"Santa Lucia is the patron saint of the city of Siracusa, Sicily. On 13 December a silver statue of Santa Lucia containing her relics is paraded through the streets before returning to the Cathedral. Sicilians recall a legend that holds that a famine ended on her feast day when ships loaded with grain entered the harbour. It is traditional to eat whole grains instead of bread. This usually takes the form of cuccìa, a dish of boiled wheat berries often mixed with ricotta and honey, or sometimes served as a savoury soup with beans. "Santa Lucia is also popular among children in some regions of North-Eastern Italy, namely Trentino, East Lombardy (Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Lodi and Mantua), parts of Veneto (Verona), parts of Emilia-Romagna (Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Bologna), and all of Friuli, where she is said to bring gifts to good children and coal to bad ones the night between 12 and 13 December. According to tradition, she arrives in the company of a donkey and her escort, Castaldo. Children are asked to leave some coffee for Lucia, a carrot for the donkey and a glass of wine for Castaldo. They must not watch Santa Lucia delivering these gifts, or she will throw ashes in their eyes, temporarily blinding them."

"This is ignorant gerrymandering, designed to even out numbers without any consideration being given to the importance of community affiliations. It makes no sense and will not benefit the residents of Trinity, who will be represented by a county councillor who will have a huge, mainly rural, area to cover, incorporating as it does seven parish councils and three district council wards. "I don't envy the councillor who ends up with this proposed division as it will be a challenge to attend all the various parish meetings effectively, or know the schools intimately. It will not make for effective local government. "This is a result of the government's obsession with trying to run representation just around numbers rather than locations, with a 'one size fits all approach'. It is not fair that an urban area such as Stroud is being sacrificed to make the numbers up elsewhere in a rural area that Stroud does not identify with in any way."

"My pub is one of the many facilities and landmarks in Trinity that are used by the whole of Stroud, and that would be moved to Bisley & Painswick, to be represented by a county councillor who probably hasn't even been to the Crown & Sceptre. "If I were cynical I would suggest that this is all a ploy to cut off the most left-wing ward in Stroud from the rest of the town - and push out the primarily Labour and Green voters to make Stroud Central easier for the Tories to win at the next county council elections. But if it's true that this is really just about balancing out the number of residents in each division, I still object strongly. "The Trinity community identifies as being residents of Stroud town. We Stroudies say NO to being cut off from the rest of the town because of some number-crunching paper-pusher who has never even been to Stroud."

"'At stake here is the British trad­it­ion of sat­ire,' wrote Fras­er Nel­son, ed­it­or of the Spect­at­or, who, while dist­ant from Bell's own pol­it­ics, nev­er­the­less def­end­ed him. I won­der if he may be right about a trad­it­ion under threat. "Are we now living in an age when the right not to be off­end­ed trumps the right to off­end? "I'm glad to have been alive in an age when sat­ire thrived and mock­ery was cher­ished as well as, some­times, de­nounced."

"I sympathise with anyone who now reaches for the dial when the news comes on. I get the lure of avoidance, which is not the same as apathy. I know plenty of people who are deeply engaged in politics, not (yet) despairing of British democracy, determined to vote at the next election, but who are also finding contact with news media distressing to the point of physical repellence. Compassionate, well-informed, even-handed experts who are qualified to take a view on Israel-Palestine choose their words with painstaking care. Some I know have been left almost speechless by the scale of what is happening now."

"Since the new wave of violence engulfing the region began on 7 October - when Hamas burst through the Gaza security fence and rampaged through dozens of Israeli communities, killing 1,400, leading Israel to declare a war on the strip that has killed 2,200 - some have found hope in the ability of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel to band together. Thousands of volunteers of different ethnicities are working to help victims of the violence and clean up neglected bomb shelters, amid many other efforts at calming the heightened tensions around the country. "'What is happening right now is fundamentally different to anything we have faced so far, and I think [the week's events] will probably set us back many years in terms of equality and ending racism,' said Sally Abed, a leader of Standing Together, the largest Arab-Jewish grassroots movement in Israel, from the northern city of Haifa. 'My friend lost her brother. We are also in mourning. It is very hard to be a Palestinian citizen of Israel right now, there is no room for our voices, but we are doing whatever we can to preserve a sense of Israeli-Palestinian solidarity and identify triggers for incitement and violence before they spiral.' "The Negev's Bedouin (traditionally pastoral nomadic Arab) tribes were some of the first to organise volunteer teams, made up of 600 people, to search for missing Israelis. 'We saw that there was enormous chaos and realised we must do something,' said Sleman Shlebe from the village of Bir Hadaj. 'We heard about people missing from both the Arab and Jewish communities, and knew that thanks to our exceptional familiarity with the south we could help. We divided ourselves up in the cars so that there would be people responsible for different things: gathering information, rescuing and administering first aid.'"

"Our aim is very clear, the end stage of this war is that we will dismantle Hamas and its military capabilities, and fundamentally change the situation so that Hamas never again has the ability to inflict any damage on Israeli civilians or soldiers."

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room - Brexit. "Beyond some unconvincing attempts to defend Brexit by Rishi Sunak, the main party leaders wanted to talk about anything but Europe. "There was a focus on 'growth', but not the glaringly obvious solution that would massively boost British businesses and make our country an attractive place to invest again. Yes, you guessed it - rejoining the single market so we can once more trade freely with our neighbours. "New polling suggests that just 18% of those who voted Leave in 2016 think Brexit is going well. Meanwhile, the UK is forecast to have the lowest growth across the G7 in 2024. Brexit is a sinking ship. Yet politicians are either still saying it was a good idea, or ignoring it altogether. "The political silence on Brexit is still deafening."

