Martin Headon

Might give it a go. Have you seen the Playing Shakespeare series with John Barton, available on YouTube? Some great stuff with Suchet (and Stewart / McKellen / Dench / Kingsley etc) which makes me want to see more of him.

I never really watched it. How would you compare it to, say, Jeremy Brett Holmes?

Did I just hear Badenoch say the phrase "a sea of orcs and goons"? WTF?

Married to a Wokinger (ite?) - possibly a lot of it down to young professionals / families moving out of London?

The majority of colleagues on a team call yesterday believed that the Iranians attacked the Cyprus base because Starmer had let the US use it for attacks, to give a sense of people's level of accuracy on this.

I'd always thought it was "I see ya"!

100% convinced that the 2 drivers are facing away from each other because Heated Rivalry now means any 2 sportsmen facing off just look like they’re about to start kissing.

Yeah it's fucking nuts. Who is he talking to? When will he realise that most of his own voters have fairly liberal views on things including drug policy?

Hoping for a Brennan-style breakout year for Noah Hobbs :)

First impressions of pricing are really good if the amount of agonising I've already done is anything to go by.

Judging from some stuff that comes up on my Instagram via an acquaintance, I'd prepare for a massive online culture war with anti-vax carnivore diet types...

Lucy Powell?

Read that, but for a moment my brain didn't see the word "post" after "makes me".

Not that we're trying to extract maximum drama out of every intervention or anything.

I do feel like we (well, Bluesky) need to stop responding to every political event with "that's it, Starmer's toast".
Rayner's ISC intervention didn't finish him off. Sarwar seems to have provoked outpouring of cabinet support. We keep massively underpricing "he will limp on".

(as of now) Wes seems to have mislaid his phone.

Do Badenoch and Starmer have a bet on to see who can destroy their party first?

Think that we'll now see increasing and unchecked positioning and distancing from potential candidates from now on. E.g. look out for cabinet ministers getting more positive on u16 social media ban.

Could I add that the 2011 Lacon (Simon McBurney) is one of my favourite supporting cast performances? Makes the most of a small and (from the script) unpromising role.

Yes I'm using "Daily Mail headline" as shorthand for "an utter continuous shitstorm across print, TV, and social media".
Take your point re: gay rights. But I don't believe *any* Labour Health Secretary would have gone "nah, Cass Review is wrong".

There's a distinction between Streeting's personal views, and his decisions *as Health Secretary* which are coloured by, you know, not wanting to be a Daily Mail headline every other day.
Is that moral cowardice? Perhaps! But the "Wes as active transphobe" narrative not credible in my book.

Nightclubs don't set up a table with some plastic cups and a bottle of squash and a few jugs of water so you can make it at the strength the child likes.

Thought London Mayoral candidate selection also interesting on this score, clear sign that Reform perhaps putting X base at arm's length too.

Easily the best imo: Lord of the Wank

"I wanked for the scribes and the Pharisee,
But they would not wank and they wouldn't follow me.
I wanked for the fishermen, for James and John;
They came with me and the wank went on."

Not saying I’m fully convinced either way, but screen time for 9-12 year olds =/= social media for under 16s

Yes this is ironic coming from her, yes there is also vast amounts of brainrot in older generations… but I also think this is potentially a good move. Maybe someone had a quiet word and said “people like the OSA actually”.

Normal service resumed.

Watching a 70s Italian horse-racing comedy for reasons that are good but not worth explaining, and just for a moment it went all Bluesky.

I’m on Team “Fiona might actually be genuinely a bit nasty”, sorry 😬

LONDON (snow) HAS FALLEN