Andrew Brightwell

So Wormald is going to Palace?

Presumably it's the same effect that means Estee Lauder use people in white coats in their ads

If I was going to do a Substack (I won’t) it would probably be on the movement in British politics to involve the public more in decision making and why it always seems to struggle… but a reason that people keep trying is because stuff like this is true - and true for all sorts of issues

Presumably his press secretary will later claim he’s being puckish

Big fish, small fish, put it in a box, then a triple salchow

To me, winter sports will always mean the winter sports we all grew up with - like running on the common in a gale, getting shouted at by a man in a polyester tracksuit

In contrast Paddy McGuinness saying: "Booking geniuses!!" for a package travel ad is very good (and probably a lot cheaper)

Love the Microsoft co-pilot ad: man asks co-pilot to analyse data and create a visualisation. Co-pilot gets working *to scenes of huge, jaw-dropping data being analysed*. And what does it come up with?
A bar chart

It’s the black hole of news stories, sucking in everything in the last 30 years, collapsing us all into the singularity

This presumably means there will now me an almighty battle about what to call a coalition of seats that are red, yellow, orange, green and er… Plaid…

A world where the only intelligence on offer is artificial

Is this the darkest period of Trump’s second term

Mick McCarthy having just been asked if things can’t get any worse (he answers: it can)

Absolutely but, conversely, complaining about how awful your kids are is a feature of many an enduring marriage

A personal view is this coverage just shows that people aren’t internalising what this moment is really about: that the central premise of our entire defence and foreign policy is heading towards a cliff edge, and the contingent impacts this has touch every aspect of our lives

Surely we’re past the point of besmirching Trump voters. That just seems so 2016

Vienna? This means nothing to [voters] (sorry)

Chartbook 389: Europe's zombie armies. Or how to spend $3.1 trillion and have precious little to show for it. “$3.1 trillion on European defense over a decade ...

Yep adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

This is brilliant

I like this one because it was also a thing I could have said to my parents/grandparents and they absolutely wouldn't have understood either - thus demonstrating neatly what an interesting moment all Gen Xers were born into

I'm sure everyone's done this one but 'I used a cassette player to load up my favourite games'

My (cough) pet theory is that uk dog culture is obsessed with working dogs that need insane amounts of exercise to regulate. But in places like Barcelona people get actual city dogs that need much less walking

What a bit of luck he never ended up at Man Utd- would have spoilt so much fun

“🎉 Your banking age is… “

This feels like it’s a knock-on effect of TNT losing test rugby

Surely this is the product of an ill thought out dare or something

When I saw this video I looked up Karp - in a NYT interview it’s made clear he has ADHD. For someone like me this is *entirely normal behaviour* (I look exactly like this when I really need to make a point.) And we shouldn’t mock someone without a casual google check at least

‘I made mistakes on TV, he made his on a field’: Panesar strikes back at Smith’s Mastermind jibe Australia’s first Test team announcement was overshadowed by Steve Smith’s extraordinary verbal attack on Monty Panesar

This is definitely the maddest ashes hype story of the lot - with a v confusing slug www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/n...

What’s not to like about building a toilet in a giant block of Stilton?

Yes. I’ve always thought the mark of a seasoned traveller is getting inside the cramped metal cage with recycled air at the last possible minute

I did a year and that was enough. I was a journo in my early 30s and yes it can be fun. But it’s a huge tell when people say we could learn a lot from there. IME even the people who love it are aware it’s the extreme income disparities that make the lifestyle attractive to the (relatively) wealthy