This perfectly encapsulates why we need the BBC

I've decided to become a thinktank. This is how thinktanks work. They decide to become a thinktank, declare themselves thinktanks and then because they're thinktanks, they can be quoted as newsworthy. I can now spout any bollocks I like, and can be used in any news piece that it suits.

NEW The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim By me. Enjoy. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-letter...

In a celeb-obsessed world, someone thought what could be better than three famous artists collaborating in a new exhibition. As it turns out, the answer is almost anything else could be better. www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tri...

The Varieties (Variety Theatre or Harwood’s Hall) in Pitfield Street, Hoxton, a short distance from Shoreditch church, was built in 1869 behind the White Horse pub. It was designed by the leading theatre architect, C. J. Phipps, who probably devoted more attention to the pub facade t

Delighted to pick up The Hanlon Volta Waltzes, 1885 sheet music composed by Charles Seaton who had a stall at Crystal Palace where the five strong aerial troupe performed.

Loving today's news that the mysterious "fedora man" outside the Louvre heist was actually a 15-year-old museum visitor who dresses like a 1940s French detective all the time, just because. apnews.com/article/louv...

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

My review of the scratch cabaret by alumni of the National Centre for Circus Arts is online thecircusdiaries.com/scratch-caba...

🎬 The arts aren’t a luxury - they’re an export. At #Lab25, @aiannucci.bsky.social reminds us that the UK’s Creative Industries make up 6% of our economy and 7% of our workforce - the GDP equivalent of oil + car industries combined. 🎥 Watch more clips from the Creative UK Pavilion hubs.ly/Q03QVhV90

It's been a while...my much neglected blog actually has a new post. A lovely follow up to a story I wrote way back in Feb 2017, Panic at the Newport Empire #MusicHall #blog musichallalice.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/p...

As I expected, the NCCA’s scratch cabaret at the Underbelly Boulevard by graduates since 2019 was a succession of solo female single-point aerialists (nine in total) moving competently to backing tracks, plus a female hula-hoopist.

@hackneycyclist.bsky.social have you a council contact please to get the Hoxton Market cycle parking decluttered of dead bikes?

'During a performance for a Shriners convention, a Sky Dancer aerialist skips rope on a small platform high (at least 20 stories) above the streets of downtown, Chicago' John Dominis, 1955

I wrote a piece about London music halls for The Times ahead of an exhibition at The London Archive. @victorianlondon.bsky.social was among the contributors. www.thetimes.com/uk/london/ar...

🚨BREAKING: Activists have imprisoned DANGEROUS TERRORISTS Mandela, Gandhi, and Millicent Fawcett statues in Parliament Square. They've been placed behind bars to expose the UK's extreme crackdown on protest. The heroes the government celebrates would be imprisoned today under their extreme laws.

Oh look @jim.londoncentric.media, The Metro suddenly has an ‘original’ story on snail farming tax avoidance remarkably like the wonderful story that @londoncentric.media comprehensively researched and published a few days earlier.

who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.

Here's a question for you before 7am. If you're in London, 1886, and you pop to your local public hall to watch boxing, wrestling, military displays, a man cutting a sheep in half with a sword &c. would you expect that sheep to be: - a fake sheep - real sheep, but dead - alive (well, briefly) ?

Bit blatant of the Louvre criminals, no? ebay.us/m/OYE8LE

TOMORROW NIGHT - 'In the Limelight' - A History of Black Performers in Morecambe. We look forward to hearing Kirsty Roberts, talking about the Black performers who regularly graced the town's stages—artists like Adelaide Hall, Clayton 'Peg Leg' Bates, and Cassie Walmer. Book HERE

This photo accompanying a news story about the heist at the Louvre is perfection.

150 years ago, Sir Charles Wheatstone died in a hotel room in Paris surrounded by his family & friends. Let’s celebrate the inventor of the Stereoscope (and of many other things) in the hope that we can do something in the near future to honour him properly. www.charleswheatstone.com #Wheatstone150

I'm publishing the weirdest story I've ever written tomorrow, for London Centric members only. So here's an one-off offer. Sign up for a year before midnight today and I'll give you 33% off. If the story doesn't live up to expectations, I'll refund you tomorrow. www.londoncentric.media/a21e85e7

There's a cool new clock at London Bridge called Rail Clock! I've made an online version of it: railclock.matteason.co.uk Code here: github.com/matteason/ra...