"The Britain and United Kingdom that I love and admire, it is the country of the Magna Carta, the country that founded parliamentary democracy and the country that helped to write the European Convention on Human Rights. It does bother me to see the United Kingdom disengaging from the world - whether it's reducing its budget for international aid, whether it's leaving the European Union and now even talking about withdrawing from the ECHR. That's not the Britain I know."

"I believe in this country. I believe in its spirit." "Turn our backs on never-ending Tory decline, with a decade of national renewal." "A Britain with its future back." "People are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal. People are looking to us because they want to build a new Britain." "We all need the ability to look forward - to move forward - free from anxiety. That's what getting our future back really means." "Focused at all times and without exception on long-term national renewal." "We will face down the age of insecurity. Together. Break the stranglehold of Tory decline. Together. Walk towards a decade of national renewal. Together." "Britain will get its future back."

"Richard Osman is a lovely man, dedicated to what was once known as 'the gaiety of the nation': everything he works on, from Pointless to House of Games to The Thursday Murder Club, is clever, cheery and mainstream. (Disclaimer: I don't know Osman. He might be appalling behind closed doors. Perhaps we should ask his cat.) His best creations are instantly familiar, as though they've always been there, and Osman has simply given them a nice polish and brought them to our attention. Much harder than it looks. "Which brings us to his new Radio 4 show, The Birthday Cake Game, in which a panel of three try to guess the age of a celebrity who's having a birthday this week. The premise is familiar in a couple of ways: first, it's a lazy weekend breakfast game for newspaper readers - 'Ooh, guess how old Peter Mandelson is today! What do you mean, who?' - and second, Osman first hosted it as a (non-BBC) podcast called The Birthday Game, which came out in late 2019. You can't hear it now; presumably it's been blocked for rights reasons. "Anyway, that's it. That's the show. The panellists get three points for guessing the right year, one point for a year either side and nothing otherwise. On Tuesday's first episode, Osman was as engaging as ever, gently teasing TV presenter Jayne Sharp when she wasn't sure what sport Lennox Lewis was famous for. He also tried hard to involve the listeners - 'play along at home!' - and one got to phone in so that the panel could guess his age too. I did play along, and got five points (bang on for Fearne Cotton, a year out for Richard Gere and Antony Gormley, go me). But really, this is thin stuff. "To be fair, the Radio 4 6.30pm 'funny' slot has long been a tricky one to conquer, and several excellent comedians and writers have wilted in its glare. But its most successful panel shows are far smarter than this: Just a Minute, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and The Unbelievable Truth all require wit and ingenuity, for panellists to dazzle with the swiftness of their brains. There's not much room for biting repartee when all they have to play with is a celebrity's age or whether they actually know who's being discussed. The Birthday Cake Game seems like a daft, Ken Bruce-style feature given 20 minutes too long."

"I very much enjoyed Anna Leszkiewicz's takedown of Richard Osman in last week's magazine. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I posted a link to it on a social media platform; and all hell broke loose. I was accused of snobbery, of envy, and even, by extension, of taking the bread from up-and-coming writers' mouths (the reasoning: the millions made by Osman and other extremely popular writers means publishers can nurture new talent). "I let the arguments spool out. Osman's only crime in my book, so to speak, is writing badly. I tried to give him a go once, I really did. I was feeling a bit under the weather, and thought a little cozy crime would fit the bill. But I felt I had read enough Agatha Christie (her output is wildly variable and there is always the risk of a racist remark) and I practically know all the Sherlock Holmes stories by heart. So why not a bestseller? There must be some merit to it. After all, Lee Child's Reacher books sell by the skipload and they're great. "So I picked up the first Osman novel. I lasted about ten pages before giving up. It was the style: the kind of writing a clever ten-year-old might produce. "Finding absolutely everything a mild pain in the bum is itself a pain in the bum. Never mind Richard Osman."

"It always got troublesome when I was on trains or buses, having to ask for my fare; and then there were all those circumlocutions that I had to go through. The awful thing about stammering is that you never know which consonants are going to be fatal ones. You think that you've got it all taped - avoid 'T's and 'D's today and it'll be alright. Then, suddenly, you find that you'd be tripping up over an 'N'."

"Anna Leszkiewicz's hatchet job on Richard Osman and his readers (The Critics, 15 September) showed contempt for ordinary people - many of them, like me, presumably also New Statesman readers - and our dull little lives, watching Inspector Morse, eating at Pizza Express and shopping at Robert Dyas. Personally, I find Osman's books funny and quietly wise on the human condition. What's more, I rather enjoy the success of this working-class, visually-impaired kid from Billericay who has made a career simply by being ferociously bright. More power to him, I say."

"Had she really understood then that those were the best of times? That she was in heaven? She thinks she did understand, yes. Understood she had been given a great gift. Doing the crossword in a train carriage, Stephen with a can of beer ('I will only drink beer on trains, nowhere else, don't ask me why'), glasses halfway down his nose, reading out clues. The real secret was that when they looked at each other, they each thought they had the better deal."

