Nick Royle

“Sir Keir Starmer is an FPTP Prime Minister of an increasingly PR-STV UK electorate. Discuss.” If any politics teachers or lecturers are looking for new exam questions!

Do it! I have ordered some of the books you’ve recommended from my local library. Looking forward to reading the Elon Musk graphic history book.

Billy Hann seems quite impressive, from all I have seen of him.

Prince Phillip on left. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor on right.

It’s so cute when people recreate old family photos. Such fun!

Michael Foot’s ‘donkey jacket’

Stephen Kettle’s sculpture of Alan Turing

Michael Foot’s ‘donkey jacket’ from the People’s History Museum in Manchester. Which is actually a very expensive coat from Harrods. Or Stephen Kettle’s statue of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.

Chomp, chomp. Meep!

@nathanrjohns.bsky.social You were very good on BBC TMS yesterday. Really insightful stuff, well done.

Eternity review: This charming comedy is Irish director David Freyne’s best film yet Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner star as a recently deceased trio who must decide how to spend the rest of time

I’ve finally watched ‘Eternity’, written and directed by Ireland’s David Freyne. It’s so good. So many funny lines, including a great running joke throwing shade at the Korean War. www.irishtimes.com/culture/film...

I’ve saw Justine McCarthy travelling on the bus just before Christmas, weighed down with BT bags. I thought it was great. She obviously sees the world beyond the narrow confines of the car windscreen.

Such a shame to hear of the death of Noel Hawkins. 49 years behind the bar at Mulligans on Poolbeg Street.

Can I just congratulate Eoin for the Audioslave one-liner. Magnificent.

On Jan's recommendation, I mean.

I read 'Quartet in Autumn' a few years ago after it featured in the Times' Rereading column. I admired it more than I enjoyed it, if that makes sense? Maybe the melancholy of wasted lives was too much for me? I'll try 'Excellent Women' on your recommendation.

I’ve listened to his podcast with Ed Balls, and Osborne doesn’t seem clever at all. All his tastes, judgments, and reference points are of a generic, upper class white male schooled in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bologna’s Via dell'Indipendenza, traffic free at weekends.

Venezia fans celebrate a 3-1 win over Catanzaro.

A great weekend of Italian football. My first time at Venezia, and my first time travelling to the stadium by boat. Then Bologna v Fiorentina on Sunday. I also like that Bologna prohibits cars on its Main Street at weekends.

Did you spot the back of my head, as journalist #1 banging on Theresa’s car? An IFTA beckons…

Charlie getting us all into the festive spirit with an extremely unsettling ghost story…

I cannot understand how Paul Doyle can be allowed to drive ever again. UK sentencing guidelines need to be revised. This report suggests only four lifetime driving bans were imposed in the UK in 2023, out of 116,000 disqualifications. ukonward.com/reports/clea...

I think I saw Greta Thunberg on the DART going into Dublin last night. And if it wasn’t, apologies to the woman I waved at through the window. Is she in Dublin at the moment? I see she’s speaking at Dalymount Park on Thursday, so it might have been her.

Well done to Miguel. Most journalists have just given up reporting on sportswashing (mostly because many fans don't seem to care). His job would be so much easier if he did too, but he ploughs on.

A memory of being taught Catullus 16. “So we are agreed, it’s ‘bumf*** and facef***”

I've a letter in today's Irish Times about the MetroLink judicial review. I urge everyone who regularly drives near Ranelagh to do the same.

Yes. Get together 15 cars to do slow laps around the square for two hours every week. It's a public road, so perfectly legal. When they complain, point out that this traffic density will be the reality for many Dublin neighbourhoods if Metrolink isn't built.

So sad to hear about Mani. I once spent a surreal day with him in Dublin, tagging along as he and his good mate @swench.bsky.social went around looking at record shops and having pints. A genuinely lovely man, so generous with his time to everyone he met on the street.

I have a friend whose child was in a recent production. She had to bring them in and stay in central London until the end of the performance to take them home. But there were no free tickets for her to watch the performance, so she often had to wander round London for four hours.

Wow. That’s beautiful! (The theatre. Not your big stupid face)

And I assume you are taiking the Irish Bank Holiday off work on Monday, to ensure it is a proper four-day weekend.

Paul Darbyshire and Mike Gregory from the 1990s Warrington rugby league team.

This is a very perceptive piece. Music fans at outdoor gigs are treated appallingly. The facilities are really poor, and yet fans are routinely paying €100+ for their tickets.

Though the food combinations the chaffies inspire are all disgusting. So, I’m blaming you if he starts begging me to make him a beetroot and lettuce burger…