The opening of this piece likens the treatment of London in Hue and Cry to Italian Neorealism. What I didn't know when I wrote it was that the British wartime official who gave Rossellini permission to shoot Rome, Open City was the future Ealing director Alexander Mackendrick.
Final cut: Innocent Sinners (1958)
Children and bombsites? It can only mean danger and trouble, finds JONATHAN CALDER.
thelionandunicorn.com
All these negative and tepid responses to the idea of a new Ali G film are putting pressure on contrarians to declare that it's good, actually.
Reform have got headlines for "reporting ITV to the police" saying they 'engaged in a form of psychological warfare' by undercover journalism (leading to several councillors resigning). "It was unclear which police force, or forces, Reform has made the report to" pressgazette.co.uk/news/reform-...
Reform says it has reported ITV to the police over undercover investigation
Reform accuses undercover journalists of "doctored" passport and canvassing-related offences.
pressgazette.co.uk
Totally on-brand and I hope he used Gemini to do the work for him
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 8h agoReally wild......former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has published a piece in @foreignaffairs.com that seems to be mostly a ripoff of @karenhao.bsky.social book 'Empire of AI'.....the title of the articles 'Empires of AI' Karen's work isn't cited or mentioned at all?? archive.ph/jvf4s
you can drill for oil, but you can't listen to drill on the bus! #burnhamsbritain
No one in such a mainstream production is filming the grimy/shiny collisions of actual contemporary London + hinterland as well as Slow Horses. I mean, Beaconsfield services toilet knife fight...
What % of "cultural commentary" is just fading media wannabes trying to say "I didn't fail, it was the system that failed me" when they're just trying to rationalise that they're never going to be editor of The Observer.
It's easier to imagine the end of the world than an end to news items about Farage and Trump.
Petition calling on Robert Harris to make his next tense historical political thriller about the Liz Truss administration.
Obviously these American lefties moving to Britain are disorientated by the vast range of political options, and want to get back to attacking the Democrats.
Andy Haldane is right that austerity was economic vandalism, and right that the gilt market of 2026 is not the gilt market of 2012. But his column contains a contradiction that undoes its own conclusion. www.ft.com/content/dec...
Why the UK government is living on borrowed time
The Labour Party’s plan for an expanded state sits uncomfortably with a precarious fiscal backdrop
ft.com
If Burnham wants a quick win then announce Dr Who will be back next year non-rebooted and Tom Hollander as the new Doctor. The Billie Piper face will revert to Tom in the first 3 seconds and never be mentioned again.
Faulks has surpassed himself! Hugely intelligent fiction; beautiful prose; fantastic characterisation; intriguing plot with quite the twist; informative; seriously enjoyable I read it in three sittings. Possibly one of the best novels I’ve read this decade. #lovebooks @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social
Can a ‘new AI tool’ predict cancer survival from a single face photo, as reported in @theguardian.com? Yes. Modestly. In people having radiotherapy, many with advanced cancer, their faces unsurprisingly show signs of how sick they are. But is this actually useful?!
I wouldn't mind Farage having his own TV show if it was a sitcom about him flatsharing with Richard and Isabel.
If I was that Tommy lad I'd now turn round and announce "yeah he's alright I reckon" and get a book deal as "MAGA who saw the light and switched sides". That's got to be worth another bag of loot along with what he's made already.
Let us step back and admire what a great job the Catholic Church has done in the past 500 years in rebuilding the reputation of the Papacy.
Sarah Murphy@13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 2d agoThe undercover reporter suggested people did not mind if Farage “makes a few bob [from politics]” Jukes replied: “Well it’s a bit priced in with our Nige, isn’t it, no one’s voting for him to be the pope” But a racist, corrupt, security-risk PM is fine, is it? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The supremely talented Set Designers working on the BLADE RUNNER (1982) cityscape
Isn't there a new production of Osborne's "The Entertainer" opening soon? "That* would be a much better comeback vehicle for SB-C.
The question is whether the media does its usual thing of 'the consensus among professional economists vs a few Leave campaigners who will say anythng'. The campaign-literature press, obviously. The rest can do better.
Of course it would all have been different if he'd done the Freddie Mercury film.
It takes a special kind of idiot to watch all the long term small private landlords sell up because the RRA has, rightly, knackered their business model and decide it's time to join it.
The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · 2d agoTanya Gains and her husband, Ryan, used their house move as an opportunity to release some cash and start investing in rental properties
‘Last night of the pogroms’
Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk · 3d agoGB News is launching GB Music Radio, a 24-hour digital station only playing artists from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on 2 November. Chief revenue officer Ross Sergeant said this "gives advertisers something genuinely new". radiotoday.co.uk/2026/10/gb-m...
A reminder that all subscriptions to www.discontinuednotes.com are free because you can't put a price on TRUTH
DiscontinuedNotes
some typing
discontinuednotes.com
Daniel McElroy@danielmcelroy0.bsky.social · 2d agoAmol Rajan’s membership tiers…that is scandalous.
A reminder of how unfair it is to label Aldous Huxley as "the Brave New World guy". Along with Doors Of Perception he had 3 big hits, and Ape And Essence should be massive as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi book-in-a-book.
Brandon D. Wilson@geniusbastard.bsky.social · 3d agoTHE DEVILS beat DIGGER and THE SOCIAL RECKONING at the box office this weekend.
Was my birthday a couple weeks ago so shoulda done my annual repost of this piece about my friend Lizzy/Eris. Nowhere near the full story, much of which is way more personal than even *I'm* prepared to share; what's here is just how it came out at the time 🖤🖤 stuhennigan.substack.com/p/in-memoriam
In Memoriam
Elizabeth Victoria Aldrich
stuhennigan.substack.com