Channel crossings for Q1 2026 of the year are down 33% year on year, down 18% on Q1 2024 Dfficult to gauge how far the dip is shortterm fluctuations, potential impact of policy to impede, shift in push factors. Stat declines are rarely reported. Rises + spikes are always v prominently reported.

Opened a new box of cereal to find it only half full. Cost me about £3 as well. Feels like we get the piss taken out of us every time we go to the shops at the moment

There's having a brass neck and then there’s whatever this is from Boris Johnson

Reform revealed a former Labour councillor from Hartlepool had joined their party on Thursday night. He's an Indian citizen, and has joined a party which wants to take away his right to vote because of what they call the "perverse influence" of voters like him.

I asked Reform about this, they basically said "We only want to take away our latest defector's right to vote in general elections" When I asked if they thought he represented the “problem” of mass migration described by Farage earlier this month, Reform’s spokesperson offered no response.

"English as an additional language" is probably the most misreported and misunderstood stat out there, as is pointed out here. It doesn't mean what most people think it means

Go on then, since you asked. This is the ‘he’s already dead’ Simpsons meme in live form. Andy was prepared for the cheap ad hominem about his level of education.

The cost of replica England shirts has increased by £20 in just four years. Back in 2022 a standard adult England top was £70 on the official online store. The new ones are £90 a pop. The 'authentic' top has increased even quicker, going from £115 in 2023 to £135 today

God bless Ben White, you absolute beauty

England’s new away kit has a bit of a Chile look to it

Uruguay are one of just three countries that England have lost to more often than they have beaten: Brazil 🇧🇷: Won 4, Lost 12 Uruguay 🇺🇾: Won 3, Lost 5 Italy 🇮🇹: Won 10, Lost 11 #ENGvsURU

You may recall the serious allegations by Reform about voting offences at the Gorton and Denton by-election. This detailed thread sets out what happened next. All too late, and this won’t get the same circulation as the original allegations.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intends to almost quadruple its usual prices for a round-trip train ticket from the center of Boston to Gillette Stadium during the 2026 World Cup. 📝 @adamcrafton.bsky.social and @mjslater.bsky.social 🔗 www.nytimes.com/athletic/715...

from Fraser Nelson:

The size of the UK Armed forces took quite a beating under the last few governments

I was laid off from CBS News yesterday. Now I’m looking for my next role in data visualization, news graphics and interactive storytelling. If you’re hiring or know of something that could be a fit, I’d love to connect. taylorfayjohnston.com

He might actually be getting better as a player, even at 32. Just need to put runners around him.

The most brutal Blind Date ever this week.

Cowards. Call it Keirgrad so we can watch the right wing press explode

*blinks*

12-hour waits in A&E are down. Now "only" the third highest on record

His recent trip went well…

Nigel Farage's "humanitarian aid mission" to the Maldives set his donor, Christopher Harborne, back £12,500 From the latest Register of MP Financial interests

Leeds v Coventry 1987 was at Hillsborough: there was a dangerous crush at the same Leppings Lane end, where Liverpool fans died in 1989. It was first use of the ground for a semifinal since 1981, when 40 Spurs fans got injured at same end of the ground www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/footba...

Leeds United are in the FA Cup quarter-finals for the second time this century, last getting there in 2003 (and out in QF in 1998 + 1996 too) Last semifinal was 1987 v Coventry- but perennial semi-finalists from 1965 to 1977 (7 times, including 4 finals, one win) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

The Daily Mail going to Tony Blair for a take on conflict in the Middle East, is it?

While Russians paraded under their flag to the sporting world’s cheers, their missiles murdered a 13 year old girl in Kharkiv. Shame on the IOC!

Make no mistake, Russian soldiers have committed atrocities in Ukraine — things we haven’t seen since WWII. Over 25,000 people, including women and children, were slaughtered in Mariupol alone, and Russia continues to bomb cities, schools and hospitals. Sickening.

It's proper dystopian stuff going down in UAE. A strange totalitarian Truman Show in the sand where everyone is acting on through.

They'd better say thank you

A previously unknown species of butterfly which had been discovered in Peru in 2024 is now officially named "Vanewrightia borussiadortmund" after a BvB fan called Peter Klausmeier, struck by its colouring, spent 2,800 euros sponsoring its scientific naming.

“For all we know, we could be in the middle of Keir Starmer’s finest hour”. Starmer’s critics say he is imperiling the UK’s special relationship with the US... But is it Donald Trump who's doing the damage?

👍

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it. The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform. If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

As journalists working today many of us are taught to recognise disinformation when we see it and fight back against it. Unfortunately there are some who willingly seek it out and put it on their front pages. A disgrace to the profession.

There is always a tweet.

400 jobs cut at Manchester United: "savings" of £7.4m. Potential cost of the sacking of Ruben Amorim and his staff: £15.9m.

It never ceases to confound me just how many folks think the point of essays is to provide teachers with essays. That teachers just like, collect them, or need them for sustenance or something. Rather than the point of them being the *actual fucking act of learning how to think about shit*

"John Prescott would be loving this"

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

⚡ Ukraine will boycott Paralympic ceremonies over Russian participation. Sports minister says officials won’t attend Milano Cortina events, though Ukrainian athletes will still compete March 6–15.

Reform has announced that only British nationals will be eligible for benefits. Millions of taxpayers and their families with no support. Which is outrageous. Including millions of EU citizens. Which would tear up the current Brexit agreement. Or would EU citizens be exempt? Pretty chaotic.

Reform’s new “head of policy” has said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a “regional Slavic conflict”. He added: “It is a conflict happening in the world that I don’t care very much about.”

Incredibly powerful front page from the Sunday Post ‘These are the faces of the close to 200 women killed by men in Scotland over the last 16 years. Many were murdered in the one place they should feel completely safe - their own home. Today, we ask for your help in ending misogynistic violence’

Lovely view out of my “window seat” heading to Birmingham 😅

Heading to Bradford tonight to see the Kaiser Chiefs. Scarily it’s 20 years since I saw them on Millennium Square in Leeds. Had to dig my old ticket out to check.

Be prepared to be shocked, his claim is... BOLLOCKS