1. Rates and Wrongs: Fixing UK Tax Cliff Edges and Tapers

(tags:uk tax reform )

2. The UK is on course for Net Zero by 2050. With 64% of the population in favour

(tags:UK globalwarming GoodNews )

3. The Lord of the Rings: Toughest quiz ever (I got 14/30)

(tags:lot quiz )

4. Trail-hunting set to be banned in landmark crackdown

(tags:fox GoodNews uk labour )

5. False claims in a widely-cited paper. No corrections. No consequences. Welcome to the Business School.

(tags:research fraud OhForFucksSake )

6. The speaker of the House of Commons cannot make Keir Starmer answer MP's questions

(tags:politics questions )

7. How much would we get if we extracted North Sea Oil? (See top of page 4 of report - not much)

(tags:oil uk )

1. Plug-in solar power could be in UK shops within months

(tags:solarpower uk GoodNews )

2. What is a polite way to say "I have to poop" as a woman? (the responses are hilarious)

(tags:funny women society poo )

3. Even Scotland's richest back higher taxes on the wealthy, poll finds

(tags:polls tax wealth Scotland )

The kids are watching an episode of SpongeBob where he's failing to write an essay. It is, frankly, stressing me the fuck out.

It always surprises me that Boots isn't open until 9am. You would have thought that there'd be enough people wanting to pick up painkillers or similar on the way in to work.

1. Chuck Norris dead at 86: A history of the actor's anti-LGBTQ+ comments

(tags:bigotry obituary LGBT )

2. School book banning escalates in the UK as Greater Manchester secondary school censors scores of books

(tags:censorship UK school libraries OhForFucksSake )

Nice mist on Arthur's Seat this morning.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. Coming soon to Netflix... a movie that requires none of your attention!

(tags:movies netflix attention video satire funny )

2. Everyone but Trump Understands What He's Done

(tags:politics UK USA middle_east Ukraine Russia NATO )

3. Scotland's assisted dying bill rejected after emotional debate

(tags:Scotland euthanasia )

4. More reports show that forcing people back to the office hurts productivity

(tags:productivity office )

I do wish that polls wouldn't ask if people thought that the PM was handling something "Well" or "Badly". Because two people answering "Badly" might mean completely different things by it.

Also, me saying "Immigration is important to me" means the opposite of what a Reform voter would mean by it.

This because of reporting of how many people think that Starmer is handling the Iran situation well or badly. When I can guarantee that some of the "badly" think we should be bombing Iran right now, and some think that we shouldn't be involved even slightly.

This is from a post made here on Facebook. I'm copying it here, with the permission of the original author, so that people off Facebook can see it.

I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.

Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.

When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...

Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.

I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:

• ‘The Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.


• ‘The Specialist’ by Charles Sale.


• ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer.


• ‘Fairy Tales’ by Charles Perrault.


• Jacqueline Simpson’s folklore books.


• Everything by J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis.


• ‘The Wind From the Sun’ by Arthur C. Clarke.


• ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons (my favourite book).


• ‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ and the Arthurian Trilogy by T H White.


• I also add the new series of novels set in St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, of whom I am a keen fan, and strongly recommend. Terry told Jodi how much he liked her writings. Start with ‘Just One Da*ned Thing After Another’ and carry on enjoying!


• Edit - I forgot 'The Moomins' series!

Following yesterday's illness, I was vaguely hoping that he would stay asleep through the night. Alas:

12:05
"I need a wee"
Took him to the toilet.
"Daddy, my tummy hurts"
Gave him some medicine
"Do you want to be in pyjamas or just straight back to bed?"
"Back to bed"
And then he closed his eyes.

12:20
Thundering footsteps "Daddy, I feel sick"
Told him to go to the toilet. Kept him company, got him a bucket.
He wasn't sick.
Persuaded him to take the bucket to bed.
Sat on the floor next to his bed until he closed his eyes.

12:35
More thundering steps
"Daddy, my arm and leg hurt"
By the time I'd found him medicine he was asleep again.
But woke up again and let me give him some Calpol.

03:30
"I'm hungry" (not surprising as he didn't eat yesterday)
We agreed on cream cheese crackers.
He ate ⅘ of the cracker and drank some juice and passed out again.

06:30
"I checked the light coming under the curtain and it's morning time"
I told him to go play games on the Switch downstairs.
Fifteen minutes later I could still hear him wandering about and I hadn't heard any game noises.
Went to check on him and he told him that he'd found various points around the house where the floor isn't flat.
Got him settled with the Switch, and then went back to bed and stared vacantly at my phone for an hour, before getting up to face the day.