I am now trying to explain to the young people on my team what 1999 was like and am just sending them this photo.

I'm entirely aware this is just ageing into my boomer Facebook era but damn, looking up 1999 eclipse content is proper 'whoooo remembers a different age'. Can't wait for Gen Alpha to rediscover and bring back Millenium-core aesthetics. Tents in architecture. Weird trance soundtracks. Big computers.

Having received a few of these letters, including from Carter Ruck, always worth looking at what the lawyer is willing to commit itself to vs where it says "as instructed by our client". Also, how much is pompous language vs how much is substantive factual denial. Creating fear is the point.

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · yesterday

Why was the Jason Arday story broken by a racist blogger and not the mainstream press? Because Times Higher Education was intimidated off the story by a letter from notorious libel firm Carter-Ruck. I'm publishing the letter. Its central claim may be false.

Exciting new London bike theft technique just experienced! My 200kg family ebike was securely locked to a tall metal pole which had a big parking restriction sign at the top. Three thieves turned up on Lime bikes with chairs, removed parking sign, then lifted bike 2.5metres over top of pole. Genius.

One of my favourite bits of my old job was writing up weird Ofcom rulings about radio stations no one listens to, good clean fun. but it’s sort of nuts that we have an expensive media regulator spending months ruling on this and not *waves hand* I don’t know the media that Brits actually consume.

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 2d ago

Radio Caroline breached Ofcom rules after mistakenly announcing King Charles's death

This week Andy Burnham is going on a tour of the UK talking about dodgy shops. In the spirit of providing him with some ideas, London Centric partnered with Edinburgh Minute to look for the Londoner running gift shops that recently burned down in Scotland. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

Exit through the gift shop

Plus: "Vertical drinking" politics • Robocop comes to Greggs • Robotaxis controlled by humans • London's festivals-in-parks mess

londoncentric.media

Scoop from Black Current News, Jason Arday has resigned from the University of Cambridge. www.blackcurrentnews.co.uk/p/jason-arda...

Exclusive | Professor Jason Arday resigns from Cambridge University, citing toll of ‘public scrutiny and personal attack’

The academic, who became the youngest Black professor in Cambridge’s history when appointed, said he had reached “the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure"

blackcurrentnews.co.uk

Stories about life, death and taxes (plus some original photos) www.londoncentric.media/p/londons-fi...

London's first month without rain

Plus: There's nowhere to bury the dead • London wants to keep its money • When will it stop being so damn hot • Who is to blame for turning off the air conditioning in the tower block?

londoncentric.media

Healey’s whole vibe has made more sense to me since I learned he grew up in Thornton Dale.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last wk.

Healey’s profiteering warning on food and fuel sparks retailer anger

more good content! imagine publishing content that's just nice! reveals a little bit about having fun on the internet! people just doing things because they can and the internet was nice!

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · last wk.

this owns www.inverse.com/input/cultur...

Tried to explain to my kid what travelling abroad was like in the pandemic and it started “well there was this guy called Grant Shapps,.. every Thursday before your holiday he would post on… this thing called Twitter… his personal account… then you’d cancel your flight”. And you just sound MENTAL.

You’ve probably seen @peterwalker99.bsky.social’s story on the London flats where the temporary accommodation residents had their air con turned off in a heatwave; we had a look at what’s going on and who is responsible. www.londoncentric.media/p/air-condit...

"If you're poor, you can sweat": One building's air conditioning divide

The struggles of residents in a London tower block sum up the challenges of heatwave-era London.

londoncentric.media

Today experienced the 24th day of year hitting 30C in London. For perspective in whole of 1980s we had 21 days.

The Office: Woman Holding 'HOT' Sign

ALT: The Office: Woman Holding 'HOT' Sign

static.klipy.com

Yikes

Marie Le Conte@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 2w ago

all happening at the Mail today www.dailymail.com/home/article...

ChatGPT requests are starting to turn up as evidence in criminal trials and these ones are going to be hard to beat

I’ve been writing variants on “hey Westminster, I think people might be consuming politics content on the internet” since 2012. But there’s not much space for it in current job. So just one little take that’s annoying me with current coverage about Burnham’s approach…

From this weekend's London Centric: details of the messy Mayor vs Met Police vs Palantir case. www.londoncentric.media/p/thames-wat...

