Famously Reigate Grammar School converted from category 1 to category 2 above whilst Keir Starmer was a pupil there. As pupils were allowed to stay on this has allowed people to say he was a privileged private school pupil rather than a clever state school pupil. Seems a bit unfair to me though.
I’m sorry but…
The number of people sleeping rough in England is at its highest level since records began in 2010
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I enjoyed seeing the play. Took my Dad as he used to work for the Met Office. He said they used to have the weather map for D-Day in the lobby and he always found the absence of readings from occupied Europe chilling.
Tbh Gabriel & Mary was what sprang to mind for me…
UK, Berkshire (now London), English, Fire Engine.
The same mason did both King’s and Peterborough, I believe.
What rarely seems to come up is the power of Parliament continuing to do its job on the site it’s been doing it for the last 800 years (more or less). I feel the same about historic homes which are still lived in and historic places of worship with active congregations.
I did not know about Keillor or Eddings ffs (thank you)
I wrote about my childhood friend Alexi Pretti. Please read it and share it and remember him as a human being. @theverge.com
“Please get the truth out about our son.”
Read and share the statement from the parents of Alex Pretti, the VA ICU nurse who was shot and killed by border patrol.
An accurate summary Of three key points.
“Are you okay?”
What words to die on.
What a life to have lived, that his last words were concern. Not for himself, but for a stranger.
May we all live with such honour. May no more have to die with such honour.
Two women trained as first responders were abducted by three ICE agents. One of the agents starts seizing. The other two don’t know what to do. The women jump into action and save the agent’s life, only to be re-handcuffed and processed.
www.startribune.com/detained-by-...
Trump’s Board of Peace logo is basically the UN logo, except dipped in gold and edited so the world only includes America.
“Leave Greenland alone!”
Heckler interrupts Star-Spangled Banner at NBA game in London, wins cheers from crowd. (Video via Reddit)
Clearly I don’t have enough to do as a quick(ish) and possibly inaccurate survey of the Wikipedia entries for the old colleges suggests Oriel’s official name (in English not Latin) is the longest by quite a stretch, ahead of Wadham in second and ChristChurch in third.
2025 was the third hottest year ever.
Trend is worrying and faster than expected a few years ago.
Only when we stop burning coal, oil and gas, temperature will stop rising.
www.ecmwf.int/en/about/med...
The first (and I hope last) time I have ever had a jump scare from an estate agent’s listing! Given I’m on the tube I’m glad I didn’t actually scream!
But the response of supporters of President Trump and of his administration has been neither of these. Instead, they have rushed to trash the reputation of the woman, depicting her as a “domestic terrorist” who somehow deserved to be summarily executed by an ICE agent who was acting in “self-defense”. There are also claims that the ICE agents in the footage were injured in the incident but are making “full recoveries”—claims that can be refuted by watching the video. An alternative—and official—false narrative is being created by which the ICE agents did nothing wrong, and everything right, in killing Good. This dishonest construct is one means by which the federal government wants to evade taking responsibility for what seems to have been an extra-judicial murder of a US citizen. Another means to this end is that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is not cooperating with local police for any investigation. By spreading falsehoods and hampering any independent investigation by Minnesota police, the federal government is seeking immunity for the violence its agents are inflicting on people in America. These tactics are part of a broader strategy to ensure that those with federal executive power can do exactly what they want, without any remedy to those affected: government outside the law.
NEW
Death in Minnesota
The significance of the reaction to the killing of Renee Nicole Good
By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
We are Christopher Isherwood, watching the scenes in the Berlin street below from our apartment window above
Watching from afar further shifts in a worsening polity
By me
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/we-are-chr...
Personal Blog: davidallengreen.com/2026/01/we-a...
Postcards! It is a way of integrating my habit of buying too many books and too many art gallery postcards. The idea is that each book has a postcard living in it permanently.
I imagine when the Death of the Discworld decides to modernise his house it will look like this.
Once came across a tour guide outside my then place of work (the Guildhall in the City of London) describing in great detail how it was haunted by Princess Diana.
Channel 4 has been doing it since the early 90s - about a third of the length of time the King’s Christmas message has been going. Probably fair to say it is now an established tradition.
Thank you!
In the groovy 1960s my parents’ youth club leader apparently did a setting to ‘Telstar’ which I would love to hear!
…floor tiles Victorian and bathroom and garage late twentieth century. I’m going for an early 1800s rebuild around some kind of medieval building (not much left) with a makeover/additions in the second half of the 19th century and assorted subsequent redecorations. You did say show your workings.
OK, I looked at all the pictures didn’t read the description but did read the etched window. There is the odd bit of window which looks medieval, a wooden fireplace surround which looks late medieval into 17th century. I’m in two minds about the buttressing. Fan vaulting looks early gothic revival..
…and the maid statue!
