Perhaps because poignant is the opposite of mad, this has reminded me of this oblique elegy for the fallen.

You have to imagine i) what British slang could do with French officers wanting their orders implemented immediately, and ii) how that could be misconstrued by a small boy.

A former guest who knows him, once told me that Trump sees politics as a reality show. Whatever else happens, by Friday every week, he has to "win the episode", ensure he's the principal character, make the last shot.

Once you tune into that, everything begins to make a twisted sort of sense.

The worry is that he’s transitioning the squad in the wrong direction. His reaction to getting outfought towards the end of last season was to up the skill quotient whereas the evidence suggests there is no alternative to more athleticism.

With VDV, it’s not so much the jump as the attitude for me. Against Everton he was working to a plan but, even so, what we saw was predatory. Get into the right space for an attempt. Make space by dislodging the keeper. Attack the ball.

Fluid dynamics

This seems ok so long as all you want is a second opinion. Obvs not actually going to tell you what voters think.

Why not Avery’s idea of putting the traffic on stilts?

I think you have to be careful with that. The 20,000 lives were lost thanks to a populist cronyism that was substituted for institutions. That’s the source of the chaos. They did the same with vaccines and it went ok. But now they use the vaccines to justify that whole approach to government.

It’s narrower and so is going to be less generally applicable and so is less likely to achieve take off. I’d rather say mob-clique in those cases.

Also good. But lacks the academic gravitas of elite.

Feel the same as yesterday. It would be a great service if someone were to produce a diagram of the different tendencies in Labour, including commitments and both people and institutions.