Ed Hammond

Two day a week is *very* hands on for a chair (in the quasi-public sector model at least)

This is probably in the interests of local democracy but I wouldn't want to be working in electoral services in one of these councils right now

(thoughtfully) "my favourite Oasis song? I think I'd have to pick the Grease Megamix"

reminds me of Rimmer in the Red Dwarf books developing an obsession with spending every spare hour in a stasis chamber so that he isn't "wasting time" on hobbies, friendships etc

This feels like it would have been a hugely ill advised Adam Sandler comedy in about 2005

I think the comparator is Cambridge

oh reviewed over 50 NHS sustainability and transformation plans? That'll be an interesting exercise, to track health priorities over time and explore how (if at all) they have filtered into more recent policy documents like the NHS 10 Year Plan. Ohhhh - *sticky toffee* - right, right

maybe, but my worry with this is the inevitability of keeping all the senior / ministerial-facing functions in London while everyone below Grade 5 is shunted off to eg Wolverhampton - which *could* work now in a way that it couldn't have 10 years ago but still...

I think this works only insofar as you could base English-only departments in another city and have an England-only legislature in that city. I don't think it works to have ministerial departments 100 miles away from Parliament for purely logistical reasons. Unless Parliament became peripatetic!

is it just me or does he have John Inman's hair?

Marc Anthony says Beckham family feud is 'unfortunate' but 'hardly the truth' The 57-year-old performed at Brooklyn and Nicola Peltz Beckham's wedding reception in 2022.

The noble David hath told you Brooklyn was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

her first shift and she's straight onto the chip fryer? the rest of us have to sit through a week of health and safety presentations

Screenshot from BBC liveblog: "Starmer tells his MPs: 'Every fight I've been in, I've won'"

PM sounding here worryingly like Apollo Creed in Rocky II

"when the British people have their backs against the wall, they turn around and start fighting"

Best bit of the Winter Olympics is being able to turn to your significant other while watching it and say things like "lovely rotation" and "the thing about Big Air is that it takes no prisoners"

YouTube video by YelleVEVO Yelle - Complètement fou (Official Video)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=13o1...

I had heard about these and was Pained not to see them listed - though apple fritters were an acceptable substitute

and I speak as someone who enjoyed a delicious meal at Daquise not ten days ago!

would be great if they found alternative premises for it but the linked video is more than a little disingenuous, given that the redevelopment is actually to provide more capacity and step-free access at a station which continuously suffers from dangerous overcrowding

In the words of Kevin Keegan I would love it - LOVE IT - if this happened

I was very amused to read his piece today which took several hundred words to say "cor, Starmer's in a pickle, isn't he?" without really offering anything in the way of further insight

I raise you this

Ailsa Craig: Olympic curling stones and the Scottish island that makes them | Team GB Did you know that a small Scottish island is famous for being the main supplier of curling stones?

www.teamgb.com/article/ails...

Time to break out the One Fact I know about curling stones!

Good lord no! Even the putative temporary chamber in Richmond House was designed to be a near-exact facsimile

if he did become PM, I would still (just about) have a continuing 100% record of all British PMs having been older than me

have to say I thought that "Al Carns" was the fictional, control MP that pollsters ask about in voter sentiment surveys to flush out people who have opinions of politicians they have never heard of

Why mission government failed And what comes next

V exciting to have shifted our @re-state.bsky.social blog, Re:Think, to Substack.

Even more exciting to have such a corker for a first post from @jo3hill.bsky.social dissecting why mission government has failed 👇

substack.com/home/post/p-...

It's silly but I'm amused by the fact that "getting" Baguette Dilemma requires an awareness of tidal patterns in the Dee Estuary

Castles (7pm): Soap. Tempers flare as - preoccupied by her efforts to steer the Transport Bill through Parliament - Barbara accidentally stands on and breaks Roy's trumpet. Last in series.