This is one of the strangest and most screwed-up stories I’ve worked on. www.londoncentric.media/p/tiktok-lon...

To break up the doom and chaos, here's an interview with the woman who designed London's newest public space about how it came together, the difficulties of reclaiming three acres from the Thames, and what to look out for on the Bazalgette Embankment. www.londoncentric.media/i/185186036/...

We asked readers: "What's always puzzled you about London's history?" Here are the responses, with attempts at answers. Including one about secret tunnels -> londonist.substack.com/p/londons-hi...

Politicians: don't use AI to make your maps.

The barriers are finally down! The Bazalgette Embankment next to Blackfriars Bridge is pen, following years of work on the supersewer. For the first time in London's history, it's possible to walk along the north bank from Westminster to Tower without straying more than a few metres from the river.

Working on a piece about the new Met crime stats. It will draw on this poll from @yougov.co.uk which strikingly shows most Londoners consider the city very or fairly safe, whereas others have more negative perceptions. That's the impact of the Trump/Farage/far-Right "lawless #London" narrative.

I wish people like Luke would just admit he wants to pursue Reform adjacent policies rather than pretend it's political strategy.

I’m not sure “there’s nothing we can do about the sexual abuse image factory ask OfCom” is going to hold much water as a line taken by a government which (a) has a huge majority (b) just passed legislation to regulate what people can access online

How likely is ‘likely’? Does ‘likely’ have a higher probability than ‘probable’? I put together a quick quiz so you can see how you interpret probability phrases, then see how you compare with others: probability.kucharski.io

NEW: Labour just announced the biggest change in planning policy in 80 years. My breakdown of the key measures and whether they will succeed. www.samdumitriu.com/p/labour-are...

Anti-racism norms matter. Really shouldn’t be too much to ask of a Labour government that they shun those giving platform to overt racism of a kind that has been unacceptable in the political mainstream of this country for generations.

My latest: in which I visit Oxfordshire's 'Rubbish Mountain', buy a Twirl in the country's most violent Sainsbury's, and explore the absolutely dismal response of the Environment Agency.

There was no state. Who does she think crucified him, an anarchist collective?

Almost as if those people you keep trying to satisfy on immigration will never be satisfied, while the parties you are competing with won't react to the outcomes you deliver in good faith, and the unsatisfied voters listen to and trust them more than they trust you. Who could have predicted this?

Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient. International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.

From @philipjcowley.bsky.social - thanks to a happy coincidence we have a much more rigorous than usual understanding of the impact of Keir Starmer's "Island of Strangers" speech. As Cowley puts it "It is not obvious this was the intended outcome"

Yeah, I think Ulez is a useful analogy for so many things, which is that ultimately 'is that true?' does really matter - people who could vote in the London mayoral election who sincerely believed their 2019 era car was gonna get hit by Ulez did not still believe that after Ulez had been introduced.

This week has been an antidote to power club football. Make do and mend teams, full of faulty parts giving their people a night or two of glorious delirium.

This is a good point - even if you are to grant Labour benefit of the doubt on strategy (generous move right now) - last week's strategy was "we are too weak to do thing which annoys some MPs" (break manifesto pledge), this week's is "we must do even more difficult thing which annoys more MPs more"

Very interesting, importance, nuanced research on public attitudes.

If the UK is on the brink of civil war, as Musk claims, it follows that in 300 years time there will be be a new generation of civil war re-enactment societies. "Geoff,you defend Laurence Fox. Can you guys shout outside a hostel. Brian, i need you to relentlessly slag off Nish Kumar on Facebook."

A good example of someone using "economically inactive" to mean "available for work but choosing not to" and forgetting it covers students, early retirees, carers, severely disabled people, parents with very young children etc...

My latest: Move over bat tunnel, here’s the wild story of how HS2 were forced to build a multi-million pound bridge for a road that… doesn’t actually exist.

The sheer greasy desperation from these bastards that any violent crime is committed by an immigrant so they can continue their grift. Even when they know it isn't true. Foul.

One area where AI has a lot of potential is in weather forecasting and climate modelling. Fairly accurate weather forecasting, in particular, is something that many of us now take for granted. From my latest Substack: www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/artificial...

'London may be safer than at any time in the past half century, comfortably beating other major cities' ✍️ Read John Simpson and Becky Pinnington's analysis of "lawless London" https://bit.ly/4oF2Zge

Very sensible, basically inarguable. I'm sure Westminster Council will destroy it. www.standard.co.uk/homesandprop...

As yes British football in the 1980s. Well known for its good-natured fun. He's a ridiculous person.

Great blog dissecting a badly conducted, badly presented and badly reported poll. Stuff like this damages the credibility of polling (and of poll reporting).

Terrific piece this. Continue to find it bizarre how little “food inflation is off the chain” and “core inflation is above target” featured as topics at Labour conference or more broadly as “theories to why the government is unpopular”.

‘The town is simply disguised countryside’ - www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/the-...

All these people really want is to pay no taxes and be treated with floor scraping deference. Everything else is just bullshit in pursuit of that goal.

NEW: GLOBAL RENEWABLES OVERTAKES COAL How the heck did that happen so quickly?!...🧵

First thought, was I know I'm tired but I didn't realise I'd slept for 3 years. This is an absolutely crazy way to use and report polling. It should not be getting this kind of priority at this stage in an electoral cycle.

you’re literally boycotting the Nottingham Post because it asked challenging questions

Oh look, Labour has spent months targeting the wrong voters.

It shows such a basic lack of political understanding that Labour didn't go straight on the attack over this. Just because most people are worried about immigration being too high it doesn't mean they're psychopaths.

We need less think pieces on how new media is radicalizing the young and more think pieces on how old media is radicalizing the old

Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

must.... stop.... reading bbc annual reports now I'm no longer paid to do so. Anyway here's a few things that I found interesting on the general theme of "THE BUILDING IS ON FIRE, YOU'RE LOSING THE YOUTH, SO WHY ISN'T EVERYONE PANICKING". (With a little bit of hope hidden in there with iPlayer.)

Said it before - procurement teams across government are being treated like unreproachable Gods and it's absolutely ruining multiple policy areas because they'd don't know what they're doing.

Monthly GDP estimates have an error range of ±0.2pp, which makes this headline basically nonsense - this level of precision simply can’t be supported. Reporting it as ‘amber’ or rounding it to zero would be much better for public understanding, as I wrote yesterday. open.substack.com/pub/martinro...

Public opinion often skews against new ideas that don’t exist yet - people see the costs, don’t notice or believe the benefits. The bias flips once something actually exists - people see the benefits and status quo bias now plays in the policy’s favour.

There’s a lesson here with rather broad applications

What a hollowed-out fucked-up corporate “local news industry” we’ve got, reliant on disillusioned poverty pay graduates rewriting dodgy press releases that are gamed for SEO by a casino, all enabled by Google pushing this shit through its Discover tab. pressgazette.co.uk/news/the-pr-...

'Whatever malicious thing can be found anywhere in the world can be found [in London]… actors, jesters, smooth-skinned lads, Moors, flatterers, pretty boys... quacks, belly dancers [and] sorcerers'. A visitor to London, 1180.

It drives me a bit nuts that the left is just as bad for spouting misinformation and disinformation as the right. Just because "the good guys" are being economical with the actualite (at best) doesn't make it ok. This is a good delve into Curtis's latest nonsense.

The disconnect between what voters think local govt is for (doing things they care about like roads and bin collections or things they enjoy like parks and leisure centres) and what local govt actually does (social care, invisible to most residents, poorly provided to those using) is not healthy