Paul Gregory

There is some hope; the world gets better after Conrad does alone and he’s not even a footnote. But yeah, that’s not a helpful timeframe. While the Doctor has “energy to burn and all the time in the universe”, the rest of us don’t.

The show gets accused of being preachy anyway, might as well drag the baddie into the pulpit and say it clearly for the people at the back.

I played the lead in a college production (circa Pablo Honey) which had a similar edit length and a projected Former King, but this performance was obviously on another level!

Enjoyed “Hamlet Hail To The Thief” this week at the Aviva / Factory thing where Granada Studios was. A solid 110min cut of Shakespeare with live music based on the Radiohead album and lots of beautiful movement. Marshall amps form part of the staging. It’s stunning and highly recommended.

You stamp on the truth,
choke our bandwidth and shred our patience
Because the only strategy you have is to wear us down.
But the thing is, Conrad,
I have energy to burn and all the time in the universe.

All day long,
this relentless noise.
Cowards like you,
weaponising lies,
taking people's insecurity and fear
and making it currency.
You are exhausting.

You see, I am fighting a battle on behalf of everyday people...
..who just want to get through their day,
and feel safe,
and warm, and fed.
And then along comes this... noise.

I’m loving this year’s #DoctorWho. I liked almost all of last year but the last episode soured things. I really hope this year sticks the landing. Spoiler warning for Lucky Day; the Doctor’s speech in replies…

Pete McTighe tonight, but I’m sure RTD had a hand in it.

Everything you need to know about the trans Supreme Court case What it said, what it didn't, and what happens next.

This from Ian Dunt on the UK Supreme Court trans ruling is long but clear on facts and possible futures. Well worth the read. Not paywalled. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Imagine going to see the Doctor Who finale in a cinema as it is simulcast on iPlayer, BBC One and Disney+… you sign a filming consent “for the Unleashed bonus episode and other content”… you sit near Hassan, Lizzie and Robyn… and The Reality War turns out to be Towie v Real Housewives. #doctorwho

For #DoctorWho the 8am UK drop for season two means everywhere gets it the same calendar day. It would have been clunky for Mrs Flood to say “Show ends May 24th, May 23rd EST”. So how much did this in-show date dictate the 8am drop?

Say I needed to get a third season of Doctor Who in the can with the next Doctor in it, but not spoil season two. I’d pretend it was a spin-off, set it all on Earth like early Pertwee, then run episode 1 on Christmas Day. #DoctorWho

Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” are calculated on the difference in trade (so how much it deviates from 1:1 reciprocation), but where that number would mean a discount (like with the UK) it’s simply 10%.

But if we stop buying more from the USA than they buy from us, and they re-run the trade deficit calculations that were passed off as tariff figures, the tariff on our goods could exceed that 10% fallback.

The Doctor points upwards. Behind him, the new companion who is well fit. And the Tardis. But in the sky it says T HE ME because I pissed about with the original.

new season of Doctor Who has a big theme

Today’s “Doctor Who: Fifteenth Doctor” announcement on IGN is the dullest possible thing. (Admittedly I’ll probably buy it.) It’s a trade paperback of last year’s Titan comic series.

The special Star Trek announcement is a Khan podcast drama, not a game, so sadly the “also on our website” thing for “Doctor Who: Fifteenth Doctor” seems likely to be from the only people who use a title like that, which is Titan. LEGO would be great though.

You can tell Vanessa Kirby is British because she refers to Fantastic Four as a weekly.

Companies! Please don’t send me emails saying “Your monthly Direct Debit will be taken shortly” when you mean 3rd Feb. That’s like a week and a bit away! And very importantly AFTER PAY DAY!!

Important that the Man United manager said the current team “may be” the worst in their history. For one thing it is hard to compare to a mid-February 1958 side with 10 players notably unavailable. But mainly it makes it easy to sing. “He said maybe… they’re the worst team in their his-tree…”

Sorry. That third para is mad! People (general people, not just conmen) had to fake coins because of hyper inflation? Most sources say the Emperors reducing silver content led to hyper inflation. If “people” were faking coins we’d be finding moulds everywhere.

Switch 2 - the biggest surprise is where they put the 2.

Liz Truss may or may not have crashed the economy, but she certainly allowed an untested change to the economy to be released to live just hours before an organisation-wide break. That sort of approach often leads to a crash.

Is there a Spotify alternative that lets you do playlists that are more like proper mixtapes so at least let you come in and out of tracks at precise seconds, and ideally let you specify an overlap? (Spotify themselves have the idea marked as Not Right Now for years)

They’re asked to compare two local MPs to each other with “who is more economically conservative” rather than rank them on a left-right scale. So it’s really “most more perceived to be right wing than their neighbours by some councillors who may not know them well”.

2025: Chris Philp, "It is not true that the last government took no action"

2019: Boris Johnson criticised the police for investigating historic child abuse cases saying that that money is wasted: spaffed up the wall

It’s in Westminster Hall. There’s only one BBC Parliament channel and the Commons feed is always the live choice. It will likely be shown later. It is on YouTube live if you want to see it live.

Not sure which is more disappointing - when I see someone I’ve only heard for ages and they are skinnier than the image in my head, or when I hear someone I’ve only seen for ages and they’re posher than I imagined.

Still time for A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed, Sophie.