If this wasn’t just entirely predictable. Wait until we also get a wave of challenges to rent as well. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
England’s housing courts at breaking point as renters battle no-fault evictions
Courts said to be ‘overloaded’ as landlords sell properties and tenants with nowhere to go try to delay evictions
theguardian.com
We have spent the 57 years since the Family Law Revision Act 1969 slowly reversing the heresy that 18 year olds are adults. It will soon be complete.
Tim Bale@timbale.bsky.social · 6d agoCan this really be true? "67 per cent of parents in the UK track the location of their university-age children, according to a survey by Unite Students." (Source: inews.co.uk/inews-lifest...)
I kinda get the sentiment but I really don't think it's a good idea to be blaming Thatcher in 2026.
Peter Stefanovic@peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 6d agoWednesday’s @theguardian.com front page: Brexit and Thatcher to blame for UK’s era of low growth, says Prime Minister @andyburnham.bsky.social
This is such a complicated analysis that I’m not convinced it tells you much.
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 2w agoReform voters, and to a lesser extent Tories, are much likelier to think they hold the most common public view across several topics that our survey suggests is not the case, most notably: -2024 rioters -Trans ID -Bregret -Business reg -Lockdowns -Israel-Palestine -Trump yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
Just have them contribute to a central fund for building renewables at scale. It’s silly to tax developers by compelling them to build localised and less efficient energy projects.
Justin Mikulka@justinmikulka.bsky.social · 2w agoLook at that. Doing it in China too. "Spain will require new data centres to back at least 80% of their hourly power consumption with new renewable generation, in a boost to further wind and solar power deployment." paywalled.
The idea that the founding fathers were clueless as to the risk of a failing political culture seems implausible to me. The problem is that you can’t really solve that risk by constitutional design. You are at the mercy of future generations maintaining that culture.
James Austin@jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Founding Fathers anticipated a Trump like figure - and loaded the constitution with measures to stop them What they didn't anticipate was that individuals would just chose not to fufil their functions I'm not sure this is recognised enough or we've thought about how to prevent this in future
The route by which these have been “banned”, such as to justify trading standards seizing them, is highly opaque as @giffordhead.co.uk noted. I struggle to see how an ordinary person can make heads or tails of it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Dozens of disposable barbecues seized in Hull after ban
Officers visited more than 60 local premises and found five were still selling the single-use items.
bbc.co.uk
I agree with this policy, but the point of devolution is that local authorities get to make choices about services locally. Burnham is bragging that something he did with devolved power is now being imposed nationally. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Free bus travel for disabled people in England to be extended to 24 hours a day
The change, which has been welcomed by campaign groups, will come into effect in England from April.
bbc.co.uk
Inevitable really, once you start to interfere with the normal market mechanism for pricing scarce goods. This is just a different way of ascertaining what people are willing to pay. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-lan...
London landlords’ latest tactic: Inverse bidding wars
Plus: London’s most ‘given up on August’ street • What caused the big fire? • Dodgy shops raids to come • Buy a kayak, the floods are coming.
londoncentric.media
NIMBYs love an affordability mandates because they are effectively very high taxes on new housing, while looking altruistic. They have suckered in progressives that way, but if we really want housing to allocate on a social basis the gov should simply build it itself.
Stephen Jacob Smith@stephenjacobsmith.com · 3w agoWell this is insane: “High affordable housing requirements within the Government’s ‘Golden Rules’ are likely to dash any hopes of a ‘Train Belt’ building boom…A 300-home development will typically be forced to provide between 110 and 150 homes at a discount.”
Labour will do anything to help businesses except (a) make energy affordable (b) make employing people affordable (c) permenantly reduce business rates (d) incentivise local government to encourage growth (e) remove the power of local government to block growth or (f) cut the regulatory burden.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoAngela Rayner moves to protect pubs from being turned into houses or offices
As I posted on the other place, the Samaritans advice is to ask people to not try to attribute suicide to a sungle cause or event, not least because it encourages people facing similar circumstances to see suicide as the obvious or only response.
Legal C@legalclaret.bsky.social · 3w agoAnd, as often with suicide, people want a simple cause, and an identifiable culprit, rather than address the bigger cause of most suicides - poor mental health. Was the press coverage a bigger issue that being found out? We may never know. /4
We took two hours to go from the government telling everyone it’s an emergency if you have a bbq to the emergency services begging everyone to stop calling about the bbqs that were apparently such an emergency that we used the emergency broadcast system. Incredible work. No notes.
