Dominic Minghella

Guy Barker, Pizza Express Jazz Club, January 2026 (Photo by Dominic Minghella)

The incomparable, inimitable and lovely Guy Barker, guesting with Ian Shaw the other week.
Probably the greatest living trumpeter in the world, but maybe 'alchemist' is a better description; he extracts pure soul from a piece of twisted metal.

It *literally* does.

Thats what it is. A document which says youre British.

People (of colour) in tears on LBC today because of the resurgence, even normalisation, of racism in the UK broke my heart.

Stop the boats

Or you could say that the Principality of Monaco has been colonised by tax-avoiding, racist football club owners.

XhatGPT idiotic layout of 13amp plug wiring. Just random wires really.

CoPilot AI diagram of plug wiring. Two live wires, one forked off the earthm and a screw head is also labelled Live.

And finally, Gemini AI diagram of 13 amp plug wiring. Hard to know where to even begin with this. Just a mess really.

One of the easiest ways to shoot down the idea that "AI" is an expert is to show how it deals with something people know about.

Younger readers may not get this as most appliances come pre-wired, but anyone 35+ can see these are chaotic fire hazards.

From Mastodon, AI asked how to wire a plug:

It's Ghost on the telly. An iconic blast from the past. (But, for all its proper budget and phallic clay glory, it's always going to be a poor man's Truly Madly, right?😉)

I guess it's that kind of selective thinking that leads a sporting body to think it should be doling out international peace prizes (and with a similarly dubious calculation of recipient merit).

Juat heard the (Italian) FIFA boss suggesting the USA is our biggest trading partner. Only if you count the EU countries separately. UK trade with the EU as a whole is more than twice the volume of UK trade with the USA.

Gordon Brown so impressive (again) on cleaning up the system on Radio 4 Today.

Agreed. Even if No 10 were convinced his relationship with Epstein 'barely existed' - and even if they supposed a gay man would have had nothing to do with the abuse of women and girls - the correct course of action would have been to keep well away from Mandelson and appoint a career diplomat.

Which is not to defend Starmer's decision to appoint Mandelson, which I found strange at the time, but at least it was not, as far as we know, in the teeth of security warnings and official advice. Prime Minister Johnson's appointments, on the other hand...

MI5 went to No 10 to warn the Prime Minister not to appoint him.

But the Prime Minister shrugged off the advice and appointed him anyway.

(2020 - Johnson and Lebedev.)

Horrible politician abandons horrible party for even more horrible party.

Fella who avoided Vietnam draft with a "heel spur" accuses Nato troops in Afghanistan - thousands dead and injured - of "staying back ... off the front lines".

The dregs of British politics continue their grotesque gathering.

Me: Can you improve this photo of me?
AI: I cannot work on images of public figures.
Me: Who do you think this is?
AI: Michael Wolff, the journalist.
Me: This is a picture of me.
AI (..thinks..): In that case, hello Mr Wolff.

Is this meant to be some kind of proud boast?

The chaos in international politics, frightening though it may be, presents a domestic opportunity to the Labour government: they can be (and will need to be) far more radical. Labour should reset, rebrand, and build a bold new narrative for the middle half of the 21st Century. It's time.

Truly.

Beautiful views flying into Heathrow last night. Tired and grumpy, but nothing beats the thrill of returning to the greatest city in the world.
#LoveLondon

Interesting to hear Starmer starting the year with the suggestion that feeling better off is paramount. Sure, but it's only half the story. In these upside-down times, we need not just a sense of financial security, but a sense of security, full stop. We need a safer world.

Here we go again, with another would-be birthday for our Anthony, born on this day in 1954. It's not just that he was so absurdly talented, or that he was taken so shockingly early. It's that, somehow, he made the sun shine, and no sky has ever felt quite right since.

Anthony Minghella 1954 - 2008

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

Martin Parr, photographer acclaimed for observations of British life, dies aged 73 Known for acute observations of class system, Parr’s images were often in vivid colour with more than a dash of humour

Martin Parr, photographer acclaimed for observations of British life, dies aged 73. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Turns out taking bribes to spout Russian propaganda WILL come back to bite you. To the tune of ten and a half years in prison.

There must be a few nerves jangling today.

Yep.

No, just a moment to remember that we don't know what others are quietly dealing with.

He had a very easy ride on Radio 4, I'm sorry to say.

Michael Gove's reflections on the Covid crisis this morning were absolutely triggering. Cosy, slippery, patronising - the kind of excusatory word salad which became his sorry, science-denying brand.