"Women in rural Devon are being coached on how to give birth in the back of a car after their local hospital shut its maternity service."

That's in the London Times.

Catherine Mchomvu, an antenatal class teacher at the Devon Antenatal Family Centre, said it was important that women and their partners had supplies, including towels, blankets and water in the car....  “It’s about trying to create the birth environment that you would normally have in the hospital or at home, in your car.

And here's an article from 12 days ago: "'Maternity deserts' leave women with two-hour journey to give birth/Mothers-to-be fear delivering their babies on the roadside as NHS staffing shortages and closures leave swathes of England without nearby maternity care."

"As expected, Mr. Farage easily defeated dozens of fringe and novelty candidates, including Count Binface, who wears a trash-can-themed costume."

"None of Britain’s other major parties participated in the race, the results of which were announced early Friday. They called it a political stunt engineered by the Reform leader to distract from the investigation. Mr. Farage received 22,239 votes, or 63 percent. Count Binface, a character played by Jon Harvey, 46, a writer and comedian, received 9,455 votes, or 27 percent. Mr. Binface’s previous best result was 1 percent in a London mayoral election."

From "Farage Wins Special U.K. Election That He Initiated, as Expected/Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform U.K., won the Clacton by-election with 63 percent. Count Binface, his costumed main rival, came second with 27 percent, a personal best" (NYT gift link).

"Setting aside the plagiarism and fabrication allegations, I’m struck by just how … bad Arday’s work is."

"It makes me cringe to watch video of Professor Hilary Cremin, head of Cambridge’s faculty of education, fawning over him: 'We’re so lucky to have you. You’re the best in the world in terms of the research you do.' I’m gobsmacked that she didn’t think it might be worth trying to read the book he’d claimed to have written before offering him a plum academic job."

Writes Sonia Sodha, in "Jason Arday is the product of academia’s soft bigotry/Universities risk undermining genuine equality of opportunity when they reward identity over merit and sideline proper scrutiny" (London Times). 

And here's a London Times review of that book: "Jason Arday’s memoir is mawkish, self-aggrandising and hard to believe/The embattled former Cambridge professor’s autobiography, Great and Unfortunate Things, feels precision-tooled to flatter the biases of the sappiest white liberals."

Excerpt from the review: "As young Arday failed to hit his milestones, doctors declared him 'deficient' and said he was 'no better than a vegetable.' Arday was, by his own account, a profoundly intellectually disabled child. He claims that he could 'register sounds, but I couldn’t shape them into meaning.' He also says that smearing his faeces on the wall was one of his few sensory releases.... 'Most of my memories of my early childhood are of generalised images, sounds, sensations, feelings, rather than specific events, perhaps because language helps us to form memories, and I didn’t have access to that until I was older.'"

"There’s always trouble in the Church of England.... They’re always tying themselves in knots about something or other."

"But this is a big one, because they’ve decided that their whole operation is a festival of ableism and that their meek priests are not feeling very blessed at all. One, quoted in a new report called 'All Kinds of Minds,' says that the pressure of trying to appear 'typical' means that when he gets home after a hard day at work (me neither) he has to lie on the floor to literally ground himself.... [T]he report reckons that the pressure on vicars to be loud and interesting puts intolerable pressure on those who are 'neurodivergent.'..."

Writes Jeremy Clarkson, in "I know how to fill churches. Deconsecrate them/My idea to fill the pews would mean hiring out churches for parties — but a new report focuses instead on calming down neurodivergent vicars" (London Times).

Clarkson goes on to crack some jokes at the expense of the neurodivergent, but I didn't think the jokes were much good, so let's just read that article he linked to: "Church urged to embrace neurodivergent parishioners (and priests)/A report says the assumptions that preachers should be extroverts and worshippers must sit still were contributing to 'cultures of ableism.'"

"And beneath the bluster, Trump’s limited view of the American Revolution is very familiar..."

"... it reflects, like so much else about him, the mainstream culture of the Cold War era, when museums and films did indeed tell a relentlessly upbeat story of American accomplishment — in vivid contrast to the plodding drudgery of communism. The leftist radicals of the 1960s and 1970s dissented noisily from this cosy view, but the majority accepted it unquestioningly. Since then a more extreme view has taken root: those who see the revolution not as the start of an unfinished project but as a fixed source of authority, a 250-year-old set of final answers. But as the US blows out its birthday candles, does it still have the capacity it once had for political renewal, while retaining its founding principles? It is always easier to start revolutions than to end them. This is why so many Americans have believed theirs was superior to others: it had been brought to an elegant conclusion by the constitution of 1787. Americans, it seemed, had escaped the spirals of radicalism and authoritarianism that beset France, or Latin American republics...."

From "Happy birthday USA. But is America’s revolution unravelling? When the USA turned 200, the nation came together as one. Fifty years on, what are the chances of the same thing happening under Donald Trump? A special series from The Sunday Times Magazine is dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the USA."

