Englishness is not about skin colour, it's about being outraged at the emergence of single-file queues in pubs.

Really striking graphic from @samfr.bsky.social's substack this morning

I really still sometimes struggle to believe that western governments and especially America are going to just lead us straight into major oil shortages with no attempts at demand management ahead of time, but that’s what all the evidence points to.

Three ways to improve high streets by *raising* business rates: 1. Higher rates on long-empty shops, to force realistic rents 2. End exemption for charity shops. 3. Make landlords pay when candy/vape shops vanish with unpaid rates. They'll ensure rates are paid up-front.

The driver on our Bilbao-Madrid bus has just said anyone playing their mobiles without headphones will be treated as terrorists and dealt with accordingly. ¡Viva España!

A typical European car is parked 92% of the time. It spends 1/5th of its driving time looking for parking. Its 5 seats only move 1.5 people. 86% of its fuel never reaches the wheels, and most of the energy that does, moves the car, not the people. Sound efficient? HT @ellenmacarthurfdn.bsky.social

Are goats being sacrificed in this office in the centre of Hackney? www.londoncentric.media/p/hackney-lo...

Since our political leaders and media have decided that the only reason Henry Nowak died was because the police are too woke, here are my two cents, based on what I've read of the public information 🧵

Paris air pollution is down 50% after its radical bike-friendly transformation Cars have been banned from more than 100 streets. Tens of thousands of parking spots have been eliminated. Hundreds of miles of bike lanes have been added. And air pollution is plummeting

I see a lot of charts everyday. Few make me go: THIS IS CRAZY. www.carbonbrief.org/ai-boom-mean...

My crankiest old man take is that referring to all art/entertainment/journalism/criticism/comedy/advertising as “content” helped pave the way for broad-ish acceptance of AI slop.

“What has always hooked me about DNA has been the stories," says @turiking.bsky.social in The Secrets of Our DNA 🧪 And that's the appeal of her book, which is full of them. My review: www.newscientist.com/article/mg27...

Great piece and great that BBC gave it such prominence www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

After ICE deported Wendy Hernandez Reyes, it turned her 3-year-old son Orlin over to her sister’s estranged partner, who tortured Orlin and beat him to death. I can’t say what I think should happen to those responsible without violating this website’s TOS. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

Enjoyed writing this for @iandunt.bsky.social excellent substack. Labour does have a genuinely inspiring vision and impressive track record. It's called net zero and if the government talked about it more it might start to improve its fortunes. iandunt.substack.com/p/guest-post...

The Soho Society's decision to oppose all new and extended license applications is the wrong one - it's bad for London.

England just had its warmest spring on record. The record was last set in spring 2025. Before that, spring 2024. 9 of the 10 warmest springs have occurred since 2007. It's almost like there's a long-term driver causing this... www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

hope you brought urine!

The idea that the US & UK militaries are lobby that same technology that tells me “I’m absolutely right” on an almost daily basis as I point out its inability to follow instructions should be allowed to kill people’s without human oversight is nuts to me. This is biggest ethical crisis of our lives

New figures: 2025 was a record year for solar deployment in the UK, as households & businesses respond to the energy crisis by generating their own power. 269,000 solar installations were completed across the UK in 2025, 37% more than the year before, & the highest ever recorded in a calendar year.

President of MIT not mincing words today in @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/05/27/s...

While Tony Blair is trashing UK govt energy policy, NESTA analysis finds "early signs [it] may be working" 2022: Gas prices went up 100%, electricity 83% (roughly 1:1) 2026: Gas +28%, elec 6% (5:1 = "electricity beginning to decouple from gas") www.nesta.org.uk/blo...

Perhaps the fact that we are conducting an unprecedented experiment with the only home we have, by digging up and burning massive amounts of fossil fuels that is driving global change at rates 10X faster than the most recent warming of this magnitude that occurred oh about 55 million years ago? 🧐

Kew Gardens recording 35.1ºC today breaks its previous May record in 1922 before this spell by NEARLY 5ºC and breaks its June maximum temperature record set in 1976 by 0.5ºC - this also beats the previous May UK maximum record by OVER 2ºC (32.8ºC, 1922/44). An incredible anomaly

It's not like they don't have enough units to operate 8 car services or anything 🤦. The rail industry really needs to understand that people want to use trains on weekends and bank holidays!

