Jack Malvern

A police helicopter doing SOMETHING over Nailsea this evening.

For Andrew to be cut out from the succession, it would require an act of parliament and consent from all Commonwealth countries: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Will Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor retain his place in the royal line of succession? The Royal Household website hasn't updated its page (it's still calling him the Duke of York there, so it isn't up to date).

Crippling cost of childcare.

The Post Office section at the soft play centre in Brentford is equipped with the Horizon system.

No racehorse for me this Christmas

When I was on Tinder years ago, a good 10% of women's profiles had that Marilyn Monroe quote. I couldn't work out the subtext. It's not like they were film stars with a glam public persona. They seemed to be saying: "I routinely behave in a selfish manner and you're going to have to put up with it."

Can cancelled pop stars ever make a comeback? Radio airplay data reveals the impact of cancel culture on musicians including P Diddy, Michael Jackson, R Kelly and Cee Lo Green

Did you stop listening to Michael Jackson after Leaving Neverland? How long did that last? (And does cancelling ever work?)
www.thetimes.com/article/9cdc...

Warner of Bristol answered more than Exeter did in the rest of University Challenge. That's how it felt, anyway. I haven't counted.

Peter Rabbit, after the pubs have closed.

Your History: Barbara Taylor Bradford and geneticist Lyudmila Trut Barbara Taylor Bradford, the journalist who became a publishing sensation in her 40s with the best-selling novel 'A Woman of Substance', and the Soviet-era scientist Lyudmila Trut who tamed foxes t...

Had you heard of Lyudmila Trut? Hear her obituary (read by me) and that of the novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford on the Times podcast Your History. You'll learn how to tame a silver fox.
pod.fo/e/287c0a

Storm Bert carnage.

My colleagues on The Times and The Sunday Times. They know their onions: go.bsky.app/NqDPCtV

We're coming!

I'm still on part two.

Authors’ union accused of hypocrisy over fossil fuel investments The Society of Authors, which campaigned for festivals and publishers to end sponsorships, keeps money in a Liechtenstein bank with interests in oil and gas

The Society of Authors, which campaigns for others to divest from fossil fuels, keeps money in a Liechtenstein bank with 10 per cent of its funds invested in oil and gas:
www.thetimes.com/uk/media/art...

She writes the most amazing thank-you cards. I hope you get one for this.

Marco Pierre White’s marrowbone tip? Use a microwave The chef said microwaves are ‘sensational things’ and that haters should ‘take off the blinkers’

Here's the reason why Marco Pierre White and microwaves are a thing at the moment: www.thetimes.com/uk/society/a...

You may think that I have researched this in too much detail and should be spending my time in Gaza/covering the US election/writing about Robbie Williams's back garden. Please forgive me. I am emerging from this rabbit hole.

I've also found a cutting from the Mirror in 2001 where he says of microwaves: "I think they're very good so long as you understand how to use them correctly. And, yes, I have one at home."

Indeed, in 2008 he claimed that bacon "comes out better in a microwave" than from the grill in an episode of Marco's Great British Feast:

Perhaps coincidentally, in 2007 and 2008 he was the face of Russell Hobbs's microwaves, including one with his name and signature on it: www.shutterstock.com/editorial/im...

Which is odd, because in 2007 he definitely did.
Here he is referring to "my microwave" in his tips for a perfect Christmas dinner:

Does Marco Pierre White have a microwave? A simple question. Or so you might have thought. Here he is talking to Walesonline in 2018 saying he has never had one:

Although he died thinking he'd gotten away with it, there is some justice in that he will be universally remembered as a terrible human being. That, and people forever spelling his name wrongly.