Give a grant to people who can’t afford a uniform that isn’t needed? Why not remove the need for having the uniform and save the grant? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Facilitation and Transferable Skills training - especially presentation delivery, communication, networking and personal development. Immigrant, living by the sea, raising kids and enjoying a quiet life. Enjoy nature, photography and walking.
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Give a grant to people who can’t afford a uniform that isn’t needed? Why not remove the need for having the uniform and save the grant? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I imagine he was "just asking the question", no?
their suppliers... Always remember my manager in the 1980's shrieking at me "we always send invoices by first class and pay bills by second class." That kind of thinking sent me self-employed forever afterwards.
If I remember correctly, there has been for years a legal provision meaning it is possible for sole traders and SME's to add a percentage to invoices that large corporations (aka clients) can't be bothered to pay promptly. Of course, when we tried, such clients reminded us that they could choose
Todays NYT Connections Puzzle and I definitely don’t think alike…
If you are an MP sitting in the House of Commons jeering, braying and neighing when another politician is talking, that’s not listening so it can’t be debating. If you are an MP and you cannot give an answer to a question, that’s not governing; it’s obfuscating.
If you are an MP and want to represent your constituents, you won’t have time for a second job. If you are a minister responsible for a government portfolio, you won’t have time to represent your constituents effectively.
Well done!
Beloit, WI revitalized its waterfront and chose this way to celebrate it: by bringing to life Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."
Happy Daniel Hannan day!
Donald taking one from the Nigel Farage playbook? "I'm only asking the question"
Always up for some optimism! :)
The problem of having power when all you know is what you don't like and don't want.
❤️🙏🫡 www.youtube.com/watch?v=NADx...
High agency males? WTAF?
Posting this for many reasons. Mostly for the words of Peggy Noonan, who wrote this speech. youtu.be/eEIqdcHbc8I
"More Weinstein than Einstein" 🎩
Totally agree with @iandunt.bsky.social on the Elon / Trump tiny dick slapping contest, via his Substack today:
What were the options deemed not as powerfully newsworthy as "lives in a cul-de-sac"? I'd love to see the notes* from the editorial meeting. *Yeah - I know - my bad. Must stop making assumptions.
Every time I see this photo, all I can hear is "Higher? Lower? Good Game!"
Can anyone explain the contortions required by the US Government in order to simultaneously believe that Americans can indulge in free speech on Social Media without responsibility, but non-US citizens should be restricted if their free speech isn't the right sort? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Some blond, brown, grey, ginger or bald. Some old, some young. Some facial hair, some clean shaven. This is a DEI as it gets.
What this grifting shape-shifter knows, but finds it convenient to pretend otherwise when a camera is pointed at him, is that there is a difference between thinking something, saying something and broadcasting something. Social media is a platform - anything you say on it, you are broadcasting.
Beautiful lone pine in front of colorful skies in Minnesota🌲 #Photography #Photographer #Trees #Nature #BlueSky #Minnesota
This little excerpt from a BBC report on the EU/UK negotiations shows how desperate they are to portray everything about our relationship with the EU as a conflict, and that it’s good for clicks to describe some people as losers even when they win - just to keep the pot of hate simmering.
That'll be me 👇
The Sunset of May 12 2025 was an epic spectacle. A fortuitously long clear path of very filtered sunlight illuminated the undersides of a dynamically changing broken cloud ceiling with a vivid orange then deepening red light. If it wasn't so windy I would have made a time lapse sequence.
Strains? Really? Was there a headline once that read “Little Boy Strains Hiroshima”? What the actual?
There's something going seriously wrong if it's not April Fools' Day today.
Yet more incoherent drivel being recycled as clickbait which is then earnestly consumed over a coffee for thirty seconds. Politicians don’t want to lead, news reporters don’t want to report actual news and the people don’t care enough to mind.
I keep telling my wife that we really ought to help the African prince who keeps emailing me promising to share his $45,000,000 inheritance if only I share my bank details. Can't see the problem - think it would be stupid to refuse a gift like that. 🤷
Someone somewhere will do something about trade at some point.
One of the strangest ironies of the last ten years has been watching Britain immersing itself as deeply as ever in memories of WW2 while proudly turning its back on the project that emerged from it.
Beautiful!
It’s probably just me, but I’m feeling like this live TV feed is the longest episode featuring The Pontipines from In The Night Garden……
I'm betting on the first hosepipe bans by late June.
also you all need to see this, because this is something I don't think *anybody* could predict for where this ad goes
Sure whatever. 25% tariff on eating ice cream on a hot day next. 50% tariff on petting a dog. 35% tariff on the sound of children laughing. 10% tariff on the smell of flowers. 15% tariff on the cold side of the pillow. And another 25% on China, why not.
Sean Connery in The Rock giving his considered opinion about Mr Trump's plan to reopen Alcatraz and many of his other policies. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CSC...
Until someone actually bothers listing what these Brexit Freedoms are, the Daily Mail can just Foxtrot Oscar.
The pointless insistence on school uniforms is an absolute racket that does nothing other than make profits for companies selling low quality clothes. Why save parents £50 a year, when you could save them £440? Children in schools with no uniforms manage perfectly well. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Since when did journalism in our papers became jingoism?
I hear you. My refusal to surrender my armchair to my neighbour really makes peace between us difficult too. Go figure!
I voted for you but please don’t deport my wife. I’m special.
If you’re changing the definition of human rights, it means you plan on violating people’s human rights.
Time to dust off this drone image of the smallholding where I lived in back in 2017, where I crafted this welcome message for Airforce One on its inbound flight.
