Scrapbook: Week 26

27 June-3 July, 2026

SATURDAY 27 Finally someone comes out in defence of Keir Starmer. Very fairly, David Aaronovitch lists his achievements in the office of prime minister but acknowledges his shortcomings.

Starmer may not have been good but he wasn’t a disaster, and yet he ended up underwater by 40 points.

📌 It always struck me as odd that Ukraine could not isolate occupied Crimea. The Kerch Bridge is an obvious weak link. Now I learn that bit by bit, with their new super-smart, super-cheap home-made drones, Ukraine is not only close to re-taking Crimea from Russia but making game-changing attacks inside Russia that are making Putin look like a loser.

📌 In July my wife and I will be awarded the Freedom of the City of London at a ceremony at the Guildhall. Freedom does not come with any special entitlements. It is an ancient custom that technically frees those granted it from their feudal masters and it also offers you the privilege to “trade freely” in the City of London. One of the noteworthy benefits of Freedom is the permission to drive sheep across London Bridge. Neither of us has any intention of doing this but I like the idea of strolling arrogantly with my flock, so I asked ChatGPT to make me a picture.

SUNDAY 28 An article in the Guardian about Andy Burnham’s  likely approach to governing Britain hints at what we thought we learned two years ago when Labour won the general election with Keir Starmer at the wheel. That our new government would take back control of public utilities and put an end to the naked profiteering of private enterprise.

MONDAY 29 Andy Burnham gave a rousing speech from Manchester that will no doubt invigorate Labour MPs and supporters but maybe not others. He did however end it with a line from You’ll Never Walk Alone, which for an Evertonian is some kind of miracle transformation, so maybe he’s on to something. My favourite soundbite was his stated desire to make Britain an “innovation nation”.

📌 Even the FT was impressed with Andy Burnham’s big speech. Some commentators have complained that all the grand ideas he leans on lack detail, but…

Sometimes a new leader’s job is sharpening execution and improving confidence as much as it is overhauling strategy.

📌 During the Brazil vs Japan World Cup game (final score: 2-1 ), a comment on the Guardian live feed read…

This game is electrifying, but the commentary from Sam Matterface and Lee Dixon is like two men comparing tins of emulsion paint.

TUESDAY 30 The Socialist Worker is typically mealy-mouthed about Andy Burnham’s “Rewiring Britain” speech yesterday. Burnham’s proposals are as close to a modern socialism as Britain is ever likely to get in the next 100 years. But still the die-hards have to find a way to be negative. In this case it is that Burnham’s “Manchesterism” is merely “Starmerism” in a different hat.

📌 Whenever I want something I ask my wife how much she loves me. If she says “a lot”, I seize the moment and make my cheeky request for, say, a cup of tea. If she responds by pinching finger and thumb as an illustration of the size her love for me I ask her if she’d like a cup of tea.

📌 The majority of World Cup footballers appear to favour pink boots. The majority of referees wear black ones. When I was young, black was the only colour available, until star players started using bespoke boots. Notable back then were Everton’s Alan Whittle (white boots) and Manchester United’s George Best (burgundy boots).

📌 Andy Burnham’s wife Frankie once appeared on the TV show Blind Date.

WEDNESDAY 1 My wife says she’s already seen two driverless cars in London.

📌 During the England vs DR Congo World Cup game my wife casually came up with a classic football cliché. She said, with a degree of irony, that the DR Congo goalkeeper made a good save by “making himself bigger”.

THURSDAY 2 At Headway Errol did a drawing of Tracey Emin that quite clearly gave her a penis. None of us knew which way to look. I ploughed on with veining gold thread into black lines on the new big brain that has become my studio project.

📌 Barry’s band, Soul of a Lion, did a fundraiser gig for Headway at Signature Brew on the Regents Canal. It was surprisingly well attended and a sweaty romp on the dancefloor was soon in progress. He also showed a fab film he’s made about hidden disability and the little-known and badly misunderstood behavioural side effects of brain injury.

FRIDAY 3 Keir Starmer looks like he’s trying to sabotage Andy Burnham’s chances of being a better prime minister than he was.

📌 The Basterfield WhatsApp group went into a frenzy when someone in the new neighbouring tower block threw a bag of rubbish onto the street. The block was built without rubbish chutes.

📌 To the Royal Academy Summer Show with Brian and Helen from Brighton. As usual there was far too much for a single visit. The keywords for me were quirky and clever but nothing put me in a state of awe. Very bitty and a bit disappointing, saved by an unusual overload of sculpture and ceramics some superb, some stupid.

Read all of my scrapbook diaries…

PLEASE MESSAGE WITH ANY CORRECTIONS, BIG OR SMALL.

---