Robin Sen 🇬🇧🇫🇮🇮🇳🇪🇺

Starmer should know after a year of failure inc. the catastrophic Madelson fall that, as with Humpty Dumpty, all the King's horses and all the King's men at Trump's state visit cannot put his cherished but shattered Labour Ming Vase back together again. Riddell 🎯 in the @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Listened to the show driving home on 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 flag festooned M20, M25 and A1 after a 6 week road trip through Europe and Scandinavia. A year on James it must be time to accept Starmer needs to have a chapter in the 2nd edition of your magnum opus. His quote in last year's Observer now a political epitaph.

‘It’s been quite a ride!’ Melvyn Bragg to step down from Radio 4’s In Our Time after 27 years The broadcaster is leaving the hit BBC programme after presenting more than 1,000 episodes and having ‘enriched the lives of millions’ Melvyn Bragg has announced that he will be leaving BBC Radio 4 show In Our Time after hosting it for 27 years. He launched it in October 1998, after being asked to present a programme during what was known as “the death slot” because of its low Thursday morning audience figures. The show, which explores the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world, has proved extremely popular. It celebrated its 1,000th episode in 2023 and is regularly one of the BBC’s most listened to on-demand programmes worldwide. Continue reading...

‘It’s been quite a ride!’ Melvyn Bragg to step down from Radio 4’s In Our Time after 27 years

Britain wants to be a global tech powerhouse - but I can’t get phone signal on the M42? Barely a day goes by without a Government Minister confidently declaring that the UK is on track to become a global powerhouse of industry and technology.

"You can’t claim to be a high-tech, connected nation if people can’t stay connected for a two-hour journey outside of London. And you certainly can’t compete on the global stage if the very backbone of your country, your transport and telecoms network, is stuck in the past". George Icke @lbc.co.uk

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert A Scientific Brain Drain Has Followed Trump’s Gutting Of The NIH - Dr. Francis Collins

No surprise, being the son of a distinguised NIH Physician and Immunologist, that Stephen @colbertlateshow.bsky.social brought long-serving NIH Director Francis Collins back on the late show last night. But now talking about the "gutting of the NIH and brain drain" 😱 youtube.com/watch?v=lW9c...

YouTube video by ITV News Former ITN presenter Sandy Gall dies: A look back at a legendary career | ITV News

Former ITN presenter Sandy Gall dies: A look back at a legendary career | ITV News - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXu1...

If you get the chance to see @willdalrymple.bsky.social speak live, grab it! He was fantastic.

We've been enjoying the last 9 days of the @hayfestival.bsky.social both at the festival and out in the gorgeous Welsh Black Mountains countryside. Looking forward to new and relevant Golden Road updates to inform current Sino-Indian relations. @empirepoduk.bsky.social
📷 Our last encounter at Hay.

Thank you @scaramucci.bsky.social and @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social for an incredible evening. My wife, who does not do political podcasts i.e. #restispolitics @restispoliticsus.bsky.social, was so impressed she will read both your books! For me a #tourdeforce.

No worries Alastair. We're all ready to enjoy the "Special Relationship" between you and @scaramucci.bsky.social here at the @hayfestival.bsky.social this evening.

Our 6th @hayfestival.bsky.social 📚 and 1st on the @bsky.app. Here for the whole festival this year. Great to see so many primary school pupils from around the country enjoying the first day.

Delighted to announce the publication of our new study on N assimilation pathways in Laccaria bicolor & poplar ECM in PlantPhysiology. Special thanks to Feng and Xinyin for their key contributions to this work, which builds upon research I initiated in 1985!

academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...

Lovely garden view Francis. We're also enjoying blue sky and sunshine in the garden. Spent the last two weeks restoring our old garden mill pond digging out 20 years of accumulated leaf litter. Restocked with water lilies and marginal plants. For once, decided not to inoculate with AMF RootGrow 😉

Our red amaryllis blooms return for a 38th year but now on Bluesky 😀.

Thank you, #Australia and #Canada for showing us the way✌️. After the Farage #ReformUK landslide in yesterday's Mayoral and Council elections, Starmer's #UKLabour gov. has to build still closer 🇦🇺🇨🇦 economic ties that must also extend to the 🇪🇺. Where there's hope there's a way.
📷 @theguardian.com

Our restored Mill pond sees the light of day. Waiting for the first water lily leaves break the surface. Our thanks to LincsPlants.com for a fabulous selection of water liles and marginal plants.

The irony of Sweden's iconic global retailer 🇸🇪IKEA🇪🇺 opening its London City store on a 🇬🇧 bunting adorned Oxford Street. Timed on Election25 day with polls forecast big #ReformUK wins. But #Brexit Nigel Farage will brush off any talk of the 🇪🇺🇬🇧 benefits of closer trade deals. @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Took advantage of the continued spring drought to complete my 70th birthday project - a present to family and neighbours. Eschewing hiring a JCB digger, Paul and I spent 10 days digging out composted leaves and peaty soil runoff accumulation in the old Mill pond. Pond plants delivered next week.

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

It's hard to get your head around the scale of the environmental vandalism the Labour government is hoping to unleash. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is up there with Trump's executive orders. And the reason is the same: corporate power.
This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

At last back to James O'Brexit we know and love 🔥. You've finally stopped giving Starmer the benefit of the doubt. But Ming vase Starmer's a one trick pony in the face of Trump's global earthquake over 83 days. There never was a "special relationship" and the post-Brexit US trade deal just a mirage.

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

We polled Nature readers to ask if they were thinking of leaving the US for jobs abroad. Three-quarters of them (who said they were US-based scientists) said yes. 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

ChatGPT - Osborne Austerity Economic Legacy Shared via ChatGPT

Back to Osborne's Pb🎈austerity politics but now from a Labour government 😡. Reeves should've asked ChatGPT what was the UK economic legacy of Osborne's austerity policies (2010-2016).
She became an MP in 2010 with a background in economics and banking. So no excuses?
chatgpt.com/share/67de7e...

Brave new world? 😱
I still remember my first US trip to present a plenary talk at ICOM1 in San Francisco. I transited in JFK and along with other European colleagues had an intense grilling at customs. Dread to think what would happen now 😰. Had no customs issues on conference trips to Canada 😍.

William Dalrymple - Hay Festival The historian draws on a lifetime of scholarship to highlight India’s oft-forgotten position as the heart of ancient Eurasia.

Your much deserved #India "magnum opus". Kept seeing evidence of maritime Golden Road when visiting the British Library Silk Road exhibition. So look forward to seeing you again at #HayFestival2025. Excited to hear the new evidence unearthed since publication.
www.hayfestival.com/p-23031-will...

* more like woolly hats

For his research projects Artin has been recording and collecting plant and soil samples for 10 years now. He caught the bug during his ugrad dissertation peoject in our mycorrhiza inoculated Scots pine nursery seedling transplant trial at Delamere. Time flies! He loves his wolly hats.

Looking good out in the field Mark and regards to Artin.

What's the betting that our food & drinks exports to the US makes up for these Brexit-related losses? Starmer and Mandy will be working hard buttering up Trump but does tariff-free means our kids eating imported industrial US farmed hormone beef Big Macs 🍔? #UPF ++ ☠️ = #NHS privatisation for $$ to 🇺🇸

The irony of watching the ignominious death throes of the British Empire. The Mother Country itself now confronting "corporate looting" by foreign actors, the modus operandi e.g. in India re. the East India Company/Raj. In both cases much of the national wealth handed over in corrupt circumstances.