The swifts are back in London! 5,000km from Africa in five days. And they won’t have touched ground since they left the UK last year

Love my mother-in-law’s anecdotes One minute you’re discussing her garden then suddenly it’s “that time my brother was late for school because the magpie he’d trained to fly in the window and wake him every morning had been eaten by a python” Whoah there, a few things we need to re-wind on please

Just waking up from a hip replacement operation. That was easy - didn’t have to do anything I’m now a cyborg. Might update my profile

My unpopular Easter opinion - you should parboil roast potatoes in boiling water, not from cold (as every single recipe suggests) You want the outside cooked and falling apart (for crispy roasties) but the inside NOT falling apart. Parboil hot and fast, leave the middle to cook once in the oven

Enjoyed My Bloody Valentine, 35 years after first seeing them at the Town and Country Club Made more special this time by going with my adult son

Feels like the Iran war is still only at stage two of this XKCD classic: xkcd.com/349/

Lovely to see Sakura crowds and picnics in Ravenscourt Park

A productive day down the photon mines… Our rooftop solar generated twice as much electricity as our house used today (London)

Going to be a big summer for middle aged men with heat pumps and solar panels.

Someone on here yesterday pointed out that you can tell they didn’t see any of this coming because they would have done insider trades on the oil futures market if they had.

People blaming the Mercator map projection for Trump thinking Greenland is bigger than it really is (and at this point, can’t dismiss that) But also, Mercator deceives on *where* Greenland is. It’s actually pretty much the same distance from both USA and Denmark, (c2,000km). Whose backyard is that?

Not sure I’d have been able to make out St Paul’s in this view today, without the help of Manhattan Lofts highlighting it in the background…

So THIS is what central government was using all these years whenever Leeds called asking for a metro system

I understand the worries about EV adoption from the pay-per-mile electric vehicle tax But if this policy sticks, this will eventually mean we finally have the basis of a national system of road tolling. Something that’s been absolutely necessary but always “ten years off” for generations

I really cannot recommend this excellent piece on Hammersmith Bridge highly enough

New appeal stats just dropped and they're 😮 Over the last quarter: • 76% of public inquiries allowed • 59% of hearings allowed • 53% of appeals for more than 10 homes allowed Those rates are all pretty much as high as they've ever been. Data here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68f78d...

Yes, they are actually saying that a "foreigner" who has worked here for decades, paid National Insurance, & is entitled BECAUSE OF THAT to a state pension, would be deported for the crime of claiming it.

Terrifying that a “mainstream” party in the UK is proposing Idi Amin-style deportation of hundreds of thousands of our friends, neighbours, relatives, colleagues, NHS workers… And terrifying too that it’s raised no more than a ripple in the media, and only weak criticism from the government

Great news for Lewisham - Landsec’s redevelopment approved this week. Rebuilt shopping centre, 1,700 new homes, new music venue and open space

The official data on productivity shows Britain's big cities have decoupled from the national economy. But while the big cities outside the capital are roaring ahead, London is stagnating. But can we trust this data? Are our regional divides closing? Our new paper investigates:

Now you don’t have to choose! Both of @jonnelledge.bsky.social History of the World in 47 Borders, and @lewisbaston.bsky.social Borderlines: History of Europe in 29 Borders, are 99p on Kindle at the moment. (Only 2.6p per border…)

Govt response to New Towns Taskforce recommendations. The Taskforce’s 12 locations still being considered (“Tempsford, Crews Hill and Leeds South Bank looking particularly promising”). More by next Spring so watch this space or rather these various large spaces. www.gov.uk/government/p...

I’m immensely grateful to the New Towns Taskforce, under the expert leadership of its Chair, Sir Michael Lyons, and Deputy Chair, Dame Kate Barker, for producing such a considered and comprehensive set of final recommendations 👇🏻 www.gov.uk/government/p...

So impressive what Jim has achieved in the first year of London Centric. If you live here, you owe yourself a subscription

London’s weather has had enough of flags it seems

Tried Amazon’s “Prime Vision” football with live data overlays. Pretty interesting, but you definitely wouldn’t want it on a game you really cared about

Hopefully soon they’ll be drinking this instead:

So THIS is what central government was using all these years whenever Leeds called asking for a metro system

Next in this series of economics riders and qualifiers: Dan Ariely, and the wider replication crisis

Doing an “economics book club” with son, as Uni prep, which has been fun But find myself making a surprising number of “you do not gotta hand it to them” updates on people mentioned in older books Reinhart-Rogoff, Carlos Ghosn, amongst others

It’s the vinyl countdown

Son has no idea how expensive a hobby he’s just acquired…

Here it comes… www.lightningmaps.org

Can anyone guess what this conveyor belt carries…

This is true and I’d add: a) Peak aircon energy use maps relatively neatly onto peak solar energy production, so easier than winter heating to make green b) Aircon units are ultra efficient heaters too, so easier first step to wean people off gas central heating, compared to air-to-water heat pump

Looks like I got a write-in vote in the New York primaries! Only second preference though, probably not enough…

First comprehensive catalogue launched for Gilbert Spencer (Stanley’s under-appreciated younger brother) Thanks to the work of Prof Paul Gough, and Dr Amy Lim

Depressing glimpse of the future today - wrong number phone call from a lettings agent, who only several exchanges in to the conversation told me they were an “automated assistant” How long before every call starts with an awkward dance as you each try to work out if the other person is real?

Time to make some rendang First step, a prodigious amount of spices

New Thames Water refinancing initiative just dropped: They want to charge my mother-in-law £400 based on an estimated meter reading. They “estimate” (for no reason) that she has suddenly increased usage tenfold So I read her meter and they actually owe her £200…

Saints’ draw with Man City takes us past Derby’s record low points finish We are NOT the worst team ever to play in the Premier league! So that’s something I guess…

By coincidence, our heat pump arrived on Earth Day. Hoping to be gas-free soon

Always been sceptical of “bee hotels”. Seemed tokenistic, usually rotting covered in cobwebs But mason & orchard bees have absolutely loved this They fill tube with eggs & pollen then seal it. Larvae & pupae live most of their life in there. Hatching for a frantic few weeks of nesting next year

Hammersmith Bridge has reopened at last!

If I had a penny for every time a successful western economy had randomly blown up its trading relationships for no reason, I’d have two pennies Which is not a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

Exciting times for defined-contribution pensions…

Taps the sign:

This is frankly unacceptable (if not surprising). Major news outlets in the UK, particularly the BBC, have a long track record of letting political journalists confidently opine on economic issues they don’t understand - who wildly misinform their audience as a result. It needs to stop.

TFW Radio 4 is explaining Trump’s tariffs are a complicated calculation of reciprocal tariffs, non tariff barriers and VAT… While all the economists in my timeline are crying in disbelief that it’s actually just a dumb ratio of trade deficits…

"Don't Be a Sucker" by the US War Department (1947) The film follows a young American, drawn in by a speaker promising an end to jobs for minorities and removing foreigners. He encounters a Hungarian professor who explains this is how Nazis grab power for themselves. archive.org/details/Dont...