James Elder

When I first saw the Sinners posters on the London Underground, having recently rewatched The Wire S1 my internal monologue was "Where's Wallace, String'? Where's Wallace?".

Trump's business connections to IRGC reemerge, a day after he called it a terrorist organisation President's firm entered partnership with 'notoriously corrupt' official to build Trump Tower Baku

Just a reminder of Donald Trump’s, umm, interesting history with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Having considered for 48 hours the best way to protect the autonomy, the equal voice and the equal right to cast a secret ballot of south Asian women at the polling station, Nigel Farage has concluded it is important to "go further" and to disenfranchise as many Asian women [+ men] as possible

A new branch of M&S Food on the site of an old branch that closed 10 years or so ago.

Somehow, M&S returned (to Putney).

In fact there’s probably an interesting story about retail trends there. This site was an M&S branch for around a century. The food hall gradually expanded until the clothes shop only occupied the upstairs.

It closed c2010 and the site has been empty since.

It was only on clicking through that I could see the post in question no longer existed.

It’s all standard ‘fog of war’ stuff but it does reveal that notwithstanding good behaviour all round, mistakes can hang around for a while.

4/

But her first post, embedded in the posts of the journalists who’d QTed it, was still visible in the Bluesky iPad client I use (Skeets) as a cached version for a fair few minutes, even though I’d updated my timeline.

3/

Two more journalists I follow had QTed noting how major this would be if confirmed.

First journalist realised she’d made a translation mistake, deleted and corrected.

2/

An interesting Bluesky phenomenon which I’m posting about to document, not - to be clear - to blame anyone.

A journalist who can read Hebrew initially thought that am Israeli TV news report said something that, if true, would be seismic in impact.

1/

A reminder of how remarkable and resilient the people and culture of Iran have always been…

It's disappointing to also see more than a hint of that in Starmer's letter.

This is Nicholas Rowe erasure.

When I first read (via Perry) about 'the telegraph scandal' and the fate of Frank Scudamore I was amazed that it isn't better known.

Supposedly it helped establish the principle that Ministers are responsible for the actions of their civil servants, and that ignorance is not a defence.

The other one to read is Jeffrey Kieve's 'The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History' which can be downloaded here:

Yes, Charles Perry also wrote a very good book "The Victorian Post Office: The Growth Of A Bureaucracy" which expands on that article and also deals with the Post Office's work on post, parcels, telephones, savings accounts and life insurance policies. Out of print, and never published as an ebook.

A tiny bit.

But mainly it was because of dissatisfaction with the private companies' coverage, service and prices (the regional press was especially unhappy) , coupled with a very self-confident Post Office on a high after having successfully introduced the Penny Post and Post Office Savings Bank.

If I were on the R&R Client Board, I imagine I'd be somewhat frustrated, given that their report clearly pulled its punches in order to get political agreement. The lack of logic in the Tory position: "full decant will cost too much, so let's do it in an even more expensive way" is almost impressive

Very cool when one occasionally gets to see this (I've only seen it once): bsky.app/profile/doub...

I was at the Baftas – and while hearing the N-word was unsettling, all anger should be aimed at the BBC | Jason Okundaye By failing to remove John Davidson’s tic from the broadcast, editors let down both black and disabled people, says Guardian assistant Opinion editor Jason Okundaye

This is a good piece:

Just a side thing but it drives me spare that people don’t know about it:

The UK’s first major nationalisation (the telegraph networks in 1870) was conceived under the Conservatives (Derby) and executed under the Liberals (Gladstone).

The institutional thinking of the Post Office in that period is so interesting - utilitarianism and strong administrative self-belief.

If anyone has ODNB access, look up Frank Ives Scudamore for a fascinating read.

Just a side thing but it drives me spare that people don’t know about it:

The UK’s first major nationalisation (the telegraph networks in 1870) was conceived under the Conservatives (Derby) and executed under the Liberals (Gladstone).

The City of London corporation could probably also make a difference if it wanted to.

It's also amusing/exasperating to read from outside the US - each country has its own unique story about how Bluesky has developed.

But is his dog OK?

Very sad.

I know nothing about the literature or about the specifics but I will say that, having seen the trailer for the film I Swear and read reviews my understanding is that it’s very much focused on it being involuntary for the guy.

This does, if nothing else, contextualise reactions to what happened.

And my Mum also sends her thanks!

Amazing! Thanks so much.

And that makes perfect sense - it was in a family deed box which generally relates to various farms on the Bucks/Herts border.

Thankyou!