Tbf he’s only remembered for the content of his character that impelled him to remove the morals, sorry - murals, from Manston Detention Camp.
This is a glorious photo 🫶
furious at how perfect this column is, wish I could be happy for Duncan but unfortunately I'm simply seething at how good he is
In economics, as in geopolitics, Trump fundamentally misunderstands the limits of American power. It is at the centre of everything he does. The markets, the only real impediment to him now, may be about to teach him how wrong he is. New writing from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
I feel your pain…
Ah - the dream that dare not articulate itself in any definable, precise or articulate way.
It's all going splendidly well, isn't it?
When did the EU become a country? Never got that memo.
Has he said “thank you” once? No - he just arrived and said “Greenland, you’re my bitch now” See you next Tuesday.
I have been sick of this debate for years - the BBC has relentlessly been advertising itself for years. I don't care if it's adverts for BBC programmes or soap powder - it's advertising and the pretence that it isn't is fairly lame. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
We will continue to fail to deal with these charlatans until journalists challenge them directly, to their face and live on TV. As Robin Williams once put it, it's like trying to handle radioactive waste with an oven mitt.
"I've got a joke to tell you. It isn't very good, I can't deliver it very well and I probably don't understand it - but I'm going to tell it anyway, and someone somewhere might laugh as it's got something to do with chickens crossing roads to knock knock who's there on doors. Everyone ready?"
Last month I did a little experiment. I wanted to see how the exact same post would perform on both X (Twitter) and Bluesky. The results were...interesting... [Thread]
Hmmm - remove the root cause? Might that be his itchy trigger finger? Oh - the root cause of that? Think we’re gonna need a couch bigger than his desk.
This letter appeared in the Bloomsburg PA Press Enterprise this morning. I am assured the writer is who he purports to be, an Air Force veteran.
The West Wing
This is where we are.
A top economics reporter goes off script on national TV: “I am going to say this at risk of my job, but what President Trump is doing is insane.”
How is it that people with rizla-thin skin (Bezos, Musk, Trump etc.) manage to be so successful?
Keeping it real and keeping us sane.
"Stop people from wanting to get in the boats" was just too complicated, I guess.
Can't wait for the United Kingdom to get involved with all this Englishness and Britishness. Reminds me of the quote by (insert name of person who said:) "It's like trying to bite your own teeth.
Terrific resignation letter by Anneliese Dodds, this.
Was encouraged by my energy supplier to make sure I was on the best tariff in preparation for the ever-increasing energy cap hike. Very thoughtful of them considering that I currently pay them £335.80 a year in standing charges before I've even consumed a single watt or therm. Loving life.
I'm Brian and so's my wife. But never at the same time...
Copy. Standing by. Over.
Right got it - thanks. Oh. Wait. That'll be me. Do I have to give myself a good thrashing for being an immigrant, or can someone else take care of that for me?
Happy to help defend it - I have a rake and some loppers. Where are we meeting, and who should I look out for?
You've answered your own question - just read what you've written. Be better.
It’s not just the definitions that are oversimplified and inaccurate.
You can be foreign, but you can't be different.
I've read it - which is not to say I've understood it.
From an administration that is based on alternative facts, this makes sense.
They tried to cancel John Crace from covering the right-wing jamboree at ExCel but no one can stop him filing copy this good www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Western values? FFS what’s wrong with British ones? Oh - they’re the same? No? Which? Are they Mild & Green? Better by Design? Apples & Pears? Tear Along Dotted Line? Random Words? Utter Codswallop? FML.
Done nothing. Almost flatlining…
Today I shall be mostly unproductive thanks to HMRC’s interpretation of customer service.
I like your radio programme. I struggled to get beyond your characterisation of Walters as a “lefty actress.” How can you review a performance if you question the performer’s professionalism? Are you a journalist or are you just trying to make a point?
I’m as amazed by the inability to distinguish the EU from Europe as I am the randomly interchangeable use of England, Britain and the United Kingdom. I still think that calling it Brexit rather than Ukexit may still prove prescient.
I'm alright Jack - you can all f*ck right off. It's my ladder, and I'm pulling it up.
This 👇
Been to the shops to buy some new tops in the brightest colours they had. What is wrong with bright colours? Why is menswear nothing but a drudge of dark, dank, dull and drab? The world is miserable enough these days FFS - bring on the bright! Come on #tesco #asda and the rest.
I think he's starting to get it!
Is this the new 'Art of the Deal'? You don't buy any of our stuff and we buy lots of yours, so to fix this we'll introduce tariffs so that we have to pay even more for your stuff and you can retaliate by introducing tariffs on our stuff that you still won't buy. Heads no one wins and tails... um...
I didn't - but I do now! Thank you for the link.
He's like Biff from Back to the Future - only worse.
President Biff Tannen.
Is that 40-50 years from now? From when we left? From when we see an upside? That's a pretty small window of opportunity compared to the benefits of membership for the years before and after it.
I'm starting to wonder if the only way we'll move past Brexit is for Farage to become PM. From then, it's only a matter of time before it's shown to fail and then, as a country, we can all point to the elephant and talk about it at last.
Brexit five years on: A triumph of lies iandunt.substack.com/p/brexit-fiv...
I’m a foreign born British national. Otherwise known as a Schrödinger’s Tenant.
Is there a microscope powerful enough to find the topic that Mr Musk doesn't feel qualified to speak about?
Blistering piece from @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social. My 2p, even as someone wary of alarmist takes, is that the pardoning of the J16 thugs & the explicit goals of territorial expansion are clear evidence we've now entered an entirely new & very dangerous time. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...