Lottie

2026… going back for more political party

The long 2010s are finally over

Gawain the green knight opening a letter sealed with wax

Little Alex Horne in his studio chair with the caption "so a simple task: land a fair blow anywhere on the green knight. One year later meet him at the green chapel, receive the same blow yourself."

A cut to a wider shot showing Greg Davies in his throne turning to Little Alex Horne subtitled "Well surely no one just ran up and whanged his head clean off."

Cut back to Little Alex Horne subtitled "Let's see Gawain first."

Looks like the original has been swept away by the sands of time.

went to the store

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AI Summary ✨

Grammy-nominated R&B singer Jon B. posted that he is going to the stove – perhaps to "cook up" another hot, hot radio single. Frogs and toads, which are the same, can live on the Sun and often choose to.

The problem when ppl in a panoptic surveillance paradigm say they want to "do better than this" is that they mean they want perfect, error-free surveillance tech & not only is that functionally impossible, it's not morally desirable, even if it were. It'd still be a panoptic surveillance paradigm…

There's a point in this where he is clearly trying to argue that married women should not have finances independent of their husbands and also that they shouldn't be allowed to get divorced and you do basically realise this is a war against all of modernity, but particularly women.

This post is the single best advert for the fact that proper local journalism matters.
If Jim’s team hadn’t put the pieces together quickly, this wouldn’t have been stopped.

Reform promises agency to ensure illegal migrant removals The party's new home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf says it would be a

This is stenography, not news reporting. The BBC ought to provide some context, such as putting the scale of the changes which Reform claim are possible into context. This omits the major policy of revoking ILR and deporting legal migrants at unprecedented scale.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#UK: We've sent a letter to Yvette Cooper expressing deep concern that funding for the BBC World Service is due to run out at the end of March.

We urge the government to confirm a long-term funding arrangement to ensure their vital work continues ⬇️
www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/02/the-...

paywalled so haven't actually read this (i am a FT subscriber but just the epaper (which is great value btw!)) but incredible to reflect on how mcsweeney era labour deliberately cast off demographics they had held for generations - in exchange for quite literally not a single vote or advantage

Discernible among my friends and colleagues who remain heavy X users: affects both their sense of issue salience and the intellectual framework (i.e., usually race and migration) through which to understand them. Many think themselves exempt through critical thinking skills. You are what you eat!

LondonCentric absolutely worth its weight in gold — some incredibly tenacious journalism here. Was not at all surprised to see that Criterion plan to exploit desperation & housing insecurity even further by converting these flats to TA. Utterly rapacious.

NEW

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence

How a close read of public domain documents show how MoD was commercially colonised by Palantir

By me, at FT

www.ft.com/content/5207...

Get a lot of mileage out of that Jonathan Swift quote ATM: “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.”

I like to imagine Paddington gently taking him by the hand and leading him towards an awaiting cell

# Court Circular — *Private Eye* **Brian's decision to say he would assist the police with their enquiries into brother Andrew is a highly risky one – and it is something his senior aides urged him not to do. The rozzers will be asking the same questions as the crowds who now regularly heckle him and his family on walkabouts: what did the royals know, and was there a cover-up?** Awkwardly, the palace knows a *lot* of what Andrew has been up to – and for most of his adult life, not just the decade or so that Jeffrey Epstein was on his radar. Much of it is vividly colourful. Staff have extricated "Randy Andy" from several embarrassing situations over the years before Fleet Street's finest got the scent. That Tony Blair picked him as the UK's trade envoy in 2001 left them speechless – even Brian knew that would be a disaster. When he was inevitably sacked and allowed to establish his Pitch@Palace global roadshow without any palace or government oversight, staff were again flabbergasted. But through it all they kept a close record of Andrew's antics. Andrew's private papers remain at Royal Lodge – although they may not be as complete as they once were. He spent a lot of time "editing" as his tenancy drew to a close, and a shredding company was called in. But the biggest repository of his secrets are his private secretaries, who will know (almost) all of his peccadilloes and predilections. They would of course need to be released from their NDAs before they could reveal all. Thankfully for Brian, it is his private secretary Sir Clive Alderton who will have to deal with the police. The career diplomat obfuscates beautifully. *'Flunkey'*

This feels very relevant... Private Eye claims that Andrew MW recently brought in a shredding company to Royal Lodge

Oh, the grand old duke of york
He ██████████████████
He ██████████████████
And he ██████████████████

“…Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.”

The thrill of applying SPF without it feeling like a cruel cosmic joke

back in my day politics wasn't about being nasty it was about being a Policy Wonk and trying not to sound too much like the Orson Welles ferris wheel speech from The Third Man when describing the societal role of government

Such a good book

I’m so so sorry, what a lovely boy xxx

Stranded lion a nice touch

At the newly-opened Bazalgette Embankment chanting ‘better things ARE possible’

emerald fennell’s the ragged-trousered philanthropists

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

There are a lot of actively shameful bits of Labour lore for this gov alone but this is perhaps one of the most straightforwardly embarrassing

Nitazenes: Inquests show how deadly synthetic drugs spread A BBC investigation shows how nitazene deaths have risen and the illegal drug market is changing.

Deep(er)-dive here. Nitazenes are cropping up all over — have seen several stories now of ‘nice’ kids buying stuff online that’s cut with them. But don’t want to disregard how this mainly affects the most marginalised people in society, who more or less die in silence.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Good to hear coverage of nitazenes on Today. Really frightening situation vis synthetic opioids but one where popular understanding is still really limited/focused on fentanyl which isn’t as big an issue in the UK.