⚽ 36 points is usually enough to stay up in the Premier League West Ham have just been relegated on 39 -- the highest tally by a relegated side since Birmingham City went down on the same total in 2010-11

32.3ºC at Kew Gardens is the hottest May temperature on record at the station since records began in 1881, beating its previous May maximum by 2ºC (30.3ºC, 25th May 1922). It beat its maximum temperature date record for the 24th of May by OVER 2ºC (30.2ºC, 1922), exceptional.

Every couple months I check in on the latest Adrian Chiles articles and I’m always absolutely blown away. These are all from the last couple months. The man is operating at an incredibly high level.

Did you catch Channel 4’s feature on quantum computing yesterday? It’s great to see UKRI-supported projects highlighted, including the development and roll-out of large-scale quantum computers in the UK, and a wearable quantum-powered brain scanner. Watch👇

So we have full 2025 immigration stats - Total net down by 2/3rds in 2025 (3/4 from peak) - Small boat arrivals in 2026 down 40%. Asylum backlog down 48%; returns up 9% - Asylum seekers in hotels down 35% (down 48% from peak) YET PUBLIC PERCEPTION 49% think 2025 saw increase; only 16% know it fell

Memo to Reeves: the strait of Hormuz really IS closed. This really IS causing shortages of goods.

Net migration will fall below 200k - perhaps around 160k - in the ONS figures being published on Thursday. Nb, this is January - December 2025. (It will not be so high an inflow as 160k inflow now but year to June 2026 stats not out until November). www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

The news cycle now gets bored and jaded so quickly it is able to move on from 'there's about to be a self-inflicted global economic disaster of historic proportions' within a matter of days. www.reuters.com/business/ene...

The world’s largest sand battery got through Finland’s harshest winter in years. 2,000 tonnes of sand, heated to 500-600°C by cheap power, feeding district heating in Pornainen. And it worked. Result from one install: oil down 100%, emissions down 70%. Industrial process heat is the real prize.

It’s been a truism for well over a decade among those of us who do focus groups on any sort of social research topic that potholes matter. Literally and conceptually. Do groups on, I dunno, dentistry and potholes will come up. I’m sure Westminster types don’t get it. But it really is A Thing

It's kind of wild to me that the only share buttons Gov.uk offers are for X and Facebook. After *everything*. It's even on Govt press releases excoriating Grok and social media abuse

Me in @wonkhe.bsky.social on the breakdown of political consensus supporting R&D spending, as the UK economy continues to stagnate & the world looks more dangerous. The science funding system needs to adapt and demonstrate that it is delivering for the nation. wonkhe.com/blogs/uk-sci...

‘Last month, the OECD singled out low growth in business investment as a reason for the UK's weak productivity and “sluggish” growth in GDP per capita.’ www.ft.com/content/c182...

Having met your long term partner before the app is the Millenials' equivalent of Boomers buying a house at 23.

Separated bike lanes = 44% FEWER DEATHS

If you totted up the sums for every financial scandal in British politics (£2k per parliamentary question for cash-for-questions, £200k for Johnson’s No 10 renovation, the cost of that very nice campervan) even with second tier stuff like Rayner and Polanski, would you get close to £5mn *in total*?

Sir Sadiq Khan should turn his third term as mayor of London into the anti-motorist demon that the car-brained like to pretend he is. Start seizing these vehicles. Tow them away. 5% value of the car to release it. Fail to pay in 90days. Sell the car and invest the proceeds into more enforcement.

It's so hard seeing someone else live your dream

BREAKING: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage bought a £1.4 million property in cash shortly after receiving a £5m personal gift from billionaire donor Christopher Harborne, according to property records seen by Sky News.

Is Openreach inadvertently helping Reform? <— Fantatic new guest post from @dlandoncole.bsky.social ! takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/is-openrea...

In news that is going to annoy a certain subsection of the people on here, the UK's ICO has clarified that AI chatbot/tool outputs are FOIable. My latest for @newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/2526...

Lots of good news stories like this at present! The UK's relative strength in terms of venture capital investment, and how to build on it, probably ought to feature more heavily in the economic debate (might be easier when the politics calms down)

Rooftop installations of solar power in the UK have gone up by a factor of ~6 in 5 years as prices have fallen 40% They're now being given a further boost by events in the Gulf, & introduction of plug-in solar for flats etc Feels like this could runaway www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Thought this was a model response from @celiarichardson.bsky.social to a pretty harsh article in the Spectator about the National Trust