"The 'Great Noticing' is ... a new era when pointing out Britain's prob­lems is no longer 'doing the country down', or 'sabotaging Brexit', but a fresh realisation that must be communicated with appalled urgency. There can be no admission that Britian's decline has a history - at a pinch that, if it does, it must be very short indeed, starting perhaps with the hopeless Rishi Sunak, who has had the bad fortune of being the last one standing when the music stopped. The collapsing concrete in our schools, the sewage in the water, the NHS waiting lists, the expensive trains and poor service, these all must have come about at 'breathtaking' speed. For it to have happened any more slowly than seemingly overnight would extend the decline's roots to, well, everything - to austerity, to privatisation, to deregulation, and of course, to the very people who bet the farm on Brexit and Johnson, and now must make it clear that the problem wasn't their poor judgment, but a sort of bad gambling streak that befell the nation."

"Right-wing journalists and publications who have cheered on and defended the government's excesses and Brexit extremism for many calamitous years are now sorry to report, like Lucky Jim arising with a colossal hangover, that things are bad."

"The jig is up. If there's any solace to be gained from the wretched experience of the past decade or so, it is that the decline has been happening in plain sight for so long, so obviously to those who were willing to see it, that even the most rehearsed performance by those who refused to do so will fall flat."

"The Thursday Murder Club series has sold over four-and-a-half million copies and earned Osman's publisher, Viking, more than £35m. The first novel in the series, The Thursday Murder Club, was the bestselling title of 2020, and is the only book to have sold a million copies in the year of its release. The follow-up, The Man Who Died Twice (2021), is one of the fastest-selling novels since records began, and in 2022 the third instalment, The Bullet That Missed became the fastest-selling adult fiction hardback from a British author since records began - though the latest instalment, The Last Devil to Die, could surpass it. The film rights to the series have been bought by Steven Spielberg, with, Osman reassures us, a very famous cast to be announced - so The Thursday Murder Club's multimillion-dollar film franchise, presumably starring anyone still receiving residual cheques from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, should be coming soon to a theatre near you."

"If his TV background has informed his novel-writing at all, it is in the supremacy of the formula: find something that works, and give it to your audience again and again. "Like its predecessors, The Last Devil to Die is around 400 pages, broken into roughly 100 very short, dialogue-heavy chapters, each one ending on a punchline, revelation or cliffhanger. Osman alternates between the close third-person and diary entries by Joyce - an odd decision, as the two forms are almost indistinguishable in style, tone and humour: self-consciously British and intentionally bathetic, juxtaposing the banal, the quaint and the domestic with the implausible, or the gritty. "Which is to say that Osman has one joke, repeated hundreds of times. Imagine: a little old woman, out to lunch with a drugs baron! A granny with a gun in her bag!"

"Joyce gives one a go. 'I only picked it up because there's a Hilary Mantel looming on my bedside table, and I didn't feel up to it yet.' Low effort, low stakes, low reward - for those times when you don't feel up to Hilary Mantel, there's always Richard Osman."

"For those thousands in the south tower, the sec­ond plane meant the end of ev­ery­thing. For us, its glint was the world­flash of a com­ing fut­ure."

"Richard Osman's first three Thursday Murder Club mysteries are among the 10 bestselling hardback novels since UK records began; I suspect only nuclear Armageddon or an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant plague can prevent this fourth entry in the series from muscling onto the list. Clearly no other novelist working today can come up with anything to match the pleasure of spending time with Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron as they pore over the details of unsolved murders in the Jigsaw room at Coopers Chase retirement village. "Much of the books' success stems, I suspect, from the fact that we live at a time in which many enterprises, from banks to radio stations, prefer to lose customers by the shedload rather than acknowledge that the elderly exist and may have different requirements from younger people. Osman has taken the trouble to work out that many of us are old, and that many more of us are reluctantly aware that we will become old in the blink of an eye; his putting the elderly centre-stage is an obvious idea that seems, in today's climate, rev­ol­ut­ion­ary."

"I seriously feel bad for people who do not real­ize how great this is." "His groove can make the dead get up and shake a leg." "It's a little known fact that met­ro­nomes prac­tice time-keep­ing by play­ing al­ong to Steve Jor­dan." "Steve Jordan has pushed simplicity to its most com­plex edge." "Timing, groove, fluidity, style, dyn­am­ics. Wow! This guy's got it all." "Dang! He gets so many awesome tones out of a rath­er small set." "Fills bring the thrills, but grooves pay the bills." "Carry on for Charlie. Having Char­lie's bless­ing speaks vol­umes."

"I could kill myself for being so stup­id, my pro-Brex­it vote con­trib­ut­ed to the may­hem the UK is now in. It nev­er occ­urred me to that my hol­id­ays in It­aly could be aff­ect­ed ... and I'm even half It­al­ian. "All the blah-blah from many pro-Brex­it pol­it­ic­ians and comm­ent­at­ors made me bel­ieve that the UK, in its mill­en­ary hist­ory, had surv­ived and turned into an 'ec­on­om­ic giant' thanks to its is­ol­at­ion and in­de­pend­ence, hailed as its great­est powers - as if we could thrive on­ly by gett­ing rid of Eur­ope. "I should have claimed my Italian pass­port when I was a teen­ag­er. Now I would­n't be in such a mess."

