September 26-October 2, 2026
SATURDAY 26 While it will be fun over the coming months, and probably years, to watch Manchester City wriggle and squirm, you can be sure they will wriggle and squirm the last penny out of any settlement. What they have done is a very sad story on how top-flight football has been corrupted and taken from the fans. Even if they held up their hands and said sorry it wouldn’t be enough to put back what the game has lost. The only good that has come out of it is the persistence of certain journalists, whose real love of the game has driven matters to a point where crime and punishment can at least be properly considered.
📌 Not sure why I never got round to reading any Agatha Christie stories. In my youth they were made into stiff television series or Technicolor film confections. That was my Agatha diet and it didn’t really suit my digestion. The thing TV and film never quite got right for me, I learn now, is how well drawn all her characters are. And only in print, with you the reader as the ultimate interpreter, does that talent find a proper home.
She was an agreeable woman of middle age, handsome in a rather untidy fashion with fine eyes, substantial shoulders and a large quantity of rebellious grey hair with which she was continually experimenting.
SUNDAY 27 The House of Lords has removed from its rulebook the requirement for men to wear a tie. Instead members should now opt for “business attire”, say the new rules, whereupon one Labour Peer noted that the only people wearing ties as business dress these days are estate agents and funeral directors.
📌 In The Great Celebrity Pottery Throwdown Lucy Beaumont screwed up badly and decapitated her dinosaur. The judges did their best to find nice things to say about her glazing and firing but everyone knew it was a disaster born of flippancy.
📌 Mike showed us the press photos for A Month In The Country. He looks like a tramp.
MONDAY 28 The staples in my right buttock were removed by an over-chatty nurse, observed closely by my wife as she dug in deep with her pliers. My face apparently contorted with pain on a number of occasions, but the relief afterwards was immense.
TUESDAY 29 The number of written complaints are rising because more and more people are using AI to make them. Someone on Fesshole whose job is to handle complaints, writes to say they are not bothered because they use AI to write the replies.
📌 It seems to have taken AI and awful long time to find the off switch. Can we be sure the “I” really stands for intelligence?
📌 I’ve seen it work in business before but never in politics. A leader/chief executive boldly lays out their plan for the project but says little about how to make it happen. It is based on the presumption that if the bold vision is powerful enough all else will follow it – the money to fund it and to implement it asap. This is Andy Burnham’s strategy and he might just have the energy to pull it off. Many others have failed.
📌 The issue of what colours to place next to each other has started to plague the latest Big Brain. I have even resorted to splitting and mixing the threads for what I believed would create nuance, but still I end up every day searching the thread basket for something that might pop out in a flat fill.
WEDNESDAY 30 In the weeks and months after Keir Starmer came to power with a landslide election victory in 2024, the electorate and commentariat were still not clear what he actually stood for. The same cannot be said about Andy Burnham. But if Burnham looks like a winner on home turf, the chaos of world events could still impact badly on his fortunes, writes Rafael Behr.
THURSDAY 1 RIP Steve Stevenson, former neighbour and local character. A big and noisy presence in community meetings, a soldier and citizen. He not long ago used his military past to secure a place as a Chelsea Pensioner but came back east regularly to visit us. We saw him twice recently at the Barbican because he insisted on keeping his library membership, claiming Barbican Library to be one of the best in London. He seemed very relaxed.
FRIDAY 2 The money saving expert Martin Lewis says Andy Burnham has replaced the pension triple lock with a 2.5 lock. Polly Toynbee applauds the cheeky way Burnham sold the idea of less money for pensioners and a national care service as one idea.
📌 In last night’s Celebrity Traitors I think Richard E Grant actually thought telling everyone he is a Traitor (he is) was a cunning move.
📌 All went well at my first post-op physio session with Michaela. Rhiannon popped in to say hello and give me a hug.
📌 When I cancelled an Uber because the wait was too long (15mins), the app asked if I’d like to pay Pierre anyway, for not driving me anywhere. The amount they were suggesting I pay Pierre for not driving me anywhere was £3 more than the amount he was asking to drive me somewhere.
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PLEASE MESSAGE WITH ANY CORRECTIONS, BIG OR SMALL.
