Ben Delo a crypto boss who was convicted in the US of failing to have adequate safeguards against money laundering but pardoned by Trump has given £36m to Reform. Its more than Labour spent in total in the 2024 Election.
He was followed by Thai based Crypto billionaire Christopher Harwood who also donated £32m. An earlier donation of £5m is part of a Police investigation
The second donation £72m in total is more than all parties spent in the 2024 Election
It looks like ‘cant be bought’ Farage is trying to buy the next Election. The future of Parliamentary Democracy is under threat from unelected and unaccountable Crypto bosses
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said the pencil moustache of Pakistan’s 21 year old debutant Razaullah was key to his impressive performance with ball and bat. He took 4 wickets in England’s first innings bowling at 90mph and in Pakistan’s second innings scored 81 runs including nine sixes.
The campaigners say that his trademark pencil moustache was key, allowing air currents to mobilise that helped his efforts with ball and bat.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, Jonathan Agnew was rather dismissive of Razaullah’s moustache failing to grasp how important it is to his game.
The official Pressure Drop announcement is below. Tim O’Rourke was voted Beard of the Year in 2018 and he is the benchmark for Beard Friendly brewing as is Sienna for promoting it
After an impressive 13 years at the helm, our cofounders Sam and Ben are moving on from the company. With Sam’s financial wizardry and Ben’s brewing expertise, they’ve made Pressure Drop what it is today, and we’re incredibly grateful for everything they’ve done along the way. They’re both moving on to exciting new projects, and while we are very sorry to see them go, we’re excited to see what they get up to next. Thank you for everything, Sam and Ben!
Of course, that leaves a pretty big gap at the top. Sooo… without further ado, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to the new owners of Pressure Drop: husband-and-wife duo, Sienna and Tim!
Sienna has been with PD for the best part of 10 years. You readers will know her as our queen of marketing, the incredibly talented artist behind our amazing label designs, and the previous author of this mailer. Needless to say, she knows Pressure Drop from the inside out, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with her as our director. Then we come to Tim, previously head brewer for the fantastic Floc Brewing. He knows what’s what when it comes to making juicy, hoppy, delicious beers, and I personally cannot wait to see what specials he comes up with over the coming months.
And now, a word from Sienna:
I’ve loved working at Pressure Drop, it’s a brilliant brewery with an amazing team, that I am proud to have been a part of for the last decade. But Tim and I have always wanted to open our own brewery at some point, me bringing the creative and commercial side, him bringing the brewing. So when this opportunity came up, it felt like a bit of a dream scenario: we get to take on something we already know and love, and build this next chapter together. It feels like a genuinely exciting moment, not just for us, but for where Pressure Drop can go next. Huge shoes to fill, and we couldn’t do it without the amazing people who work here, but we’re ready.
I’ve been glancing at the third day of the final Test cricket summer at Edgbaston. It’s likely also to be the last day of the match.
In 2025 all five Tests against India went to the full five days. 2026 has been different, and not only because of the weather, although perhaps that is not entirely unrelated in terms of pitches.
Michael Atherton in The Times (Sept 8th) has looked at some statistics. He quotes the statistician Benedict Bermange.
Prior to the last Test of 2026 there have been an average of 1,470 balls per Test. The next comparison is 1854 with 1,434 balls and then 1912 1,248 balls. By contrast the India series of 2025 had an average of 2,080 balls.
There are various explanations for a trend to shorter Tests. The influence of short form cricket, DRS reviews meaning more decisions are given as ‘out’. Atherton also quotes Joe Root on the 2026 Dukes ball.
Of course Atherton was a batter and its been summer for fast and seam bowlers (and not spinners).
Back in the day of Gentlemen v Players it was the job of bowlers (Players) to bowl to batters (Gentlemen) so they could score runs. 2026 sees the revenge of history
Not All Our Yesterdays: Remembering 9.11, 25 years on
It is the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, 11th September 2001.
