Daniel Cuffe

First thought of joining Twitter on a silent retreat: was going to call it 'screaming on the inside'. 🇬🇧🇮🇪🥃🗳📜🏛🕯 More ?s than .s (🔄♥≠🇪)

[PARLY @PARLYapp]

It’s a mark of Ann Widdecombe’s cultural impact that Victoria Wood wrote a song about her for a Christmas special.

https://t.co/QZSz2DX3eq

[DepressedBergman @DannyDrinksWine]

This scene in "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) where 6 members of the D'Ascoyne's family, all played by Sir Alec Guinness, are seen together, took 2 days to film. The camera was set on a specially built platform to minimize movement. In addition, the camera operator spent the night with the camera to ensure that nothing moved it by accident.

A frame with six black matte painted optical flat glass windows was set in front of the camera, and the windows opened one at a time so each of the characters could be filmed in turn. The film was then wound back for the next character. Most of the time was spent waiting for Guinness to be made up as the next character.

(Source: IMDb)

P.S: 1) On this day, 77 years ago, Robert Hamer's "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) premiered in London, U.K.

2) Remembering the great British actor, Dennis Price, on his 111th birthday!

[Times Radio @TimesRadio]

Times Radio’s Andrew Neil calls out the “buffoon” blaring out music over Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation speech.

“The fact that we allow this to happen shows, that at times, we are not a serious country.”

@AFNeil

[Sam Bowman @s8mb]

I agree and I think it highlights that it is a mistake to think that free expression = unlimited rights to ruin public spaces for everyone. In a just world Bray would be working in some sort of prison colony.

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

I miss the old door.

[Benjamin Lewis @tc1415]

(editors note: they are all quite wrong and will need telling in time.)

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

ultimate = last in a series

penultimate = second-to-last in a series

antepenultimate = third-to-last in a series

preantepenultimate = fourth-to-last in a series

propreantepenultimate = fifth-to-last in a series

[ViewFromTheNorth (JHKC) 🐝 @jaimerh354]

Niche gag. But a good one.

[Mr Memory @AmIRightSir]

The end of an era as Labour peer Lord Christopher, 101, yesterday ceased to be a member of the House of Lords - he was the last remaining person in Parliament who served in the Armed Forces in the Second World War: https://t.co/6rI5R9Jf3R

[Daniel Cuffe @DanielCuffe]

Reminded of Jim Hacker promoting chain-smoking Leslie Potts, who could barely get out a sentence without coughing, from Minister for Sport to Minister of Health.
https://t.co/NkmAYnBH1l

[Sascha O'Sullivan @saschaosullivan]

Thank god Angela Rayner quit the vapes just in time for a vacancy to open up as Health Secretary

[evan🦉 @rainstormblue]

my fav image ever is when they’re stretched/slimmed to sizes corresponding to their time in office and liz truss is invisible

[Daniel Sugarman @Daniel_Sugarman]

IT'S HAPPENING

[Larry the Cat @Number10cat]

Keir Starmer on his way to cabinet this morning

[Daniel Cuffe @DanielCuffe]

@WalkerMarcus I like the idea that reading a book about someone constitutes an “obsession”.

[Tom Jamieson @jamiesont]

There is no more devastating an insult from a British person than the word "wow!"

[no context the west wing @LemonLymancom]

"Life on Mars" aired 23 years ago today.

[First To Hear It @firsttohearit]

REPORTER: You mentioned that, staying on as Fed governor, you intend to keep a low profile. Could you give us a little more detail on what that looks like?

JEROME POWELL: *ducks down*

[James @TypeForVictory]

Full take:
> MPs are not employees, they're representatives. It's up to them to manage their time, and to their constituents (and whips) to hold them accountable
> Parliament doesn't subsidise alcohol - the alcohol actually subsidises the *rest* of the catering (net cost of around £7m annually). About 15,000 people work in the palace, inside a security perimeter. You don't want them all rushing in and out at lunch. Providing canteens, cafes, etc at all hours is necessary, and the profit margin on alcohol offsets some of that.
> MPs have several 'jobs'. Constituency case work, speeches/debates in the chamber, committee work, and votes. Plus plenty of reading, writing, etc. Most of that will be done during regular office hours, when their staff are there.
> Having 'a drink' at lunchtime is fine. Lots of professional jobs do, you just get the admin done for a bit after before getting back to proper work. Probably unwise every day for your health, but France manages just fine with lunchtime drinking!
> Votes can often go on late into the night, and are whipped. ie, an MP's job is to hang about and then be a body walking through a door. Their vote is already decided by the time there's a division, they don't get to the door and suddenly pull out a pack and start working out what to do, unless they're extremely stupid and unprepared. You want them on-site, but there's no need for them to be 'working' per se. Having a few drinks is fine.

However:
> Parliament has an infamous drinking problem, which leads to assaults and bad behaviour. Much as I hate to say it, they probably need a better centralised HR that can mediate disputes and curb some of that.
> People should not be *drunk* while in committees, in the chamber for debates, or working on constituency matters, etc. Doing so should flag an intervention by the Speaker, in the interest of MPs health and well-being as much as their constituents. But what they choose to do after they're done is up to them.

More broadly:
> Alcohol is deeply rooted in British (and western) culture, and serves a social purpose - it helps create social bonds, facilitates conversation, drops inhibitions. Yes, you can overdo it, but there's a genuine positive from the bonds it creates, often across party lines. Parliament is confrontational, but it needs to be collegiate, too. People need to know each other well, and humanise one another - frankly, that's much easier to do when the barriers are lower. Many professions now have the opposite problem of over-professionalisation, leading to weak social networks and homogenisation of process. Bad in its own ways, as I've covered elsewhere.

My overall summary is that MPs are adults, in a deeply unusual place with long hours where socialising and networking are key to performing effectively. Alcohol is an important lubricant for that. That being said, it can go too far, and tighter controls on bad behaviour might be beneficial, as well as better intervention where problematic patterns become apparent. But the puritanism and holier-than-thou attitude is tiresome. No, I don't want my doctor drinking at lunchtime, but yes, I'm totally happy if my stockbroker wants to. It depends on the nature of the job, what they're trying to achieve, and the net outcomes.

[Fergus Butler-Gallie @_F_B_G_]

‘No Englishman unmoved that statement hears/Because- with all its faults- we love our House of Peers’

WS Gilbert, The Pirates of Penzance

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

“My father used to say that the third-rate brain thought with the majority, the second-rate brain thought with the minority and the first-rate brain thought for itself. His was, and he wanted mine to be, a first-rate brain. I would have to think and decide for myself.” ~C.R.Milne