Number crunchers PwC predicting an ‘almost 8%’ chance of England bringing home the World Cup. They claim to have run 100,000 simulations. Spain to win, natch.

FT defends London, one of the greatest cities in the world www.ft.com/content/dd79...

The Times’ reductive view of local democracy is to “kick out councillors”

Seems mandatory for journos these days to say you ‘sat down with’ the person you interviewed. Woodward & Bernstein’s best work was standing in underground car parks.

No question they’ve got the overall winner bang on - ‘The snail farmer of London, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman’ @londoncentric.media

Housing ‘famine’, maternity crisis, war on motorists - 60 years ago

so great that Labour's adult care policy amounts to a Louise Casey report and an unspecified pay rise in about 2028 www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Cinema in Highgate? The Phoenix in East Finchley, more like, where Stanley Baxter had his hair cut and liked a curry @thetimes.com

A children’s home in the West Midlands for sale for £1.3 million Vendors boast of a net profit margin of 24%.

so confusing at this time of year @theipaper.com

RIP Martin Parr

The Times has lost its mind

yes but was she really junior chess champion?

She would have made a fine cabinet secretary

yeah those double bookings were really awkward

Here's this week's column. Please - please - can we stop talking about migration in a way that's completely detached from the facts? www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Quite. @financialtimes.com

Best news for charity sector in quite a while …. committees.parliament.uk/committee/37...

Think Reeves can chalk this up as a win. A big win actually.

‘It is difficult to see how current levels of investment will stretch to deliver even the planned social care workforce reforms, let alone leave enough for wider changes to England's broken care system’ - @sallygainsbury.bsky.social Estimates NLW increase will cost social care sector £1.2bn

Euston station this evening - clever (if only partially true)

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

BAU …

Now 15 years for migrant care workers to qualify. Do ministers have any understanding of the desperate state of the social care sector? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This exchange between Hancock and Johnson on 7th March 2020 speaks volumes about that government’s pandemic leadership. Hancock: This is a clarion call for you to lead. Johnson: Ok, I’m off to the rugby.

Oops www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/childre...

A doctor writes: ‘It is absurd that, in one of the world’s richest economies, timely surgical care is now a luxury purchase’ @financialtimes.com

Oh dear @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Big scoop by my colleagues, this:

Extraordinary story

Brexit reduced the UK’s GDP by between 6% and 8%. That is MASSIVE. #ProjectFear #wetoldyouso www.nber.org/papers/w3445...

So tired of all the raiding

Out for the Count: my SKETCH of James Cartlidge failing at DPMQs so spectacularly that he managed to overshadow David Lammy's TREASONOUS lack of a poppy.

Intriguing detail from @katie0martin.ft.com - was this appreciated in Downing Street?

Excellent choice www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/julia-u...

Woodward & Bernstein, your legacy is secure @thetimes.com

Car crash of an interview with R4 comedy commissioning ed Julia McKenzie on her scheduling of Call Jonathan Pie at 6.30pm. Apparently the family audience at that time is ‘minuscule’. That’s all right then. ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002lff0

Crying Wolfson? @financialtimes.com

It’s new Private Eye day, thank the lord

Knave of Clubs pub, London E1, by Marketa Luskacova. More of her fab 1976 photos are on display at the gloriously revived boozer

Heart goes out to anyone who followed this crumble recipe in last week’s @theobserveruk.bsky.social

The Pentagon announces they are replacing The New York Times’ press credentials with the MyPillow guy’s media outlet.

Boris’s Children: my SKETCH of Today in subjects he loves to forget.

Number of people aged 100+ in UK doubled since 2004. Most per head in Wales. Must be the laverbread. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Ordered Tuesday (standard service) delivered Saturday 👏 If only all public services …

High time for Vol II, Ivor

Lots of @bbc5live.bsky.social listeners seemingly less than impressed by 2 hours 20 mins of unmoderated Trump/Netanyahu love-in

Hammersmith & Fulham continues to be the only local authority in England with a policy of free personal care www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

You couldn’t make it up … @hsj.co.uk