"[The book] is an excoriating account of a dys­funct­ion­al gov­ern­ing sys­tem. At ev­ery lev­el - back­bench MP, sen­ior min­ist­er, perm­an­ent sec­ret­ary - Stew­art finds shal­low­ness where there should be depth, vap­id­ity inst­ead of ser­ious­ness." "Disillusionment was swift. MPs were un­int­er­est­ed in pol­icy, he dis­cov­ered. In­stead, they were ob­sessed with scan­dal. He found 'imp­ot­ence, sus­pic­ion, en­vy, res­ent­ment, claus­tro­pho­bia and Schad­en­freude'. Cam­er­on made speeches about div­ers­ity. But he filled his priv­ate off­ice with white shirt­ed old Et­on­ians, drawn 'from an un­im­ag­in­ably nar­row soc­ial group'. "Truss prized 'exaggerated simplicity' ab­ove 'crit­ic­al think­ing', 'pow­er and man­ip­ul­at­ion' over 'truth and reas­on'. Stew­art ob­serves that this 'new pol­it­ics' off­ered 'un­teth­ered hope' and 'vague­ness' in­stead of acc­ur­acy. Truss was all­er­gic to 'cau­tion and det­ail'." "Truss is weird, Michael Gove silkily dup­lic­it­ous, and Bor­is John­son an 'ego­tist­ic­al chanc­er'. Stew­art re­calls vis­it­ing John­son in his for­eign sec­ret­ary's lair - a red-cheeked fig­ure whose eyes rad­iat­ed 'fur­tive cunn­ing'."

"After a memoir of such blistering frankness, there is no way the Cons­erv­at­ive party will have Stew­art back. West­min­ster is poor­er with­out him, a wan­der­er turned prime min­is­ter man­qué. The world of ideas and let­ters is richer."

"As a cash-strapped, midsized power in a dang­er­ous­ly un­pred­ict­able and un­stab­le world, the UK needs to be smart at mak­ing and keep­ing friends, esp­ec­ial­ly with other lib­er­al demo­crac­ies with sim­il­ar val­ues. Which brings us to our near­est neigh­bours. Rel­at­ions with EU coun­tries have be­come less pois­on­ous since Mr Sunak moved into Num­ber 10. Yet there's still a dist­inct frost. Mr Sunak has been un­requ­ited in his des­per­ate des­ire to sec­ure a ret­urns ag­ree­ment with the EU cov­er­ing migr­ants cross­ing the Chan­nel or us­ing other un­auth­or­ised routes. "Brexit has made Britain less relevant to the EU, and to all the other sig­nif­ic­ant play­ers of the world. There's no esc­ap­ing that bit­ter truth, how­ever many air miles Mr Sunak clocks up."

"The referendum result triggered years of tur­bul­ence in our pol­it­ics - chaos in­side the Con­serv­at­ive Par­ty and Par­lia­ment, with Prime Min­ist­ers com­ing and go­ing in quick succ­ess­ion. I want to take view­ers beh­ind the scenes to show them what really happ­ened, and ask wheth­er after all the craz­in­ess, pol­it­ics will ever be the same again?"

"We are a family-owned motorway services business that celebrates the people and produce of Gloucestershire. "We prize real food made with skill and integrity. In our Kitchen we cook food from scratch using real ingredients, just as you would cook it at home. "We work with more than 130 producers within 30 miles. "In our Farmshop we celebrate the wealth of creativity and talent in our locality and our region. We champion farmers, growers, butchers, bakers, potters, patisserie chefs, chocolatiers and cheesemakers who share our commitment to handmade and authentic produce. "We have a dedicated fish counter, patisserie counter, cheese counter, deli counter and butchers' counter, where our trained whole-animal butchers take pride in preparing locally sourced native-breed meats."

"I have continued to work for my constituents faithfully and diligently to this day." "You flashed your gleaming smile in your Prada shoes and Savile Row suit from behind a camera, but you just weren't listening." "... Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were taken down ..." "Why is it that we have had five Conservative prime ministers since 2010, with not one of the previous four having left office as the result of losing a general election?" "... the political assassination of Boris Johnson ..." "... the democratic process at the heart of our party has been corrupted ..." "Since you took office a year ago, the country is run by a zombie Parliament where nothing meaningful has happened. What exactly has been done or have you achieved? You hold the office of prime minister unelected, without a single vote, not even from your own MPs. You have no mandate from the people and the government is adrift." "... you have completely failed in reducing illegal immigration or delivering on the benefits of Brexit ..." "Bewildered, we look in vain for the grand political vision for the people of this great country to hold on to, that would make all this disruption and subsequent inertia worthwhile, and we find absolutely nothing." "History will not judge you kindly."

"Anyone born more than thirty miles away is what my grandmother used to call 'el forastero'. It's a word straight out of an old Western movie, but you can hear it in all the villages in Álava. If two pilgrims on their way to Santiago pass through, they're outsiders, even if they're only from Cuenca."

"I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it. Don't believe what people say. Barça didn't do tiki-taka! It's completely made up! Don't believe a word of it!"

"In research, 'people from a black Caribbean background', 'the black ethnic group' and 'black people' were all acceptable phrases. 'Blacks' was not. We don't say 'mixed people' or 'mixed race people'. We usually say 'people with a mixed ethnic background' or 'people from the mixed ethnic group'. "We do not use the terms BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) and BME (black and minority ethnic) because they emphasise certain ethnic minority groups (Asian and black) and exclude others (mixed, other and white ethnic minority groups). The terms can also mask disparities between different ethnic groups and create misleading interpretations of data. In March 2021, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities recommended that the government stop using the term BAME."

"... moved mainly to leafy new suburban or semi-rural training facilities away from cities in places like Surrey, Hertfordshire and Cheshire. There's an awful lot less money in the women's game and many young black girls, who often live in inner cities, can struggle to reach out-of-town training grounds. Whereas a leading men's club might arrange for a male academy player to be transported from school to training and then back home, that option almost certainly won't be there for the girl whose parents are unable to ferry her back and forth."

