Samrat is a unique talent. He played at a house concert for us last year and the audience is still talking about it.
Happy World Guitar Day! 🎸
Here's Samrat Majumder playing Sor's Grand Solo, Op. 14, written over 200 years ago and one of the classical guitar's defining works.
Catch Samrat at @wigmore_hall Hall on Tue 3 Nov in our Lunchtime Series
Link in our bio ✨
#YCATartists
Tony Britten retweeted
So it's official. Reuters has confirmed that the White House gave the order to disrupt Starlink so Russia could attack Kiev with no advanced warning. The US aided & abetted Putin's killings of numerous civilians in Ukraine. Trump is a traitor, a Russian asset, helping our enemy.
Tony Britten retweeted
“Let me die,” American photojournalist Heidi Levine repeats to journalists Jasper Nathaniel as they try to outrun masked Israeli settlers who attacked her on Friday while she covered the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, near Ramallah.
Around 80 settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters in the village, AP reported. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated six people injured in two attacks in Abu Falah.
Levine, a freelancer for the Washington Post, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the settlers knocked her down and kicked her for at least 10 minutes, even after she identified herself as an American journalist. They stole her camera, phone and bag. She was eventually taken to a hospital in Ramallah.
"The IDF provided cover, with tear gas and machine guns, while the settlers beat" Levine "nearly to death," Nathaniel wrote, adding that soldiers then shot a Palestinian bystander and aimed their guns at and shoved paramedics trying to treat him. AP photos and circulating videos show Israeli soldiers standing over a wounded Palestinian man after they shot him.
Andrey X, an activist also at the scene, said a Palestinian man "saved our lives from the settler-terrorists who attacked the olive harvesters and journalists” armed only with a slingshot.
I wonder if any GOP senator, yet alone a democrat will ever have the backbone to publicly call Trump out for what he plainly is - a traitor. Back in the day traitors faced firing squads, now they run countries, exude hatred and destroy the world order. All to get even richer.
Tony Britten retweeted
Let us all hope & pray (and VOTE) that such a person never gets anywhere near government.🤞🏻
We will cut the arts & culture budget by £1bn in order to fund 50,000 prison places. Keeping rapists and other dangerous offenders locked up is a priority for the @Conservatives. We will always put community safety first.
@RichmoMusic If you need help understanding the numbers, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Always happy to talk you through.
thetimes.com/article/77bcee1…
Tony Britten retweeted
BREAKING: Billionaire Sir Richard Branson unleashes a SCORCHING attack on Trump and his disgusting cozying up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing that gets under Trump's skin...
"I thought I’d never have to say this in my lifetime, but this is 2026, and sadly nothing is what it used to be," Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, wrote on LinkedIn. "The Trump administration has become an appeaser to autocrats and dictators, putting their personal whims before the best interests of the American people and those of the free world. What is it about Putin that President Trump fawns over?"
"How will America’s allies ever be able to trust this administration again when they are now turning against them at a time of war and suffering?" he asked.
Trump has repeatedly betrayed our Ukrainian allies in recent days. First, he announced a stunning deal with Putin to allow millions of barrels of diesel into the global markets, a move that will directly pump money into the Russian war machine. Then, he began a concerted smear campaign against President Zelenskyy and said that Putin is easier to deal with.
The backstabbing escalated when Washington failed to provide its usual early warning to Kyiv of an incoming Russian ballistic missile attack. Now, it appears that the White House ordered a temporary disruption of Starshield, a military version of Elon Musk's Starlink that the Ukrainian armed forces rely upon.
"The slowdown of Starlink/Starshield and the inexplicable lack of advance warning of Russian missile launches have already caused Ukrainian civilians to die unnecessarily," wrote Branson. "How much worse can it get?"
"If one thing is clear it’s that European leaders must overcome the initial shock about Trump’s recent actions and step up to the plate. It’s as much about Europe’s freedom as it is about Ukraine’s sovereignty. Both are worth fighting for," he continued. "All options should be on the table now, from the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to the delivery of advanced weapons systems such as Germany’s Taurus."
"Why oh why is this happening? We cannot let the free world be dismantled before our very eyes," Branson concluded.
We couldn't agree more. Trump is an enemy to Ukraine, an enemy to democracy, and an enemy to the American people. When Democrats retake power, we have our work cut out for us. Every last trace of this monstrous man's legacy must be erased.
Please ❤️ and share if you think that Trump is Putin's puppet!
Tony Britten retweeted
We're deeply concerned that the Shadow Culture Secretary appears to be arguing for an end to almost all public investment in arts & culture.
A cut of this magnitude would be unprecedented and catastrophic. We've requested a full explanation of the numbers and a serious rethink.
We will cut the arts & culture budget by £1bn in order to fund 50,000 prison places. Keeping rapists and other dangerous offenders locked up is a priority for the @Conservatives. We will always put community safety first.
@RichmoMusic If you need help understanding the numbers, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Always happy to talk you through.
thetimes.com/article/77bcee1…
Tony Britten retweeted
BBC Question Time appearances
Zarah Sultana 1
Jeremy Corbyn 1
Mick Lynch 1
-
Nigel Farage 38
Very, very biased selection, even more than Fiona Bruce.
And “Bring on the Girls”, the possibility apocryphal but always entertaining book about that time is worth searching for. But Plum, whilst very involved in the plots, never wrote the books for the Princess Musicals - that was the job of his best friend, playwright Guy Bolton.
On PG Wodehouse’s birthday please note he wrote the book & lyrics of musicals incl. 1917’s Oh, Lady! Lady!! for which he wrote this tender song with Jerome Kern. It was cut. A decade later Kern reused it, with a little lyric revision by Oscar Hammerstein. youtu.be/N7q43uU6lEs?is=Ksp2…
Question for @andyburnham - since millions of Americans still support the treasonous, deranged president and his craven GOP won’t invoke the 25th amendment, will you call him out & instigate cutting ties with him? Or are you waiting til the civil war that may erupt after Nov 3rd?
Trump’s destruction of America’s economy and international standing and his treasonous acts are clear and will take decades to recover from. Hegseth’s abandonment of all normal moral values may be a permanent stain on a once great nation’s reputation that can never be erased.
I thought I was reading about North Korea or Iran, but no, this is Hegseth’s Pentagon.
A publicly live streamed firing squad? After the Christa Pike debacle?
Revolting for the world’s leading democracy, no matter the crime.
nytimes.com/2026/10/08/us/po…
Tony Britten retweeted
Another way to think about Trump announcement today: If he increased US diesel imports from Canada by 4%, he would gain as much fuel as from this Russia deal. But the Canadians are global super-villains, so who wants to buy from them when you could enrich Putin instead?
Tony Britten retweeted
Zia Yusuf wants to kill people in the Channel. Pete Hegseth is going to livestream an execution.
These two things have not just been randomly announced.
Political violence is a central tenet of fascism.
If we don't stop it now, it will be too late.
Oh - like they do in Ira
Public will be able to watch firing squad execution of Fort Hood attacker, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says bbc.in/3TIHVvq
Tony Britten retweeted
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of George Fenton.
As a former Visiting Professor in Composition for Screen, George was a valued member of the RCM Composition Faculty. He received a Fellowship in 2011 to recognise his significant contribution to music.
Terribly sad news that George Fenton has died. He was a lovely and talented man and we had such good times over many years working with the incomparable Keith Grant at Olympic Studios. RIP, gentleman George.
Try Everybody Digs Bill Evans. V limited release, but well conceived and directed.
Should I go and see #Digger? It sounds exhausting and at my age I don't think I have the bandwidth to care.
I might go and see the new #Spiderman movie instead.
























