That said, his parting remark that "“It has been an honour to serve two sovereigns, four prime ministers and over 120 cabinet ministers in this role” made me laugh. Not quite the achievement it might seem - he's only been Cabinet Secretary for FOUR years!

You'd have to have a heart of stone not to sympathise with Simon Case given the state of his health. But the fact is he should have gone a while ago and it has been a disservice to the gov (and nation) that the process to appoint his replacement was not set in train months ago.

Simon Case to step down: 'Whilst the spirit remains willing, the body is not'

Cabinet secretary says his decision is because of his health “and nothing to do with anything else”

Ordinarily a civil servant's retirement statement might include "it has been an honour to serve two sovereigns, four prime ministers and over 120 cabinet ministers in this role" as a humble-brag of longevity. For Simon Case, it represents FOUR YEARS. Take a moment to absorb the absurdity. ~AA

In short: please spare us this obsession with "on the ground experiences" when they add precisely nothing to our understanding

Then a 4min i/v with a British woman who is in Beirut but who also knows virtually nothing (because it's a big place and she's not where the bombing is) except that she's applied for emergency repatriation but has not yet been told when the flight will be /

"We go how to our reporter in a tiny village somewhere near the Israeli border who is wisely staying indoors but who we will nonetheless spend 3-4 minutes listening to while she makes it clear she has no idea what's happening" /

The first 15 minutes of R4 WATO's Lebanon coverage today was hilariously bad: <Sombre voice> "Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv": pause for 10 sec siren sound effect "Missiles lit up the sky": pause for 20secs of near silence punctuated by the occasional "pop, pop" of a distant air defence battery /

This is very useful: a full list of all the newspapers that the British Newspaper Archive allows free access to: blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2024/09/19/a...#History 🗃️

A Complete List of Our Free to View Newspaper Pages

That was one of the two key reasons I decided to renew my gas boiler last year rather than replace it with a heat pump. To have created such a massive financial disincentive to decarbonising British homes is absolutely barmy.

Next time there's a Conservative leadership election,0 I suspect we'll see this more clearly - with an insurgent centrist challenge against the right wing establishment