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Richard K

@rkemb.bsky.social

1.1K followers 530 following 24K posts

A company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.

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Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 50m

And, crucially for this thread, not nazis.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 1h

Anyway, check out his being apparently successfully cursed by the woman he wouldn't marry.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 1h

It didn't even make a profit.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 1h

Yeah, Maxwell obviously complex and not, um, a natural empath.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 3h

"AI" covers a huge range of machine-learning technologies, and doesn't just mean LLMs.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 3h

The dream being "we can both be rich if we get out in time".

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 3h

How can you impugn the dreamsellers like this?

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 3h

At least we've still got Ring of Bright Water.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 4h

Also needs a link to this fine cutting-up-a-book story.

Alison @finger-post.blog · 8d

My favourite Jilly Cooper story is recounted in Graham Hoyland's 2013 book Last Hours on Everest. What a trooper.

"We lay in a tent for three days in a blizzard. After the first morning we had each told our life stories, and we lay there gazing at the roof of the tent, wondering what to do next.

Luckily Mark had brought a copy of Jilly Cooper's Rivals, a breathily written romance, and Brice had a penknife. We carefully cut it up into three parts. Mark, as owner, was allowed to read it in sequence: A, B, then C. Brice got B, C, then A, but I - as the youngest - was lumbered with C, A, then B, and struggled to comprehend both the plot and the characters.

On our return Mark contacted Jilly Cooper and told her the story. She was delighted to have been able to satisfy three large men at once with only one book."

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 6h

"Um... John invited me."

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 6h

If the school isn't signed up, encourage them to be; it's free.

Get the latest news, analysis and opinion on FT Schools

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 6h

Long flat runs are eased by accompaniment, mountains can be appreciated for themselves.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 6h

Depends if I'm in actual landscape or not for me.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 6h

Sugar isn't sugar if it's still labelled as a plant product.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 7h

Must be.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 8h

Looking up sofa bread recipes and one of the top hits apparently didn't initially think that soda was an important ingredient in soda bread.

I was all set to complicate Irish soda bread by making a yeasted version when I started looking into its history and discovered that the soda — the baking soda — is perhaps the most traditional part of the bread, much more so than butter, sugar, eggs, and raisins, which likely entered the equation when the bread crossed the pond.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 9h

Sure, there's a business model in it, but that's not why most people write.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 9h

I know what you're saying but it's also my contention that the majority of fiction, certainly nowadays, is never formally published and was never expected to be, so the driving force for writing cannot be a desire for popularity or income.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 9h

"most fiction is purely for entertainment" is indeed an unhinged belief

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 17h

Just muddling through.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 18h

On the other hand that slogan is.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 18h

Is there a source for this which isn't an unreliable Twitter account? It's not on their website or anything.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 18h

Ah, interesting. Bit of other googling suggests that ~£2m accords with reported membership of 170k in 2022, when they had similar income.

But Finn Baker, a researcher for the Institute for Government, noted: “The £1.5m in the central party accounts will refer to CCHQ’s share of the membership fees, but these are split with individual associations…which report their accounts separately.” In other words, the £1.5m will not encompass all the party’s membership income, some of which goes directly to local Conservative associations, making accurate membership estimates difficult.

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 18h

And casework is only an MP's role because other local politics has failed

Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · 18h

Have long had the feeling that party leaders love the idea that casework is the principal job because it leaves so much less time for policy scrutiny, which is the real job.