Okay, this is getting out of control! 😂

PHOTO OF THE DAY. Ruby Bridges, the 1st black child to attend a white elementary school in the South of the USA. She needed police protection (1960) 📷 google images

Fortunately I am able to withdraw £10 from a Minehead cashpoint after the rent comes through from my second home in Provence. From now on, it’s man against nature. Wish me luck!

Keith Richards recalled that by 1968 he was “trying to figure out Fred McDowell,” and he began using open D and open E guitar tunings on Stones records like Beggars Banquet. In this way, McDowell, who didn’t play rock music, ironically helped shape it. Source: Keith Richards. 🧵2

Mirabile dictu, Reform UK actually proposes a Bitcoin sovereign wealth fund - ie big government taking a punt on a purely speculative “asset” with money that belongs to you & me. The state shouldn’t even be doing this with *genuine* financial assets. ft.com/content/76958f…

Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.

My @ft letter from January 2016 is, I believe, the first ever suggestion of "higher pay, lower pensions" for doctors & others in the public sector. It now seems to be on Wes Streeting 's agenda, with The BMA screaming blue-murder!

I want to protect pensioners incomes I want to scrap the triple lock Politicians, these are not conflicting views

The triple lock increased by - or above inflation or 2.5% - during a decade of record low inflation. It then increased by 10.1% in one year alone (2022) then by 8.5% in 2023…it had done its work in the 2010-2020 period and still the #greyvote demands more …

Just been on Times Radio with Kate McCann talking about increasing the SPA, getting rid of the Triple Lock and public sector pensions

John Ralfe Far too sensible and simple...

I get that “reform capital gains tax now” isn’t a great slogan, but in the end, evidence matters. We’re not getting a wealth tax under this, or any conceivable, government. For good reasons. The Left should focus on effective and achievable tax policy: pro equity and pro growth

Sad to hear of the recent passing of Ozzy Osbourne. Regardless of what you thought of him as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was the consummate showman. R.I.P.

Critical infrastructure update: 20 substations on Teesside sold to local businessmen for £10.91, as they’re gifted 45% stake in previously publicly-owned electricity network. Another bonanza on the Tees for the lucky few. Full details in Private Eye Magazine.

California isn’t having trouble retaining public workers and shouldn’t increase pension benefits trib.al/F6GNCaa