This one really hurts. Nearly Adelaide 2006 level

First ball I saw was Duckett going…

I know he didn't get any wickets, but I continue to be so impressed by Atkinson - not express but sharp enough and his angle and whip means he's always going at the batter. He and Jofra are a pretty handy opening pair

I can't remember the last time an England attack was that relentless. Just lovely to actually turn up to Australia with an ideal bowling attack for once rather than them all getting injured and having to wheel out Woakes, Jimmy and Broad again for another tour of unrelenting Pain

The last time I went to bed this anxious was the presidential election

You'd think I'd have got used to it by now but I am still astonished by the government's apparent belief that they are just smol beans who have no power to influence anything and must just bend in the breeze

I didn’t expect to agree with everything Starmer did but I can’t say I expected him to be such a cliche of a bloodless technocrat that he outsources his own thinking to other people as detailed by @pronouncedalva.bsky.social

If there’s anything the Starmer government will be remembered for, it’s cowardice. They run from hard choices, constantly concede ground where they should fight and bury their successes for some reason. There was a lot of talk of existential threats post 2019 but this feels far, far worse

I will say as someone who loved RDR2 and even liked the clunky gameplay and leisurely animations, it was way too long and the pacing was bad, something that was only made worse by the fact that the missions were all just boring variants on “ride here, shoot these guys”

I think it can be but definitely true that in the UK at least some people get carried away with an image of non-voters being politically engaged young people who feel unrepresented by established centre/centre left rather than the much messier reality

Old example but Titanfall 2’s campaign was 6 hours and it’d have been worth it at twice the price I paid.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Slade back in future but that might also depend on Seb Atkinson’s fitness

Fundamentally they’re very different players and I think Dingwall is more what England are looking for in a 12 - an unflashy glue player who facilitates those outside him and runs hard lines. I thought the attack looked much sharper with him in the side in the 6Ns (small sample admittedly)

That's a fair point, he's been really good this season. On the other hand there are plenty of excellent club players who don't translate that form to the international game, and I don't think he offers more than Dingwall as a 12

In fairness Furbank would be playing were he fit, and I think Slade's more than had his chance to impress and rarely taken it

Loved this piece, even if it misses out my favourite memory of the two tours of France we were lucky enough to do - the venues having chefs (including a bakery I think in Toulouse?!). Sadly all too accurate about the rampant misogyny though which I was often shamefully blind to at the time

Granted she's a recurring character in quite a few books but I maintain that Mrs Williams is one of literature's great villains, and in many ways the only one in Aubrey/Maturin books bar Napoleon

Oh yeah, this was pretty eye-opening. I know there is a lot to mock the current regime for, but when set against you can see why the players are so bought in when you look back at the Flower era's relentless grind in pursuit of success - it produced a lot of highs but at quite a cost

The business equivalent of that scene in Naked Gun where Frank and his informant keep bribing each other with the same money