PurpleCanary

Insipid.

You're making me sound like an expert when I probably know only marginally more than you, if that...

Very very different to La Confidential, is a Danish historical romantic drama (available on Netflix) called Ehrengard or the Art of Seduction. Great sparring dialogue between the would-be seducer and the grand duchess, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, who was the prime minister in Borgen.

Wow! Those odds have shortened! Now at 1/22?! Sorry, Indy, if you wouldn't have picked it at that price.

More journalists have been killed during Israel’s war with Hamas than in any other conflict in more than 30 years, a leading organisation representing journalists worldwide said. In its annual count of media worker deaths, the International Federation of Journalists said 94 journalists had been killed so far this year and almost 400 others had been imprisoned. The context here being that there is strong evidence going back years that Israel targets journalists, added to by this following recent incident: From the Washington Post today: BEIRUT — News organizations and rights groups that investigated shelling that killed a journalist and injured others in Lebanon in October said their findings indicate that Israel was responsible. AFP said in its report that it was able to come to “three key conclusions.” One is that the munition that killed Abdallah was of Israeli origin and “is not used by any other groups in the region.” Another, it said, is that “the strikes were deliberate and targeted,” coming close together in time and space and hitting journalists who “were clearly identified as press, away from any military activity.” Finally, it said, “the strikes likely came from southeast of the journalists’ position, apparently near the Israeli village of Jordeikh where Israeli tanks were operating.” Amnesty International made similar points and said the attack “must be investigated as a war crime.” It said that even though “the group was visibly identifiable as journalists,” the Israeli military “attacked them anyway in two separate strikes 37 seconds apart.”

The ‘fake’ Lana Turner scene is a hoot.

About 14 years ago the Norfolk and Norwich Festival had three outstanding artists on consecutive nights. Dawn Upshaw was brilliant on the Thursday, and ditto Utd Lemper on the Saturday. But Philip Glass on the Friday was beyond superlative.

Group 3 of the Greek Gamma Ethniki. Korinthis to win at home against Missolonghi on Sunday. Korinthos have a 4-2-0 home record while Missolonghi have a 0-0-7 away record. The odds are 9/41. - My Saturday suggestion is Martigues to win at home to Olympique d'Ales in the Couple de France, at odds of 6/43. Martigues are third in the third-tier National One division, while Olympique d'Ales are lowish down in Group A of the National Two division. - For the match bet I suggest a double of NCFC to score in both halves and Idah as the last goalscorer. Good luck to all!

An interesting piece in The Guardian on how Grimsby Town went about finding a new manager/head coach: Whether you are Manchester United or Grimsby, succession planning is vital | Football | The Guardian

Excellent report/overview, Parma. I had gathered some of those point from the interviews, but there is nothing like being at a meeting to notice body language and assess where the power lies. One. I had drawn attention to Attanasio talking about third-party investment, but hadn't realised he had mentioned it so often, or been specific to Australia, or apparently was looking at that already. Two. Delia always used to reply to the idea of having a supporter-director by saying all the directors were supporters. Deliberately or otherwise missing the point that a true supporter-director is chosen by the fans, and we have never had one of those. Sadly I cannot see my genius idea of about 14 years ago, of a supporter -director with a golden-share veto, coming to a company that looks like it is going to end up in Maryland or Delaware or wherever, and private to boot... Three. Well, ex-chairman Ed Balls used to work for the FT so perhaps that isn't as far-fetched as it seems. Four. And most of the non-sporting power with Attanasio?! Land grab by duumvirate. But I suspect Don even so would still wonder about corporate governance at Carrow Road. At only a bit of a tangent I asked Paddy Davitt on the latest pink un Q&A if the seeming delay in Attanasio choosing the second US director was due to whoever it was having to pass the EFL fit-and-proper-person test. Paddy thought rather it was just that Attanasio was in no particular hurry to settle the question. Given that Crescent Capital has a London office it might be geographical proximity would be a factor, zoom calls etc notwithstanding.

No scientists attended meetings about eat out to help out scheme before it launched, says Johnson Johnson has walked back claims that Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance were present to “properly discuss” the eat out to help out scheme before it went live, conceding that no scientists attended meetings about the scheme. Johnson said he had “frankly assumed” they were involved in talks about the scheme with the Treasury and that he was “surprised it was smuggled past them”.

Unfortunately you saying something is not the same as you telling me something. And much as I admire that made-up nonsense about why Bowkett quit when he did my understanding is that the real reason was rather different, and unconnected to Smith and Jones. Not least because Bowkett resigned in 2015, and the search for investment which he carried out and in his own words - ‘’Every time I asked ‘Could you please verify you have the funding?’ No-one passed the test.’’ - drew a blank was in 2011. A four-year gap doesn’t quite fit your explanation of an immediate reaction to being supposedly fooled by S&J. You do add to the gaiety of nations, I will give you that, but all court jesters end up growing too old for the job.

Supposedly BoJo can't remembre how many children he has fathered, so no surprise that a frequent answer today was "I cannot remember" or "I don't recall that."

Under oath: Johnson claims he can't remember why he met Evgeny Lebedev at No 10 days before lockdown. Keith asks about Johnson’s meeting with Evgeny Lebedev, the Evening Standard owner, in the week before the lockdown was formally announced. Why did it take place? Johnson claims he cannot remember, but he says he thinks it was about Covid. As owner of a London paper, Lebedev had to know what was happening, he says. Neither Keith nor Johnson name Lebedev. Keith does not press Johnson about this. It is widely assumed that this meeting took place to discuss Lebedev’s peerage, which at the time was being blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. Johnson did not have face to face meeting with other newspaper owners at this point, and indeed people were being advised to avoid any unnecessary face to face meetings.

Granted she said it at least once, and coupled that with the statement that Tom would inherit. But as mentioned above there were occasions when the club looked for investment, talked to Cullum, talked to Fernandes, and later she said that they simply passed on approaches to people at the club who would undestand them. I would agree she has been protective - arguably over-protective - of the club, and erred on the side of caution, but the history of many other clubs that made disatrous decisions explains that. And you have no idea whether they imposed overly stringent conditions.