Set out six months ago to investigative some dubious evictions. Ended up writing a sprawling story spread over 450 years about London property deals, the ethics of money lending, Tommy Robinson, Barbary pirates, Jacobean earls, and wealth in the capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/henry-smit...

Fantastic piece this on one of the most painful things that has ever happened to me (yes, I know I've had a charmed life):

‘Of course he abused pupils’: ex-Dulwich teacher speaks out about Farage racism claims www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

mesmerising video

Only issue with Midnight Mass is that having sung “word of the father” the rest of the day can only go downhill - merry Christmas

properly published now but congratulations to the NAO employee for so quickly getting a job with the FBI in charge of file uploads

‘As for the “open” bit, forget it – that aspect of Open AI’s mission was quietly forgotten. Any discoveries the company might make were now proprietary.’ John Lanchester on the AI bubble. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Onions (in four parts)

Ideal listening into the weekend and the Christmas break - youtu.be/6sHbetTA7qA

Some people might say she couldn't sink any lower but I have faith in her - you go Liz, plumb those depths www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In the future the British state will consist solely of public inquiries funded by corporation tax on Games Workshop, Rolls Royce and OnlyFans

The Trump trail has taken me to Gibraltar. To answer a question: Why did the son of the most powerful man on the planet show up at a law firm in a tiny British outpost one Friday this November looking for money? @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

A major Tory donor has been sanctioned in the UK and EU for his alleged role in the Russian oil trade. The oil magnate Murtaza Lakhani was hit with a UK asset freeze and travel ban on the grounds that his activities were assisting Russia. www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Downing Street have unilaterally announced they are cancelling one of the two daily No 10 "lobby" media briefings and will at times replace the other with a ministerial press conference. The lobby system has its drawbacks but it very much holds No 10 to account, so this will reduce scrutiny a lot.

Quite a few days behind but this is really a brilliant piece of storytelling. You can feel the tension especially towards the end. www.ft.com/content/cd59...

The House of Lords has announced the membership of its committee to consider a possible retirement age & participation requirement. Of 12 members, 1/2 of them are or would turn 80 by the time of the next election (if July 2029) - so if Labour's pledge to introduce retirement @ 80 is done, they'd go.

‘Now I know I have made a change’: Press Gazette's interview with Marie Colvin Award winner Malak A Tantesh pressgazette.co.uk/press-gazett...

Frustrating to see Labour Government is following a similar trend to the previous government and delaying/blocking release of information on PPE VIP Lane. A quick 🧵

ITV News have interviewed five of the former Dulwich College students who say they were either eyewitnesses to or victims of racist abuse by Nigel Farage. They have signed an open letter calling on him to apologise. Very good report by Harry Horton @ ITV News + well worth a watch.

'The [FCDO permanent secretary] responded in March 2025 and explained that the potential for current improvements had been exhausted and further improvements were more difficult to achieve.'

'Our reporter paid £350 to attend what was advertised as a Chamber Group event with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on boosting the British economy and sponsored by Heathrow Airport. But when he arrived in Liverpool, he discovered it was also a Labour Northwest fundraising dinner.'

In today's Guardian : My special report with Ashley Kirk and the Visuals team- we followed one Palestinian family across 2 years of devastation to show what's left of home. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Thrilled to be working with Martin, @mysociety.org & others on this - a brand new #FOI conference! Join us (Birkbeck, London/online) on Thurs 19 Feb - sign up for free pretix.eu/mysociety/fo... And sign up for details of a new FOI Network - more details to follow www.mysociety.org/transparency...

Starmer tells Liaison Committee that the work to reduce the size of the House of Lords is "ongoing" – citing the removal of the hereditaries. Yet the Electoral Reform Society notes he has already created 96 peers in 18 months – more than the outgoing 92 hereditaries.

🚨We're hiring! Liberty Investigates is looking for an ambitious investigative journalist to expose and challenge abuses of power and violations of human rights It's a 12-month fixed-term contract. Details at the link below #journojobs libertyhumanrights.org.uk/work-with-us/

How is untreated sewage from this upmarket Crouch End street polluting a Tottenham park -- and threading its way via the Walthamstow Wetlands & Hackney Marshes to the Thames? In today's London Centric, my deep dive into a small cog in one of the capital’s worst sewage scandals: misconnections.

'Truss and Tchenguiz stress that there will be an [AI] aspect to The Leconfield, to facilitate deals between members by deducing who should work with whom. Tchenguiz, who compares it to ChatGPT but “10 levels higher”, says Truss will “run the AI aspect”. This seems to be news to Truss.'

Lines are open 📞 Phone in to our 2025 telethon and speak to your favourite journalists from the Guardian on 0203 353 4368. We'll be accepting donations by credit or debit card. You can also support the 2025 charity appeal at theguardian.com/charityappeal25bsk

Come forth and ring in. If you’re really unlucky you’ll get me.

Here's what it's actually about: people serving a community with decency and dignity to improve it for the next generation hand in hand with earlier ones. And I'm going to reiterate the church's appeal for donations to support its pipe organ project.

God this stuff is so embarrassing. There is so much about modern Britain that *should* offend conservative Christians, yet we get this complete wibble instead. The 'true' meaning of Christmas is being cancelled by consumerism, not 'the woke liberati'.

“If there’s one way of losing a vast sum of money very quickly, it’s investing in a private members’ club.” @seththevoz.bsky.social, quoted in this wonderful piece by @joshspero.ft.com:

I'm doing the Guardian charity telethon today from 2-4pm. Dial 0203 353 4368 and you might be put through to me (ideally someone better) to take a donation for grassroots charities which help bring communities together through practical projects that build resilience, relationships, hope and pride.

Four bishops in the diocese of Southwark earlier this week: “Any co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable, and we are gravely concerned about the use of Christian symbols and rhetoric to apparently justify racism and anti-migrant rhetoric."

Every few years I remember that this exists and then I get to spend 3 minutes rocking helplessly with laughter www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD3Q...

Another belter from @manchestermill.bsky.social @joshih.bsky.social and crew. Time the Uni of Manchester was taken over by a more transparent operator ? manchestermill.co.uk/the-baroness...

Rather enjoyed Death by Lightning, a four part Netflix miniseries about the assassination of James Garfield. Matthew Macfadyen is excellent in the role of Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau (though not as fine a character as Edmund Reid from Ripper Street, but that had more to go with)

when will Sadiq fix London’s productivity crisis? I’m talking of course about the lack of signal between Pimlico and Green Park

Hugely deserved doesn't even begin to describe it. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...

NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.

‘Squeaky bum time’ as Britain’s new rail timetable goes live this weekend

OMG we only went and bloody won!! 🎉🎉 In barely two years Democracy for Sale has gone from nothing to winning a British journalism award Am absolutely blown away!! Thanks to everyone who reads D4S and supports us. Couldn’t do it without you all 😊

As we reported last week - Keir Starmer is appointing 25 Labour peers in a bid to strengthen his hand in the Lords His former director of comms Matthew Doyle and Rachel Reeves's outgoing chief of staff Katie Martin are among them

"I saw overturned lorries 'scattered like ninepins' during Storm Bram"

Baroness Deech, chair of the House of Lords appointments commission, has told MPs she believes that the historic citations/reasons why peerages were given out and related papers "may well have been deleted." [!!]