Chris Read

I've been waiting 11 years for chaos with Ed Miliband

I've genuinely spent the last hour or so thinking it's Sunday afternoon, mentally planning out my work day for tomorrow, etc. Just clocked it's actually Saturday 😂

Result!

😍 THESE FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!!

I know, I don't think you force staff to work for free ;)

The campaign for a Parliament of Maniacs starts here

This innovative new budgeting approach will make you a hero at the ESFA.

1. Take me to the hospital. The Prodigy
2. Hurt. Johnny Cash covering NIN
3. St James Infirmary Blues. White Stripes version
4. Rehab. Amy Winehouse
5. Streams of whisky. The Pogues

#FridayFive

Or take the cost of it and stick it in the actual education budget

"You've quoted me £500 million fpr my kitchen refit. That's a bit steep! I was expecting it to be a couple of grand"

"Well yes, because of course we took the liberty of adding a MASSIVE HI-TEC SUBTERRANEAN BATCAVE which we thought you'd quite like"

🫡

I gave Phil (of Kirsty and Phil fame) a friendly nod of acknowledgement thinking for a second that he was an acquaitance. To be fair, he smiled and nodded back.

A year ago I was convinced I was sitting next to actress Diane Rigg in The Cow in Notting Hill, so I surrepticiously Googled her.

This confirmed I was not sitting next to her, and that she'd died in 2020.

Don't look now Baroness Hale, but we've got a plan to fix politics. And it's a festival of prorogation.

I appreciate there would be a million unintended consequences & the public would hate it (and atm the legislative timetable is far too full), but what if parliament had a calendar more like that of a US state legislature? So they meet for short focussed bursts, and otherwise do something else

I think the person has blocked everyone who liked a 'this is not good' quote tweet

Mine are about to start secondary school and just starting to get old enough to make their way to school and back by themselves. This is a really good idea I'll be borrowing - thanks!

Genuinely think this is a lot smarter than a crumpled shirt and blazer kept in a teenager's floordrobe. One of my proggier opinions is to get rid of suits as school uniforms (and I think a smart polo top rather than shirt/tie is fine for male teachers too....)

I think its something that can't be said enough (in a kind way) to the growing consultant/central staff class (that I am part of). Remember when talking to in-school staff that they are working at significantly faster pace than anyone else in education. And then act with the commensurate humility.

1. Fast car. Tracy Chapman.
2. From the morning. Nick Drake
3. Lord, let that Tesla crash. CMAT
4. Disco 2000. Pulp
5. Me and Julio down by the schoolyard. Paul Simon

#FridayFive

"Thank you for your letter. On reflection we have decided to amend the state pension age, for you personally, to one hundred and nineteen."

Indeed. My 64 y-o mum who is a renter with no private pension on minimum wage is absolutely well aware that her SPA is 67 because there's no possible way she could stop working befote then. Paying tax/NI to fund already well-off mortgage-free early retirees the absolute last thing we shd be doing.

1. Jimi Hendrix. All along the watchtower. Isle of Wight
2. Pink Floyd. Comfortably numb. Live at Pompeii
3. Breed. Nirvana. Live at the Paramount
4. Lynyrd Skynyrd. Free bird. Live at Oakland
5. Prodigy. Breath. Glasto 25

#FridayFive

Repetition of #1 from elsewhere?

Will swap out for Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free bird - Live at Oakland ☀️🎤

Chairing a board meeting. Turn up at the venue 30 minutes beforehand. Nice and organised, even got an earlier train to make sure.

"Hello, here for the board meeting".
Blank faces at reception.

Check emails. Oh right, its another venue, a 35 minute cab ride away.

On a zoom call with ~100 people. Listening away, because in my mind I'm not one of the presenters today.

".....and so now, to tell us a lot more about that for the next 20 minutes or so, is Chris."

Techbros just miss the point of life. "Hey AI can write and produce a movie / novel / song with no human input! Cool, huh?" Missing the fact that I don't just want to see some images and hear sounds, I want to connect to another human's creative process and be part of the conversation of humanity.

My *younger* brother has an adult daughter. Something has gone badly wrong with the spacetime continuum.

If I have to know who Curtis Sliwa is, people in the Wisconsin should have to know who Susan Hall is

I get that NYC is an important global city, but wonder how much people in the US see stuff on their feeds about London mayoral elections when they happen...

My ex wife (who had lived in France and spoke French) asked for a Chenin Blanc in a pub in England (and pronounced it correctly, but in an English accent). The English barman "what are you after? Oooh, right, you mean chennon blaan"