Rob Mallows

Jazz Fusion fan. Civil servant. Runs @DeightonDossier website and FB group; operated @LDNJazzMeetup for 16+ years until 2024

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

@Phil_Sampson46 @beckenhamtownfc @PWH_FC @SCEFLeague It was a sorry, sorry performance - I left at halftime, and I think I had the better experience that day than the rest of the crowd.

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

Someone in @sainsburys design department had an off day. (Sydenham store)

#designfail
#spelling

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

*gulp*

[Liam Halligan @LiamHalligan]

“The fasten seat belts sign is on”.

This is a message I received early this morning from one of the UK’s most experienced, savvy and respected financial traders. Someone I have come to know and trust for the last 25 years.

10-year bond yields are now almost 4.5pc - up some 50 basis points over the last month.

30-year yields this morning went above 6pc - a 28-year high.

Yet the UK’s political and media class continues to focus on party posturing and folksy rhetoric, ignoring the slow-motion disaster that has been happening on the UK’s sovereign bond markets for at least the last 18 months - a disaster that will inevitably, unless we drastically change course, turn into a fully blown market meltdown.

At that point, the UK government won’t be able to borrow enough money to finance our already spiralling debt interest bill.

Britain’s financial management will be taken over by overseas technocrats - that will be the condition of additional borrowing, to maintain the basic functions of the state, as happened in Greece and Italy back in the early 2010s and here in Britain 50 years ago this year (when we were forced in 1976 to apply to the IMF for a bailout).

The austerity then imposed on Britain would make 2010-2019 feel like a picnic - far, far worse than it would be if we took serious action now to control our public finances.

Lower-income households would suffer most - and there would be serious damage done to the UK’s already rapidly-fraying social fabric ….

I have been warning about these looking fiscal dangers publicly, in my newspaper columns and elsewhere, since at least early 2024.

Doing so hasn’t been easy or fun. I have been dismissed and derided by numerous economists, “economists”, officials and policymakers - as well as lots of journalists.

I absolutely don’t want a disastrous 1976-style outcome - which is why I’ve taken the blows and issued the warnings.

The state is too big. Public spending is out of control. Our fiscal rules are a convenient nonsense - designed to kick the can of financial reality into the future. We need to get real … and take bold action to tame the growth of spending, push back a now totally over-bearing state and snap the British economy out of today’s high-tax-high-borrowing-low-growth doom loop - the result of myopic, counter-productive policy-making by successive governments for the last decade and more …

Other prominent economists who agree with me - ie who are financially-literate, can read a yield curve, have a passing interest in economic history and who understand the dangers of some 80pc of UK government borrowing going on debt interest as it currently is - need to chuck “career risk” in the bin, and start saying publicly what so many of them have, for quite a while now, only had the bottle to say to me in private …

Remember: “The fasten seat belts sign is on”

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

Stop treating the adult population like children and stop allowing adults who behave like despotic toddlers to decree what the rest of us are allowed to watch.

[The Ways of A Gentleman @Gentleman_Ways]

You can wear a tailored suit, own a nice watch, know which fork to use, and have impeccable manners, but none of that truly makes you a gentleman.

All of those things are nice and I enjoy many of them myself. However, being a gentleman has far more to do with character than how a man dresses or his social standing.

A gentleman does the right thing when no one is watching. He keeps his word when breaking it would be easier and chooses the hard right over the easy wrong. He treats the waiter with the same respect he gives the CEO. He controls his temper, doesn't gossip about a man who isn't there to defend himself, and stands up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.
Maybe most importantly, he puts others at ease.

That's the real purpose of good manners. Etiquette shouldn't be used to show others that you know rules when maybe they don’t. Manners should make the people around you feel comfortable and respected.

Saint John Henry Newman captured this beautifully when he described a gentleman's “great concern” as being “to make everyone at their ease and at home.”

A true gentleman doesn't enter a room wondering whether everyone notices him. Instead, he notices everybody else.
He introduces the person standing alone, and actually listens when someone is speaking. He says please and thank you and puts away his phone when in the company of others.