There's lots of things in this edition but I just really like the story about London's second cable car. www.londoncentric.media/p/thames-wat...

The Londoners who can't shower in their own homes

Plus: The Oxford Street cable car that never was • Khan and the Met go to war over Palantir • The London council closing its children's water play areas in a heatwave

londoncentric.media

The entire LadBible staff are going to be running government comms by the end of the year.

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 3w ago

Lots of new social media jobs just announced in the Government Media Unit, to be based in Manchester...

I am absolutely obsessed with this quote about Manchester that Tony Wilson never said but was written by a scouse author in protest at an editor’s note that the 24 Hour Party People script didn’t follow the traditional three act structure and now serves as the ambient ~vibe~ for UK government

Normal Guy@guy-normal.bsky.social · 3w ago

concerningly Mancunian heart surgeon: Let's just say we do things a little differently here 😏

*walks into room of mathematicians* Have you considered DOING A BREAKTHROUGH.

mr. TIM@timkellogg.me · 3w ago

the Dinitz-Garg-Goemans conjecture, a graph theory problem that’s gone unsolved for 30 years, was solved with this prompt

Delightful piece about my old friends at CT Group. The problem with Bell Pottinger going bust was it opened a gap in the market. The trick is not to jump into it. And if you do jump into it, do research the people you're approaching to do your work.

Pete Apps@peteapps.bsky.social · 3w ago

In November, a lobbying firm approached me and asked to pay me to write articles critical of the Building Safety Regulator for newspapers. Filmed undercover, their staff admitted secretly paying reporters for copy in British newspapers friendly to their clients: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Interesting and realistic interview with the CEO of Reach, who no longer wants reach, and now wants paid subscription revenue, as Google traffic is just in freefall due to AI. Problem is trying to get people to pay premium prices for outlets that were trashed in the 2010s rush for cheap clicks.

Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk · 3w ago

Reach is “moving away from volume” in its editorial output to focus on original content as results for the first half of 2026 showed traffic and revenue down Reach has set its “near-term focus” on digital subscriptions, “quality video” and AI licensing deals pressgazette.co.uk/news/reach-m...

Holy fuck this could easily be the highlight of Kier Starmer's political career. Total cinema.

s. e. smith@sesmith.lol · 3w ago

I’m sorry but this was posted by Kier Starmer’s actual verified account and I am DECEASED my brother in Christ I just…was his social media person just like grip it and rip it or what

OK, that's the third Christmas-related press release in the inbox today. Heatwave's over, get the Big Coat ready.

You: Trying to work out Burnham's media policy by looking at his government Me: Looking for clues by digging out Burnham's pre-politics articles for When Saturday Comes from the mid-90s where he talks about meeting Andy Gray at Labour conference and not trusting local newspaper Everton reporters

Lol I just moved my kids around London on this exact bicycle at 25mph *because you can pedal faster than the motor* oh god e-bike policy is such a mess, even the police don't have a clue.

Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d@toot.bike@gazza-d.bsky.social · 3w ago

Can you imagine the uproar if someone's legal car was seized and immediately crushed because some woodentop made a mistake? And the Police don't even apologise or accept they made a mistake. It's good to see this go mainstream. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The misdirection briefing over chancellor is very funny. But fair play to the mysterious people who this morning and at lunchtime curiously backed John Healey for chancellor at odds of up to 130/1, days after the last time any bets been placed on him for the job with Betfair.

a beautiful parting gift to centrist dads everywhere from Sir Keir, homebrew electricity to power your mobile aircon from next month!!!

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 3w ago

I know it's not the biggest news of the day, but I just spotted this... One of Keir Starmer's last acts in Govt is this: Laying legislation that will legalise 'plug-in solar' (aka balcony solar) panels in Britain It means plug-in solar panels do not (legally) have to be wired in by an electrician.

Steve Bray trying to sing his way through the Met police ban on having a speaker, is it.