Telegraph censured for fabricated story of banker’s struggle to pay school fees

If you want to know how the British print news industry ends (which is, de facto, amazingly still what supports most newspaper websites) it's the distribution channels getting banjaxed. When you lose "TG Jones" etc even people who want a paper can't get one. That'll be the real start of the ending.

Safe to say Mel Stride is not having a good time responding to Rachel Reeves' spring statement. His first five minutes of indignation drowned out by Labour MPs. Even his felt tip pen notes can't save him.

The implicit argument of so much of this stuff is that there is no legitimate role for Muslims in public life.

Anyway, read a selection of mine and @georgegreenwood.bsky.social's investigations into the Definitely Not Geopolitical Dubai property market here: www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

"The trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai."

David Cameron, 2011: “I am not a naive neocon who thinks you can drop democracy out of an aeroplane at ten thousand feet.” Kemi Badenoch, 2026: “The only reason not to back this war without caveat is if you’re looking to get support from the Mozzies!”

GBNews presenter being told she’s not British.

There are now almost twice as many public electric car charging points in the UK as there are petrol/diesel fuel pumps, a government analysis has found. Obviously it's not a perfect like-for-like comparison given recharging/fuelling times, but symbolically important. www.gov.uk/government/p...

John Curtice is now reporting that this is the Conservative's worst performance in a by-election in the party's history...

399 constituencies would switch Labour > Green on this vote swing if repeated in a general election. (John Curtice on BBC)

Seismic. Stunningly so, and now Starmer faces multiple very difficult questions

If the Greens do win in Gorton and Denton, there will be a *lot* of Labour MPs looking nervously over their shoulder, and imploring Starmer and No 10 to show a bit of political leg to all those voters peeling off from the left.

Labour embroiled in dirty tricks row after a fake “Tactical Choice” non-existent organisation urged Gorton voters to back Starmer’s party www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour...

Slightly surreal moment in the Commons as Speaker Lindsay Hoyle confirms he was the person who passed the Met a tip that Peter Mandelson was a flight risk, prompting his arrest this week.

Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital halts mass eviction after London Centric uncovered what was going on. Hundreds of Londoners now receiving bizarre door-to-door visits blaming misinformation and being asked to record videos saying they don't want to be evicted. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Some late breaking news - New Zealand would also back removing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, a spokesman for PM Christopher Luxon has said. Only 12 other Commonwealth realms to go…

following Cat's scoop: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

More superb reporting in London Centric on the Aziz family, this time evicting hundreds of tenants from residential properties, which comes on top of dodgy tax evading gift shops, trying to close the Prince Charles Cinema etc – absolutely depressing that politicians can't do anything about this lot.

On a train through to Kidderminster, and the train conductor sounds like Australian cricket commentator Jim Maxwell. He's described the workings of Smethwick Galton Bridge's platforms with the same bewilderment Maxwell would aspire to.

How Reuters captured the photo of former Prince Andrew leaving custody www.reuters.com/world/uk/how...

this is a very basic point to make but I hate that so many tech people are going "whoops haha AI is about to destroy society as we know it!" and yet incredibly few tech people are arguing in favour of just...slowing down the roll-out of AI, apparently progress must crush us and we have no say in it?

Exclusive: Josh Simons claimed to be “surprised” and “furious” at a PR agency’s work to investigate journalists on his behalf. He had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda. w/ @dansabbagh.bsky.social

FT exclusive: Global Counsel, the advisory firm founded by Lord Peter Mandelson, is set to go into administration as soon as Friday in the wake of revelations about the former peer and Jeffrey Epstein, its staff have been told. www.ft.com/content/ad5d...

Lots of chat about the *last* English royal to be arrested, but who was the first? The Anglo-Saxons typically bumped off their rivals, so I'll start the bidding with Odo, bishop of Bayeux, arrested and imprisoned by his half-brother, William the Conqueror, in 1082.

Good luck to anyone trying to publish any other news today.

Only having two 24-hour police stations for the whole of London is an interesting decision www.bbc.co.uk/news/article....

Robert Jenrick announces Reform UK will keep the OBR and Bank of England independence, with an emphasis on fiscal discipline, signified by restoring the two child benefit cap. The speech is essentially the same as every Tory chancellor's conference speech in the last 10 years.

As seen in www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Another sign football fans' social contract has been broken: five FA cup games on today. How many are on free-to-air? None. All sold to satellite. Whoever made this decision at the FA needs to seriously think again.

Spent part of today at Kidderminster's carpet museum - first time I've visited despite it opening in 2012. Surprised at just how good it was. Brilliantly done. Hopefully it can avoid closure

Penultimate debate before recess is on mobile connectivity in rural areas. Unsurprisingly it's atrocious. On the flip side, we can't get 5G in Kentish Town, very much not a rural area. Something has gone wrong at both ends of the spectrum.

This piece in The Spectator by @shippersunbound.bsky.social has an absolutely mad detail that I was not previously aware of spectator.com/article/auth...

UK has lost its official status as a country that has achieved elimination of measles, as vaccination rates have fallen below the 95% required to achieve herd immunity. So sad, and likely due vaccine misinformation. If you haven't already, get your kids vaccinated ASAP. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I've written today's Thunderer on Courtsdesk, the archive the MoJ has scrapped. It mustn't double down out of embarrassment. Every day the system is down is a day court access is curtailed. Not resolving this would be a choice to undermine open justice. www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Well I enjoyed Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson's figure skating, even while knowing nothing about the technical detail. The use of the Proclaimers and Auld Lang Syne was very fun

In February 1742, Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime Minister, resigned from office. Bringing an end to his over 20 year 'Robinocracy', Dr Robin Eagles explores how his family benefitted from his long tenure.

To the delight of everyone in Parliament, the tractors with the novelty horns are back.

Blue plaque for Jill Craigie: ‘Her untouched study was a place to explore history’ - www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/blue...

Missed this at the time but very interesting and revealing bit on Steve Reed's philosophy re council housing in this interview by @danielhewittitv.bsky.social - thinks it isn't aspirational and just for the neediest (with no aim to change that). Opposite of Rayner's "social housing revolution":

:: suggested govt had "no growth strategy at all" after Mandelson complained about econ philosophy. :: agreed with M’s comment that “govt problems do not stem from comms”, inferring PM was issue. :: said Israel was "committing war crimes before our eyes" & UK needed to recognise Palestinian state

Please stop trying to delete important archives.

Interesting to see Josh Simons on the frontbench during Darren Jones' statement given the story on Labour Together at the weekend www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Is John Sergeant on the steps of the Paris embassy yet?

NEW: Sources close to Eluned Morgan, Labour first minister in Wales, insist that she is not planning to say anything on Keir Starmer's leadership today - despite reports to the contrary.

mashallah he is gone, to celebrate I've made the piece I wrote last year about arguably the most embarrassing project I've ever worked on free to read: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/so-about-t...

Kidderminster Harriers fans: here's what was said last night as Wyre Forest District Council discussed the club buying Aggborough. Plans could include demolition of the Harriers Arms... harriers-online.co.uk/khfc/richard...

Absolutely brilliant column by @patrickmaguire.bsky.social: every word of it true:

this is such a weird story: An influential Labour-aligned think-tank previously run by Morgan McSweeney, now Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, paid a public affairs company to identify the source of leaks to journalists about the group’s funding. www.ft.com/content/dca0...