Your unexpected photo of the day is courtesy of a prosecution by Watford Council. www.watford.gov.uk/news/article...

London Centric's investigation into tax-evading gift shops hosted by Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital kept finding Edinburgh connections. Hard to justify spending subscribers' cash on that so I texted Michael at the @edinburghminute.com and he covered the cost of reporting the Scottish angle. Now 🎺.

I’m spending the day sitting in front of a laptop with your ex-husband, where we’re taking turns to refresh the live national grid energy stats until it shows 0% fossil fuels for the first time in history. When it happens we’ll nod and smile at each other then celebrate with a can of 0% Guinness.

Meanwhile, slightly bizarrely, if you have an electric car and charge it on Octopus Agile tomorrow lunchtime, you'll be paid several quid to do so because there's going to be TOO MUCH WIND POWER FOR THE GRID TO HANDLE. Time to open the oven door, turn the heat to max, and reduce your energy bill!

There’s been a lot written about the Clapham chaos this week. It’s probably one of the biggest global news stories about London this year. There’s a lot of emotion and speculation. So we tried to establish the facts and understand what *actually* happened. www.londoncentric.media/p/clapham-ch...

Very traditional part of the British constitutional settlement on display here: a scaffolder finding something mislaid by someone in authority and carrying out his solemn duty of calling both the police and the Sun newsdesk.

Don't do sponcon but if you have a bike then Laka insurance are great, they pay out within days and sort everything out. (Yet another bicycle battery stolen by a thief who went along a row of family e-bikes with a screwdriver, love 'petty' crime in London, Met closed case within 12hrs as usual.)

Little update on this: Merton council, who have the power to issue fines for fake paperwork, say they have used their legal right to check landlord safety paperwork and are reviewing what Criterion sent over "as a matter of urgency".

Four weeks ago I asked billionaire Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital if they'd been issuing fake electrical safety papers to their tenants. Why? Because when we went door-to-door, we kept noticing the paperwork was curiously identical. And tenants said they'd never seen an electrician. Little thread:

Absolutely cracking @londoncentric.media issue this morning www.londoncentric.media/p/sadiq-khan...

London’s viral video crisis: “London has fallen” content has become so pervasive globally that Sadiq Khan held a meeting with the foreign office and British ambassadors to discuss how to convince foreign investors/tourists to ignore it and come to London. www.londoncentric.media/p/sadiq-khan...

The guy in this interview sounds really likeable and is just doing his job so whatever, but love the top example’s conspiracy content. “One story that performed particularly well on MSN was written about Vladimir Putin’s alleged body double, sourced from an anonymous Kremlin Telegram account.”

As Einstein said, “I know not with what weapons local news will be produced in future, but if we continue to produce this stuff then what’s the point really”

Great job! Brilliant boss! (It’s probably good that congrats media luvvy Twitter is dead but also very cool that Kadhim is now the FT investigations editor.)

Two years to the next London mayoral election, Labour’s going to have to start talking openly about its candidate plans once May elections are done…

Sadiq Khan has pledged £4m of City Hall funding to keep Notting Hill Carnival operating for another year. That's based on an assessment of needs by an "independent review" commissioned by the carnival but paid with public ££. It's never been published & my FOI requests for it keep being turned down.

The Farage / Ipswich Town thing is so interesting. Ipswich claimed he’d booked a tour under a different name. Athletic say he was guest of chairman. (The crossover of UK football with Reform on X is sooooo under appreciated as a social force.) www.nytimes.com/athletic/714...

Band Aid level stuff www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

We're in a world where a London council is making private renters homeless so it can buy their flats to use as temporary accommodation so it can house Londoners who have been made homeless, sometimes to make way for temporary accommodation (and so on) www.londoncentric.media/i/192109222/...

It is nuts how there's a) a very real energy crisis b) yet my electricity price is 31% cheaper than normal because it's very windy in the uk c) really big batteries (possibly a lot of those big ones that you used to put in portable CD players) could sort a lot of this out

Good story on Vittles about the eviction of small traders in Brixton - with possible link to Asif Aziz. www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/at-brixton...

I don’t really see how this doesn’t continue. And tbh I think some of these mainstream numbers seem a bit optimistic. Influencer culture most of the way down is where we are heading, how you inject coherent financially sustainable investigative reporting into that is the scary bit.

you see dubious political chicanery, I see admirable proof that the Met doesn't discriminate when it comes to its abject failure to investigate phone theft, even if the phone in question was being used to run the government

Asif Aziz’s company in the Guardian, sticking to their line that sending someone a section 21 letter is not an eviction. “More than a third of households who were sent s21 notices had moved, Criterion said: ‘These were tenant-led decisions and we have supported them – they were not evictions.’”

