Amy Gray

Before the Iron Lady there was the Red Duchess.
40 years before Margaret Thatcher got into a tank, the Duchess of Atholl took on communist hecklers in the streets of Aberdeen.
I wrote Red Duchess partly to restore this forgotten Conservative pioneer to her rightful place in the memory of her party.

Oh this is too too sad. She added so much to the jollity of life.

I’ve never seen Traitors either. Or any of the Real Housewives shows. Or Love Island.

I’ve never seen The Sopranos, Gilmore Girls, Peep Show, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Luther, The Killing or Happy Valley.

"Having children leads to a substantial and long-lasting reduction in mothers’ earnings; five years after the birth of a first child (Quarter 20), monthly earnings were reduced on average by 42%, or £1,051 per month, compared with earnings one year before the birth."
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

We lost a decade of progress when the coalition scrapped the code for sustainable homes and govt decided not to mandate tech like solar panels for all new builds

Absolutely not. No way. We should be keeping kids away from ChatGPT and its ilk for as long as possible. Reading stories at bedtime is one of my favourite parts of the day. Why would I outsource that to a computer?

All parties have always been internal coalitions, but they seem to find it harder to compromise with each other now. I remain unconvinced that Reform's internal coalition will hold

A vicar friend whose judgement I trust says the Bishop of Bath and Wells is a very excellent person

The "root cause" of a murderous attack on a Jewish place of worship on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar is antisemitism. It is no more complicated than that. A man deliberately chose that date, this target, and those means, following centuries of grim precedent.

There’s also this brilliant anecdote about hastily rewriting the preamble so that the DUP could sign up.

Oliver Letwin writes about the origins of the Climate Change Act in his book Hearts and Minds. He believed that cross-party agreement was vital, particularly to provide long term policy stability for investors.

I’ve never understood why Labour doesn’t close its conference with their leader’s speech.

Was planning to meet friends at the zoo last weekend but no way I was doing that on a rail replacement bus service

On rewatching the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, I have had the horrific realisation that I’m now old enough to be Elizabeth Bennett’s mother.

£450?

Baffles me that the conveyancing system is not fully digitised and so much paper gets posted to and fro. Surely a vote winner to promise to streamline it

Academic publishing is vital in age of AI The value of the publishing industry as a driver of economic growth and the need for legislation of AI companies over content use were two key messages to parliamentarians this week from Mandy Hill, P...

"“If we create a legal system which allows unfettered use of all content by AI companies for training purposes, we lose the ability to reward authors for their work... & we end with a diminished cultural and academic canon.”
www.cambridge.org/news-and-ins...

We need to start calling these out to try and deter people from outsourcing their brains to AI

In search of a diagnosis How my son’s autism assessment sent me on an investigation into my own past

Earlier this year, I spent considerable time working on an essay for @ftweekend.com about issues around autism: www.ft.com/content/d1ba... I read a great deal about the condition and spoke to several experts. There is no indication whatever that use of a single drug in pregnancy is linked to it.

I have an autistic child. I followed *all* the NHS advice in pregnancy, and took paracetamol once during those 9 months. It is not that.

Among the biggest taxpayers in the country and a donor to education and medical research. Not something you can say about the Trumps….

😂 I haven’t yet seen it because by the time my kids are both in bed it’s 8pm, which is not the time to start a 3 hour movie. I do love Gone With the Wind, having said that.

100 minutes is the perfect length for a movie and I will die on that hill

Who could have predicted that the Sultana/Corbyn project would so quickly descend into a hilarious mess

Britain must break from the grip of dysfunctional policymaking Speculation over what might be in November’s Budget has left me depressed about our capacity for rational policies

“No single change to how we tax either housing or pensions, or indeed most other aspects of the system, should be seen in isolation. They ought to be designed & implemented as a part of a thought-through, long-term, well-understood direction of travel.”

on.ft.com/3Iw7n1u

Married him

“Although Trump is a well-known teetotaler, guests were also able to enjoy a special cocktail created for the banquet, the Transatlantic whisky sour which mixed Johnnie Walker with marmalade, pecan foam and a toasted marshmallow on a biscuit.” NOPE.

I’ve done a lot of research at a Scottish castle that gets a lot of people turning up claiming connections to the local duke which usually turn out not to be true

I’ve always been told a family story that our ancestors lost large estates during the Civil War, and Charles II refused to return them after the Restoration. I would love the time to trace the family back and see if it’s true