Richard Appleby

Plant a boulevard of trees right down the street, with benches around the trunk of each, and create somewhere for shoppers to linger in the shade.

Goodness. Farage quickly loses his cool on BBCR4 Today in the 7:45 slot. Doesn’t sound very much like prime minister material - thank goodness.

Apart from: Algebra The concept of zero Numerals Trigonometry and geography Cubic and higher order equations AND Optics Chemistry Medicine and pharmacology Astronomy and engineering AND Philosophy and sociology Arabian poetry and prose

Smart move 👇

I bet Trump is wishing he’d never issued that writ. He obviously expected to win another few hundred million in a quick settlement (like all the now cowed US media did). Unfortunately for him, “Auntie” had other ideas…

At 25, you might dream of studying in Rome. At 45, you might discover a business opportunity in Berlin. At 65, you might want to retire in Spain. Freedom of Movement meant you didn't have to know your future in advance. That's the extraordinary freedom Brexit took away.

Free weekend update is out. This was the week when the USA-Russia alliance was made formal, to even the most ardent skeptics. And its reality was signed in Ukrainian blood. Hopefully now Ukraine, and Europe, will understand what they must do. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...

40 Hits of 1986 at the BBC bringing back a lot of good memories. Damn, there was a lot of good music around then, and no AI anywhere.

🎤 I am the very model of modern bogus attorney I've underperformed vegetables like lettuces and broccoli I passed the bar in nowhere, and I was a brief press secretary From Monday night to Friday night, for less than one Scaramucci

Golly. Barely a quarter of a Scaramucci. Impressive.

“Yes, the corporation is a lunatic in so many ways. But it’s our lunatic and if you come for it, you come for us all. In the BBC’s long history of standing up to tyranny, it has seen off bigger enemies than Trump. I would bet the Shipping Forecast it will come out victorious.” Amen. ⬇️

Under-rated skeet! ⬇️

When I went through cancer treatment I was on almost every opiate under the sun, and I can confidently declare it didn’t suddenly turn me into a racist c*nt.

I’m confused. I thought AI needed crazy graphics cards, and terabytes of RAM … hence all the insane spending on datacenters … but now they’re suddenly going to replicate themselves onto a fridge? Seriously?

Wouldn’t get any of that nonsense in Lidl. Or Aldi. Or Waitrose, come to think of it.

Mostly true, though I could be persuaded to make exceptions. Do any of the Reform MPs sail?

Metaphor for corporate life?

Breaks the irony meter…

Fascinating. The beer vs wine drinking split is nowhere near as obvious as the stereotype would have you believe.

Was listening to the radio today while doing admin. Surprised by the number of Brexiters protesting Burnham's comments about Brexit, but then utterly failing to make any kind of case for Brexit, or against the EU (and in some cases quickly becoming very angry at being questioned). It's tribal ☹️

Just caught an interview with Reform’s Jaymey McIvor on LBC. Not much surprises me about Reform these days, but his approach to deportation is completely next-level crazy and completely detached from any sense of reality. I bet the Tories are relieved to be rid of him.

Just as well that Reform are a busted flush then. Frankly, I’m more interested in what Farage’s exit plan is, and how much of Reform Ltd £80M donations he will escape with, as there’s no way he wants to actually BE Prime Minister….

BBC News is just awful. “Brexit Unbound” seems to have been formed start of this year, with nothing on their website since April. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel… but I guess no one else was stupid enough to oppose Burnham’s statement

Hard to imagine better evidence of just how f*cked up the Tech billionaires are. Fighting a one off tax that would cost them less than 6 months growth of their wealth. They’d not even notice paying it. Just how selfish and greedy are they?

😱

I think capital punishment is vengeance rather than punishment, but this is next-level: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... The live-streaming implies they believe people _want_ to see this; will _pay_ for it. Raises visions of he worst of America: mindless crowds chanting U-S-A, U-S-A. Contemptible.

Yesterday I was stuck in a long supermarket queue behind several tradesmen (judging by the workwear) that were all paying in cash from huge wads of money. Showing my prejudice perhaps, but persuade me they’re all paying all their tax. The sooner we get rid of cash the better.

@IanBetteridge.com ‘s Law of Headlines: “No.”

I was sure this must have been faked. But it's not. Absolutely top trolling by Danish artist Jens Galschiot!

Nice … ⬇️

Dear Lord. Doesn’t she prepare before doing an interview?

There was a time when the Tories, however hypocritically, claimed to want to protect our natural heritage. Now they're just a party of vandals, ripping down the few protections the living world has for the sake of their rich chums. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Truely puts the ghost in “ghostwritten”…

Good grief ⬇️😳

Bet she’d have had a very different position if that camera had been outside _her_ house…

Left wondering if Keunsberg is writing about the same Badenoch that I hear on the TV and radio? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmn8e887716vo

On National Poetry Day, here’s a short poem about the power of poetry to change the world.

I was wondering about going up to London to see this, but in the end decided the cost of getting there, plus the tickets to get in, was prohibitive given that we’ve both seen it before in France. Now feeling slightly relieved.

I see we’ve got the BBC doing its thing, both-siding the possibility that the UK might want to revisit Brexit. So Newsnight got Andrew “I’m completely neutral” Neil in to savage some poor Labour chap. Depressing.

Best take so far… 👍

You couldn’t make it up…

I’m not a Burnham fan. I was unimpressed when he was originally in parliament, and I really hated his coup. But I can forgive him all that and more after his speech yesterday. Ok, God knows how hard any of it will be, but it’s a vision I can really get behind. ❤️ https://tinyurl.com/4vhbdjsx

Au contraire … methinks Ford is “too late”…

Yeah, yeah. But what does @straitofhormuz.bsky.social say?

Trump wouldn’t know “morally binding” if it rocked up and smacked him in the mouth.

You should prosecute politicians when they break the small laws, because you won’t have the chance later, when they break the big ones.

Wow. We all instinctively know how bad he is, but it’s revelatory to see it actually put on scales, and scored…