That's the London Times. The view from the losing side.

An intervention.

I'm reading, in the London Times, "Why JD Vance is so critical of Keir Starmer’s Britain/Having intervened on the murder of Henry Nowak, the US vice-president was accused of trying to ‘stir up division’ by the put-out prime minister."

Vance "intervened"? Vance published a statement. He said something. (We talked about it here, yesterday.)

The London Times piece is by David Charter. Excerpt:

"Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit."

Writes JD Vance:

"His alter ego on 'The Thick of It,' Stewart Pearson, was portrayed as a clownish figure who tries to push 'thought circles' on bewildered Tories and utters pablum like 'knowledge is porridge.'"

"The real Mr. Hilton became a larger-than-life figure, infamous among colleagues for walking the corridors of Downing Street shoeless and in shorts and proposing idiosyncratic ideas that made headlines, like using cloud-bursting technology to make Britain sunnier and abolishing maternity leave.... 'The actual policy proposal was to reduce the maternity to somewhere between six and four months; instead of the maximum yearlong leave in Britain, and to increase paternity leave, he said. 'A year is just way too long'.... By 2011, he became so widely known for his unconventional dress that American diplomats gave special instructions ahead of a visit from President Barack Obama. They said Mr. Hilton must either wear a suit or leave the building.... After being given a 'severe talking to,' she recalled, 'he did, in fact, put on proper clothes.' (Mr. Hilton remembered it differently. 'I think it was, "Yeah, you come to the meeting, you have to wear a suit." I was like, "Yeah, no, I don’t want to do that."') But it was Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, that overshadowed Mr. Cameron’s tenure. Mr. Hilton was for it, and Mr. Cameron staked his career against it...."

From "He Was Satirized on British TV. Now He’s Trump’s Pick to Lead California. Steve Hilton grabbed headlines when he worked in conservative politics in Britain. His American political renaissance in the California governor’s race has bemused former British colleagues and rivals" (NYT).

"King Charles tames Maga but Britain’s still in the doghouse."

That's the headline at the London Times. Subheadline: "While the monarch has gone down a storm with President Trump’s VIPs, his US visit seems to have done nothing to help Sir Keir Starmer."

I guess "gone down a storm" is a British expression. I'm going to assume it means something like: was a big sensation. Yeah, that's right. I checked with A.I. The American expression that's equally mystifying to an outsider would be: brought the house down.

Speaking of house...  in the doghouse seems to work in both countries.

Now, let me find the meat of this article:

"I could have tried to adopt, though I think a single gay man would still be right at the back of the queue..."

"... but I remember seeing my nephew for the first time, back in 1997 — just recalling it makes me emotional — and feeling this tug, a real visceral knowing that I was related to this little human being, that we share a gene pool. I wanted the same with my own child. When I reached 50 I thought, ‘It’s now or never,’ and I really started looking into surrogacy seriously.... A couple of friends took a beat or two to respond when I told them about my plans. Another asked, 'Do you really want to be coping with a stroppy teenager when you’re in your seventies?' I think my parents, who are both in their eighties, and sister were concerned that, aged 50-plus, I didn’t realise the enormity of what I was letting myself in for.”

Said Simon Burrell, quoted in "What it’s like to be a single dad (with a child via surrogacy)/The frequency of single fathers having children through surrogacy has tripled. Simon Burrell tells Helen Carroll why he spent £200,000 on becoming one. Plus: I was the UK’s first solo surrogacy father" (London Times).

"The British government has blocked Ye from entry on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good...."

"Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it 'deeply concerning' that Ye was scheduled to perform 'despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.' 'Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears... Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.'"

I'm reading "London music festival canceled after Britain bans headliner Kanye West/The move comes after days of mounting controversy over past antisemitic statements made by the rapper, now known as Ye" (WaPo).

West has apologized and stated "I love Jewish people," but he did sell swastika T-shirts and release a song called "Heil Hitler." 

"Among my friends, getting private healthcare insurance through your company is seen as the best work perk there is. I have paid £70 for a private appointment...."

"Even for the friends who don’t get private healthcare for free through work, paying close to £100 for a private GP appointment is seen as worth it, a small price to pay for peace of mind about health.... As one [friend] says: 'The anxiety of waiting so long to get something fixed just isn’t worth it.... With the NHS, I feel like you have to start with a doctor who is tired, stressed and doesn’t have much time for you.' Another friend tells me she has noticed that private doctors are more likely to prescribe antibiotics than NHS ones. So when she thinks she has tonsillitis, she goes private to make sure she gets the medicine. Yet another goes private when she has 'big scares,' she says. 'Because of the NHS wait times, if I have something that I’m really worried about and that is affecting my mental health, that’s when I go private.'..."