Just had an email about renewing my @newscientist.com sub and there's no way to cancel online 🙄😡 I have to ring them up, FFS. This should be against the law.

London is proud to host Japan's Grand Sumo Tournament this week - it's fantastic to see the the teams using our cycling infrastructure to get around.

If you continue to hold on to your X account.. If you continue to drive a Tesla... If you continue using Starlink... Remember who and what you’re supporting. Elon Musk is paying Tommy Robinson’s legal costs. Tommy Robinson says Elon Musk is paying his legal costs as trial begins

I think train drivers should be encouraged to randomly go on the tannoy and tell the passenger using the speaker phone to plug in their headphones. Because there will be one somewhere on the train, and maybe it can slowly nudge more considerate behaviour.

9-yr-old Ukrainian Sasha Paskal has won gold&bronze medals at the All-Ukrainian Rhythmic Gymnastics Competition "Black Sea Cup" In the summer of 2022she was seriously injured by a Russian strike and underwent a leg amputation Sasha didn’t give up.She went through rehabilitation 📹bokareva.solovey.m

I hereby nominate the Portland Frog for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In Wales, Cornwall, Edinburgh, London and so many places when most 30mph roads were changed to 20mph, people injured or killed by motor vehicles reduced by 20%+. With minimal change to journey times and £2bn saving in insurance costs it's a huge win. bit.ly/4gIBPlJ

Print and send this chart (from your newsletter on Tuesday) to every household in the country.

I'm writing this book partly, mostly, for readers who aren't already into boxing 🥊 The Devil's Dance Floor is about pugilists, pressmen, policemen, and Alf Ball's pet puma. Murder, madness, Jem Smith's tight tights. We got wives. Bald bears. A Victorian epidemic of discarded orange peel! Smallpox!

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian. Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference. Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say? Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

The Hay Wain, rural Brixton, October 2025.

One of those stories that lifts the day.

Heads up! The next edition of the biennial European Circus History Conference will take place in Denmark at the wonderful Copenhagen Circus Museum from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th April 2027. Read more at circusconference.org

EUROPEAN ROUTE OF HISTORIC THEATRES - Sat 25 Oct 2025 2pm - FREE at V&A Lydia&ManfredGorvey LectureTheatreSW7 2RL Mark Fox explains the Route’s genesis (120 theatres across 30 countries) current status and future plans. Book in advance www.ticketsource.co.uk (search Frank Matcham Society)

Famed architect Palladio’s last commission was the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. The stage set for its first performance in 1585 was a masterpiece of illusion which convincingly depicted roads disappearing into the distance. Incredibly it’s still there to this day. Tks @JonathanMendel1

We will be unveiling a #BluePlaque for #MusicHall and #Variety star Max Miller on Thursday 16th October at 2pm in Burlington Street, Brighton. All welcome! #BrightonEvents

Before cinema, there was Music Hall! 🎭 From pub backrooms to grand palaces of entertainment, it was the heart of London's cultural life. Uncover treasures from the golden age in our new free display, 'Spotlight on Music Hall'. Opens Oct 6! www.thelondonarchives.org/visit-us/exh... #Archives

Interested in entertainment past and present? Join the BMHS! Sign up from 1 Oct and get 16 months for the price of 12 🎭 Membership runs until 31 Jan 2027. ➡️ Join here: britishmusichallsociety.com/join-us

In this Instagram/TikTok age, I imagine that a full scale, working replica of Church’s Stagecoach (about 1830) with a modern engine etc. might pay its way. Model in Turin’s automobile museum.

Shopping for a new car whilst in Turin. Has to be red, obviously, but I’m struggling to decide which to pick, the Cisitalia 202, Alfa Romeo Disco Volante or Maserati Osca?

Six days, five libraries, 92 documents… Some of my favourite things to have stumbled on in the Paris archives this week: Saucy goings-on at the Moulin-Rouge - radiology and ultrasound live show, come see your heart beating, stomach working, and bones moving about in their joints!

EVERY single one of the 10 GPs at my local surgery is from overseas. They are Indian, Russian, Nigerian and Italian. IN CLACTON. 1) Aren't they serving the community enough? 2) Do Nigel's fans realise what would happen if they all left? 3) When do they have time to do the volunteering bit?