"Almost 12 per cent of the 736 players competing this year identify as lesbian, bisexual, queer or non-binary. So far, the known total of 88 LGBTQ+ players more than doubles the number who played in the 2019 tournament in France. The LGBTQ+ sports website noted that, while, during the past four years, the number of teams taking part has grown from 24 to 32, the number of out women more than doubling 'reflects the growth of acceptance' in the sport. "Most of the out players are from countries that are more accepting of LGBTQ+ identities, including America, Europe and the host nations, with Brazil being the most publically LGBTQ+ team looking to lift the trophy. Nine out of 23 of Brazil's players identify as LGBTQ+, including the legendary Marta Vieira da Silva - best-known by just her first name - who is playing in her sixth World Cup. Australia and the Republic of Ireland both have eight out players, while Sweden has seven. England's team features four out players: Lauren Hemp, Jess Carter, Rachel Daly and Bethany England."

"In lieu of a blog, I started in my pol­it­ic­al desp­air and in­dign­at­ion to write let­ters to the Ind­ep­end­ent - like you to get things off my chest. Now a com­puls­ion - some might say ob­sess­ion - it's now close on 50,000 words - about 70% of them have been printed. Butt­er­flies wings I guess."

"My escapism goes even further. Alongside the distress with which I wake up to our venal and incompetent government, the shame that I feel living in the New Meanness of England, I can no longer face for my bedtime read the heavy-duty crime novel. Just too grim. And that's from someone who from his reading birth has been a devotee of Hammett, Chandler, the McDonalds, McBain and the rest. One of my releases has been a different sort of detective story."

"'Big Pink' is a house in West Saugerties, New York, loc­ated at 56 Parn­ass­us Lane (form­er­ly 2188 Stoll Road). The house was newly built when [Band bass­ist] Rick Danko, who was coll­ab­or­at­ing with Bob Dylan at the time, found it as a rent­al. It was to this house that Bob Dylan would ev­ent­ual­ly ret­reat to write songs, play them and exp­er­im­ent with other songs in its large base­ment. The 2-track rec­ord­ings made by them, as a sort of audio sketch book, came to be known as 'The Base­ment Tapes'. These tapes were circ­ul­at­ed among other mus­ic­ians at the time and hits were made of 'Too Much of Noth­ing' and 'Mighty Quinn' as rec­ord­ings by other artists, Peter, Paul and Mary and Man­fred Mann resp­ect­ive­ly. The house became known loc­ally as 'Big Pink' for its pink sid­ing. Memb­ers of Dylan's band (with Dylan him­self writ­ing one and co-writ­ing two) wrote most of the songs on 'Music from Big Pink' at or around the house, and the band then adop­ted the name The Band."

"On visiting Andrew - elder son - who lives in NYC, he sprung a surp­rise - be­ing a Dylan head like his father - by book­ing a week­end stay at 'Big Pink'. The prop­erty can be booked for short and long stays and prov­ides sole acc­omm­od­at­ion with per­iod acc­outre­ments - comb­ined with guided visits into the Base­ment to see where Bob and The Band fore­gath­ered for the lay­ing down of the epon­ym­ous tapes. Won­der­ful loc­at­ion and a spec­ial exp­er­ience for which I rem­ain mass­ive­ly grate­ful."

"A WORLD UNITED THROUGH MUSIC - BREAKING DOWN BOUNDARIES "Playing For Change was created to inspire and connect the world through music. The idea for this project came from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. "Traveling around the world inspired us to unite many of the greatest musicians we met throughout our journey. These musicians come from many different countries and cultures, but through music they speak the same language."

"Grimes explained that the first 'X' is a reference to the unknown variable commonly used in mathematical sums. 'Æ', which comes next, is the Elven spelling of AI, which is shorthand for artificial intelligence and translates to 'love' in several languages such as Mandarin and Japanese. Next in the name is 'A-12', which Grimes explains is a precursor to the aircraft SR-71, which she and Musk love because it is 'great in battle but non-violent'. The A in 'A-12' is also short for Archangel, which Grimes says is her favourite song."

"Grimes has revealed that she and Elon Musk had to change the name of their baby to comply with Californian law. Names must be written on birth certificates 'using the 26 alphabetical letters of the English language', although apostrophes and dashes can be included."

"È vero che Berlusconi ha segnato la storia, ma lo ha fatto lasciando il mondo e l'Italia assai peggiori di come li aveva trovati." "It is true that Berlusconi made history, but he did so by leaving the world and Italy much worse than he had found them."

"The pandemic affected every single person in the UK and, in many cases, continues to have a lasting impact on lives. Every one of our experiences is unique and this is your opportunity to share the impact it had on you, and your life, with the Inquiry."

"If I had to pick one person who does everything I loved about the blues, it would be Howlin' Wolf. It would be the size of his voice, or just the size of him. When you're a little pre-teenage girl and you imagine what a naked man in full arousal is like, it's Howlin' Wolf. When I was a kid, I saw a horse in a field with an erection, and I went, 'Holy shit!'. That's how I feel when I hear Howlin' Wolf - and when I met him it was the same thing. He was the scariest, most deliciously frightening bit of male testosterone I've ever experienced in my life."

"A bit of research has revealed that Newhaven's concrete seafront area is owned by a French company based in Rouen - Newhaven Port and Properties. They are the people who closed access to the sandy beach, much to the ire of locals. Neither the company nor the Town Council can afford to repare the steps, and anyway the sea in that area is said to be unsafe for swimming because of pollution from the ferry operations."

