Never in a million years did I ever fathom when I resurrected the Epstein story in 2018 that it would lead to first arrest of a British Royal in four centuries. Not since King Charles I was arrested in 1647. open.substack.com/pub/jkbjourn...

“I remember the first time I saw Andy…”

Lord, give me the strength and confidence of the middle aged male journalist questioning a Stanford -educated multiple Olympic medal winner about failure

Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.

Lost my phone in London, with four credit cards and £150 cash in the case. Returned to me within 21 minutes. This hellhole of a city eh.

He's in politics for senior executives at kitchen appliance companies? Niche.

First time I listened to Gladwell talk about something I didn’t know much about: Wow! This guys is pretty smart! And he explained this in a way I found accessible! Vs. First time I listened to Gladwell talk about something I did know about: FUCK. This guy is wrong all the time, isn’t he?

Yup… First time I listened to Gladwell talk about something I didn’t know much about: Wow! This guys is pretty smart! And he explained this in a way I found accessible! Vs. First time I listened to Gladwell talk about something I did know about: FUCK. This guy is wrong all the time isn’t he?

gladwell is like chatGPT in that as soon as they touch something you have independent knowledge about, you immediately recognize that they're full of shit. for me it was when he did an episode about law school admissions and did not mention GPA

I recently received “The Bomber Mafia” as a birthday gift (heh). It was bad, so bad that I believe it cannot be read as a reliable account of strategic bombing in World War II. In so many ways, it demonstrates the worst tendencies of the “pop history” genre. My review (and latest)⬇️

Countries that do not use Fritos as currency could be "left behind," says Frito-Lay CEO Ken Biddleman

Good god I forgot what a smug arrogant prick Blair was and is

Proof that one cannot make a deal with a mentally deranged man and expect it to last five minutes. #chagos

"the biggest cheer so far is not for teh skiers..."

'we are thrilled and proud to announce we have created marvin the paranoid android from douglas adam's famous novel, "don't create marvin, the paranoid android"'

The thing about bubbles is they can happen even when the underlying innovation is transformational. Indeed almost all major technologies from railways to the internet were accompanied by an initial bubble.

“Your guy is late.” “It’s only been five minutes, chill.” "Something doesn't feel right." “Everything’s fine, Dave.” "You sure this is the spot?" "Yes." "And you know this guy is cool?" "Yes, just relax." "Don't give him the money until-" "Until I see the kibble, yes I know."

New post out: We have a guest post today from the excellent @dsquareddigest.bsky.social. "Build the Rail! Save the snails!" Or how we don't need to sacrifice the environment to speed up our mad planning processes. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/b...

FWIW, after 2+ decades in 🇬🇧 diplomacy my settled view is that BBCWS is *the* (not *a*) vital element of British soft power and the continued attacks on its funding are nothing short of barbaric and self defeating.

I miss when you could post Brave Norman Rockwell Townsperson and the caption could be, like, “R.E.M was wrong to leave ‘Fretless’ off of Out of Time” instead of “The secret police should stop murdering people.”

Cartoon: If anyone in Chicago knows this school or an anti ICE organization affiliated with them I would be happy to donate this art. I only wish I could have fully Sal Buscema-ed that punch :)

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Health officials are racing to contain a growing measles outbreak in London, which has struck down dozens of young children and affected 7 schools and a nursery. UKHSA has warned an outbreak across London could see 40,000 - 160,000 cases: www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

‘You, Boy! Follow that Nadhim Zahawi chap and scare the shit out of him!’

A great story

Evening.

This disqualifies Farage from any office in the UK whatsoever on national security grounds alone. Tankie nonsense.

Suburban wine moms will really be like "you believe in voting? that pales in effectiveness to my strategy, firebombing a concentration camp" and then very effectively firebomb a concentration camp

Yeah man, all you had to do was not perpetrate a massive fraud and this would’ve worked out great for you.

Post a banger, not in English A Flemish woman singing in French under an Irish name youtu.be/tmPws7eXcVk?...

every day i get to come onto the internet and read a sentence i could never have conceived of in my wildest dreams

Nadhim Zahawi thinks London is now unsafe, because the other day a tired-looking man walked past him during the morning rush hour.

This is Bogie. This rope is his very favorite toy because it makes his tiny human smile too. 13/10 (TT: _chelsea_brown_4)

Probably the best thing I ever posted on that other site, wish I could permanently transplant it to my timeline here.

Pam Bondi Thought That Went Pretty Well

Just going to leave this here

What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it

Just sent out this free piece. For two weeks now we have heard senior European policy makers speak lies. Europe cannot defend itself without the USA, the USA under Trump it committed to NATO, Europe is too weak. It is a generation of failure justifying its mistakes. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

☘️🍻

Lisa Nandy is going to be a fascinating case study of someone who had the ambition and opportunity to be leader of their party and just fucked it.

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

this may be the most English man ever to exist.

This convo has been had so many times but it’s worth repeating - most left wing people in 2026 are progressives who aren’t keen on things like Reformy style immigration policies or cuts to welfare for disabled ppl. They aren’t checking state spending rates in their analysis of left vs right

Have a read of this. Great scoop, obviously, but it’s also an absolute masterclass in how to report on these jokers. Plenty of London-based hacks could learn a lot from Martin Shipton here. If they actually wanted to… nation.cymru/news/the-new...

The reason why the Labour party wants a new leader is that the polls and local elections both put them on the brink of death, the policy agenda is a mess of warmed-over Milibandism pared with hypocritical social conservativism and no obvious route to the upside.

Excellent piece!

Something magnificent about Kemi Badenoch's self-confidence, and her claim that the Mandelson affair is entirely down to her asking questions at PMQs. Like a toddler who thinks their plastic steering wheel is controlling the car.

Ageing societies that don't like leaning in to their areas of comparative advantage or immigrants and feel their first duty is protection whether of individuals or companies are probably not going to be high growth (or as it appears) happy ones.