BREAKING: It seems we have arrived at the We Told You So part of the program

The student loans system is scandalous. Labour have made it worse and allowed the Tories (who built it) an opening because it's the same old story: Lab forgets who its voters are. It doesn't like the coalition it has and hankers for another. New substack from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

🇫🇷 state wants €1.5Bn profits from SNCF. Every year. @jonworth.eu www.ledauphine.com/economie/202...

On the phone to the bereavement team of a major bank in relation to a client and the woman on the end of the line has a headset that doesn’t work properly and I can hear all her colleagues laughing and joking in the background and I’m honest I would simply not put her on phones till it’s fixed?

The Bayeux Tapestry up in lights at Piccadilly Circus! Tickets on sale from 1 July for the exhibition at the British Museum, opening in September. First chance in 1,000 years to see this iconic object back on British soil.

BIE has been trying to engage with the Home Office on this topic for a year. We wrote to SoS Yvette Cooper last May and still have not received a written reply. Two recent calls with officials have not got us a grace period so we’ve sent another letter with the3million and ILPA bit.ly/4cOcZ3Q

Great to see the Conservatives wanting to reform student loans. Would like to see an account for Osborne replacing maintenance grants with loans in 2015. This has left poorer students with bigger debts vs richer ones for a whole decade, compounding inequality between rich and poor. It’s scandalous.

This a good summary of this absolutely ridiculous policy. As it happens, I have a UK passport as well as a Belgian one but my Belgian-British kids don’t. Am I going to have to pay 300 quid for one or two visits a year? Bonkers.

Lisa Nandy says that the government is now considering quitting X. "The first job of government is to deal with the really serious issues around regulation" ... "But I do think symbols matter - the question you ask is very much up for debate. Its a debate we are having"

Tommy Robinson visited the US State Department today at the invite of the Trump administration. He's Britain's most prominent far-right street thug with criminal convictions for assault, violence, fraud, stalking & harassment. He was jailed in 2012 for trying to enter the US with a false passport.

Trump pitched his presidency on stopping "foreign criminals" entering the US, and repeatedly vowed a lifetime ban for those who attempt to enter the country illegally. I guess there's an exemption for foreign criminals if they are white nationalists, who the Trump admin actively invites & welcomes.

💥BREAKING: Viktor Orbán ordered the military deployed to guard “key energy facilities,” citing a possible Ukrainian “attack” to disrupt Hungary’s energy system. The move fuels fears of a staged national security emergency or false-flag incident ahead of the April 12 elections. This is really scary.

Oh, they "expected something like this to happen," just not to them. If you don't want "inhumane" things to happen to your family, maybe don't vote for the people promising to do inhumane things to anybody. www.postandcourier.com/columbia/new...

How does he sleep at night?

Most interesting conclusion from Trump's State of the Union speech--he is politically scared. He understands how unpopular he is and avoided attacking the Supreme Court and did not mention ICE (and barely mentioned immigration) at all. Btw, a scared Trump is a dangerous Trump.

Gotta say the BBC radio 4 today description of Trump’s State of the Union as some sort of mild mannered, well orchestrated speech doesn’t tally at all with the clips I’ve watched Listening to Sarah Smith talking so effusively about Trump’s speech can’t help thinking about *that* lawsuit….

So then... here's some good news!

Oversight Democrats have been investigating the handling of serious allegations by a survivor against Donald Trump when she was a minor. We have now confirmed that some of the documents related to this survivor appear to be missing from the files. Here’s what we know ⬇️

Get me the most Belgian street name possible. No, that’s too Belgian.

X

Wes Streeting put the case against freezing student loan thresholds very well in 2015. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...

It's not hyperbolic. It's not conspiratorial. The presidential-controlled Justice Dept covering up victim testimony of alleged crimes against a child by the US president is the most atrocious scandal in US history. There should be blanket media coverage & bipartisan demands for Trump's resignation.