"The Vietnamese Ambassador Vu Quang Minh presented Newhaven with a three foot high bronze statue of Ho Chi Minh last weekend. "It celebrated the links between the town and Ho Chi Minh, who worked as a pastry chef on the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry, before his rise to power. "Hopes are high this could mark the beginning of a closer relationship between the port town in East Sussex and Vietnam in South East Asia. "The Mayor of Newhaven Julie Carr said: 'This lovely, enjoyable event marked the beginning of what we hope will be a long and fruitful friendship between Newhaven and Vietnam, resulting in exciting business, tourism, educational and cultural opportunities for the town. This could significantly contribute to the regeneration of Newhaven.'"

"Sorry about all this. I think the initial qr code on the first outcard do not now connect. We have printed new ones now. Would you like a link to the survey by email."

"Sorry I'm still trying to get the link from regional office. I'll send as soon as I receive."

"Known as Pando - Latin for 'I spread' - the 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens in south-central Utah are considered to be a single organism, with the 'trees' actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system. A vast living entity, thousands of years old, that covers 43 hectares (106 acres) with a dry weight of about 6m kg, making it, putatively, the Earth's heaviest living organism."

When you said you were leaving
To work on your mental health
You didn't mention the cheating, yeah
You kept that one to yourself
I got so mad, was gonna
Cuss you out outside your house
For everyone to see
Wanted to trash your Benz, tell all your friends
How cruel you were to me, to me, to me

"Near the summit of Ventoux, the peloton began to fracture. Simpson was in the front group before slipping back to a group of chasers about a minute behind. He then began losing control of his bike, zig-zagging across the road. "A kilometer from the summit, Simpson fell off his bike. Team manager Alec Taylor and mechanic Harry Hall arrived in the team car to help him. Hall tried to persuade Simpson to stop, saying: 'Come on Tom, that's it, that's your Tour finished', but Simpson said he wanted to continue. Taylor said, 'If Tom wants to go on, he goes'. Noticing his toe straps were still undone, Simpson said, 'Me straps, Harry, me straps!' "They got him on his bike and pushed him off. Simpson's last words, as remembered by Hall, were 'On, on, on.' Hall estimated Simpson rode a further 500m before he began to wobble, and was held upright by spectators; he was unconscious, with his hands locked on the handlebars. Hall and a nurse from the Tour's medical team took turns giving Simpson mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before Tour doctor Pierre Dumas arrived with an oxygen mask. "Simpson was declared dead later that afternoon after being airlifted to Avignon Hospital. According to the autopsy, Simpson had amphetamines and alcohol in his body, which, combined with diarrhoea, oppressive heat and the gradient of Ventoux, contributed to his death."

"If you're fed up with the Tories, there are a few steps you can take to make a difference. Firstly, you can get involved in local politics and attend rallies, marches, and protests. You can also reach out to your local MP and express your concerns with their voting record and policies. You can also get involved with local grassroots organisations and sign petitions and write letters to your local representatives. You can also join the Labour Party or Green Party and help to promote their policies and values. You can also speak out on social media and be vocal about the issues that matter to you. Finally, you can make sure you are registered to vote, and when the time comes, make sure to cast your ballot and use it as a way to make your voice heard. By taking these steps, you can make a difference and help to get rid of the Tories."

"The UK's decision to withdraw from the European Union (EU) has left many people feeling disheartened and frustrated. However, the process is far from over and there is still a chance that Brexit can be overturned and the UK can return to the EU. To do this, a number of steps must be taken. First, a motion of no confidence must be passed in the UK Parliament. This motion would put the current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, out of office and open the door for a new government to be formed. This new government would be more likely to overturn the decision to leave the EU and return the UK to its previous membership. "Second, a referendum must be held where the British public can vote on whether or not they want to remain in the EU. This referendum should be open to all British citizens and should include the option to remain in the EU. If the majority of voters opt to remain in the EU, then the UK would be able to apply to rejoin the EU and the process of returning to the EU could begin. "Finally, the UK government must negotiate a deal with the EU that would be acceptable to both sides. This deal would include the terms of the UK's return to the EU, such as whether or not the UK would be subject to certain EU regulations and laws. Once the deal is agreed upon, the UK government would need to pass legislation in order to officially rejoin the EU. "These steps are the only way to overturn Brexit and return the UK to the EU. Though it may seem like a difficult and daunting task, with enough public support and political will, it is achievable."

"The coronation of King Charles III is not something that can be stopped. Once the coronation of a new monarch is set in motion, it is virtually impossible to reverse the process. This is because the coronation is a long-established ritual that has been practiced for centuries, and is a symbol of the power and authority of the monarch. However, there are some steps that can be taken to influence the outcome of the coronation. Firstly, it is important to understand the role of Parliament in the coronation process. Parliament has the power to approve or reject the nomination of the new monarch. If the majority of Parliament members do not support the nomination of King Charles III, then they can vote against his coronation. Furthermore, the public can also use their voice to influence the outcome of the coronation. By writing to their local representatives and voicing their opinion, citizens can make their views known and influence the decision-making process. Finally, citizens can also sign petitions, write letters to the media, and take part in protests to show their opposition to the coronation of King Charles III. While it may be impossible to stop the coronation of King Charles III, citizens can still make their voices heard and influence the outcome of the process."