@ralphmould.bsky.social · 3w agoGood use of emergency service time
No one is ever better off not being here with us, or their families. Suicide is preventable, not inevitable.
The government is just re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Unemployed young people to join AI boot camps to get job-ready
Pilot scheme will provide three weeks of training as part of UK government’s latest attempt to address Neets crisis
theguardian.com
Anyone claiming national grid has neglected investment doesn’t know the first thing about national grid. National grid is investing £70B over five years, more than two years of total household spending on electricity!
Prem Sikka@premnsikka.bsky.social · 4w agoMillions in UK could face power cuts at short notice. 16%-20% of electricity imported. In hot weather & high winds, solar farms, wind turbines turned off. Poor electricity transmission/storage infrastructure. National Grid makes record profits, investment neglected. Wonders of privatisation.
JBM is right that the problem is mostly not too many grads per se, but too many grads in a world of high minimum wage, low market wage growth and terrible housebuilding.
John Burn-Murdoch@jburnmurdoch.ft.com · last mo.New from me: Britain’s graduate earnings premium is falling, cue “too many go to university!” But non-university outcomes are also bad, cue “we must reform vocational routes!” Both miss the point: people used to think education drove economic outcomes, but the economy drives educational outcomes.
The reality is that much of English law only works because its too time consuming and expensive for most people to do anything with it. Once that control goes it all gets a little squiffy.
Matthew Holehouse@matthewholehouse.bsky.social · last mo.Public use of AI is doing weird, unpredictable and damaging things to the state. A dive into how Grok lawyering is upending the employment tribunals www.economist.com/britain/2026...
Public use of AI is doing weird, unpredictable and damaging things to the state. A dive into how Grok lawyering is upending the employment tribunals www.economist.com/britain/2026...
JBM needs to produce a further article on this issue. I know why left leaning people like this argument, because it means (a) the “rich” are at fault and (b) we don’t need to work with evil “developers” www.ft.com/content/42ad...
Letter: Why construction alone won’t solve housing crisis
From Katie Eimear Hogben, Brussels, Belgium
ft.com
You would think that experienced Kings Counsel would not need to be told blow by blow that he was breaching an order the judge had made just days before.
Simon Parker@sparkerworld.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis prosecution of a leading KC for representing the interests of his client in a closing speech which was not interrupted by the trial judge happened under a Labour government led by a former human rights lawyer. Gareth Pierce is right to call it "terrifying". www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
The rule of law is when lawyers can do whatever they want, even disobey a judge to his face.
Shoaib M Khan@shoaibmkhan.bsky.social · 2mo agoBaroness Shami Chakrabarti: "This is a line in the sand. There is no rule of law if lawyers are to be treated in this way. I hope this terrible, capricious mistake by a trial judge will be rectified on appeal. If the judiciary do not stand up for the rule of law, we will have to turn to Parliament".
Sorry someone accidentally used the Black Mirror script in real life again.
Josh Sternberg@joshsternberg.com · 2mo agowe're so cooked www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
Lammy is “incompetent“ because he dared to even slightly question the criminal bar’s inexplicable and often jingoistic love of the jury.
The Secret Barrister@barristersecret.bsky.social · 2mo agoCan anybody offer any reassurances re our new Justice Secretary? While the lowest of bars, I would really like somebody less dangerously incompetent than David Lammy, if at all possible.
Doing things that work long term and doing things that people feel quickly are not at all the same.
Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social · 2mo ago“We're looking at measures that could make a difference this year We just want to do some things that people will feel and feel quite quickly. “It won’t solve everything, it won’t take all of the pressure off, but it just shows the direction of travel and that we’re serious about helping them out.”
Authoritarianism is when you are held accountable for, prima facie, disobeying express orders of the court.
Simon Cox@simonfrcox.bsky.social · 2mo agoDescent into authoritarianism? Undermining the role of defence lawyers: the Rajiv Menon KC case. Online only 5:30-7:00PM 22 July. As far right plan to abolish independent judiciary, so they can steal public assets, senior judges target a defence lawyer… us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
