Rob Linham

@radinden.bsky.social

74 Followers 39 Following

Human rights policy expert, former 🇬🇧 diplomat, Somerset CCC member, music fan, proud Brightonian. Views may not be mine, certainly no-one else's. He/him.

Sir Humphrey Appleby - the quintessential civil servant in dark suit, tie and somewhat smug expression - raising a tea cup in the manner of a toast.

The courtroom of the European Court of Human Rights: a curved brown judicial bench with many blue chairs sits in front of a white wall, with a large blue carpet with twelve gold stars in front of it.

A group of 20 people, including the author, grouped on a flight of steps and smiling for the camera. They are smartly dressed. There are tall columns and large windows behind them.

A screenshot of a table on Wikipedia's website, with columns for year, security additions, date of destruction, method of destruction and notes. The rows for 2020 and 2022 record that it survived, with a green background, whereas 2021 records that it was destroyed by fire on 17 December. The 2023 line records the date of destruction as "little by little throughout December", the method of destruction as "eaten by jackdaws" - both on a yellow background - and in notes says, "Due to the straw used to construct the goat containing higher than usual amounts of seed, the goat was severely damaged by flocks of jackdaws foraging for food."

The Gavle Goat, a large wooden frame in the shape of a long-horned goat standing in a town square with trees and buildings all covered with snow. The goat is adorned with red ribbon, but most of the straw used to build around the frame has been stripped away, some piled around the base of the structure.

Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk, wearing a suit, white shirt and dark tie, speaking in a wood-panelled room in Parliament, with three more men in suits - including the post's author - sitting behind him in a row watching him speak.