"No, spaghetti alla carbonara does not traditionally include cream. This classic Italian dish is usually made with eggs, cheese, pepper, guanciale or pancetta, and either spaghetti or bucatini. The eggs provide a creamy texture to the dish, but cream is not typically used as an ingredient. The eggs are mixed with cheese and added to the pasta and guanciale mixture. The heat from the pasta cooks the eggs and creates a velvety sauce that coats the noodles. The pepper and guanciale add smoky and salty flavors to the dish, making it a favorite among pasta lovers. Although some chefs choose to add cream to the dish, it is not seen as a traditional part of the recipe."

"Years ago I was in Luxembourg for the university on an EU research project. At lunchtime I was amazed by the sheer numbers of Eurofolk crowding into the canteen (restaurant would be a more accurate term) for their free slap-up meal. I must admit, however, that through such EU funded research projects I travelled all over the continent all expenses paid. I like to think we did some good as we researched and promoted audio description for the blind, but there was also a holiday element in there. Not that any of this moves me an inch from 'remaining'; the overriding purpose of the EU in terms of solidarity and collaboration is what is important."

"For some time the museum has campaigned to highlight the absurdity of the outdated and tired tropes so often associated with Ireland and its diaspora. Our rich cultural heritage cannot be reduced to a handful of common negative stereotypes and it is sad to see caricatures that would not look out of place in a 'Harper's Weekly' or 'Punch' cartoon in the 19th century still being propagated today."

"The President of America doesn't even drink alcohol - but sure nothing beats lazy stereotypes & a bit of good aul paddywhackery eh @thetimes?"

"British broadsheet papers wheeling out their predictable racist Irish tropes. Ah well, it's better to be envied than to be pitied. #Specialrelationship."

"The survey found that 40% of white Irish people reported experiencing some form of racist assault in their lives. This means that white Irish people are more likely to say they have experienced prejudice in Britain than ... all Asian ethnic groups."

"I'm writing to you on behalf of the British nation. Does that sound overwrought? Maybe. But I feel the need to speak for your customers up and down the land because we all know the problems facing John Lewis and Waitrose are huge. You see, you are not simply chair and chief exec. You are custodians of one of the most valued, loved, and trusted retail brands this country has. John Lewis and Waitrose are part of the fabric of everyday British life ... built on shared employee ownership and shared accountability."

"Somehow, in recent years, you've let go of the soul. We've all felt the subtle, but powerful, erasure of what John Lewis is, a severing of what's always set your business apart. "Right now though, all that is being slowly chipped away. From loud headlines to daily whispers. "Every time I pop in, it's another little miss. The newspaper? Gone. The coffee? Gone. Now returned. (No doubt because of the uproar)."

"This is about recommitting to the principles John Lewis was founded on: common ownership; the improvement of partners' lives; collective responsibility; and true enduring value. All this is what we used to feel pulsing through your brand every time we stepped onto your shop floor. "So while you fight for the financial brain of your brand, never forget there's a battle for its heart and soul too."

"I know you're feeling the impact of higher inflation, and I hope the £500 (pro rata) cost of living payment and free food over the winter helped. We'll continue to help with the cost of living in other ways - the financial assistance fund will stay at £800,000 (a doubling) and there is support for travel, childcare and living costs."

"During the First World War there was an urgent need for more hospitals to care for injured soldiers, and the existing infrastructure of military and civilian hospitals was not able to cope. The Red Cross set up a large number of Voluntary Aid (V.A.) hospitals across the UK, of which there were about 30 in Gloucestershire. Many of these were based in large residential houses loaned to the Red Cross by their owners. Others were set up in public buildings including church halls, community centres, schools, and even the grandstand at Cheltenham racecourse. Cash and trained medical staff were in short supply so the hospitals were run by Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs), mostly unpaid local women. "The first Red Cross hospitals in 1914 were set up to care for wounded Belgian soldiers who were then being sent for treatment in the UK. However they soon became flooded with British casualties, and in many cases had to take soldiers who had come straight from the front line, often in a terrible state having received no treatment other than a simple field dressing on the battlefield. "The Stroud Red Cross Hospital at its commencement had provision for 30 beds, 20 in Trinity Parish Rooms, lent by the Vicar of the parish, and 10 in the General Hospital a few yards away. In 1916 60 further beds were provided, partly in Roxburgh House, kindly lent by the Stroud Board of Guardians, partly by giving up the room hitherto used as an office, and also by the setting aside of five further beds at the General Hospital, making a total accommodation of 90 beds."

When it's not always raining, there'll be days like this
When there's no one complaining, there'll be days like this
When everything falls into place like the flick of a switch
Well my mama told me there'll be days like this When you don't need to worry, there'll be days like this
When no one's in a hurry, there'll be days like this
When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit
Then I must remember there'll be days like this

"This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track clim­ate eff­orts by every coun­try and every sector and on every time­frame. Our world needs clim­ate act­ion on all fronts: every­thing, every­where, all at once."

"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report ins­ists there are mult­iple, feas­ible, and eff­ect­ive opt­ions curr­ently avail­able to slow the pace of clim­ate change. Foc­using on clim­ate res­il­ient dev­el­op­ment, with an emph­asis on ren­ew­able en­ergy and low-carb­on el­ect­rif­ic­at­ion. But we need to do that NOW."

"This report is definitely a final warning on 1.5C. If governments just stay on their current policies, the remaining carbon budget will be used up before the next IPCC report [due in 2030]."

"Well, of course a compromise will be had. They'll come back together. The profile of lots of people will be raised, the profile of the BBC will be raised, they'll do the right thing and the status quo will be resumed very shortly with everybody happy."

