You don't have to be a geography PhD to see that Labour needs a better plan for the Midlands to tackle Reform (especially Notts, Derbyshire, Lincs & Staffs; Reform's victory in Northants in 2025 was a statistical fluke). In 2029 the Midlands will be the most impt battleground. Labour must buckle up.

Better at designing interiors (such as here, at Park Road flats) than creating public spaces IMHO.

Labour's communications woes in a nutshell. Rather than simply what its policy is, it relies jargon & nostalgia for a New Labour policy of the 2000s. I am sure that "Best Start Family Hubs" are wonderful institutions, but this messaging only makes sense to political anoraks. FFS stop doing this.

I thought I had seen that palette of colours somewhere, and now I have it. The shades of green in this putative GBR logo were inspired by the colours of the plastic bags in my local dog waste bin...

What a missed opportunity. Foster's proposed statue of #ElizabethII is essentially the same composition as Le Sueur's statue of Charles I, cast in 1633, put on a pedestal by Wren, & abominably sited at Charing X, where the regicides were executed. Has art not moved on at all in nearly 400 yrs?

Calling all south London friends...
I'm speaking about my book about John Vassall (the 1960s spy) at the Catford Weekender festival next Friday, June 27th, at 6pm.
Venue: The theatre at St Dunstan's College on Stanstead Road SE6 4TY.
Tickets are FREE, at
www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/sele... .

I see that even the Jehovah's Witnesses have started using AI, to produce a photo of this happy crowd, suitably diverse in its range of age, race and gender, in one of its "no commitment or obligation" meeting invitations. The lack of authenticity makes the invitation even less appealing.

much like a column a Labour right-winger wd have penned soon after the 1997 win, urging Blair to abandon collaboration with Ashdown and constitutional changes welcomed by Lib Dems. Cratus really needs to move its political analysis on from this 1990s timewarp. Time for a fresh challenge, Chris! 4/4

ousted for "egregious behaviour" a decade later. The rest of the column is an attack on the straw men of referenda, and proportional representation. It's an odd diatribe, given that there is zero chance of any of the referenda that Farage demands ever being granted by this Lab govt. Overall it's 3/4

Whatever else the German election results mean, they have given us a chancellor who will turn 70 in November yet looks 20 years younger. Merz (born in 1955) is, like Scholz and Merkel, a baby boomer. Germany has never had a chancellor born in the 1960s or later.

Am I the only one to get strong 'Blankety Blank' vibes from the on-stage seating for Trump and Vance's families at the Capital One rally?

...poignant line - "We're just like British Rail. We get you there, in the end" - from a stewardess to an anxious passenger on a "Windsor Airlines" plane, just before it crashes, killing everyone. Oddly, its pilot is Colm Meaney - a rare example of an Irish actor playing a Brit, not vice versa. 3/3

a TV reporter who tells the world about the airport hijack, by skyphone from a plane toilet, ends up being tasered and then trampled on. DH2 is also a rare example of a big-budget Hollywood thriller showing the Brits in a positive light. Note the... 2/3

Watching Die Hard 2 last night, I was intrigued by its goodies and baddies. It's not just Bruce Willis vs the dodgy guys (a rogue, Oliver North-style colonel, a foreign dictator being extradited to the US, and a corrupt unit of Green Berets). The film is also contemptuous of the news media.. 1/2

Hats off to Stamford Stone for blithely ignoring the culture war about Cecil Rhodes, and describing him as "a distinguished alumnus" of Oxford in this publicity post about the restoration of Rhodes House. It's a bit like describing General Robert Lee as a "distinguished alumnus" of West Point.

My #JohnVassall book is available, for a limited period, at half price from its publisher, Biteback.
The perfect Christmas present for anyone interested in postwar British political scandals, Cold War espionage, or the tortuous path to LGBT rights! www.bitebackpublishing.com/picks/the-bi...

One fascinating thing about the #TurnerPrize going to the excellent #JasleenKaur is who presented it: #JamesNorton. He's one of those British actors who seems to have been around for a long time, like Benedict Cumberbatch. But Norton's first big TV roles (in Grantchester & Happy Valley) came... 1/3