Jo Kibble (Political Animal)

Yes, mass closures are hardly a surprise really, when TG Jones was basically a spin-off of the high-overhead, declining-sales high street stores so that the licenses to print money at services, railway stations, airports and hospitals could sail unencumbered on their merry, profitable way.

<Stewart Lee voice, again> Lots of very nostalgic memories of the TG Jones.

This piece has certainly got me thinking. Mostly it has got me thinking 'how have I, despite pasable French, not previously come across 'cache-misère' before?'
So for your services to my idiomatic French, Mr Ovenden, I thank you.

Racism does just make you stupider update:

Confusingly, two TV adaptations of Poirot stories have had their setting moved to the Lakes, but Christie actually set them in Berkshire (Dumb Witness) and Devon (Double Sin)!

County lines, innit.

Yes, I have now. Bleurgh.

Apart from anything else, how has your sense of ‘is this a bit sus?’ eroded so far, as someone like Tim who has spent their life in and around politics, that you don’t wonder why a politician has been photographed at an alleged minute’s silence with a great cheesy grin on her face?

It does feel like a claim that we are unlikely to have the evidence base to fully back up.

I’ve never seen a face that screams ‘And I’d do it again’ quite like that one.

Ah, someone’s noticed that the constituent members of Andy Burnham’s combined authority have control of no fewer than three airports.

Though when it comes to Labour leaders, it is the view of three of the last three, so you could almost consider it to be the greatest line of continuity in party thought of the past decade…

Republic disguised as a monarchy/monarchy disguised as a republic latest:

To answer his second question: yes, yes they are. Yours, a limey bastard.

And one of the reasons to give some pause ought to be ‘The Straits of Hormuz really are uncomfortably narrow, aren’t they?’

Beginning to think my fall-back job should be door-to-door atlas salesperson.

‘The right thing’ in this instance presumably being ‘Turning up for Toby’s stag do.’

One bus route, somewhere in Britain, is actually operated using convertible launch vehicles. I’m just not telling you if it’s a high-frequency route or a Wednesdays-only rural wander.

I have also stopped communicating about how many warheads I have. Please feel free to draw your most terrifying conclusions from that.

Raytheon Executive: I know you’re skeptical about buying American again. But hear me out. The MIM-104 Patriot is the only surface to air missile system with a proven track record of success against the US Air Force.

Danish Defense Minister: Continue.

Indeed, while there are obvious symbyoses between the two, a government could easily have a perfectly decent nature conservation policy and record while getting absolutely nowhere on net zero.

To be fair, there’ll be plenty of tourists and other travellers stranded there too.

The last resort would have been Torremolinos, except it is now run by socialists.

I’m sure Isabel will give up her seat on the plane.

Like Dunkirk, but I’m not entirely sure that repatriating Isabel Oakeshott is quite as vital to the preservation and survival of our island home.

Precisely. Keeps retelling the story ‘Morgan told Keir not to do stuff on climate, Keir would then go and talk to Ed, eight times out of ten he listened to Ed instead.’

As a man who sent death squads after the elected President of Ukraine, I assume this was said with a sense of bittersweet admiration and jealousy...

Odd article this, which struggles to match the headline (basically, story it tells is Starmer kept being being pushed to abandon net zero by some advisers but never did). There’s room for genuine disappointment with Labour on envmnt, but prob most pro-Net Zero gvmnt in Europe today (maybe Spain?).

It was! Surprisingly so.

Treading a careful line before it becomes fondue.