Tom Freeman

What we used to call the "centre right" is essentially over now. Some of its declining membership are still in the Tory party, sitting tight and waiting for Badenoch to fall in the hope that one of their own might replace her. And when that fails, they'll either acquiesce to populism or fade away.

Jenrick just said we need to leave the ECHR, which I'm fairly sure is not Conservative policy; Badenoch has commissioned a review which is due to report in autumn

[my first day in prison, surrounded by gang of glowering thugs]
ME: None of you seem to understand. *I'm* not locked in here with *you*. We're *all* locked in here with *each other*! [produces sharing platter of delicious canapés]

Egyptian geese and saxophonist. Unexpected and lovely for a lazy Sunday afternoon. #NewRiverBirds

Sometimes the low-hanging fruit still isn't quite low enough #NewRiverBirds

The trick to boiling a frog is to give the frog a social media account. Then, rather than jumping out, it will just keep posting "omg this water's getting really hot wtf"

The image is a piece of fan art titled "Klimt Eastwood," created by Carl Tétreault in 2016. It depicts actor and director Clint Eastwood in a style inspired by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, specifically referencing Klimt's "The Kiss".

Please enjoy this Klimt Eastwood

The Actual Conspiracy Theory Surrounding Trump and Epstein It’s not what you think it is.

There are numerous allegations about Trump and Epstein abusing young women and teenage girls, and they've been in the public domain, largely ignored, for years katemanne.substack.com/p/the-actual...

Tips on how to date women:
- try just asking how old she is
- for an indirect approach, gauge her familiarity with period-specific cultural references like Olivia Rodrigo, Blur, Vera Lynn, Mozart etc
- if she accidentally leaves her birth certificate out while she pops to the loo, take a quick look

I sat down having accidentally left all of the chocolate chip cookies within arm's reach and there was inadvertently a guzzling incident

I mean that's actually going to make the jobs numbers very slightly worse

Yeah, he's got an ad copywriting background (I also really benefited from an earlier book of his on copywriting, which helped me into an area I wasn't super hot on). He's self-published, so the books haven't had a huge profile: www.abccopywriting.com/books

And I liked Anne Greene's Writing Science in Plain English, which obviously has narrower scope but takes a Williamsish approach too.

Well I've long been a fan of Joseph Williams, and SP's book was firmly in that tradition. I quite liked Tom Albrighton's How to Write Clearly, which also covers some of that same ground, from a copywriting background. Maybe a bit simple, but the flipside is that it's more accessible than JW or SP.

Yikes, didn't know that! Haven't really paid him any attention since his style book.

Or maybe it's hypothetical and he'd just be assigned one after arrest by the grammar police. "If you cannot afford a grammarian, one will be appointed for you." And then he gets some tired, overworked former English teacher who advises him to stick to passive voice to avoid incriminating himself

What poor wretch got the job of being Dershowitz's grammarian? Imagine having to introduce yourself at parties. "So what do you do?" "Oh, I'm Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer's grammarian" "Um, that must be... interesting?" "Yeah, I'm working on a case right now"

Anyway, no one cares about my dreams, but it's 6.30 and clearly I'm not getting back to sleep so here I am killing a bit of time before breakfast

Think I read somewhere that dreams are usually quite low-fidelity when if comes to fine detail like eg reading printed text. I guess a dextrous task like tying a tie (which in reality I do maybe twice a decade) could well be impossible if the dream can't render the ins and outs of the knot

Just woke from a dream about a student play I was in, late 90s, and I was backstage trying to put a tie on for my next scene but just couldn't get it to tie up properly. Eventually went on without it but was then so flustered I couldn't remember my lines and we just improvised some idle chit-chat

Ah, that's sad. I loved the Brick Street Boys - my much-read copy fell to pieces and was taped together again a few times. and then Funny Bones, Burglar Bill, Two Heads, Each Peach Pear Plum...

It Unfollows #MildHorror

TV execs accepted their own marketing of Savile as the zany uncle who kids loved because he gave them presents, but to most kids he was the weird uncle who they tolerated because he gave them presents

Essentially the only way to get me to watch a YT ad is to make me think "why the fuck are you doing this" in the first few seconds

Just had a YouTube ad from the government that was essentially "The NHS is improving". Oddest one I've seen since the Israeli govt's "Hamas is bad" campaign from late 2023

Headline: "Trump says Canada's move to recognise Palestinian state threatens trade deal"

And after all that effort Trump made to recognise Canada as a state

Born in the wrong generation You have gone nowhere. There is nowhere for you to go.

Now THAT'S how you write a fuckin short story.

samkriss.substack.com/p/born-in-th...

"Well, I'm delighted that so many people liked the comedy song I spent two days working on! Oh, now I'll just do a quick bump for an old meme that does the rounds a few times a year"

[extremely spitballing voice] Could it be that it's often used to describe *summer* weather that's pleasantly mild, i.e. cooler than might be expected? "A balmy July evening" sort of thing. If so, then people might infer "summer = hot" from the context...? books.google.com/ngrams/graph...

Amazon review of Pride and Prejudice, left by carlton p morgan on 30 July 2010: "Just a bunch of people going to each other's houses"

Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate