As an aside, one of my earliest memories is being on a plane and wandering into the smoking section.

It was like one of those gross-ups from Ren and Stimpy. Nearly 40 years later I still remember the dude who looked like Hunter S Thompson with the clip on shades.

Great anti smoking experience.

I was speaking at an event and I more or less used the exact phrasing "we spend so much time on the carrot that we forget about the stick"

I was leaning into the panto villain of a well meaning plenary, but the awkward muttering as if I'd spat on the floor or something was something else.

"If you don't let me have ice cream for my tea then I'm running away from home because I DON'T LIKE YOU"

A story familiar to anyone with small children...

I don't mind them that much otherwise. Only really had a handful of interactions of them being ridden by someone being a biff.

It's also a culture thing as much as a scooter thing. Some people are just selfish.

The eldest loves them. We make sure she watches them with a grown up as they can be a little bit heavy.

Amazing this stuff was just on at 8am in the morning!

Animated Series (the 1992 one)

Fair enough point - they could at least do it as they were banished/murdered.

I imagine that alone might see a modest uptick in donations that evening.

Every episode I said to my better half how odd it was the charities didn't get a mention.

6 weeks and 12 hours of telly, and otherwise 18 charities didn't even get a passing mention and the resulting free PR.

Agree. For example part of the reason Steve Rotherham isn't PCC is because 1/6 of his patch is actually Cheshire Police.

I remember going to vote that day, in a fairly affluent ward in the city.

I got there about 10am. If it's quiet enough to chat, always ask if they've been busy. They told me I was the 4th person they'd had in that day.

There are also some schemes I wouldn't lose any sleep if they slowed to a dead stop...

The things I could do with the money being spent on the Lower Thames crossing...

*to be fair, I won't deny it IS cumbersome and wasteful.

I've only done a bit of media work, but I really value the editors ive worked with.

I always recognise what I've written, but it's always just better and often in ways I'd never reach if you gave me 10 goes at it.