Dining across the housing divide with Jamie Ratcliff - We debate housing supply, rent control, building safety and more: peteapps.substack.com/p/dining-acr...

Think this is probably right (and reminds me that West Ham's relegation will hit London's taxpayers). The London 2012 Stadium should have been a fully temporary structure; the 'legacy for athletics' that Seb Coe insisted on could have been provided through a full refurb of Crystal Palace.

'Leftwing' does not have to mean fiscally loose. "More open policies on migration and Europe and a fairer tax system would be economically “left” of the present government. But they would improve the public finances and reduce the deficit." Me in @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/7235...

Number of universities in the QS Top 100 world ranking by country in 2026 USA = 27 UK = 17 Australia = 8 China = 5 South Korea = 5 A top five UK service sector export (c.£25bn) that we should probably support and champion more if we want to maintain an advantage.

bliss

Has professional pay been particularly stagnant in recent decades? Yes, it seems so, with junior managers, cultural workers, teachers and healthcare workers particularly hard hit, while minimum wages have pushed up pay for caring, leisure,sales, elementary and machine operation occupations.

“Manchester should not be treated as a happy little accident. It’s one of the only serious growth stories Britain has produced in recent decades, and the rest of the country should be studying it much more closely.”

I’m amazed anyone needs reminding of this, but local government spending power per person fell by 18% from 2010 to 2024 (would have been 26% but for increases in council tax). At the same time, social care pressures on local govt have grown a lot. The decay of the public realm is NOT a mystery

The first para of yesterday's Sunday Times interview with Meg Mathews is quite the journey...

A legendary London venue has been brought back to life. @juliehamill.bsky.social paid a visit: www.onlondon.co.uk/julie-hamill... #london

This will make you stop and think. @charleswright57.bsky.social on the extraordinary work of London's young carers, focusing on Enfield: www.onlondon.co.uk/charles-wrig... #london #enfield

One of Talk Talk's finest... www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGHw...

Don't buy land, they're not inflating it any more.

Bloody good slapping for architects (which we love) and useful caution …*crosses out half of tomorrow’s talk *

"As far as we know, Hobbes never took a package holiday." Some days I swear that Thought For The Day is scripted by Chris Morris.

Been a while so thought I'd check out the Persimmon costs and operating profit per housing plot data. Big rise in build costs and operating costs since 2022. Current operating profit is effectively just the house price inflation since 2021. Land costs flat for a decade.

I know many people think local government is boring, but the way the media interpret local elections largely as a referendum on the government of the day risks being a self-fulfilling frame of analysis.

This, from a Gillian Tett piece about AI in finance, is interesting. An underpriced risk of AI is that, much as it may smooth out extreme positions, it may also converge on too tight a consensus, stifling diversity of opinion - on everything from politics to stocks. www.ft.com/content/c0ae...

Laurie Anderson played an ghostly version of Lou Reed's Dirty Boulevard. Reminded me what a great album New York (1989) is, how direct and current it feels. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PFH...

Good luck to artists but filmed or streamed gigs have always left me cold. I'd rather be two-thirds of the way back, peering between shoulders and indefensible hats to catch glimpses of a distant bass player, than watch the whole thing in high definition from my sofa. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Historically, in many sectors, higher productivity growth has been associated with more—not fewer—hours worked. A short note using UK sectoral data on why productivity growth does not automatically translate into job destruction. #dataisbeautiful open.substack.com/pub/teraalla...

Good piece by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social on the extent that 'Manchesterism' preceded Burnham. Parallels with London, where the city's mayors rode the wave of the city's 'renaissance' in the 2000s rather than seeding it. www.ft.com/content/9dbe...

I have two last wishes: 1: I want my remains scattered around Disneyland 2: I don’t want to be cremated THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER

Laurie Anderson at Brighton Dome tonight: remarkable, playful, fierce, occasionally baffling. And an audience participation tai chi encore. Plus no photos. What you want, really.

Had this last week. It's not just that there are ads, it's that they've put the ad in *the worst possible point* in the film to put an ad. Arguably the worst possible point to put an ad in the history of cinema.

We’ve been told our content needs to be more informative so here you go

Dave is too kind. Many other great speakers too, including @ben-rog.bsky.social, Julia Roberts, Julian Robinson and David Latchman. And wine!

One downside of the firehose of pop culture that defines our age--plus the shortness of shelf lives & attention spans--is that many gems get buried under whatever else appeared that day, year, & after. I've been sitting with this gem from 2021 & thought I'd go ahead and hold it up to the light here.

The thing that slightly surprised me is how many of these people dislike or distrust Nigel Farage. I always thought that he was central to Reform's offer, but maybe not so much.

Slightly diminish a book Managed Expectations

Not 100% sure the ipaper photo editor looked very closely at the crowd in this pic illustrating a piece on festivals.

Was quite startled by the news about sharply falling healthy life expectancy this week. Helpful piece by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com today setting out some of the nuance. www.ft.com/content/766e...

Top 15 TV shows: Edge of Darkness Friday Night Dinner The Sopranos Brasseye Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy White Lotus (s1-2) League of Gentlemen Fargo Prime Suspect Angels in America 'Allo 'Allo Top of the Pops The Wire Motherland Succession

Buy music on #BandcampFriday! New from @katherinepriddy.bsky.social and Sluice this month.

Crouch End, Deptford, Chiswick

These organisations spend £££s developing complex corporate structures and customer service strategies, but an angry letter to the chief executive is still the only thing that works.

This is the most detailed 3D rendering of a eukaryotic cell to date, obtained using X-ray, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and cryo-electron microscopy datasets. 🔬🧪

Another interesting assessment of Labour's local election prospects in London. I wonder what 'not-as-bad-as-we-(said-we)-feared' results will mean for Labour leadership.

I love the interior design archaeology you get when you start taking apart bits of a house.

God, this site can be sanctimonious.

This is very good on the limitations of the assisted dying bill. To address fears of coercion, it suggests setting out your wishes in relation to assisted dying through a 'veil of ignorance' before you become ill or incapacitated (with an opt-out but not an opt-in afterwards).

Interesting research. London is not only one of the big four global city-regions for scientific talent, it has also seen faster growth than anywhere apart from Beijing.

Happy London Marathon Day and congratulations to all those competing. I’m not doing it myself this year but as a sub-three hour Marathoner, here are some top tips to make your day go gangbusters. 1. Treat yourself to a brand new pair of running shoes as a treat for your feet.

It's not just me entertaining the possibility - and only the *possibility* - of Labour doing less disastrously in London than some expect, here's ex-BBC London political editor Tim Donovan doing the same: www.onlondon.co.uk/tim-donovan-.... @robfordmancs.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social #london

Did a thing for the Observer. observer.co.uk/style/featur...

Excellent trolling from @ftweekend.com. Banner promises 'Golf property special'; lead feature is on using golf courses to build more homes. www.ft.com/content/1380...

#Brexit #yay

An expert opinion that the scam reported by the BBC wouldn’t work, and so was a scam on applicants not the system, seems like important context

Good to see Brent (and Barking and Dagenham) scoring well in the Work:Guinness ratio...

Probably the most significant gender gap on a political issue not tied to gender I have ever come across. And not some mere fluke, consistent on our trackers going back years, a genuine point of difference between men and women.