It would’ve been lovely to see you, man. I hope the Bingolets had a blast!

I dad-taxied the kids to this on Thursday night and took myself out for dinner while they went. They were full of excitement at having heard Thumbs live. If you’ve never heard the Song Exploder episode on its c […]

Doesn’t the real-world reciprocity of that agreement rather depend on roughly equal migration of British workers to India as vice versa? Which, given that something over 300,000 Indian nationals were granted uk v […]

It was “I and I step forward fi sandwich”, ackshully

Every once in a while I search the word “unsubscribe” in my inbox and delete the results. There’s practically never anything necessary in there. I also periodically have a week or so of unsubscribing from anyth […]

Ian Dench went to school in Gloucester so I’m claiming them

Gloucester. Fred West. I mean also the Domesday Book, the invention of fan vaulting and EMF. But people mostly just remember Fred West.

There’s a hint of groove annd energy about KC. It was ITCOTCK which hooked me, but I like Discipline very much too.

I haven’t seen it, and don’t fancy it, but I’m finding it slightly bizarre that the entire commentariat, including actual politicians, seem to be wanting to weigh in about what is, after all, a fiction, as if it […]

I like King Crimson. I don’t like most of everything else which gets called prog. I think it’s mainly because my tastes in pop music generally require joy or aggression or a groove or all three, and most of the […]

(Addendum: I actually had a pretty blissful first lockdown. Lost about 5 stone, got properly seriously fit. I was on the run-out groove of my previous job, getting ready to start a new one in Sept, and so I had no […]

I’d agree about the kids. Current y12 seem pretty sorted. Current y13 can’t do anything. They’re the ones for whom it broke in y9, and so that all-important y10 year, where they do so much of their becoming, was a […]

If I want plot, I’ll watch TV. I go to novels for character, language, the slow cook. (Incidentally this is often true of really good TV too: The Wire doesn’t have a plot, and the season which does is com […]

Good to see you here, Chiz, old son. I don’t really do this place any more – no hard feelings – but there’s a couple of genuine mates still around and I count you as one. Sounds like it’s been a tough couple of ye […]

Oh do stop it, for fuck’s sake.

I think Russellty is a once-good writer now trading entirely off past glories, and if everything he’s done since, say, “Turn Left” is any guide, most of his inspiration arrives up a rolled-up £20. I watched the in […]

I enjoyed it, but depends how tolerant you are of sudden and slightly whimsical genre left-turns

It’s a lovely performance but like all film Mr Bennets, gets the character wrong. That’s more the fault of the script than the acting, though.

Yeah, the “it’s ok when we do it” crowd really are one of the worst things about modern armchair politics. Farage is a turd and also nobody should be assaulted, and if someone can’t hold those two ideas in their h […]

Labour. It shouldn’t be about the personality of the leader, but as it goes I think Starmer is a grown-up with real-world experience of hard graft and serious leadership of a complex organisation. He’s also rut […]