London local election news that will appeal to the demographics of Bluesky: the writer of Ebeneezer Goode is trying to stand for the Greens in Camden. open.substack.com/pub/newjourn...

The three Prince Harry illegal information cases: 1) Mirror - victory 2) Sun - massive payout by News UK to avoid a public trial, only God and Rupert Murdoch know why, call it a victory of sorts 3) Daily Mail - still ongoing and really, really, really messy and reliant on material such as this

What's really fun is trying to work out which of 'the Iranian state media' or 'the public declarations of the US President' are more likely to have something resembling reality about them.

I have an encrypted email address that I don't check very much, for sources who want a secure way to send docs or whatever. But suddenly it's been getting loads of day-to-day emails that I miss. Turns out it's because AI has been telling people it's my main email. Anyone know how to correct this?

from a little publication to PMQs and BBC homepage in a month, London Centric stories get coverage. The issue now is whether coverage is enough for the people who are stuck in limbo at the hands of Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital despite doing nothing wrong. Government quote at end of this is telling.

Now that I can't annoy the Guardian news desk with these investigative media pitches I'm reduced to typing them into AI chatbots

One of the strangest things in the last few months is ???Facebook??? has become one of my favourite platforms. It's given up on posts from people you know and offers a weird algo feed that is just strangely retro. All I get now is normie AI slop and a steady stream of delightful updates on canals.

Campaign to replace paper reviews on with “here’s the Google Discover homepage served to every NHS employee when they log in”.

Sadiq Khan becomes most senior Labour figure yet to openly call for party to put rejoining EU in next election manifesto. Will others now follow? (Very few even say this privately - but it’s a long time until the next election)… @antoguerrera.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The end of Lime bike leg? www.londoncentric.media/p/lime-bike-...

Context on the union vs union battle behind the tube strikes (that are now not happening): www.londoncentric.media/i/190501726/...

For years I’ve said if you want a revolution in Britain, make the land registry free to access. Imagine if people’s house price/land holdings came up when you google their name. (I’d be amazed if that’s what the government’s proposing… but you never know.) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Angela Rayner today decided to directly take on the “incredibly vindictive” landlord Asif Aziz over mass evictions of his tenants. She joined Croydon Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis to say Aziz’s company has acted in a “disgusting and disgraceful” manner and “should not be landlords”.

Local media plan out. It’s more honest about collapse in audiences than I’d expected. Cool to see my little project as an example of what can work. But I just wonder if government funding to help boost local news is really for small guys or a bung to corporate owners. www.gov.uk/government/p...

As a connoisseur of a high street tax dodge story, my gut instinct is your average “Turkish” cash only barber shop is not necessarily compliant with PAYE and VAT legislation… but is way more likely than people suspect to be a proper functional business with real customers.

The Richard Tice tax avoidance thing relies on a legal loophole where he spent three year “looking for outside investors” for his property firm, then declared he couldn’t find any. So the defence is… my successful profitable property investment biz was a bit crap? www.thetimes.com/article/6f55...

Now I'm part of the 'local news industry' I find so many submissions to government by the 'local news industry' to be weird rent-seeking by struggling corporations. It ain't one bloc. (Though Reach is right on the BBC being the worst at failing to credit when someone's already done a story.)

Someone please stop this horror!

Proper old school Twitter 2018 ratio on that Ed Davey’s post. Enough to make you nostalgic for a cleaner, simpler time of pile-ons about absolute nonsense. Clip’s probably already done five million views on Instagram with a load of “👏👏👏” in the comments.

Little nugget at the end for the lawyer watchers

FT coverage is just so good at a time like this at explaining stuff in a really concise, clear way. www.ft.com/content/1355...

Oh while we’re at it: 1) “It’s almost mother’s day!” in my inbox - oh yeah no problem doesn’t really apply to me any more, no offence taken though 2) “WE ARE A CONSIDERATE BRAND AND JUST WANTED TO CHECK IF YOUR MUM IS DEAD SO WE CAN STOP REMINDING YOU SHE’S DEAD AHEAD OF MOTHER’S DAY” - y tho

The “Azizification” of the London housing market www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

This is one of my favourite lunches that @henrymance.ft.com has done, and yes, that's a big claim. When I add that we decided you all earned it this week becuase you've tried so hard in difficult circumstances, you should feel very proud. as.ft.com/r/a30e9e3c-3...

I really don't miss having to cover the Telegraph takeover story, the world's most tedious media saga. But this is INTRIGUING: @danielthomasldn.bsky.social says the Daily Mail deal to buy the Telegraph might collapse and Axel Springer might end up in control. www.ft.com/content/e5cb...