Miranda Green

oh god

v much doubt it

me too

so so so agree - my view: is your book idea really a column? Also: if someone can revive the idea of short books, they are great, why not publish more? Short Books as in Rebecca Nicolson's outfit was a great idea but they seem to have become only health and lifestyle.

... having now (I think) read all of them, there are a couple of slightly less good ones in the middle (Stolen Lake I didn't like much) but then return to form with Is and Cold Shoulder Road and also Dido and Pa which is great - these are sort of like Hard Times on acid. So many dark satanic mills.

Yan Tan Tethera! It's a great book, so creepy

Flo Wilkes - Henry (Official Music Video) YouTube video by Flo Wilkes

Omg my daughter Flo has gone and released a new single WITH A VIDEO!!

youtu.be/VytNsdTkoAI?...

She would like to thank you for attention to this matter.... Enjoy!

utter twattery - but twattery abounds, my friend. Congratulations to your daughter: as they say in Four Weddings, you must be very proud (though I mean it!)

very - you wouldnt' think that from the new generation of Labour MPs though, and maybe that is more significant right now? - they are, in the parlance, "kicking off"

oh FABULOUS

I was a big fan as a child but have hung on to them and totally failed to get my kids to read beyond Black Hearts in Battersea (which remains my favourite too though I like Night Birds very much too)

she is/was a brilliant writer and brilliant stylist - during Covid I reread the whole Wolves series (Dido Twite - a heroine for the ages!) and was delighted to find there are loads of out of print brilliant thrillers and romances too

This is fascinating, and reminds me of Jilly Cooper's observation that British people specifically detest the class immediately above and below them (eg middle to upper and vice versa) but are fine with a bigger gab (working to upper).

As the class system get flattened, everyone hates everyone else

2025 Local Elections Handbook and dataset Explore the 2025 local elections results and download a comprehensive results dataset for electoral districts and wards.

We've published the 2025 local elections handbook in collaboration with the University of Exeter's Elections Centre. This includes ward- and candidate-level results from last year's locals. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/2025-local-e...

The New Iran War First impressions

I found this extremely helpful by @markurban.bsky.social markurban.substack.com/p/the-new-ir...

Re Nick Timothy - there is still a warmth felt for Grange Hill in certain age groups. And this means with Timothy's popularity only one thing - Bring Francois into the shadow cabinet.

(Below Timothy and Francois pictured after the 2024 election result)

TFW you want to save your family’s lives but also buy a Rolex

hope someone went as the dead hand of Casaubon - like, just the dead hand

Europe confronts threat of another energy crisis Rerouting of LNG tanker bound for France to Asia signals escalating competition for gas supplies due to Iran war

Full story here: www.ft.com/content/d48f...

The urtext

not the best photo of either of them - when I rise from my grave plse choose a nicer shot, I want to look my best even when decaying

gotta love a bit of Hardy of a morning

what a great painting Brian - almost as god as that one of Barbara Castle in the green

(that sentence needs subbing sorry and also - hello David!)

Iran executes Khamenei’s plan to spread regional war Strikes on energy facilities and targets across Middle East form strategy devised to sow chaos in retaliation for US and Israeli attack

The dead hand of Khamenei - Extraordinary piece from Najmeh and Andrew England - what Iran is doing now is a maximum pain plan for the region, drawn up before he was killed www.ft.com/content/02eb...

just because something is a very clever line and goes over well doesn't make it anything other than ahistorical and disprovable - !

the 'nice life' line is kinda genius

its a shocker on many levels

Willie Colón, musician, 1950-2026 The virtuoso trombonist led urban salsa music with a gangster swagger

This is such a great obit - @jprathbone.bsky.social on Willie Colón. "Every musical genre seems to have a hoodlum-genius. Salsa’s was Willie Colón... a god of Latin music, perhaps even “the most necessary in its pantheon” www.ft.com/content/3ba1...

how do they not realise that her obvious and now proven appeal as a person and a candidate makes this attack, today of all days, sound both weak and deranged? (and I say that as someone far from delighted about some of the campaigning)

A consistent recurring theme of Farage byelection losses over a decade - Oldham 2015 with Ukip, Peterborough 2019 with Brexit Party, Gorton & Denton 2026 - is to talk loudly about electoral challenges about minority voters. But never to actually put the case to authorities. Media should spot pattern