Credit to The Guardian for asking a linguist about this nonsense story. Once more: apostrophes have nothing to do with grammar. They aren’t strictly a punctuation mark. It’s sensible to remove them from place names & street signs. “Purists” get it wrong. theguardian.com/uk-news/articl…

This Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis during one of the darkest chapters in human history.

And we recommit to heeding the lessons of the Shoah and realizing the responsibility of “Never Again.”

There will be the customary complaints about a purported decline in standards of literacy but this is a sensible step. Apostrophes have nothing to do with grammar (or indeed, strictly, punctuation) and we can dispense with them altogether on street signs. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

Conspiracy theorists in Human Centipede formation. A sacked BBC presenter, sacked LBC host, current GB News host. Covid was a hoax. To get us to take a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. Which wasn’t ready - slack work, Dark Forces! - so NHS nurses killed people with Midazolam.

I don’t understand

It’s hard to make a concession speech but democracy rests on recognising the legitimacy of an opponent’s victory. This graceless complaint, flattered by GB News, is an affront to voters’ intelligence. Many Tories will be in same position soon and the party needs to get a grip.

Sadiq Khan re-elected as Mayor of London with over a million votes cast for him - the first person to win a third term as London Mayor

His majority is a whopping 276,707

Now that we have an actual swing from the Conservatives to Labour, I’d be interested in the sourcing of “it is clear tonight”. (The final Savanta poll got the result pretty much right.)

Paddington Bear wisely said: “Mrs Brown says that in London everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in. I think she must be right - because although I don't look like anyone else, I really do feel at home.”

I do too. I’m glad to live here.

So if the rubbish put around yesterday about Khan losing London was designed to take immediate pressure off Sunak it worked. Rather surprising that so many papers fell for it. Or alarming …

It's not Biden's fault that so many universities indulge and appease anti-Jewish harassment. But it's very much Biden's problem. Latest in The Atlantic theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

To mark the publication of The Escape Artist in Hebrew, החדשות - N12 last night ran this special report, which does great honour to the memory of Rudolf Vrba. I’m hugely grateful to Yonit Levi for it mako.co.il/news-entertain…

The Queen's copy of the First Folio has been fully digitised and can now be viewed from anywhere in the world, via Digital Bodleian!

Take a look here: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/cb24be…

Another excellent article by Oliver Kamm about Shakespeare authorship denial, and the danger of legitimizing a thoroughly illegitimate pseudointellectual movement.

🔍 Analysis: Local elections 2024: latest polls, key timings and what to expect

The May 2 results could have significant implications as both parties prepare for the UK general election. Here’s our guide to what to look out for ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/local-…

Shakespeare denialism is as baseless a conspiracy theory as 9/11 Truth and has a long association with political extremism. For Quillette, I explain what’s wrong with it and why I’m protesting at The London Library giving its advocates an uncontested platform. quillette.com/2024/05/02/the…

Labour lead at 26 points in this week's YouGov poll for The Times

CON 18 (-2)
LAB 44 (-1)
LIB DEM 10 (+1)
REF UK 15 (+2)
GRN 8 (+1)

Fieldwork 30 April - 1 May

Anyone surprised by this hasn’t been listening to Galloway, ever. His views on gay rights, abortion, Europe, immigration and much else are well to the right of most Conservative MPs.

“Speaking to Times Radio on his second day in politics, Panesar said that his party wished to leave Nato to curb illegal immigration.”