From "I’m 30 and I avoid the NHS if I can. Here’s why/The latest survey shows that most people my age feel the same, says Georgina Roberts" (London Times).

"At the moment, [Saturday Night Live UK] has a grinning, whooping, gurning American mania to it."

"... [W]e and our US cousins have wildly differing senses of humour.... Much of the best British comedy relies on understatement, subtle wordplay, self-deprecation, self-mortification. It’s why Larry David is the American many Brits find most funny: he, like us, understands that life is a vale of tears, suffering and torturing yourself over mild social awkwardness...."

Writes Charlotte Ivers, in "Saturday Night Live UK review: Britain is funny but this isn’t yet/There’s talent in the cast — shame this Sky One debut was four parts American gurning, one part Princess Diana" (London Times).

A description of the "cold open": "Keir Starmer... and David Lammy... are psyching themselves up to phone Donald Trump, with the help of their 'Gen Z adviser.'... Keir: 'Oh golly, what if Donald shouts at me?' Gen Z adviser: 'You’re looking for more of a special situationship.'"

Also: "In a sketch parodying news headlines, the question is asked whether, once Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is in prison, he will 'be able to keep his mouth shut.' This is followed, I regret to inform you, by the punchline: '"I hope not," said his cellmate’s penis.'"

I don't see what's American about those jokes. And I don't see why the SNL format forces writers to use American-style humor! Worse, don't excuse your bad jokes by claiming they are American. The SNL format — cold open, monologue, sketches, Weekend Update, music performance — is an empty shell into which writers can insert whatever humor the producers want. Take responsibility. Or withdraw into the vale of tears and suffer and torture yourself. Apparently, you find that amusing. 

As for the "grinning, whooping, gurning American mania" — I only know the word "gurning" from the perennial reports of the World Gurning Championships. I see the NYT had one last year: "In This Pageant, the Ugliest Face Wins/The World Gurning Championships in northern England celebrate the centuries-old art of face-pulling."

That's been going on for years. I remember reading about the World Gurning Championships in LIFE magazine in the 1960s:

Here, you can buy that issue of LIFE on eBay. It was March 14, 1969. The cover story is "The Daring Contraption Called LEM." Inside: "The Race for the SST." And here's an ad: "McDonald's introduces Big Mac/A meal disguised as a sandwich." And: "Why is the Camaro the pace car again?/Because it's the Hugger."

That's all so American. And the American point of view was that gurning was a British oddity.

ADDED:

More clips from the show: here.

"One man who has already walked that perimeter in its entirety is the photographer Quintin Lake, who did so over 454 days in spells between 2015 and 2020..."

"... walking 12 to 24 miles each day. But in order to achieve his mission he had to frequently cut inland to walk along roads or trespass over private land. 'There was a lot of climbing over fences and having a series of unpleasant encounters with people saying: "What are you doing on my land?,"' said Lake, 50.... 'From a hiker’s point of view, when you have a well-maintained path and good waymarking it just makes it much more relaxing. I was super-impressed with the Welsh coast path. And in Scotland it is magnificent — as long as you respect the use of the land there you are treated as an adult with common sense.... [T]here’s something about long-distance walking in Britain that’s so peaceful and so varied. Every day is very, very different. That’s especially the thrill of coastal walking. You can walk through a city and then just a few hours later you’re on a wild cliff. It changes all the time.'"

From "King Charles coastal path to open all 2,700 miles for walking in England/Providing right of access to the entire coast for the first time, it will be the longest of its kind in the world" (London Times).

"At the moment the power balance between somebody working in prostitution and the punter is very much in the punter's favour..."

"... and quite often punters use that in order to exploit women's vulnerabilities more. 'So they'll say to them "you know if you don't do what I say I'll tell the police about you" and so on, whereas it turns around in the Nordic model. The women in prostitution can say to the punter: "No I'm not going to comply with that request, and I can call the police on you." It doesn't sound like a lot but that is a subtle power shift which I think gives more security and more safety to those working in prostitution.'"

Said Independent MSP Ash Regan, quoted in "'I would love to be doing this in my 60s' - the debate over selling sex in Scotland" (BBC).

The quote in the headline is from someone called Porcelain Victoria, who "says she started selling sex when she was 18 and used it as a way to escape an abusive household": "I plan to do this until I can't, basically. I would love to be doing this in my 60s. My plan is to hopefully semi-retire and become a counsellor helping couples and solo people figure out their sexuality when it comes to kinks and fetishes."

I had to look up "punter."

"I do not find the complainant was as alarmed and distressed as they portrayed themselves to be."

Said District Judge Briony Clarke, quoted in "Graham Linehan cleared of harassing trans campaigner/The Father Ted co-creator was found guilty of criminal damage after smashing the phone of activist Sophia Brooks" (London Times).

