Paul Carey Jones

Yes indeed, she taught the acting classes at the National Opera Studio when I was there. Her sessions were always fabulous, and very much form the foundation of everything I’ve done on stage since.

A not well enough known fact is the extent to which Selina Cadell,
aside from her many other achievements, is responsible for teaching so many of my generation of British opera singers to act. #ExhibitA

This is brutal and just shoves vulnerable broke people into homelessness.

In this week's @TheStage, @LynGardner says the industry must put the joy back into theatremaking to stop the talent drain and that "the first step in making change is identifying that there’s a problem."

Read the full article here: www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/put-...

#FreelancersMakeTheatreWork

This trend in cinema also seems to have bled in to theatre lighting too - I’ve lost count of the number of operas where I’ve wished I could see the singers’ faces.

This is £600m from the same university sector that is pretty close to collapse in a growing number of major institutions?

Many of them universities that are among the biggest employers in the very ‘left behind’ towns and cities that Labour talks so much about…

If the government can retrospectively apply immigration laws to refugees, it can also make things you did in the past that were legal at the time illegal and throw you in prison for them. I could make retrospective taxes and bill you for what you made ten years ago, for example.

Making these changes retroactively is a fundamentally unethical thing. Moving the goalposts. It’s cheating

There is no way you can guess how the thread that ends in this instant classic begins.

This will reduce the numbers of foreign students coming to the UK and simply leave a bigger hole in the higher education budget which the government will probably fix with higher student fees for the rest of us.

Climate charity Possible today released new research on the UK’s private jet sector, revealing that some of the wealthiest travellers in the country pay only a fraction of the rate of tax paid by ordinary passengers — despite taking the most polluting flights. The analysis shows that around 100,000 private jet flights depart UK airports annually, yet many incur minimal or even zero air passenger duty (APD), due to outdated thresholds and loopholes in the tax system. Even after the government’s planned increases to higher-rate APD next year, private jet passengers will still pay only £142 for a short-haul flight or £1,141 for long-haul - a negligible proportion of what can be tens of thousands of pounds per hour spent on chartering private aircraft. The report is calling for a fairer rate of APD, set at 30 times the current rate, levied on all private flights, as well as fuel duty to be imposed on private jet kerosene set at 10 times the rate the motorist pays at the pump. Taken together, this will create a tax rate which is comparable to what an economy passenger pays as a proportion of their ticket cost. This involves introducing a fair APD rate for Domestic and Band A journeys (flights to all destinations less than 2,000 miles from London) for private jet flights of £2,520, an APD of £19,410 for Band B journeys, and £20,190 for Band C journeys. On a flight from London to Geneva (Band A), that would bring the cost of a private jet journey from about £4,500 per passenger (assuming a £9k flight cost shared between two passengers) to £10,061 per passenger. 25% of the ticket cost would be APD, and 30.2% would be fuel duty, giving a total tax rate of 55.3%. By comparison, a lowest-cost economy flight on the same route costs £27, of which 56% is reduced-rate APD (no fuel duty is paid). On a flight from London Luton to Dubai (Band B), the cost of a private jet journey would rise from around £35,000 per passenger (£70k flight cost shared between two passengers) to …

New analysis by non-profit climate group Possible today:

Private jet passengers typically pay less than 1% of the cost of their flights in taxes, compared to 26%-54% paid by economy passengers on standard flights

Loopholes mean private jetters often pay little or no APD, nor fuel duty on kerosene.

Ryanair expects me to take the financial hit for helping others As a doctor I stepped in to tend to an elderly passenger … but it won’t waive £100 transfer fee to rebook

Make sure Ryanair get more than £100 worth of bad publicity over this. www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...

As many of you know, I do a lot of volunteer work with asylum seekers and refugees. One thing that’s going on is that Labour’s hostility towards migrants and the counterbattery from Tories and Reform is causing horrific fear and anxiety among vulnerable people who deserve our protection.

I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record.
@independentsage.bsky.social

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

@ryanarey.bsky.social re your death of Natasha Endgame video- I get your point - but that moment has always been the most intensely moving in the mcu for me - sacrificing yourself for your friend who has kids. It’s the babysitter’s ultimate movie trophy. We all do it many times a month.

Ex-leader of Reform UK in Wales sentenced to 10-and-a-half years for taking pro-Russian bribes The judge tells Nathan Gill his actions were a

This story is all Nigel Farage should be asked about by journalists for months

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads

Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning. theconversation.com/studying-phi... #philosophy #skills #thinking #PhilosophySky #philsky

The Covid inquiry’s findings are shocking but unsurprising now, so the main thing it left me thinking is that without a vaccine we wd’ve been utterly screwed. & if you worked round the clock to make a thing that saved millions of lives globally, to see that legacy trashed by anti-vaxxers…

The truth politics dare not speak. Part of the reason this is unsolvable for Lab is that it isn’t a real issue - it’s a euphemism for political discontent.

They could get immigration to zero, destroying the country in the process & it wouldn’t help, cause it’s not what ppl are actually angry about

These are the voters that Labour strategists have made very clear over a long period of time that they don't want any more, and it's a message that has now been heard

This from @stephenkb.bsky.social cuts to the heart of the matter. Does the government not understand how toxic this argument is? Do they think they can somehow weaponise it? The last governments at least had the merit not of making this kind of foul claim.

These people will keep pushing AI products they know don’t work, can’t be trusted, & are dangerous because they’ve bet their houses them. What’s going on here is the AI companies putting responsibility for the harms on the user: ‘You should have been more careful.’ What’s needed is regulation.

Barely a year has passed since the GE and Labour is way off-manifesto. Where’s their mandate for this?

Why we - and the Home Secretary - disapply the ECHR at our peril By Jessica Frank-Keyes

As Labour proposes limiting the protection of the ECHR, we must remember what it was set up to do; protect us all from abuses of power by our govts.
Be v wary then of anyone calling to do that. You may not be the target now. But why shouldn’t you be next?
bestforbritain.substack.com/p/why-we-and...

Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system

Everything about the current 'debate' around this is dismal, not just morally but because it is so stupid. For example:

It conflates asylum-seeking and illegal immigration (and sometimes with migration generally)

It shows no understanding of why there is AS

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025... 1/3

Newydd ddod o wylio ffilm ‘Tanau’r Lloer’ Gareth Glyn ac Opra Cymru yn Pontio. Anhygoel. Rhyfeddol. Cerddth GG, perfformiadau’r cantorion lu yn ardderchog. A dychymyg y cyfarwyddwr yn wych, a llwyddo gyda phrosiect mor fawr yn syfdanol.
EWCH I’ W WELD.
🌟Mae Gareth Glyn yn drysor cenedlaethol!🌟

In order to counter Reform lies and propaganda, the government could have given people facts and defended the asylum and refugee system. Instead they've joined a populist race to the bottom. It'd be shameful for any government, but for a Labour one, it's disgusting.

Fabulous stuff. That utter commitment to the clarity of the words and their dramatic content. He set the bar incredibly high for all those who followed - a genuine legend.

Peak Gwyneth in that video clip there too. Nothing else quite like it before or since. 🔥

“Ruhe, ruhe du Gott.” 💔