The tax-efficient wheels of British government on.ft.com/49kjud8

vital public interest stuff from me & @ramshodgson.bsky.social a gov figure told FT that the Cycle to Work scheme was "tax breaks to high earners buying £4,000 e-bikes for weekend rides in the Surrey Hills" so for fun here's some charts on the £120 to £2,996 bikes being bought by gov employees

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

I’m delighted to have been nominated for New Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards, for my work with @jim.londoncentric.media at London Centric (who also got 3 noms!), and alongside multiple of my new colleagues at the @financialtimes.com I’m v grateful to Jim for all his help!

I think this is the weirdest story I've ever reported. www.londoncentric.media/p/terry-ball...

These chocolate bars have had an unfortunate character arc www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

The UK's lossmaking money-maker, "collector fatigue", and real life monopoly money on.ft.com/4nwi8j3

HMRC lost hundreds of millions of pounds more than previously estimated to phoenixing, an insolvency practice open to abuse by tax evaders Sound familiar? @jim.londoncentric.media on Piccadilly Circus' phoenixing gift shops (and Asif Aziz) www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l... on.ft.com/4nzqlmU

It's been really exciting to see where London Centric is going from the inside. I've had a lot of fun and I'm hugely grateful to Jim for all his guidance and ideas. If you're not already a subscriber and you care about London, do check it out!

A final little bit from me in today's edition: the south London flagger who told the BBC he was one of many “hardworking business people” hanging British flags -- and his £98,000 false injury claim When I called him, he gave this gem of a quote

Here's something a bit different. We've been reporting from Edinburgh to try to get to the bottom of a mystery in London. Princes Street is the Scottish capital's most famous shopping street — and it's gaining the *exact same* tatty gift shops as London. www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

Moments before the dog was handed over, captured in grainy iPhone SE glory. The pet does seem to be a crucial part of the protest. The man’s banner says “Dictators Fear Freedom, Even For Animals” with an icon of a dog. Earlier this year, Iran banned dog-walking in cities including Tehran.

THE DOG IS DOWN Latest update from an anti-Iran protest at King’s Cross, where a man with a Pomeranian scaled the 34m clocktower at 8. He just handed over the dog to firefighters on a cherry-picker, to scattered cheers from onlookers. The man remains at the top and seems to be arguing with LFB.

One of the capital's worst high-rise fires since Grenfell was just over a year ago; residents still have almost no answers. London Centric's investigation into the devastating fire, from May: londoncentric.media/p/spectrum-h...

Nitrous oxide driving, with drivers using balloons behind the wheel, feels like it’s on the rise in London - backed up by what medical experts told us about referrals. But the scale of the issue is obscured because of how crashes are recorded in police stats. www.londoncentric.media/p/nitrous-ox...

Today: wildfire risk in central London's parks/palaces also - 1 in 8 Notting Hill carnival arrests based on facial recognition tech - Soho pedicab crash - airport security vs wet-wipes - headphones on the tube - the cricket team and the zoo www.londoncentric.media/p/will-wildf...

Another fun part of this edition is the Qatari-royal-owned, mould-infested, ceiling-falling-down, £7.95m Mayfair townhouse that reminded me (already resigned to not owning in London for about 11 decades) just how outrageous London’s property market is.

Spoiler: like all good things it’s tax related

Asif Aziz almost forced out London’s Prince Charles Cinema earlier this year. Is he trying the same again with Picturehouse Central - and is another major central London cinema under threat from the same landlord? www.londoncentric.media/p/picturehou...

Ever wondered what the deal is with the InsideSuccess kids outside London stations who tell you they are raising money to stop knife crime? I have. Well @jim.londoncentric.media of London Centric has done the leg work, as ever. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Today's story: how a Wimbledon LTN led a man down a online rabbit hole, via a 6 hour lamppost sit-in. also featuring anti-ULEZ bladerunners, a hardline vicar, flat-earthers, and conspiracy theorists quoting the Magna Carta www.londoncentric.media/p/anti-ltn-p...

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

Today on London Centric: those blue jacket knife-crime fundraisers (Inside Success) and why no one seems to be able to get rid of them www.londoncentric.media/p/inside-suc...

Fun fact: this is the *second Lego-linked debacle* for the London Tories this decade. At a Partygate lockdown party in 2020, assembly member Lord Bailey — then running for mayor — reportedly received a Trafalgar sq Lego set from billionaire property developer (& now Reform treasurer) Nick Candy.

Real screenshot (of non-real tweet) from the real Conservative video.

