School’s out, for January

As soon as the Education Secretary was insisting a few days ago that schools would re-open on time in January you knew full well that they wouldn’t, such is the usual comms method of this government during the pandemic. Insist…

Typerighter – the Guardian’s automated tool for spotting when I’ve strayed from the righteous path

Typerighter – the Guardian’s automated tool for spotting when I’ve strayed from the righteous path

I posted about this on Twitter and there seemed to be lots of interest so here’s some more detail in an old-fashioned powerful blog post. The developers at the Guardian have recently added a new tool to our content management…

Have yourself a Womblin’ Christmas

Have yourself a Womblin’ Christmas

What a lovely end of year treat a #TimsTwitterListeningParty for the Wombles’ album Superwombling was. That was my Wombles album as I kid. I suspect the vinyl is still lurking at my parent’s house somewhere. The passage of time is…

Friday Reading eats big dinners S10E16

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things. It is also available as an email newsletter and eats big dinners. I guess this might…

Friday Reading eats big dinners S10E15

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things. It is also available as an email newsletter and eats big dinners. Sign up here. John…

Friday Reading eats big Xmas dinners now S10E14

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things. It is also available as an email newsletter and eats big Xmas dinners now. Sign up…

Friday Reading Will Always Eat Big Dinners S10E13

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things. It is also available as an email newsletter and will always eat big dinners. Sign up…

Friday Reading Still Eats Big Dinners S10E12

Friday Reading is a weekly series of recommended reads from the Guardian’s Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things. It is also available as an email newsletter and still eats big dinners. Sign up here….

The definitive answer to the Fairytale of New York lyric controversy

In 1987, “Fairytale of New York” was beaten to Xmas #1 by Pet Shop Boys with “Always On My Mind”. This was the correct verdict by the British record buying public. Shane MacGowan is reported to have said of this…

This is the desk where I did all my live blogging from.

“Thank you, America!”

“Thank You America” is one of my favourite Cabaret Voltaire tunes, so I nicked the title for this post. Regular readers may have noted that I’ve spent quite a bit of the last few months live blogging US politics and…