege — and his numerous tattoos

'He is to conservatism what candyfloss is to sugar: a spectacular manifestation. For nearly 40 years he has sat in the upper chamber, eloquently tutting in the face of progress.'

Brilliant writing by @henrymance.ft.com
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

I want it to be abundantly obvious that getting out slogging Marnus before lunch is something so obvious that you drop yourself if you do it.

This was viewed with significant suspicion, apparently...

Up to a point! I have seen *a lot* of Allis Chalmers, John Deere, Internationals, etc. OK, perhaps a bit smaller than some of yours, but there's no shortage: serious numbers were imported under Lend Lease and afterwards.

One of my grandfather's neighbours ran John Deere's in Norfolk in the '60s.

Oh they do! My, that's a proper lash up...

You see, it's not just me! Not #TractorCommentary, but near enough.

Lister B Hopper cooled. First run in years. YouTube video by Norfolk Man cave

A bit of Googling suggests something smallish like a Lister B. You used to see rows of these things at vintage machinery shows when I was a kid and - I confess - I never paid much attention. Hence this chap with the most splendid broad Norfolk accent I've heard in years:

The exhaust would be the rusty orange thing behind the water hopper. A medium-sized version, perhaps added onto the earlier machine? Or part of it as an add on, or on a trolley next to it?

You can see the stationary oil engine doing the job (watercooled, I think - most were - the steam gives it away). Not so well up on those, but give me a minute...

Not least because the odds are that his interlocutor would have been born in the '90s and might not - as was the case the one time I've seen a celeb do this (in WHSmiths at Liverpool Street, no, I'm not naming the guilty).

The video of him doing the full 'Don't you know who I am?!' at Heathrow would be worth it.

There I was the other day, tutoring a student for his MA dissertation, a student I first taught as an undergraduate in 1994, straight off an Access Course, who became a teacher, and is now the head of an International school in India.

Llun o Gapel Newydd, Nanhoron / Image of Capel Newydd, Nanhoron

Y mis hwn, mae tîm prosiect Capeli Cymru yn cynnal ac yn mynychu amrywiaeth o ddigwyddiadau. Byddem wrth ein bodd yn eich gweld chi yn rhai o'r digwyddiadau hyn, i drafod y cyfleoedd a'r heriau o ofalu am dreftadaeth capeli.

This appalling fat cat wants to shut the door on all my mature students, many of whom left school after GCSE and give up a lot to go to university. I can tell him that they’re the hungriest for education and far from being unable to graduate, they regularly get the highest grades. Hateful man.

Cyclists in a cycle track near Marble Arch with buses stopped in a bus lane nearby.

"Car traffic is the problem, not... bikes". Our @psimonk.bsky.social in @transportxtra.bsky.social on the fake 'buses v cycling' culture war. www.transportxtra.com/publications...
Many bus industry folks blame cycling, incl cycle tracks & LTNs for falling bus speeds. Piece left out (due to space)...

That was a very, very long day out given the timings. Did you go down the night before? Or join en route?

A bit of local folklore (for me, growing up in Somerset in the '80s and '90s).

The railway from Bath to Bournemouth - and the bit I'm more familiar with, across the Levels from Evercreech to Highbridge.

That ended, 60 years ago, and Richard was there for the last rites of a railway as spectacle.

Bungalows attract a stonking premium round here...

Casglu Enwau Lleoedd Cymru
Ymunwch a Dr James January-McCann, Swyddog Enwau Lleoedd @rcahmwales.bsky.social, wrth iddo drafod Rhestr Enwau Lleoedd Hanesyddol Cymru.
Dydd Mercher 25 Mawrth, 2yh.
Cadwch le AM DDIM yma www.ticketsource.co.uk/glamorgan-ar...

The editorial soundtrack of the day has been chosen by @katrinanavickas.bsky.social (with thanks).

Katrina's excellent little blog on the Latchmere Esatate is well worth a read.

A short blog post on my field trip the other day
historyofpublicspace.uk/case-studies...

*History professor profits from sale of historical artefacts*

Another headline fixed

Abingdon's Radley Road neighbours angry at parking ban to speed up buses The restrictions to parking have been made to help speed up bus journeys along the road.

I love the way expensive new roads are celebrated, even if in business case terms, they only shave a few seconds of journeys.

But when it is a modest scheme to help to get buses moving, that same argument is deployed against.

Sorry Bub, it's not your road outside.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The finder kept one coin, the landowner kept another. At auction, two coins went to an anonymous buyer in the USA, one to Switzerland and the destinations of the rest are unknown.

#Archaeology #Treasure #Detecting 🏺

Google pledges roughly three hours of its annual profit to fight climate change Google and others are committing $100 million to combat climate change.

The perfect headline doesn’t exi…

To be fair, there are quite a lot of English runs, too.

The history of Jackson's of Reading is rich in equestrian imagery – take a look at these 19th century illustrations and stunning scale models capturing the store in its Edwardian heyday.

Special display on now until 28 March.

#scalemodels #modelhorse #diorama #yearofthehorse #ReadingUK #rdg