bbc.com/news/articles/…

Latest. Seven more to return. We need a General Election as soon as possible so we can return them all to the dust heap of history (dust in the Dickensian sense).

Free Thinking has moved from BBC Radio 3 to BBC Radio 4, and now the likes of Peter Hitchens - Peter Hitchens! - appears. A once thoughtful programme ceases to be thoughtful. I hope Matthew Sweet has some values - the right ones - and departs.

Latest

Morning pigeon

Paul Auster | 1947-2024 theguardian.com/books/2024/may…

A nice day for voting

Michael O'Leary offers to fly immigrants to Rwanda.

Laurent Cantet | 1961-2024 theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/…

CJ Sansom | 1952-2024 theguardian.com/books/2024/apr…

Dame Allan

Baltic

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council said: “The government is determined to recklessly pursue its inhumane Rwanda plan despite the cost, chaos and human misery it will unleash. We know it is likely to cause a catastrophic system meltdown.” theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/a…

Party negronis and yummy cheese (but not for the faint hearted).

Yesterday afternoon to the Sage/Glasshouse to hear the wonderful Angela Hewitt (Angela Hewitt) play and conduct the fabulous Royal Northern Sinfonia in two Mozart piano concertos, followed by the same band led by the terrific Maria Włoszczowska performing Mozart's Prague symphony.

US politics

Walking along

In this week's The Tablet, Patrick Marnham on the evil that is Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National (National Assembly). The (Putin backed) forces that have ruined Britain are threatening France, only more dangerously.

Lord Field of Birkenhead | 1942-2024 theguardian.com/politics/2024/…

The end of Sir Andrew Davis’s Last Night of the Proms conductor speech from 1992, which he memorably sang to the music of Gilbert & Sullivan.
 
Appearing in 132 Proms, conducting 13 First Nights and 12 Last Nights, Sir Andrew Davis will be dearly remembered by the BBC Proms.