Heaven Knows WE’RE Miserable Now — That was the big news this week. Not even Suella‘s strangely spoon-magnified face having its smirk temporarily displaced by being fired, followed by the most hilariously bilious, ranting “I’m not bitter” letter. Notice I don’t call it a resignation letter. You don’t get to write one of those when you’ve…

As I write this, it is late morning/lunchtime. so stuff will possibly happen throughout the day. This may get updated as a result later on, but then again it may not. The big stuff may have already settled on us, like so much guano. UPDATE 1930: Esther McVey? Really? “Common…

Tyne Theatre, 11 October 2023 — And they’re back in the room! Last time our favourite funny Irish triumivrate were here at the wonderful Tyne Theatre feels like a long time ago now, in the distant, hazy … before times. …

Robert Galbraith: Strike series, book 7 — ⚠️ SPOILER ALERT Let’s just say this at the outset: if you are looking for a story full of warm-hearted life-affirming fun, and giggles, move along now, because this really isn’t the book you’re looking for. It’s tough going, and not because it’s bad, or even because it’s over 900…

Why? WHY? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY? — It doesn’t give me any pleasure to say this, given that I’m a bit of a Floyd fan, and think that Roger’s own Amused To Death is a work of despairing, anguished genius, but I really don’t like this album. …

The conference season is upon us, may God have mercy on our souls. — The LibDem conference passed off last week in the shimmer of apathy it generally engenders in most of the population, but seeing as Parliament is in recess and the autumn is starting, it’s time for the “Big Guns” now. On Sunday, the Tory circus lurches into Manchester. In the immortal…

18 September 2023 — City Varieties, Leeds — It seems that motivational and self-help media are modish once again. After all, only recently, we saw the Alan Partridge’s Stratagem doing the rounds. Well, anything Alan can do, Brian can do … better? A bit of a side note here…

Ad ondatra, mortem cupio¹ — I had sort of promised myself I wasn’t going to write any more about Elon Musk, with his smug self-satisfied backpfeifengesicht, and his ongoing mission to destroy Twitter. Just for the record, I refuse to use the new “is this a porn site or something?” name he has dropped onto…

“Jesus Christ, they’ve done it. They’ve done it” — There’s a new social network in town, kids. Apparently, 70m people signed up to Meta’s new Threads app in the first couple of days. At this point, I’ll issue a disclaimer, and say that I’m not one of them, nor am I ever likely to be, for reasons I’ll explain…