Monday 26 October, 2026

Contrails If you were a conspiracy theorist, you’d be wondering where all these planes were going to meet up. Sadly, I think the answer was Stansted Airport :-( Quote of the Day ”Any sufficiently advanced punditry is indistinguishable from bollocks”. Dan Davies, riffing on Arthur C. Clarke’s celebrated adage that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Dónal Lunny and Aimee Farrell Courtney | Banish Misfortune Link Lunny, one of the most inspiring Irish musicians of his generation, has died and is being lamented wherever Irish music is played. He’s credited with introducing the bouzoki into Irish music (though there is, as usual, some arguments about that). More importantly, he was involved in founding two great groups, Planxty and the Bothy Band. May he rest in peace. Long Read of the Day Hannah Arendt on MAGA Like me, Andrew Brown has gone back to reading Hannah Arendt. But whereas I took to her book on…