Me buying Baumol’s goods: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! Me buying Baumol’s services: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

Again, I think "be serious about confidential information" is another one of those things where Westminster has totally diverged from the rest of the professional world.

Daniel@deargodwhaat.bsky.social · 6d ago

You can draw a direct line, I think, from casually leaking details of lockdown measures (from the very start), to partygate? Just a profound lack of seriousness for the situation nor respect for the public?

"Renewable energy generated 52.1% of the UK’s electricity in 2025, exceeding half of total generation for the second consecutive year, according to government statistics." www.renews.biz/other-news/u....

Amazing facts from this week: 1. My daughter wants to read the Odyssey. Which isn't her typical reading. 2. It had sold out at the book shop we visited. Surely the longest time from being written to selling out ever?

I feel like the way of dealing with such behaviour is to look these people right in the eye and say, very gently, "You think your right to park matters more than homes these children?" Then when they reply just repeat it with slightly different emphasis.

Hundreds slam proposals to turn car park into children's home in Bromley

Plans to build a children’s home on a car park in Bromley have been slammed by nearby residents who call the current parking situation “a…

newsshopper.co.uk

"First the traitors then the invaders" is Elon Musk endorsing an open call to prioritise political murders + assassinations before violence against migrants and minorities. Still little recognition in the UK government at the persistence of the promotion of political violence - inc murder - by Musk

Progress in cancer treatment is incredible. Here's a new pancreatic cancer treatment that is *tripling* survival rates after a year compared to chemotherapy.

John Mullahy@johnmullahy.bsky.social · 2w ago

Wow

Who on earth thinks £50 can't buy you a meal? I just had lunch in Soho, surely one of the most expensive places in Britain, for £11.

Sky News@news.sky.com · 2w ago

'£50 doesn't even buy a meal': What people think of Burnham's electricity VAT cut

I think Home Office is now exploring options to mitigate this - but it remains too little known that most people told to wait 15 years would lose their status long before that. The % are of those here now but without settlement. Loss of status would be well > 250k people. Maybe 500k people.

JJames Bowes@jamesbowes01.bsky.social · 3w ago

The 10 and 15 year routes are largely fictitious for pre-April 2024 arrivals if the lower going rates and salary thresholds are allowed to expire (and jobs drop to low skilled). 92% of Bangladeshis, 75% of Black Africans and 69% of Pakistanis would have to leave the country.

Rape survivor left feeling 'little' and 'alone'' over prisoner releases

Rape survivor left feeling 'little' and 'alone'' over prisoner releases

Jade told Sky's Sarah-Jane Mee the proposed change to the sentencing act takes away the justice survivors fight for.

news.sky.com

@zoesqwilliams.bsky.social After reading your excellent article from a few days ago, I thought you might find this article interesting. I don't think it's much appreciated that: a) Trends of sexual offending don't seem to be improving... robblackielondon.substack.com/p/is-this-th...

Is this the most neglected problem in Britain?

The incredible scale of sexual offences

robblackielondon.substack.com

FWIW @emilymbender.bsky.social the guardian published my own skeptical take on the issue a couple of days earlier www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Once again we are told AI may be conscious – I study consciousness, and I have my doubts | Anil Seth

Despite Anthropic’s claims, Claude is no more likely to achieve sentience than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane, says Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and compu...

theguardian.com

Emily M. Bender@emilymbender.bsky.social · 2w ago

How about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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 · 2w 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...

Burnham's big pledge will be *heard* as ending homelessness (380,000 people). It's not. It's ending rough sleeping (5,000 people). A good thing but much easier to achieve. This is exactly the sort of over hyping that has come back to bite so many other recent politicians.

Jill Rutter@jillongovt.bsky.social · 2w ago

new big commitment - ending rough sleeping. We did it during the pandemic (but lots of hotel places available). He's not managed in Gtr Manchester. But he may want to draw on the experience of Tony Blair's rough sleepers unit - a call to Louise Casey whose first entry into govt that was?

One of the weirdest things about days like today is how proud everyone seems to get about the process. Other countries do this by having genuine negotiations about what the government will do, how power will be shared, etc. They often publish the results! Instead we get photos and a vague speech.