The comedy writer, 57, was appearing at Westminster magistrates’ over allegations he had waged a social media campaign against [transgender campaigner Sophia] Brooks between October 11 and October 27, 2024. He posted about her more than 20 times on the social media platform X in which he used terms such as “sociopath”, “psycho”, “domestic terrorist” and “groomer”, the court heard. 

Linehan's reaction: "There are a group of dangerous men who are determined to bully women and girls, and to misuse the courts and police in furtherance of a misogynistic agenda. I’m proud to have stood up to them and I will continue to do so."

I wanted to blog this using a tweet from Lineham, but he tweets so much that I gave up scrolling looking for something from yesterday. Here's a search of his feed limited to the name "Sophia Brooks." To select one thing:

This was all very polite legal speak for “Brooks is a liar”. But as I said during the trial, people who are capable of lying about their sex will lie about anything https://t.co/Fz29yir4fG

— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) November 25, 2025

I became interested in Lineham's legal ordeal when he appeared on Joe Rogan's show, blogged here, with embedded video of the whole show.

"For reasons I don’t need to go into, you may feel that now is a bad time to visit the once United States. I thought the same..."

"... but having just returned from a tour of Arizona, I’d argue that it’s the perfect time. What Barack Obama described as 'an inflection point' is America’s worst domestic crisis since the civil rights movement of the 1960s: the relationship problems of a democracy still a few months short of its 250th birthday. For curious travellers and for those who prefer to make up their minds based on what they’ve seen rather than what they’ve been told, now offers the opportunity to witness not only history in the making but the events that brought America to where it stands today. Arizona is the place to start. Everywhere is open, everyone is delighted to see you...."

I'm reading, in The London Times, "My week taking America’s temperature in the Grand Canyon state/The history is fascinating and the scenery is astonishing but is the welcome as warm as it used to be? Chris Haslam finds out on a slow drive through Arizona."

Sample text:

"What about the recent theft from the Louvre, the 2,000 items stolen from the British Museum last year, or environmental activists pouring oil on Egyptian artefacts in Germany?"

Said Monica Hanna, dean of Egypt’s Arab Academy for Science and Technology, addressing the argument that "Western museums" offer better security.

Quoted in "Now give us back Rosetta Stone and other treasures, Egyptians demand/Campaigners say the Grand Egyptian Museum opening strengthens the country’s moves to have ancient looted artefacts returned" (London Times).

What's up with the British spelling "artefact"? The Latin root is "artēfactum," just combines "skill" and "thing" to mean "thing made," and the French word was "artefact." The American spelling — "artifact" — reflects the thinking of Noah Webster, who scorned spelling based on etymology and foreign languages — especially French.

As for the Rosetta Stone: Make 10 replicas and place them in 10 museums, including the British Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum, and hide the real thing in a vault somewhere.

"Lee Anderson, Reform’s chief whip, suggested the return of the 'Invacar' — or invalid carriage — a small single-seater microcar that was distributed by the NHS for decades..."

"... after the Second World War. Anderson told a press conference hosted by the party: 'I remember back in the day if you were on disability and you wanted a car from the state, it was a blue three-wheeler, anybody remember those? What’s wrong with that? Let’s go back to that.' The cars were banned from British roads in 2003 for being too dangerous, after reports of them overturning and catching fire, and ministers ordered that all remaining cars be crushed. Anderson made the comments as he criticised the Motability scheme, which allows disabled people to get cars through the benefits system. Labour ministers are considering removing BMWs, Mercedes and other luxury cars from the scheme, which provides such premium brands to more than 40,000 benefits claimants...."

From "Bring back three-wheeled cars for disabled drivers, Reform urges/The chief whip, Lee Anderson, suggests return of ‘Invacars’, which were withdrawn on safety grounds, as part of a replacement of the Motability scheme" (London Times).

"Apparently our three-year-old, who does not understand the concept of time, had told someone that she hadn’t bathed for five days..."

"... (she had, several times). There were also concerns over the holes in her tights and her 'unseasonal dressing.' The holes were minor and the outfits, granted, were eccentric but the only way to get out the house in the morning was to allow my daughter to dress herself. I clarified that I always included other options in her bag for when she dressed for Christmas in July but it was clear that they had already decided I was inept or neglectful, or both. Following this, after every drop-off I would send an email novella about my daughter’s clothing choices... until one day my paranoia felt too much and I stopped. I still included additional outfit options but I didn’t provide the lengthy explanations — something that returned to haunt me when I didn’t communicate a new obsession my daughter developed with some too-small shoes.... We had been told about four or five 5p-sized bruises on my daughter’s shin that we couldn’t explain.... And, of course, the strange outfits, holey tights and small shoes...."

From "My daughter’s nursery reported us to social services/When bruises were found on our child’s shin it was just the start of a humiliating, harrowing experience" (London Times).