A must-read for the present moment. www.penguin.co.uk/books/433190...

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that everything can be explained by either accounting policy or regulatory failure.

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

A useful reminder for tired news editors of what we’ve done at work this year. Happy new year to all of you, you’re the unsung heroes of every newsroom.

A useful reminder for tired news editors of what we’ve done at work this year. Happy new year to all of you, you’re the unsung heroes of every newsroom.

Tear it up / shred it and use it to mulch your garden.

Why are female authors asked to bare their souls to promote their books? In July, Caroline O'Donoghue discussed how if you don't get personal when promoting your book it seems you won't get coverage, sales or even the deals 👇 #TheBooksellerMostRead

Controversial opinion of the day: you’ve all started Christmas too early this year and by the time you get to the 25th you’ll have burnt out.

If a key part of your job is getting information right and ferreting out falsehoods and untrustworthy sources, and the tool that’s supposed to help you do that keeps throwing you obvious errors, than yeah, you’re probably not going to *trust* it and may end up deciding it’s not all that useful.

Controversial opinion of the day: you’ve all started Christmas too early this year and by the time you get to the 25th you’ll have burnt out.

If you’re shocked the president’s family would acquire a conglomerate spanning regime-adjacent media and a speculative energy project that needs a lot of state intervention to become viable (if it ever does), you don’t follow EM enough

Just listening to a group of typical South London teenage boys on the train - discussing the history of lending regulations, with particular reference to usurious interest rates. The kids are alright.

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

No more Lambeth Country Show? The middle classes of Brixton and Herne Hill are going to revolt. To the barricades, comrades!

Latest in the ‘controversial London officer worker opinion of the day’ series: Prices everywhere else have gone up so much in the past couple of years that Pret is beginning to look tolerable again.

**FT GRAD SCHEME** applications are now open. Incredible opportunity for young wannabe hacks. Spread the word: job-boards.greenhouse.io/financialtim...

Tom Stoppard fans and mourners: the Hampstead Theatre run of Indian Ink starts this week; the Old Vic is doing Arcadia from late Jan. (Gift link, 300 clicks) on.ft.com/4rub2yn

Tom Stoppard fans and mourners: the Hampstead Theatre run of Indian Ink starts this week; the Old Vic is doing Arcadia from late Jan. (Gift link, 300 clicks) on.ft.com/4rub2yn

One thing all but unknown to journalists, MPs and maybe ministers is that the MAC calculates annual inflows of net 110k are the level that has a stable population (and that net zero shrinks the population). So ought to be some limit on driving numbers down from net 205k given pressures & gains

Latest in what’s now going to be a series: Gail’s.

Post-Budget briefing from economics editor Sam Fleming

So it seems that the main winners in the Budget today are people who would like to own a £2mn+ house but only have ~£1.5-1.95mn to spend, right?

(‘Romans: A Novel’ at the Almeida is in 2nd place on my list of art that has something insightful to say about 2025, btw)

If the purpose of art is to hold a mirror up to nature then this story (including the artwork itself) has more to say about Britain in 2025 than anything else I’ve seen. Bravo all round, a marvellous festive farce.

If the purpose of art is to hold a mirror up to nature then this story (including the artwork itself) has more to say about Britain in 2025 than anything else I’ve seen. Bravo all round, a marvellous festive farce.

If Keir Starmer would like to speedily claw back a little bit of popularity in the polls, he could announce immediate and swingeing restrictions on the sale and use of fireworks.

Shout out to FT colleague David Sheppard, who wrote this last week... www.ft.com/content/5480...

I know there are bigger problems in the world but the queues at the British Museum are absolutely crazy. Even if you pre book! @britishmuseum.bsky.social

Delighted to see that How To Spend It has discovered, of all places, Woolwich and Plumstead … www.ft.com/content/903c...

Controversial London office worker opinion of the day: Farmer J is wildly overrated.

I wrote a thing. As someone who survived the 1970s and kept the receipts.

Amazing how those democratic lawmakers who were hunted down in their homes in the middle of the night in Minnesota weren’t a watershed moment of political violence, huh?

Re-upping for anyone interested (part of a short thread).

Thanks for the many shares and warm responses to this piece today. I think we need to hear more from asylum seekers to counter the myths and lies being deliberately spread about them

News this afternoon: it’s looking increasingly likely that employment rights will be the first big internecine battle within Labour after Angela Rayner’s downfall … www.ft.com/content/1816...

💥 European capitals are working on “pretty precise plans” for potential military deployments to post-conflict Ukraine including “the necessary items for a functioning build-up of troops” with US backing, EU president Ursula @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu tells @financialtimes.com on.ft.com/4p0FdvZ

Good news for Glasgow: a new winter coat, and shoes for the wife - and a bicycle on the boy's birthday … www.ft.com/content/2316...

The assassination of Andriy Parubiy, the former speaker of Ukraine’s parliament and a fierce opponent of Russia, is the most significant killing in a string of high-profile murders since the war with Russia began. www.ft.com/content/d08a...

Here’s what the Taylor swift and Travis kelce engagement taught me about B2B sales:

1953. Molesworth invents AI.

A dose of reality for those obsessed with immigration: in another generation (or sooner) the problem will not be TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS!!!! It will be too few. www.ft.com/content/8bfd...

A dose of reality for those obsessed with immigration: in another generation (or sooner) the problem will not be TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS!!!! It will be too few. www.ft.com/content/8bfd...

Enjoying these two sharply differing comments sitting next to each other under @stephenkb.bsky.social ‘s weekend books essay on James the VI and I www.ft.com/content/2c12...

FT still has full-time critics in art (US and UK), film, theatre, dance, pop music, classical music and architecture/design, plus many other regular contributors. You can read them all here www.ft.com/arts Subscribe if you want to support them/us!

“What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, reorient our economy and leverage ourselves, outsource big chunks of our minds, realign our geopolitics and culture, and fight endlessly over a technology that never comes close to delivering on its grandest promises?”

A short thread about the process of narrative construction in mass communications, and how ‘news’ works …

Calling mid-career biz & finance journalists! Check out this amazing fellowship at @stiglercenter.bsky.social at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business … It’s 1 term in spring 2026, you get to live & study in Chicago, I did it a few years ago. www.chicagobooth.edu/research/sti...

Israel kills five journalists, because it alleges that one of them works for Hamas, which he and his employer Al Jazeera deny. Reports say at least one other person killed. Proportionality out the window. www.ft.com/content/1bd1...

Tonight’s front: Europe wants to be in the room where it happens, in Alaska on Friday … a legal wrangle over Russia oil sanctions … and - nice problem to have? Spain has a solar energy glut.

A short thread about the process of narrative construction in mass communications, and how ‘news’ works …