Some will have lost friends and relatives in the attack, for the most part ordinary people quite unconnected to the US policies which provided the pretext for the attack.
Many others will be able to remember with more than usual clarity where they were on that day. I was at the TUC in Brighton. This was well before the days of instant access to the web via a smart phone.
It became clear in the hall that something had happened. That year’s TUC Chair Bill Morris made an announcement that a plane had hit the twin towers. At that stage the extent of devastation was unknown.
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was due to address the gathering immediately after lunch. He appeared briefly said a speech would be inappropriate and hurried off to London. Business was suspended.
Delegates were stunned. Indeed so dazed was I that I recall shaking hands with the then General Secretary of my Union, not a normal event by any means in those now fairly far off days.
The attack on the twin towers was being shown on TV screens in the Brighton Centre. There was no other source of instant news then. I retreated to the Evening Star pub by Brighton station (still going strong I’m pleased to say, I was in there a few months back) and phoned my parents and partner. The enormity of what had happened was, I still recall, very difficult to process
The Speech Blair actually made at the TUC in Brighton on 11th September 2001
From Roderick Spode to Danny Tommo, the black shorts & why in 2026 they are no laughing matter
In his book the Code of the Woosters (1938) P G Wodehouse depicts Roderick Spode, a character based on the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley.
Wooster addresses Spode
“It is about time”, I proceeded, “that some public-spirited person came along and told you where you got off. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting ‘Heil, Spode!’ and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: ‘Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?
Spode’s group are known as the black shorts because as Wodehouse explains by the time they were formed various fascist groups around the world had taken all appropriate shirt colours.
In a TV adaptation Jeeves and Wooster (1990-93) Spode’s character makes various speeches including one promising British citizens a bicycle and umbrella at birth and comments on root vegetables
In September 2026 fascist ‘Danny Thomo’ brought a group of black shorts to protest at the London offices of the Daily Mail after he claimed the paper had given away the address of his mother (in fact he did this himself).
While the scene had an element of absurdity ‘Tommo’ is testing whether its possible to build and mobilise a street fascist gang. That is no laughing matter.
Stand Up to Racism’s Lewis Nielsen has a to the point analysis in Tribune
Protected French cheeses Comte, Beaufort and Abundance may taste different thanks to the impact of climate change.
They are meant to be made with milk from specific cattle breeds in the Jura Massif and Alps. However these areas have had so little rain that there is not sufficient grass to feed the cattle. Rules have been relaxed to allow grass from other areas to be used.
This means that Comte is likely to taste less intense and nuttier. Beaufort is likely to have reduced floral and fruity notes.
As the cheeses take a minimum of some months to mature the impact may start to be felt on the Christmas cheese market. No doubt there will be a price impact too…
The Bayeux Tapestry is open for public viewing at the British Museum. It is a remarkable historical survival, but discussion about what exactly it depicts and the circumstances in which it was made continues.
One aspect of the Tapestry that has attracted comparatively little attention is the depiction of facial hair or indeed lack of it.
The French are shown as clean shaven with short hair cuts, which would be considered trendy in 2026 let alone 1066. By contrast the English are shown to have moustaches, often of what in more recent times have been called handle bars.
The Tapestry and those who produced it were creating an image here of course. The clean shaven future versus the hairy past.
In reality the French appearance would have required considerable attention to shaving and hair trimming. Did they travel with a team of barbers? The English moustaches would have needed even more maintenance. Firstly to shave around them and secondly to get the moustache moulded to the handlebar model.
The House of Commons was packed on 9th September as Andy Burnham faced Kemi Badenoch at PM’s questions.
However the newly re-elected MP for Clacton was not there again. Rather he was at a GB News Jamboree in Washington marking one year of their (even more unhinged than UK) US operation.
Fittingly the Met Police also announced a criminal investigation into Reform’s donations after the recent Verbatim sting on Channel 4.
Hopefully Farage brought greetings from Clacton and did no fund raising…