In honour of Silverstone, I wrote about F1 sponsorship for the FT — from Lego racecars to the brands choosing to sponsor a fictional team over a real one on.ft.com/46qWXtw

disgusting anti-Irish behaviour on the streets of Soho today: I just watched a man at the Devonshire pour a full pint of Guinness into an empty Harrogate water bottle

For those Londoners who (like me) have melted in the week since I wrote this, this City Hall survey is asking the public for their thoughts on a heat plan to make the city cope better with heatwaves: www.london.gov.uk/talk-london/...

I’m hiring a reporter for London Centric, looking for someone smart who can use a phone, knock on doors and wants to cause trouble. Don’t care if you’ve got qualifications, just want evidence of caring about news. Initial six month contract, pay above national rates. www.londoncentric.media/p/jobs

TfL just announced pedicabs should be regulated in London by early 2026. The challenge is how to come up with a system that doesn't just replace the current free-for-all with a tiny cartel of corporate pedicab operators. Our investigation into the industry: www.londoncentric.media/p/londons-pe...

We haven't designed or built London for coping with heat, so we experience the capital in a very different way to cities in hotter climates, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review Emma Howard Boyd speaks to @rachel-rees.bsky.social. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-hea...

Dominic Cummings and LFG (*those* tube graffiti cleaners) hard-launched in the telegraph over the weekend with this vaguely terrifying photo angle

Much-requested follow-up to Saturday's story: what's the cause of the tube graffiti? featuring a very helpful and chatty tube depot worker www.londoncentric.media/i/166139652/...

Plus: the Kemi-branded chocolate handed out at the Tories' summer party. Nothing like "I would die to protect free speech" with your morning coffee. www.londoncentric.media/i/165872932/...

Today's main story: the Dominic Cummings-backed group and GB News presenter behind some viral tube-graffiti-cleaning www.londoncentric.media/p/looking-fo...

Google ACCEPTS there has been an urban fox INVASION* at its giant new £1bn London HQ following CAMPAIGNING journalism by London Centric. *subs please check, size is disputed (This statement took a week of stonewalling, I cannot imagine how many revisions it went through to get the tone right.)

imo worth reading purely for the Battle of Broccoli Park, a veg-based re-enactment of a festival legal saga we're definitely not all sick of. Also: potato pope and a 'cornclave'.

Lessons from SXSW London, where people were not too happy at paying up to £1,300 to wait around all the time: - successfully so British that queues almost became the main event - if everyone has fast-track tickets, no one really has fast-track tickets www.londoncentric.media/i/165346629/...

Accidental drug-themed issue today, from Lime bike pills to weed: Lord Falconer says weed possession should be decriminalised, in part because of how the Met uses it as an excuse to disproportionately stop and search black men. (Spoiler: Home Office says no.)

Latest from my other self, who sometimes freelances for the FT: an explainer on AI-enabled drones in war. These weapons, which some industry figures say are as transformative as the invention of gunpowder, are increasing in number on the battlefield — and outpacing regulation. on.ft.com/44Q5rtx

I’ve just been in Stratford Youth Court for London Centric, where two teenage boys have pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal damage with intent to endanger life following a viral video of a chair being chucked downstairs in Westfield Stratford.

Goldfinger, dystopian high-rise, broken lifts and trapped residents ... yet another London property shitshow

Disabled residents of an iconic London tower block that's associated with a James Bond villain and a JG Ballard dystopian novel say they've been trapped in their flats for a week due to broken lifts, and threatened by building management for speaking out - www.londoncentric.media/p/high-rise-...

Scoop: further London festivals at risk after Brockwell Park high court judgment. Finsbury Park campaigners planning to write to council today re Wireless etc, Victoria Park events also seem to exceed 28-day limit (insert bad joke re all pointing south). Plus Mighty Hoopla question marks remain

MASSIVE legal verdict just in for festivals in London parks.... Questions over whether Mighty Hoopla and Field Day and can go ahead this month.... residents won legal challenge arguing they need planning permission... implications for all other London parks. www.londoncentric.media/p/mighty-hoo...

We got in a London pedicab so you don’t have to (verdict: deeply, deeply embarrassing)

80 residents lost their homes in the Spectrum Building fire last August. This story sums up London's precarious housing market: cladding removal works that helped the fire's spread, extortionate rent for a block with known safety issues, uncontactable freeholders and an ongoing search for answers.

who you calling a small online title

The London Centric team needed an affordable workplace solution today, somewhere that wouldn’t have issues with us sitting on laptops all day but also had lots of desks and on-hand supplies of coffee, food and strong WiFi. Anyway, welcome to WFCC (work from county cricket).