Mark Wallace

Come on, King Rocker is a great song!

I didn’t say otherwise! Flu hasn’t gone away, a century since the pandemic, but I don’t have to fill out forms about travel to countries on lists that don’t exist for it.

The latter are an abomination.

You think that's bad, I'm still going to the houses of middle aged friends and seeing posters from the war urging me to keep calm and carry on.

lol! I’m not sure Covid chic is ever going to be quaint

I would love to have a national Covid clean up day. Let’s have a Bank Holiday to get rid of all the social distancing ghost posters and various other associated errata.

The stuff on the floor I do understand, there's a genuine effort and cost to remove it. But the amount of things hanging round which could be pulled down in a second is insane

Tired of all the Covid litter still hanging around. From signs in bathrooms to stickers on the floor. Today my dentist made me sign a form confirming I hadn't travelled to a country on the Covid Red List. The Red List was last updated in 2023 and abolished in 2024.

Someone I saw posted a pic earlier of a Leeds road where the potholes are wearing through to the old tram tracks depressingly meaning we might see the old system before a new one

2025 letter | Dan Wang Corgis, compute, Cold War; Ecclesiastes; ties; Stendhal; humor; Pascal's Wager; deep infrastructure; Germanic obedience; Texas State Fair

In Dan Wang's letter this year he says "London has the house prices of California and the income levels of Mississippi. Every problem in the lawyerly society is worse in the UK."

danwang.co/2025-letter/...

This is a human, economic and fiscal disaster. All the benefits go to haves, with nothing for have-nots.

Yes - Labour’s is harder (often Labour MPs express some envy of the 22…).

There is a barristerial air to the delivery.

Er, that isn’t what cognitive dissonance means. If you’d like to dispute or discuss what I’ve written on points of fact, I’d be delighted to.

Given I’m disagreeing with Mark, in the nicest possible way perhaps the problem may lie at least in part with your reading?

Well this has blown up somewhat! bsky.app/profile/sky....

It is an important part of the media’s job to scrutinise, not simply to loudhail for a government. In my view a lot did far too little scrutiny before the election, which led some partisans into a mistaken outrage when it turned out to be a bumpier ride in office.

That’s kind and means a lot, thank you.

Ah, if your annoyance is in part that the media should be more positive about the government that might explain it a bit. The solution for governments annoyed that their errors don’t get enough attention amid scandals and failings is to do less of the latter…

…some people covering politics get carried away with the idea of a drama as the point in itself. But even that is to miss the point and cover it poorly, rather than to make the point itself undeserving of coverage.

If you find what I’ve said annoying I think that’s a shame, but also misplaced. It is true, like it or not, that plenty of people (not Mark, to be clear) are saying the issue confected. I don’t think most of the coverage has been of “froth”, indeed the topic itself is quite serious. I do agree that

Time to tell my dad he shouldn’t have quit his “The Sconnoisseur” insta account after only 23 reviews (some highly scathing). bsky.app/profile/waff...

I admire this. And I’m also grateful that I can rebrand what was previously “predictably ordering the same thing if it’s on the menu” as “I have reviewed over 50 sticky toffee puddings”.

It certainly can be the case (as a columnist I try not to have a better memory for my correct predictions than my incorrect ones, but it’s a pressure!) but I think it can be overstated. There’s definitely some who, Gavin and Stacey style, just love the drama.

Fair enough - I think there’s public proof of at least two. On 2) see the transactional message from the Welsh FM. On 3) see the polling.

I can’t pretend to be the PLP expert - and it’s a big and broad beast nowadays! - but some I spoke to who weren’t previously there a short time earlier were newly open to it, put it that way. A Geoffrey Howe speech from the right person may well have been enough to do it imo

Incidentally both the reason why MPs looked into the abyss on Monday then retreated from it, and the reason why stumbling on as is will also continue to be a growing problem.

…venue. The drinks reception took place, usual chit chat, MP still outside reading his book. Finally, he came in, we all sat down and dinner began.

I fondly recall once speaking at his association dinner. I turned up nice and early, just in case. He was outside the entrance in his car, reading. He nodded through the window. I went in, met the committee, helped them setting up some tables. His association arrived, walking past his car into the

Fair