Julian Cole

manonledge.co.uk/now-heres-a-...

Hello @london.gov.uk
Just back from a long weekend and wrote this blog in praise of London and never mind what Farage thinks

Ignore the right-whingers and you’ll have a lovely time in London… JUST back from a weekend in London, that infamous hellhole. I took a spare Rolex in case one was stolen. That’s a joke, naturally, as I am more likely to wrap a cobra round my wrist than a Rolex. I…

manonledge.co.uk/ignore-the-r...

How we bravely survived a long weekend in London

A few thoughts on Musk, Charlie Kirk and why I finally quit X… I have finally deactivated my X account. This was the day after Elon Musk attempted to deactivate our democracy. Musk’s sin was greater than mine but having an X account still felt unclean. I shoul…

manonledge.co.uk/a-few-though...
Here is my latest blog. Give it a read, you might enjoy it, especially if you are woke

Balance the BBC The BBC is our national broadcaster, people expect and deserve balanced news coverage.

www.libdems.org.uk/bbc
While I don’t usually vote LibDem I am more than happy to sign this petition

The BBC gets back about my complaint… sad to see Rayner go… some caffeinated claptrap about coffee… As mentioned here last time, I complained to the BBC about “the endless slavish and unquestioning coverage” given to Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Now the BBC has got back to me. Or, rather, to mysel…

manonledge.co.uk/the-bbc-gets...

To us all has been sent a dollop of corporate dung speak from which there rises an unpleasant smell

Nigel’s making plans for Nigel… What unlikely connection exists between the Taliban and the journalists of Nottinghamshire Live? Well, Reform UK suggested doing a deal with the former but won’t talk to the latter. To set this in …

manonledge.co.uk/nigels-makin...
Here is the latest edition of my blog…including my complaint to the BBC

manonledge.co.uk/hurrah-for-t...

From ‘lawless Britain’ to the new Naked Gun film… Here’s a nubby conundrum. Should my typing fingers address ‘lawless Britain’ – or go straight to the new Naked Gun film? Oh, with a tug of reluctance, let’s start in that Nigel Farage-fabricated la…

manonledge.co.uk/from-lawless...

Here is my latest blog. Give it a go, you might even enjoy it. Unless you are Nigel Farage

When a man is tired of Trump and Farage going on about London… Dr Johnson famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.” Well, don’t tell Donald Trump for he seems to hate London, reserving…

manonledge.co.uk/when-a-man-i...

Sticking up for London and ‘windmills’ in my latest blog

Yes, here it is… another essay on why you shouldn’t vote for Reform There is a file I keep for blog ideas. At present it’s swollen like an appendix fit to burst, but mostly that’s down to Nigel Farage. Many of the bits and pieces put into the ‘blog stuff’ folder ar…

manonledge.co.uk/yes-here-it-...
Here is my latest blog. It’s all in that headline really

AI worries… sticking up for our MP… and tired legs versus teeny legs… Here are pieces of flotsam found in the stagnant pool of my mind. You can’t move nowadays without tripping over two vowels yoked together in the name of progress. No prizes for guessing those lette…

manonledge.co.uk/ai-worries-s...
Here is the latest edition of my this and that blog. Give it a go if you have a mo

New parties from Musk and Corbyn, and the trashy scent of Trump… WHAT links Jeremy Corbyn and Elon Musk? Both have announced they are establishing a new political party, that’s what. Musk, former Trump buddy and backer turned fury-spitting frenemy, is setting up…

manonledge.co.uk/new-parties-...
A few thoughts on new parties from Musk and Corbyn. Plus a fragrant footnote

A year of Starmer and are these really U-turns?… U-turns seem to be having a moment, especially if you are the political editor of the BBC. That’s Chris Mason, by the way, that over-eager weasel with a scrap of something bloody caught in his teet…

manonledge.co.uk/a-year-of-st...
A few thoughts on a year of Labour and how the BBC reports so-called U-turns

Time for old men to stop ruining the world… Hate to say this as I’ll be one soon enough, but old men are ruining the world. Not all old men, just those who drag their stubborn tired legs into politics. At the last US election, voters were in…

manonledge.co.uk/time-for-old...

Here is the latest report from Man on Ledge

Yet again, the BBC displays an unhealthy obsession with Nigel Farage… What is it with the BBC and Reform UK? Those of us who habitually stick up for the BBC are having a hard time of it right now. It seems all news headlines must by decree mention that Nigel Farage’s…

manonledge.co.uk/yet-again-th...
Why is the BBC so keen on cosying up to Nigel Farage? My latest blog

Ha ha! That was always going to happen. Gripes of wrath and all that

And that’s how you end up writing a blog for ten years… Today it is ten years since I shuffled onto this ledge. Perhaps I should have a word with my slighter younger self. Are you sure you want to spend a whole decade writing a blog read by a handful of…

manonledge.co.uk/and-thats-ho...

The years ago I sat down to write a blog after being made redundant…

All power to Springsteen… and, no, this isn’t a betrayal of Brexit Repeats on the television, repeats in real life. Playing now on the American politics channel is the old Springsteen/Trump bout. Over here, GB Spews is dusting off old episodes of It Ain’t Half Bre…

manonledge.co.uk/all-power-to...

Here is my blog about Springsteen vs Trump and old. Brexit rows

You don’t deal with Nigel by being more Nigel… How do you deal with a problem like Nigel Farage? Not by being more Nigel, for starters. A lesson lost on Keir Starmer, whose plans to curb net migration announced yesterday caused anguish among so…

manonledge.co.uk/you-dont-dea...

Apologies for my lapse back into Trump-world… A while ago I imposed a Trump veto on myself. Trouble is, that man is hard to ignore. He’s in the room with me now, doing that weird dance like a puppet with poor joints. That’s the juncture betwee…

Here’s the latest edition of my blog about this and that. In this one promising not to write about Trump is harder than it seems

Guessing he doesn’t like all those photographs in newspapers and footage on the news of him looking like an overweight loon held upright by his red tie

What a gig…and I’m glad by son was there to hold me steady in the surge We’ve always talked about going to the annual Hold Steady gig at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, without doing anything about it. But now we are here. I got my eldest boy into this American band y…

manonledge.co.uk/what-a-gig-a...

I had no idea the fans would be so ardent, and so physical, so completely into the Hold Steady. Theirs is a raucous ecstasy, leaping about, flinging their arms, jumping like pneumatic drills, and shouting the lyrics back at Craig Finn

Sometimes English barely seems to be his own first language

Done, all followed

A few capital thoughts on those who favour lowercase letters… Are you a capital sort or inclined to a lower-case view of the world? A recent headline in the Guardian – The death of capital letters: why gen Z loves lowercase – suggests it could be to do with a…

manonledge.co.uk/a-few-capita...?

Overuse of lowercase can lead to confusion, as capital letters guide the eye through a sentence like grammatical fingerposts. Then again, too many capitals spoil the view and obscure meaning...

Trump is just appalling beyond belief. His mouth fires off in all directions as his brain wanders off

Hello @mrjohncrace.bsky.social Enjoyed reading at the weekend about your anniversary of the heart. Had mine at the same time, and same age. Wrote about it one year on here…

Best to hold back on the craft beer until after the climbing

Now then, it was 525,600 minutes or so ago… Words from long ago still come to the surface with a pop. “I wasted time, and now doth time waste me…” has been doing that since A-level English and Shakespeare’s Richard II. I was thinking about t…

manonledge.co.uk/now-then-it-...?

I was thinking about time when brushing my teeth the other morning. To be honest, I’ve spent more than is slated to remain, but we’ll return to that, once I’ve finished with this old electric toothbrush...