None of this takes wealth or status. In fact, a man who uses his wealth, education, clothing, or social standing to make others feel inferior isn't much of a gentleman at all. He's just a snob.

So here's my challenge for this week. Be a gentleman when nobody is watching.
Keep your word. Be patient with someone who tests your patience. Defend someone who isn't in the room. Encourage someone who needs it. Above all, treat everyone you encounter with dignity.

Wherever you go, try to leave people feeling a little more valued and at ease because you were there. When you do, you make the world a better place and set the example for others to follow.

The clothes are nice and the manners matter, but character makes the gentleman.

[Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins]

The real reason children no longer enjoy reading.” Mary Wakefield has a theory in the latest Spectator.  Instead of screen addiction, she blames school curricula which teach “to the test” rather than reading for enjoyment. Children are so busy analysing brief extracts, they can’t enjoy the book as a whole.
I read incessantly as a child, including illicitly when I was supposed to be sleeping. Not “great literature”, it was Dr Dolittle, Biggles, Bulldog Drummond, Just William, Arthur Ransome, Percy F Westerman. It would certainly have included Harry Potter if he’d been around then. I don’t believe I ever had my “comprehension” tested. I just loved reading.
Is Mary Wakefield right?

[Jash Dholani | link in bio has my books! @oldbooksguy]

Goethe wrote in 1829 that a culture of constant news eviscerates the past and the future, leaving you no time to metabolize lessons or sketch out a plan, always pulling you into the whirlpool of Something Important Happening Somewhere

[Charlie Walsham @CharlieWalsham_]

When every institution suddenly starts using the same peculiar vocabulary at roughly the same time, it’s worth asking why.

Language doesn’t just describe ideas; it smuggles them in. Follow the words and you can often trace the ideology behind them.

[Lina Seiche @LinaSeiche]

In defense of excellence.

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

"Elite" universities now graduate students who cannot read a full book.

Instead of fixing the problem, they reduce reading requirements to shorter and shorter excerpts.

We do the opposite.

In our book club, we read a major work of the Western canon — cover to cover — every 4-6 weeks and discuss it in depth. We are dedicated to the slow, careful study of the great books. The kind of reading that forms the mind and shapes the spirit.

Below are some of the texts we intend to cover soon. Right now, we're reading The Brothers Karamazov, the greatest psychological novel of all time.

Join our reading group to study the great works in dialogue with others.

Consider a paid subscription if you'd like to support us and join the discussions directly. It makes a huge difference to the time and resources we can dedicate to this.

You'll get:

- Live book club discussions (biweekly)
- Access to our incredible community chat
- Essays to guide you through the Great Books
- All past recordings, essays, and podcasts
- Ability to vote on what we read next

https://t.co/efQaicNvay

Welcome!

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

Sometimes, The Guardian is beyond parody
https://t.co/GLpa8YDhZH

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

@NetworkRailSE @Se_Railway @networkrail Platforms at ChX are looking great!

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

@Tyler_A_Harper That was an interesting and balanced perspective. Thanks for posting it.

[The Ways of A Gentleman @Gentleman_Ways]

There was a time when how a man spoke, dressed, and carried himself mattered.

Those standards are worth preserving.

This is The Ways of a Gentleman. I write about etiquette, style, culture, and character.

Follow if you believe it's time to bring those standards back.

[Natural Philosophy @Naturalphilosy]

“Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness.”

— Werner Herzog

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

@NetworkRailSE I use this section most days to travel to work - can't wait to see it fully renewed; I'm sure it will make a difference to thousands of commuters' daily experiences.

[German at Portsmouth @GermanAtPompey]

As the new season starts, it's a good time to remember the timeless poetry of GDR football team names.

[Rob Mallows @RobMallows]

@astro_Pettit Just, wow!

[Sunday Sport @thesundaysport]

Millionaires. If you're desperate to give away money, give it to your local hospice.
They do amazing work and will not waste it, like the government will.

[ArtButMakeItSports @ArtButSports]

The Battle of the Peasants, by M.D. Hout, 17th c