Still the summit of Reddit.

the government is too right wing for Dan Hodges now? fucking hell

Whether or not you're convinced by the framing of this report on the Kanal museum project, there's lots of information on the story so far. Interesting to see the interviews were filmed in another big Brussels development that's years behind schedule. auvio.rtbf.be/media/invest...

This little AI anecdote made me laugh. Quand le MR promeut la dérégulation du marché locatif à Bruxelles avec une étude… qui promeut la régulation du marché locatif www.lesoir.be/700618/artic...

I'm not going to spoil my evening by reading this fool's musings but knock yourselves out.

Shame to see the art deco stuff go. And the Sacha Guitry dedication. Not that I ever stayed in the Métropole, what with living here and all.

The Métropole hotel in Brussels is selling off more than a century of furniture, fittings and oddments. You can bid online for items such as chandeliers, cutlery, grand pianos, curtains and even a bellboy's uniform and a portrait of Brussels' first mayor. drouot.com/fr/v/170725-...

Let's see if the auction gets stopped again. Original pieces by Alban Chambon and Adrien Blomme to go on sale. bx1.be/categories/n...

"There is absolutely no evidence that Farage or Reform want to change our gun laws, none at all" - Andrew Marr to Daisy Cooper. www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

Experiment in open borders. Now, where have I heard that before?

Louise Tower in Brussels, Polak brothers 1963. Space House in London, Seifert 1964.

Apartments, at the Cambre end of avenue Louise, 1936. Aimed at the 'bonne bourgeoise'. Panoramic views over Bois de la Cambre. 8 homes to replace a single house from 1910. 'The right building for now and for the future', according to the magazine where it featured.

I *really* enjoyed talking Project 2025, Trump, Reform and Farage with @alisonjourno.bsky.social and @jonnelledge.bsky.social Listen in link below!

✈️ Planning to travel to Europe? A new border management system Entry/Exit System (EES) will soon make your border crossing easier and more efficient. The security of EU borders is being enhanced, bringing benefits also to partners such as the UK. ℹ️ travel-europe.europa.eu/pub

Brussels. Rue du Marché aux Poulets in the 1940s. La Casita Spanish tavern is now a kebab house, the Chinese/Japanese goods store is Pizza Pronto. The Celtica Irish pub was a record shop and its little art deco annex was a parfumier. In front of them, the tramline.

The World of Yesterday but with street view not Zweig. The video club, the cybercafe and the remains of Café l'Aquarium, founded 1938. Rue du Marché aux Poulets, Brussels (image from April 2009).

Interviews that are dubbed but where you can still hear the original voice and where you understand both languages is the most stressful TV.

Unscrew the scaffolding and the ceiling falls in. www.brusselstimes.com/1752694/wate...

I’m not sure it reflects all that well on Mason that the most aggressive interview he’s managed with a politician in quite some time is in defence of his own journalism. It’s also a fairly extraordinary attack to make in response to a fairly mild critique. Not sure his judgment on the money here.

If there is such a thing as an official 'Congo Style' in architecture from the Léopold II period, it's this.

Farage mass-deportation plan in the press. "Revolutionary" - Andrew Marr "Eye-catching" - LBC Westminster reporter.

They're still reporting it in their bulletins as targeting "all migrants". Such an exercise in shit-stirring and intimidation. The details don't matter to reform or many reporters, any more than UKIP was scrutinized over Brexit.

@bonsvoeux1.bsky.social @pisci.bsky.social Have you tried Het Swarte Gat? This is the place with a tram stop outside to get you back to the station in time for the last train to Bxl.

Not to mention the effect on UK citizens in the EU benefiting from the withdrawal agreement.

For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA

From an exhibition on François Malfait, city architect for 3 decades to 1941 and who did much grunt work to modernise Brussels. A century before today's statue wars, he designed this square to knit a new road into the C18 park quarter (but there was a row about easy access for cars).

Who's going to price-match this then?

Architect Henri Lacoste's 1926 home in Auderghem. Garden façade. Visited as part of European Heritage Days.

Rotunda of the Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels. 1954 by Alexis Dumont and nephew Philippe Dumont.

An 1888 mansion near the Palais de Justice built for Frédéric Ninauve, a lawyer, campaigner for universal male suffrage and lecturer on Brussels and Belgian history.

Rue Lebeau, Brussels. A view that hasn't existed since the mid-1950s when old houses on the left were demolished to make way for RTT offices now being replaced with apartments.

Art-deco staircase at the Robert Catteau school. 1923 by François Malfait for la Ville de Bruxelles (spot the monogramme). Visit as part of European Heritage Days.

Strongly recommend this rich and nuanced survey of Spain, 50 years after Franco's death, by William Chislett of @rielcano.bsky.social. At once a story of remarkable progress, unfinished business, and new challenges. ⬇️ www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/work-docu...

It feels like there was a refusal here and it has been taken very personally.

Lemonnier station, Brussels. Tramlines converge, passengers cross the tracks to reach the parapet-like platform. The crooked triangular viewing station to drink in the ramshackle glory that would be a memory if Metro 3 was completed, replacing all this with fast, modern transport.

!!!

So, 'soft power' is now defined as presenting hindquarters, is it? What times.

On X, you say. Shocking.

Heritage Days is this weekend in Brussels. Some suggestions for visits.

Newsnight has turned into That's Life. Nick Watt should sit in an armchair dressed in a smoking jacket so Victoria Derbyshire can turn to him and say 'Cyril'.

Brussels architects on tour. Economics faculty at the University of Ghent. 1975 brutalism by Raoul Brunswyck and Odon Wathelet.

I wonder if Global awarded her a ruinously-long contract based on the very weird Johnson dynasty stuff that was circulating when they hired her.

Just listened to Rachel Johnson discussing 'free speech' and wonder if there could be an SI unit for thick entitlement.

This little guy, hanging on the handlebars.

How liberating to have no embarrassment threshold at all!

Brussels architects on tour. A 1914 townhouse and office for a salesman by Antoine Pompe and Fernand Bodson, often referred to as proto-modernists. Perhaps the first Ghent home with a flat roof.

The Flandria Palace hotel in Ghent, built for the 1913 world fair and a staging post towards the art deco style of the 1920s. Later offices for the national train operator. It's for sale if you have a large family.

Full view of the façade. Ghent is yet to adopt the Brussels policy of dispatching white vans to park in front of every monument.

The Dagblad Vooruit newspaper office in Ghent, 1930 by Fernand Brunfaut. The corrugated façade conceals a C19 mansion which housed the editorial operations. The printworks were built in its garden.