"Kew Gardens has had a weather station since 1871. This July was, based on third party analysis of Met Office data collected at the site, the first calendar month on record where no rainfall was measured at Kew."

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

With today's poll from BMG, it looks like Labour's poll bounce under Burnham has been on average ~4.7 points. A 2 point bounce when Starmer resigned and a further 2.7 points when Burnham became PM

I've been seeing a lot of people responding to this with "there ought to be a law," but importantly, we haven't needed a law for this sort of thing because no prior president wanted to be known as a leader who would literally kill people in their hour of need for not voting for him

Seth Masket@smotus.bsky.social · 7d ago

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b

Incredible that this is still going on - and indicative of how little priority issues affecting young people are given that it isn't more of a national scandal

Tim Leunig@timleunig.bsky.social · last wk.

Last night I looked at the availability of driving tests at the 100 nearest test centres in the next six months. Number of centres with an test available? Not one. Our country is failing!

I had to switch off after the first few lines for obvious reasons but pretty sure the tune is just Besame Mucho

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · last wk.

Stunned by this @siennarodgers.bsky.social scoop:

Even within the department! Further education is in tatters, universities are in crisis, childcare is too expensive…time to fuck around with the ONE bit that has worked.

Burnham should reverse these cuts as I once saw New Order play at Jodrell Bank and it was great www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Jodrell Bank Observatory facing closure after major funder cuts support

Scientists say decision is blow to UK astronomy as deep space observatory is home to world-leading facilities

theguardian.com

Someone has probably made this point but notable that Antinous (the main villain in Nolan's version Odyssey): - dodges the draft - can't be trusted on deals Given he's given these traits for this version, it's hard not to see who Nolan was aiming at

a new job market paper! using surveys from ~9.5 million college students over 35 years, I study the role of ideology in career aspirations. I show that ideology structures what careers people want, a pattern much stronger among high-income students. read here: tkeskinturk.github.io/aspirations.pdf

it is a great scandal that OfS allows Education as an Asset Class to be derisked through the state's student loan system, with the complicity of public universities. www.ft.com/content/6c54...

The UK’s biggest university is a private company

Supporters say franchised providers widen access to further education, but others doubt the real value of their ‘no frills’ courses

ft.com

This point is coming up a lot today. Last year, I argued that failure to recognise this would be the downfall of Starmer's "decade of national renewal": theconversation.com/keir-starmer...

Luke Tryl@luketryl.bsky.social · 2w ago

None of which is to say long term Isn’t important, but you’re more likely to get people to think things can be better in long term if you help in the here and now and show progress along the way. There is just limited resonance for jam tomorrow style politics 18 years since 2008

17.5% of all outside earnings were Amol Rajan

Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk · 2w ago

BBC News on-air journalists received at least £657k in external payments from 550 outside engagements in the year to March 2026 Today's Amol Rajan topped the list with at least £115k from 13 events pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/b...

One day, somebody in government will notice what the net migration level is hesding to. The fiscal forecast (£24 billion) was based on average net 235k to 2026-29 but that is at least 100k too high, costing £13 billion, or double that if want to reduce immigration visas further.

Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Times reporting that Andy Burnham succeeded in persuading Shabana Mahmood to become Chancellor because it would give her more control over cutting immigration

Great thread, recognise some of these classics #NormalforNorfolk

Sarah Dempster@dempster2000.bsky.social · 3w ago

One of the things I appreciate most about living in Norfolk is the fact that it induces a near-constant state of bewilderment. 1/4

Which immigrants do people prefer and why? Many point to skill levels, but @mfreino.bsky.social @isabel-ruiz.bsky.social and I argue people also consider the social value of work immigrants do, even if considered "lower" skilled. Open access in @ejprjournal.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1017/S147... 🧵

Quite a fun exercise is to ask foreign economists what they see as your country’s economic strengths and weaknesses. Every time I’ve done that they’ve mentioned British universities in their top two or three UK economic strengths.

The media seems v unlikely to notice dramatically falling school numbers as they continue to run inaccurate stuff about migration pressures on school places

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

Wow. The Department for Education has just published new projections which estimate that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England will plummet by more than 9% by 2031 amid falling birth rates And yet this issue receives probably 1,000th of the coverage the immigration debate receives

I think if you’re the CEO of an extremely politically exposed firm in the public eye and you agree to take this kind of pay increase at this moment, you’re essentially demonstrating that you are not up to the job.

Jim Pickard@pickardje.bsky.social · 3w ago

looks like Thames Water has given a 14% pay rise to its chief executive and a 26% rise to its finance director

Essential thread, sums up the situation so eloquently

Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 3w ago

The @britishacademy.bsky.social deserves praise for its work in this area, but the bottom line is that the 20th century academic career is going the way of the defined benefit pension: once past promises have been honoured, no new promises will be made.

To reiterate, the number of early career researchers in social sciences in the UK dropped by 8% in *one year* Based on what we saw in our job ads data I assume it was the same again or worse in 2025-36

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3w ago

'The decline is most pronounced in the humanities, where the number of ECRs has fallen by 20 per cent since 2016-17. ECR numbers in the social sciences also fell sharply in 2024-25, by 8 per cent, though this followed a broadly positive trend since 2012-13.' 2/3

Advance notice of the British Academy reports published to be tomorrow (Wednesday) and their findings. It does not make happy reading if you value UK higher education and research.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 3w ago

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Very interesting that Reform are making an exception for Welsh...

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

Politico has picked up my latest @bylinetimes.bsky.social story on Reform wanting jail time for election literature that isn't in English or Welsh - in other words banning Gaelic, Irish, Cornish and Scots (as well as the Asian languages they're no doubt targeting) bylinetimes.com/2026/07/13/r...

Do you wonder about how women in the UK are known to be ‘more traditionalist’ and yet vote more progressive? Well, wonder no more! @cerifowler.bsky.social and I have a new paper in @electoralstudies.bsky.social on how this supposed paradox is a measurement artefact 1/ 8

Theories and measurement of political values and under-represented groups: the case of women in the UK

This paper argues that the primary divide in values (Inglehart, 1977; 1990) between safety and self-expression lies in a different place for discrimin…

sciencedirect.com

This is superb in all sorts of different ways. The end segways into another Reynolds topic, of retro culture, pointing out how rare it was to hear anyone in music criticism/production talk about the Beatles in the late 1980s and early 90s, which is absolutely my recollection.

Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Time to revisit my adolescence

Making Claire Fox a baroness is probably the worst thing Boris did

Dr Nick Dickinson@nickdickinson.bsky.social · 4w ago

There is also just a psychological component. Gelotophobia - fear of mockery - is linked to the kind of social dominance orientation you see in people who score high on the TAN end of the GAL-TAN spectrum - i.e. the group that forms the core of populist radical right party support.

Rupert Lowe criticised for telling Joe Rogan there was just "one nurder" in Dunblane while criticising the handgun ban as an overreaction to the murder of 16 primary school children & their teacher www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Restore Britain leader describes Dunblane tragedy as 'one murder'

Rupert Lowe criticised the ban of handguns in the UK, saying it was "because there was a murder in Dunblane".

bbc.co.uk

binface vs farage vs lawrence fox is like el classico for “different ways your mate’s dad could end up taking the divorce”