My home town, it’s no secret it suffers from poverty and most definitely child poverty. The mp of the area Simon Fell voted against free school meals through school holidays. Time to stand down and resign, Barrow deserves better.

Megacolons. Lovely to discover a kind review of Signs of Life in The TLS this week, and with such a punchy title too the-tls.co.uk/articles/signs…

"Her ability to construct a complete narrative in a brief pop song shows her to be a skilful short story writer, quite apart from the music. The stories are lean vignettes, full of emotion"; Jonathan Drummond's piece on Dolly Parton, from the latest The TLS: the-tls.co.uk/articles/not-d…

Really, a must read, on the story our Grand Country Houses really tell. (Via Robert Saunders). newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

This week’s The TLS, featuring Paul Muldoon on Ulysses at 100; John Fuller on Auden; MatthewReisz on science reporting; @MalikShushma on elite women in Rome; Jonathan Drummond on Yorkshire - and more

Mick Lynch Dismantles the Media, Keir Starmer & Extreme Right Wing Government Coming Our Way

This isn’t even a far-right dog-whistle. It’s a loud, proud, audible whistle to U.K. racists. Robert Jenrick’s choice of words about fellow humans is despicable. We have never had “uncontrolled migration” and he knows it. People move. Our only choice is how cruel to be about it

Love a bit of Orff #highbrow

I said this about the Tory chancellor George Osborne in 2010 and I’ll say it about the Labour leader now: anyone who refers to the national economy as a ‘credit card’ is economically illiterate and/or lying to you. Paul Krugman Jonathan Portes simon wren-lewis

In 1985, Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott boarded the Earl William in solidarity with Tamil refugees facing deportation. The deportation was cancelled. 40 years later, Starmer kicked Corbyn and Abbott out of the Labour Party. Today, he welcomed Natalie Elphicke. Heartwarming.

The “command center” excuse. Rinse & repeat. At this point, why would Hamas even waste time setting up “command centers” in schools & hospitals if Israel just bombs them regardless? The “human shields” logic doesn’t work if the humans in question don’t function as shields.

#quincyjones youtube.com/watch?v=fZCeGk…

This is a story about a little girl who had her face blown off. Surgeons in the US are waiting to treat her but she's been denied evacuation FIVE times. There's a medical bus leaving Gaza this Wednesday: will COGAT let her on? Her life depends on it.theguardian.com/global-develop…