"The unacceptable number of people risking their lives by mak­ing these dang­er­ous cross­ings is plac­ing an unp­rec­ed­ent­ed strain on our asy­lum system. "Our priority is to stop this illegal trade, and our new Small Boats Oper­at­ion­al Comm­and - bolst­ered by hund­reds of extra staff - is work­ing along­side our French part­ners and other agen­cies to dis­rupt the people smugg­lers. "The government is also going further by intro­duc­ing leg­is­lat­ion which will ens­ure that those people arr­iv­ing in the UK ill­eg­ally are det­ained and prompt­ly rem­oved to their coun­try of or­ig­in or a safe third country."

"Tomorrow [now today] the Government is expected to launch its most drac­on­ian anti-ref­ugee leg­is­lat­ion yet, as Rishi Sunak bids to make the UK off-limits to any ref­ug­ees other than those his gov­ern­ment hand-picks. "It is anticipated that under the new laws, people arriving on small boats will:

"In recent weeks, we have seen an alarming rise in vio­lence and int­imi­dat­ion org­an­ised by the far right against ref­ug­ees and ref­ug­ee acc­omm­od­at­ion. "The government is complicit in these attacks. The Rwanda policy does not make sense as a means of stop­ping small boat cross­ings - and it is fail­ing on its own terms - but it fits with a long-run­ning camp­aign of rhet­or­ic and dem­on­is­at­ion. "The people to blame are politicians, bill­ion­aires and big corp­or­at­ions, not mig­rant work­ers or ref­ug­ees forced to live in temp­or­ary acc­omm­od­at­ion. The anti-refu­gee camp­aign off­ers no sol­ut­ions to the real prob­lems faced by the depr­ived comm­un­it­ies they are often targ­et­ing. The ans­wer is sol­id­ar­ity, not scape­goat­ing. "As trade unionists, we know whose side we are on when we see far right mobs att­ack­ing ref­ug­ees and pol­it­ic­ians play­ing the mood music. We send our sol­id­ar­ity to Care4­Calais and all groups fight­ing for ref­ug­ee rights, and we sup­port the call for safe and legal routes into the UK. We call on workers and trade union members to show their sol­id­ar­ity and to mob­il­ise against the far right."

"Friends of Ms Gray say she is unlikely to hold any fears about taking on the Prime Minister and other senior figures, given that she stood up to armed republican terrorists in the past. "They revealed that when she was running a pub in Newry, Co Down during the Troubles in the 1980s, she was not frightened when confronted with what was a potentially life-threatening situation. They explained that she said that one night she had a very heavy cold and one of her staff wanted to get off early and she closed the bar down. She drove the person home - the person lived out in south Armagh - and she was coming back in the Camlough Road after having dropped her staff member off. "She came across a light in the middle of the road and was ordered to stop. She thought initially it was the Army; she didn't realise the guy was a paramilitary. "He said to her, 'We want the car, get out.' And she just bluntly refused and said, 'No.' "Taken aback, he replied, 'What?' And then he turned round and said to her, 'Oh, you're f***ing English as well?' "And just as the situation looked like it was set to escalate, a voice came out of the darkness and said, 'That's Sue Gray from The Cove, let her go on.'"

"I have no real idea what the EU is expecting to gain from the Windsor Framework. Perhaps the steadying of the Good Friday Agreement? Particularly since all Western European countries and the US need to be as stable and united as possible vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine. Could Biden and the US government have given Ursula von der Leyen and her team a gentle nudge in this direction? And the EU will have wanted to give its full support to the Republic of Ireland, now a much-valued member of the bloc. Or maybe it could be a first step in coaxing the UK to return to the EU fold? Especially given the disastrous free fall that the country appears to be in, what with 3 prime ministers, 4 chancellors, endless cabinet changes and an economy going down the tubes as a result of Brexit. Maybe it is more desirable for the European bloc to have a stable neighbour across the Channel. "I found the 'Brake' part of the deal interesting because the DUP can only have a say in applying it on any new EU trade laws if they are actively participating in the Stormont government. And then only if a substantial number of other Stormont MPs agree to a need for applying the brake. The ingenious bit is obliging the DUP to be actively in government before they can call for the brake. If they try to carry on refusing to participate in the Stormont power sharing, they will be left out in the cold. "This DUP business is making the Sinn Fein party in NI look angelic at the moment. They must be polishing their halos as we speak."

"It has just occurred to me too that given the strong historic links between Ireland and the US, especially with the current President having deep Irish roots, Ursula and the EU team may see Ireland as the ideal go-between EU country for bolstering the European bloc's relationship with the US. Defence commitments apart, the Brexit mess has left the UK an untrustworthy, burnt-out shell of what it once was on the world stage. Perhaps a new special relationship could be emerging: US - Ireland - EU. With Ireland as the transatlantic stepping stone."

"Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position, a unique position in the entire world, European continent ... privileged access, not just to the UK home market, which is enormous, but also the EU single market ... nobody else has that. No one. Only you guys - only here, and that is the prize."

"Sunak says how wonderful it is that Northern Ireland gets privileged access to the single market. I'd like that for the rest of the UK."

"Rishi Sunak just spent 2 minutes boasting about how Northern Ireland is the 'most exciting investment zone on the planet' because it has full access to the UK and EU market. You know ... like we did before Brexit!"

"You mean the 'extraordinary opportunity' that was available to the ENTIRE UK before Brexit. That opportunity?"