Mark Valencia 🇪🇺 🇺🇦

"You will be visited by three spirits"

Hie thee to the RCM to see their stunning Little Vixen. Honestly, you won't regret it.

(And I do love the Britten Theatre.)

WE WON 💥 The two-child benefit limit is GONE! This will pull 470,000 children out of severe hardship by 2027.

This is a massive victory for families, campaigners, and every one of you that played your part urging the Chancellor to act.

a fox is holding a bucket of popcorn on its hind legs ALT: a fox is holding a bucket of popcorn on its hind legs

Tonight I'll be at the Royal College of Music to see their new production of The Cunning Little Vixen.

Reviewing for Opera magazine.

YouTube video by mrandrewcotter Olive and Mabel. Episode 4 - The Company Meeting

This week on The House of Games it's Cotter Time as the great @mrandrewcotter.bsky.social struts his stuff. I'm a huge fan of Mabel & Olive, and also his golf and athletics commentaries, but until today I had no idea what he looks like.

youtu.be/nFVHaus_pjI?...

Everyone is doing this ironically, but someone has to state it plainly. Chris Mason is exactly what is wrong with BBC politics coverage. Infantile coverage via soap opera and constant fawning over Reform and the archetypal Reform voter's supposed views.

The greatest living conductor of Sibelius. Bar none.

This Labour government’s talent for punishing its own natural supporters without gaining any new ones is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in politics. What on earth are they smoking

Telling juxtaposition on the @bbc website

I cannot bear the desperation of hungry children but @teamlabouruk.bsky.social seems sanguine about it. Techno-Starmer thinks hunger can somehow be solved by speculative long-term politics. It's as wicked as 'trickle-down wealth' greed and just as pernicious. Kick the issue into the long grass, eh?

I've seen it more often than any other film in my life!

The GOAT

Full quote (or should have been): "Keep the faith and screw the fans"

My second guess was my go-to word when nothing is right in the first one. It's to release all five vowels into play plus a few likely consonants.

What can I say but try harder...!

No!

I had an eerily inspired guess at 3. It could have been anything.

Wordle 1,618 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

That was fun

Me on Partenope. It's a bit of all white. @bachtrack.com

Wordle 1,616 3/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Well I'll have a go...

Covid quiz There is a disease working through Europe. The Italian PM sends a letter saying how bad it is and it’s heading your way; Do you A. Prepare the NHS B. Limit social interactions C. Allow European teams & supporters to travel to UK & let the Gold Cup go ahead The disease is here. You’re asked to visit a hospital, Do you: A. Refuse as it would hinder staff B. Attend, but follow medical advice C. Shake hands with the infected and catch the disease You need to get more PPE; Do you A. Go to existing suppliers B. Go to similar suppliers with experience C. Go to your bar tender, mate, family member who have just started up a PPE company A new variant is discovered in India. Do you A. Stop all flights from India B. Quarantine those arriving C. Do nothing Anything other than 4 Cs and you’d have done better than Johnson.

I believe anyone could have done better than Johnson.
Here's a quiz I made to prove it.

Quiet piggy!!

❗️ This winter, we expect to provide an emergency food parcel to someone every 10 SECONDS.

The rising cost of essentials like heating and food - and our weak social security system - will drive thousands of people to the doors of a food bank for the very first time.

Covid inquiry live: ‘Inexcusable’ delays under Johnson led to 23,000 deaths Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds

Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

Put a penny in the slot and I'll tell you what I really think of that chancer, that fraud, that oaf.

People used to tell me that Boris was the kind of chap you'd want to have a drink with.

To those people I'd say - widen your circle of friends

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry says the government response to the pandemic in March 2020 was "too little, too late" • Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett is making a statement now - watch live at the top of the page. She says February 2020 was a "lost month" • The inquiry report says imposing lockdown a week earlier could have saved 23,000 lives in the first wave in England • But the inquiry also says lockdown could have been avoided altogether if steps such as social distancing and isolating those with symptoms had been introduced earlier • The report adds that a failure to learn from mistakes during later waves of the pandemic was "inexcusable"

This is what happens when you put a preening, lazy, populist, dilettante in charge of a country.

Johnson was completely out of his depth and more concerned with his pathetic perceived popularity than leading this country through the greatest crisis since 1939.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...

Thanks Tim!

a couple of m & m 's hugging each other with the words so c-c-cold below them ALT: a couple of m & m 's hugging each other with the words so c-c-cold below them

Handel's Par-10-opy tonight at ENO. I'll be thermalled up and reviewing it for @bachtrack.com .

#Partenope