My (cough) pet theory is that uk dog culture is obsessed with working dogs that need insane amounts of exercise to regulate. But in places like Barcelona people get actual city dogs that need much less walking

What a bit of luck he never ended up at Man Utd- would have spoilt so much fun

“🎉 Your banking age is… “

This feels like it’s a knock-on effect of TNT losing test rugby

Surely this is the product of an ill thought out dare or something

Yes. I’ve always thought the mark of a seasoned traveller is getting inside the cramped metal cage with recycled air at the last possible minute

I did a year and that was enough. I was a journo in my early 30s and yes it can be fun. But it’s a huge tell when people say we could learn a lot from there. IME even the people who love it are aware it’s the extreme income disparities that make the lifestyle attractive to the (relatively) wealthy

The article

Yes, leading is bringing people with you. Not waiting for enough of them to tell you they like something

Ah, was hoping she’d finally beat it - so close

I guess being sensible centre right and longterm looks like a 20% position at the moment - and that implies an entirely alien set of consequences for the Conservatives? Like… well… electoral reform? I can’t see that being a big discussion at conference though!

I really should have said ‘convincingly authentic’. Keir Starmer for example is v much a proper football fan who just doesn’t really have a way of engaging people publicly on something he loves, bless him

oh I'm not trying to convince people! I am trying to stay positive - and the pandemic really was a human success story, even considering the enormous suffering, failure, and the repressive qualities of lockdown. From a personal perspective, it's a useful corrective to the 'we're all doomed' stuff

The more I think about the pandemic the more I'm convinced it is the thing we should talk about more in this moment. Human ingenuity and organisation saved millions of lives - and I'm not sure we celebrate that enough

I do think UK is quite good at the pain points of airports: security, bag drop, etc. I think that's probably because it all ties up to the commercial imperatives (which is why it seems to take less time to get through security, but you are forced to spend more time looking at perfume and whisky)