Back, Briefly, and Bearing News

Good morning, all.

I am back, though admittedly in a slightly limited capacity.

As many of you will know, I took a couple of days off last week Friday for a small reset. Much of that involved a long weekend in Portugal with my husband, where we had a minor accommodation snafu, as is tradition, ate far too much seafood, took long cliff-side walks staring out into the Atlantic, and fitted in so many naps that I genuinely felt myself evolving from Bear into some sort of aggressively horizontal, narcoleptic cat.

It was glorious. Necessary. And very overdue.

The plan had been to resume normal service yesterday, but as these things tend to do, life got in the way. This time for a good reason.

I am currently typing this on my phone, sitting on the edge of a bed in a teaspoonless serviced apartment in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, about to get showered and ready to meet the rest of the board of what will be my new employer from 1 March.

Yes, dear Gentle Reader - I got a job!

And, if I am being honest, a very good one.

We have been talking for quite a while, in that slightly absurd will-they-won’t-they limbo that senior roles seem to enjoy inflicting on everyone involved. It took time on both sides to get to the point of committing properly, but we got there, with a decent amount of flexibility, some grown-up trust, and no requirement for me to turn into a LinkedIn motivational speaker overnight. That, above all, felt very important.

I will say more about what this means, and how it fits alongside Bearly Politics, once the dust settles and my nervous system catches up with events. For now, it is enough to say that I am excited, relieved, and quietly proud, while also being very aware that I am still fundamentally the same person who managed to lose his headphones somewhere between the kitchen and the sofa in a tiny apartment last night.

Just also to note, I am also very aware of the latest tranche of Epstein-related documents that dropped over the weekend (of course it would happen while I’m on holiday), including material involving Peter Mandelson that is, frankly, even more unsavoury than many had assumed.

I have a metric shit tonne to say about it. I am not going to do that in a half-formed mobile typed. It deserves a properly grounded piece, which will follow once I’m back in London tomorrow, but the long and short of it is that it is a dangerous inflection point in UK politics to see just how influenced our politicians can be, and have been, and has had my blood positively boiling.

Also, a small housekeeping note. Today’s reader contribution will be slightly delayed. It is coming, and it will be worth the wait, but it is arriving a little later than planned thanks to the above combination of trains, timetables, and real life.

Finally, and without getting misty about it, thank you. This community continues to be thoughtful, patient, sharp, and far more generous than I ever expected when I started writing into the void. I do not take that lightly, and I do not confuse it with entitlement. It is noticed. It matters. And it is part of why this all feels worth doing, even on days where everything else is slightly sideways.

Normal service resumes shortly.

🐻