Prof David Whitehead MRIA 🇪🇺 🇮🇪 🇫🇷 💙 💚

Latest Covid Inquiry report finds PPE failures left NHS staff poorly protected and wasted £10 billion. Baroness Mone still sits in House of Lords but has yet to pay a penny of the £122m she owes for ripping off the NHS. Also managed to keep the private jet and the superyacht.

I find it quite extraordinary and totally unacceptable that our country will have a new PM next Monday but he won’t be making facing parliamentary scrutiny until September. Burnham has planned this coronation for over a year and now he isn’t ready to face those who represent us.

If you asked me who was the most enjoyable interview I’ve ever done. It was Sam Neill. Afterwards he came back to tell me it was a really fun for him too… We discussed what James Mason taught him & being in that truly terrible FIFA film.🎬 Such sad news. bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0…

Many years ago, my predecessor as Chair of the Strategy Department gave a lecture on the Peloponnesian War. A Marine officer came up to him after and said "that was the best lecture on any subject I've ever heard, but it didn't teach me squat about how to take that hill." /1

Gibraltar has just effectively rejoined the EU. And it's completely uncontroversial, because it obviously makes sense to make life easier for people there. A preview of what happens with the rest of our country? share.google/lfuTnfEoIqMr6l…

I made it into the French press! It was really wonderful to perform in Cherbourg a couple of weeks ago!

The Ostler's Hut at Lincoln's Inn is the smallest individual historically-listed building in London. It dates from 1852 and was built to shelter the ostlers responsible for tending the horses of lawyers and visitors to Lincoln's Inn.

This oboe concerto by VW deserves to be as well known as The Lark Ascending and for similar reasons.

To dive into the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is to accept being suspended in a space-time where melancholy becomes light. And to elevate this score, no one possesses that "ardent virtuosity" quite like Janine Jansen. Her playing, at once captivating and raw in its sincerity, seems to become one with the instrument, transforming every note into a confidence whispered into the listener's ear. Composed in 1878, this concerto was born out of a period of profound crisis for Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893). Following a disastrous marriage and a suicide attempt, the Russian composer found refuge in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. It was there, in that alpine solitude, that he wrote this monumental work in less than a month. Initially deemed "unplayable" by critics of the time, the concerto has since established itself as one of the most beloved pillars of the repertoire, capturing the fragile balance between the musician's intimate pain and Slavic romantic exuberance better than any other. In this second movement, Canzonetta, Janine Jansen's genius shines through her restraint. Where others might sink into pathos, she favors a pure, almost ethereal melodic line. Her playing is a fascinating balance between constant dramatic tension and an infinite softness in phrasing. She does not simply play the notes: she seems to sculpt the silence between them. Her ability to vary the texture of her timbre, shifting from a muted whisper in the low register to a crystalline brilliance in the high notes, gives the violin a human voice. There is no artifice here, only that expressive urgency which reminds us why Tchaikovsky remains the undisputed master of pure emotion. It is a performance that simply leaves one speechless. #ClassicalMusic #Tchaikovsky #JanineJansen #Violin #Masterpiece #Canzonetta #MusicDeepDive #Op35

The French Foreign Legion always marches last in the #BastilleDay parade on the Champs-Élysées because it keeps its traditional pace of 88 steps per minute, compared with the French Army's standard 120. This distinctive cadence dates back to the Legion's long desert campaigns in North Africa, where endurance mattered more than speed. Rather than abandoning this tradition, the Legion is given the honor of closing the parade every July 14. Another characteristic, the Legion also does not break formation at the end of the parade, maintaining its ranks until it has completely left the avenue.

#ASongOrMovieForAboutFrance The Comte of Monte Cristo 🎬

@SugarpussOShea1 🙏

@profdwh Very nice.

#ASongOrMovieForAboutFrance The Escargot-Between 🎬

#ASongOrMovieForAboutFrance Louvre Actually 🎬

@BettyUtility I don't know that either. But certainly in Nottingham we saw it, on ATV. (And by the way, in our house too--that of my maternal grandparents--'commercial' TV was viewed with some suspicion, by comparison with Auntie BBC. 🧐)

@profdwh Wasn't sure of the "reach" that adverts had in the days of regional TV. I don't think it was shown in the south but I could be mistaken.

Not sure if this advert was shown outside the West Midlands. It must have been on all the time during Star Soccer because everything else on ITV was banned in our house at that point. youtu.be/TsGR-ZIpRW4?si…

@peterwoodman67 😎

Happy Jacques

@jjulieanderson 😲

@profdwh Not for the first time, I wish there was a 'cringe' emoji.

#ASongOrMovieForAboutFrance 🎤Somme Enchanted Evening 🎤

#ASongOrMovieForAboutFrance Brie Encounter 🎬