Michele

Spot on this 👏

>Be leather >Made from cattle hide since humans first domesticated cattle >10,000 years of continuous use >Durable: a well-made leather boot lasts 20-30 years with basic care >Biodegradable: returns to the earth at end of life >Breathable: your foot doesn't marinate in its own moisture >Ages beautifully: develops patina, softens, moulds to the foot >Repairable: a cobbler can rebuild a leather shoe indefinitely >Be leather, 2010s >Activists declare you unethical >Brands pivot to "vegan leather" >Vegan leather is PVC or polyurethane >PVC is polyvinyl chloride: a petroleum-derived plastic >Releases phthalates and dioxins during production >Cracks within 2-3 years >Cannot be repaired >Shed microplastics with every flex >Ends up in landfill, where it does not biodegrade >Ever >The plastic remains for 500+ years >Be leather >Made from a byproduct of food production >The hide was going to exist regardless >You just made it useful instead of waste >Now considered unethical >The plastic alternative is considered sustainable >Nobody is asking who funded the campaign that made this happen >A petroleum company would really like you to stop buying leather >A petroleum company is very invested in you buying plastic instead

@SamaHoole For some reason this is my favourite Doris story. Ewe go girl!

Let's take Doris's fell section by section and ask the obvious question. 6:00am - Upper section, 400 metres. Peaty, acid soil about as deep as a doormat. Waterlogged six months of the year. What could we grow here? Nothing. Rejected. 7:30am - The eastern slope. 30-degree incline on loose substrate. No machinery has operated here without becoming a story people tell at agricultural college. Nothing. Rejected. 9:00am - The wall section. 8cm of mineral soil over solid rock. The wall has been here since 1771. The wall is here specifically because this section is unworkable by any other method. Nothing. Rejected. 10:30am - The wet corner. Surface water year-round. Rush colonising the margins. Doris is currently eating the rush, which is the only productive thing that has ever happened in this corner. Nothing. Rejected. 12:00pm - Brian's field. Same elevation, same soil, same rainfall, same slope, same answer. Nothing. Rejected. Doris is not occupying agricultural land that has been selfishly redirected from crop production. Doris is on land that cannot grow human food by any method currently available or foreseeable. And Doris is not unusual in this. About two thirds of Britain's agricultural land is the same. Not neglected. Not misused. Just upland, or steep, or waterlogged, or too thin, or too wet, or too high, or all of these at once. Land that grows grass and supports grazing animals and through those animals produces food, and cannot do anything else, and never could. The argument that we should remove the livestock from this land and grow crops instead is not a policy proposal. It is a failure to look at a map. Doris is in the wet corner. Doris is eating the rush. This is the highest and best use of this corner. This has always been the highest and best use of this corner.

@simon_hand @sharrond62 I loved Pirates too. I think it’s banned now.

@sharrond62 The best PE lesson was when we played Pirates in the gym, all the equipment was brought out and you wasn’t allowed to touch the floor or you was out with others chasing you Doubt that will happen today

I loved obstacle courses in gym lessons, anyone else?

@Vinod_r108 I found this quite mesmerising

Love in its purest form: wife helps her blind husband follow their son's game, recounting each play with caresses on his back. This is genuinely heartwarming! ❤️

@LNER Hi LNER, any update on when the first class lounge in Kings Cross will reopen?

@ukrailadventure @EuropeanSlpr I’ve very much enjoyed following your adventures. I’m assuming you’ve been to Locomotion in Shildon, birthplace of the railway?

How do you end the most epic adventure? With a ride on the most epic of trains of course 😁 here comes our chariot, the sleeper service through to Amsterdam! We cannot wait for this! @EuropeanSlpr

@britom1947 @DaveWallsworth I take my hat off to you. Such an accurate description.

@DaveWallsworth We thought it was political satire when it was political documentary.

It’s now 40 years since this quite brilliant episode of Yes, Prime Minister was broadcast but somehow it still seems remarkably appropriate after all this time! One of the best comedy series ever and superbly acted.

@ukrailadventure I showed my husband this, and he confirmed you have a lifelong train enthusiast.

The look of love 😍 Austin has been in his element today and I'm pretty sure he'd have stayed staring at this LNER class 91 all day if I'd let him.

@EmmerdaleInside @RyanSoapKing25 Hell yes

Graham's back in his suit! Do we love it? #Emmedale

@NoContextBrits From someone born in Maidstone and now living in the North East, that is brilliant.

@BigBearF1 And matches too hopefully?

I got wood. 😌😁

@rob_king @LNER I was caught up in that and I said exactly the same to my husband. Communication at Kings Cross was shocking. To be fair, the communication on the trains (having resorted to a very scenic route) was excellent.

@LNER bringing to X because station staff and customer services told me they cannot handle complaints, and online complaints come with a 10-day response window. What happened (06 Feb 2026): I purchased a First Class return ticket in advance on 3 February, costing £128.60, for travel between London King’s Cross and Grantham. • KGX → GRA 17:08 • GRA → KGX 21:31 (later cancelled) I was stood next to my outbound train for at least 15 minutes at King’s Cross. Staff repeatedly told me it was not my train because it “hadn’t arrived yet” and was delayed, and they physically pulled a barrier across to prevent access. Had that barrier not been put in place, I would have boarded my train. After it departed, I was then told it was my train – but I couldn’t board because it was “full”… despite holding a confirmed First Class seat reservation. I was sent between staff, given contradictory information, told to “try another train”, and advised to “get a refund online”. When I calmly asked customer services why I wasn’t allowed on my train, I was told it was full. When I asked if my seat had been given to someone else – no answer. Just deflection. No apology. No sympathy. No ownership. To make it worse, my return service was later cancelled anyway, meaning I’d likely have been stranded had I boarded the outbound as it was a same evening return. This appears to directly conflict with the National Rail Conditions of Travel. Formal complaint raised: LNER-260206-3813843 Told to expect a response in 10 days, hence raising this publicly. Passengers with valid tickets and reservations should not be denied boarding, misled, and left to sort it out online after the fact. Awaiting your response.

@rickygervais @LNER I actually have you to thank for introducing me to this vodka. One of the few things you’ve got right.

A couple of months ago this billboard was rejected. At that time, we had 16,000 subscribers. Today we have 164,000. Power to the people 👊 dutchbarn.com

@TeamNeither @NoContextBrits Let’s not even mention Trottiscliffe.

@McedwardClark @NoContextBrits Same. Its always fun to hear out-of-towners trying to say Erith as well 😆

Without using Google, who can name a place in the UK with ‘ham’ in the name?

@TeamNeither @NoContextBrits Yep, but I am from Kent.

@NoContextBrits Wrotham (bonus point if you can pronounce it correctly)

@NoContextBrits Chatham

@peterfinch46 @JamesAHogg2 Seriously? I had no idea. Probably my favourite Carry On film.

@JamesAHogg2 He had a busy war! he was shot down and taken prisoner by the Germans. Butterworth was sent to Stalag Luft III near Sagan in Poland. It was there he met Talbot Rothwell, who later went on to write many of the Carry On films

I don’t usually like commentating death dates (I’m a birthday man really) but in this case I’ll make an exception, purely because it affords me the opportunity to post this clip from my favourite Carry On film, Carry On Camping. The person in question is Peter Butterworth, btw, who died on this day in 1979. Anyway, enough of all that death cobblers. Wasn’t he brilliant!! Pound.

@BigBearF1 It’s the old Carry On humour. Totally wasted on people nowadays. Their loss 🤷

@BigBearF1 Looking good 😉

Time flies when you’re having fun. 😳