It’s funny, isn’t it, the casual lies we grow used to accepting:

We'd been trying to make sense of why today's PMQs' questioning of David Lammy seemed a bit strange. Thank you, @roberthutton.co.uk for elucidating why. It's great to find out more about the calibre of people we have in the upper echelons of public service - very heartening.

Live footage of HMP Wandsworth's pre-release checks:

Anyone listening to Chris Philp’s Today interview, predicated on the premise knife crime is rising, might like to read my piece from yesterday setting out the more nuanced reality: on.ft.com/47Aw3hT

Reckoned knife crime was out of control in the U.K.? Reckoned there was nothing to worry about? Probably neither position is quite right: on.ft.com/47Aw3hT

It’s my birthday and my son has elected to illustrate my age transition in model railway locomotives.

20 minutes before Trick or Treating starts...

"He gives me a smile that makes me sad that I’m not his dentist and a handshake that makes me glad I’m not his guitar": @henrymance.ft.com is on absolutely top form in his Lunch with the FT with Jon Bon Jovi: www.ft.com/content/25f2...

"Until we get proper transparency of all the revenues that fund the monarchy, things will be constantly emerging": my analysis of the king's surprisingly decisive action over his brother: www.ft.com/content/d1c1...

Ah yes, Hallowe’en. Where the doors of the underworld open and all sorts of eldritch creatures spill out

A strange thing: the theme song to Dad's Army just popped into my head and I was annoyed anew that it's not "Whom do you think that you're kidding, Mr Hitler?" There's been a long retreat from standards.

Happy reformation day to all who celebrate, albeit they probably celebrate fairly soberly and seriously.

as.ft.com/r/f4ca1e8a-b... King Charles strips Andrew of prince title and ejects him from mansion @reporterrwright.ft.com

The [redacted for legal reasons] formerly known as Prince

Andrew formerly known as Prince, am I right?

I have a number of questions about this episode. But one of them is this: how much work does a Bill de Blasio impersonator find for himself these days? www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bill-d...

Waking up, again, to the sound of two white men on the radio arguing about whether it is ok to be made "mad" by the very sight of black and Asian people on TV. 😒

She must be seething about the meerkats, who are wildly over represented

Danny Kruger just told Nick Robinson that Sarah Pochin’s remarks weren’t racist because she was “driven mad” not by seeing Black and Asian people on TV but by their “over-representation”. Robinson didn’t ask what’s so maddening about over-representation. Is there a rule adverts have to reflect life?

Wait until he hears that Reagan didn't trust the Russians.

Definitive, devastating piece from @edwardluce.bsky.social. Must read on.ft.com/4qoZJHn

My column in the @ftweekend.com: Keir Starmer is in trouble because he has not been serious about governing, and the best way for him to turn things around is for him to become serious:

when I end up having an argument on here with someone I already disliked on Twitter it's

Very good from @edwardluce.bsky.social on the US’s slide towards something like autocracy: on.ft.com/4qoZJHn

Reckoned the Prince Andrew mess was just another bit of palace tittle-tattle? Some constitutional experts disagree (while others don't). My latest piece on this saga, which has gone up this morning: www.ft.com/content/7e82...

However badly your day has gone, it’s gone better than that of one prison officer in Essex: on.ft.com/478pOmw

“Why did the country go wrong, grandpa?” “Funnily enough, I partly blame how they turned the most important current affairs programme into a children’s books podcast.”

People have been so kind to ask - even plead - that I should consider it. But, after reflection, I have to say I'm ruling myself out of contention to be one of the new #Strictly presenters.

More Indefinite Leave to Remain shenanigans. This time from Labour. 10 years is just too long - especially for those already here, who were working toward 5 years

Great. I've just finished scripting my striking new US political drama, about life in the near future in the ceremonial, public part of the White House on the other side from the west wing. Now just to check up for any relevant news before I send it off to the production company.

Updating my LEGO White House

What idiot called it ‘Storm Benjamin’ and not ‘It’s Raining Ben’?

Did you know, it’s 30 years to the day since the Financial Times killed one of Britain’s finest poets? They didn’t mean to. It’s just that Gavin Ewart was 79, and – according to legend – the day before they’d bought him a lunch that involved enough booze to fell an ox 🧵

In the United States the President is deliberately dismantling the White House, while in the United Kingdom we are doing nothing to stop the Palace of Westminster from falling apart. Much the same can be said of our respective constitutions.

Important read from @reporterrwright.ft.com on why changing the immigration rules — the terms of an informal contract, really — after someone arrives is unfair. on.ft.com/47fYDVt

My partner is part of this cohort - and I went through the equivalent process when I lived in Hong Kong. After 7 years on a work visa, I was given Permanent Residency, as a right under HK law, not a discretionary privilege. Changing the rules under people trying to build a life would be appalling.

You may have heard about UK ministers' plan to double to 10 years the time needed to reached settled status in the UK. But did you realise that it threatened access to pensions for the 180,000 people who came from Hong Kong on the UK government's visa scheme? My dispatch: www.ft.com/content/8b91...

A text allegedly from a UK government department from a Philippines number, asking me to apply by last week for an allowance for which I’m ineligible? Yes, of course you can have all my details.

“I’ll give you something to cry about” as government policy

I’ve just cycled in persistent, drizzly rain from Brixton to St Pancras on roads made extra treacherous by leaf mulch. My question is this: how much did Big Autumn have to pay Keats to rebrand this the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”?

The UK political debate mainly treated the decision as an outrage - perceiving Israeli fans were being banned for their safety from political protestors, rather than the conduct of Israeli fans being one of the public order issues, along with the conduct of anti-Israel political protestors

Trump is the current president, has planted the seeds for illegally staying in office, and is also the most unpopular president in modern history. Why on earth wouldn't Democrats hang that albatross around their opponents' necks? Republicans should never be able to wipe away the stench.

Inspiration: you’re having a better day than the head of security at the Louvre. (Apologies to the head of security at the Louvre if he/she follows me).

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

Judging by the balloons going into a neighbour’s house earlier, someone was celebrating either an 18th birthday, an 81st or has children born around this time in both 2024 and 2017. Whichever it was, I hope everyone felt duly celebrated.

Londoners might like to see how things we now take for granted - such as the school strreet outside St Mark's School by Oval - look from afar. Here's a video by @streetfilms.bsky.social for @nyc.streetsblog.org about the Oval project, in an area I know well: nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/10/17/f...

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Hatfield train crash, whose reverberations continue to be felt to this day. Do think of the families of the four dead.

It's 23 years to the day since my father's dreadfully untimely death, at just 67 from bowel cancer. I've been thinking a lot about him recently, particularly because he features prominently in this piece, published in July: www.ft.com/content/d1ba...

A story in three parts