King Charles told me the public keeps eating his prime ministers so l asked how many prime ministers he has and he said he just goes to the parliament and gets a new prime minister afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding prime ministers to the public and then his son started crying.

Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social · 2w ago

King Charles III is about to welcome the fourth Prime Minister of his reign, which is not yet four years old.

That Fernandez tackle…

This is an incredible story: The US lost a nuclear warhead in Greenland because of an accident that started with a cushion on the wrong place.

Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 3w ago

There have been 32 known incidents where the US has accidentally detonated, misfired, or lost nuclear warheads. www.iflscience.com/a-seat-cushi...

@jamesomalley.co.uk Great stuff today. Burnham's incoherence was nicely summed up in his Makerfield launch video where he proudly showed the gleaming towers of Manchester, immediately followed by attacking belief in trickle down....

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

More North Sea oil drilling will do virtually nothing for the British economy, while damaging our reputation as one of the leading countries on tackling climate change. A terrible first policy from our new Prime Minister. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Burnham to announce plans for new North Sea oil and gas drilling

Drilling has become a controversial topic for the Labour party after the 2024 manifesto pledged to not issue new licenses.

bbc.co.uk

@roberthutton.co.uk @duncanweldon.bsky.social Now that fighting aliens counts, can I suggest World's End? It's the British Independence Day.

I know it's only a PCC election with low turnout but 11% for a party that happily accepts neo-Nazis as members is really bad.

Election Maps UK@electionmaps.uk · 3w ago

Norfolk Police & Crime Commissioner By-Election Result: ➡️ RFM: 26.7% (New) 🌳 CON: 15.0% (-18.9) 🌍 GRN: 13.8% (-2.0) 🙋 Ind: 13.4% (New) 🌹 LAB: 11.6% (-23.6) ◼️ RES: 10.9% (New) 🔶 LDM: 8.6% (-6.5) Reform UK GAIN from Labour. Changes w/ 2024.

It's great that the Mayor wants to build new houses. But his record has been pitifully poor, and this new plan includes loads of measures that he ruled out at the last election. For instance when I raised the inappropriate rules at the last Mayoral election that make it harder to build mansion...

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan@london.gov.uk · 3w ago

My Draft London Plan sets out how we can deliver more affordable homes for Londoners, stronger economic growth and a greener future for London. www.london.gov.uk/programmes-s...

My investigation into the network that pioneered the "dodgy shop" model just landed. I trace the group’s mid-2000s takeover of the West End souvenir trade, their expansion across the UK, and follow the money used to fuel it all the way to the badlands of Afghanistan the-fence.com/article/grav...

The Graveyard of Empires

Cormac Kehoe went shopping for a souvenir.

the-fence.com

Useful chart. Shows - Low earners have substantially improved relative position since mid-2000 - decent wage growth for all recently -but only just recovered to pre-GFC/pre-pandemic levels. - no obvious correlation with immigration except that recent high immigration accompanied real wage growth

S'Pammy Cassandra 🦩💥@nafoffs.bsky.social · 3w ago

Who do you suppose will benefit from this fabulous new economy?

It’s quite important to distinguish between policies which the gilts market likes and which are “pro-business”. The two keep getting conflated in coverage. Easy example: whacking up taxes on business to reduce borrowing.

And passed, unanimously! A key Lambeth Liberal Democrats manifesto pledge passed with the support of the Green and Labour groups! Great to see all three parties able to agree on the motion.

Elin Kingston@elinrkingston.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’m so proud of our Lib Dem group on Lambeth council, keeping a key manifesto promise and proposing their ‘resident sign-off’ motion tonight. This policy would revolutionise the deal Lambeth residents get, putting power back into their hands. 🧡 www.instagram.com/reel/Daz9MmJ...

"The result was the most startling in London since the full elections in May: the Lib Dems came from third to win a seat where the Greens seemed to have a strong grip." www.onlondon.co.uk/lewis-baston...

Greens hold one and lose one in Lambeth by-elections

The Lib Dems were the biggest winners overall and Labour the most disappointed

onlondon.co.uk

Lewis Baston@lewisbaston.bsky.social · 3w ago

At long last! My article on the two by-elections last Thursday in Lambeth www.onlondon.co.uk/lewis-baston...