I remembered Kushner Snr was dodgy but had forgotten about some of the details

Nothing beats a Met2 holiday.

Frank Hurley - The Crew of the Endurance 1915

I can't imagine a better demonstration of the advantages of the Single Transferable Vote.

Fond memories of working at NTL, woman rang up screaming at me. Her husband in background shouts at her, “don’t talk to them like that. They’re on fuck all” Then he takes phone off her, and gives me a line which I have used myself since “Do you have a manager you dislike intensely I can speak to?”

On the one hand, the Trump administration is telling Europeans to take care of their own defense. On the other hand, they are supporting leaders and parties who are pro-Russian, opposed to European unity and don't want Europe to defend Ukraine or anything else. Which is the policy?

2026 in one headline

Last month Luxembourg's Foreign Minister (and former PM) Xavier Bettel said publicly what many people here are saying privately - criticising Zelensky's ultimatums to be given a fast-track EU membership with no plan for integrating such a large and complicated country.

Family (unless you are poor and have more than 2 kids or if one of your parents/grandparents is non-UK national), community (unless your community includes non-UK nationals), country (our best friends are MAGA republicans who undermine NATO, support Putin and slap us with tariffs)

An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump. n.pr/4qTItsU

It's important when you turn up at court for your rape charge hearing that you arrive in a Mercedes S-Class and have a videographer record the moment to turn it into monetizable content

when broadcasters repeat Mandelson claim he was “not motivated by financial gain” please also report the $75,000 of financial gain Mandelson received from Epstein in 2004 and 2004 and the £10s of thousands Mandelson’s husband received from Epstein in 2009/10 plus free flights & mansion stays

Cycled past Lord Mandelson’s house just now. Heartened to see so many well-wishers outside

"People who tell Trump what he wants to hear, not what he needs to know, are playing a dangerous game. The road to Trumpian recklessness is paved with flattery." Me on why, with Iran war looming, Trump's sycophantic courtiers create an extra menace. as.ft.com/r/bbc0a396-b...

4 years into Putin's 3 day war: leaders from nine European countries feel it's safe to visit the Ukrainian government in Kyiv

PHOTO OF THE DAY. A gas lamplighter in London (1935). 📷 google images

Voici comment les gérer.

Reform UK Deputy Leader of Lancashire Councillor Simon Evans has reposted a Facebook post saying Natalie Fleet MP should be shot. The post also has a fake quote designed to stir anger. What is more disgusting is that she was groomed and raped as a teenager. Simon Evans must resign

Lots to admire about Zelensky and his team - but also ordinary Ukrainians. A minor, but symbolic thing, a colleague of mine had bought a vintage Arsenal shirt online. It was a bit delayed and he sent a follow-up, knowing nothing about the seller. Reply came back..

Four years have passed since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia was supposed to win in three days. Instead, Ukraine reinvented modern warfare, built a drone industry, and can destroy a thousand Russian soldiers in a day. Ukraine can win.

There are people you can fuck with, and things that you can fuck with people over, but fucking with the French Government over diplomatic protocol will always be a huge error.

Unfortunately, @snalltaget 's Oslo-Malmo train seems restricted to daytrippers with briefcases & small daypacks. International travellers with a normal long-haul 79cm suitcase or 67cm backpack seem unwelcome. As a result, I won't be showing this train on Seat61.

These kind of NKVD/Stasi practices aren't supposed to happen in the freedom-loving Anglosphere

The obligatory subway arcing video

Crypto assets the new offshore as wealthy men hide their wealth from their ex-wives

If you ever want to know why looking at betting odds on by-elections is pointless, look no further than the fact that by the odds the current 4th place in Gorton & Denton is the Worker's Party, which isn't even standing in the by-election.

“Our Common Law system, evolved over a thousand years, is the envy of the world, not like those nasty foreign Napoleonic systems.” ”We are Freemen of England, Common Law Sovereign citizens” But, also, “Judges must not make or interpret laws”