I’d say this was another example of this Labour government’s “a big boy made us do it :(“ theory of governance, but that would imply they were unhappy with this one.

That Stevenage-Moorgate service should be handed over to LO really, but in an ideal world it would be the second northern branch of CR2 (rather than the stub to New Southgate).

Buroughs died six months after Mario Kart 64 came out so I'm pretty confident he said this after being hit by a blue shell.

Even better, I just logged into ours for the first time six months or so and it looks like our account was deleted from inactivity and needs to be recreated. Good system!

There's an online red book portal which is meant to mirror what's in the physical one, but a) it requires parents/midwives/health visitors manually updating it, so ofc it never is, and b) registering for it requires jumping through an intense amount of bureaucracy, which, again, means nobody uses it

My favourite part learning there was an "e"-red book was spending literal months being passed back and forth between midwives and health visitors, who all professed complete bafflement at both its existence and us wanting to use it, until we eventually gave up. What exactly was the plan with them??

It has the same vibe as the first Mission: Impossible, where a flat overlooking Liverpool St is described like it might as well be in Ilford or Edmonton, somewhere out of the way and cheap, which feels like an impression an American might have last got around there in, idk, the late 70s?