Actually it’s Iain M Banks… the Iain Banks novel Elon Musk should reflect on is Complicity

On the tube, heading for Heathrow. Phone beeps as we leave the tunnel with voicemail from friend: ‘we’ve just arrived at North terminal’ … hmmm … ooops … check ticket and inform wife that we should be heading for Gatwick. We made it onto the flight by seconds…

Moment Nigel Farage henchmen manhandle disabled OAP in parking row Henchmen working for the divisive Reform leader were seen on camera manhandling a retired engineer who was trying to park in a disabled spot to drop off his wife in Shetland

Farage thugs manhandle man with pacemaker after he objects to the Reform leader's chauffeur parking in disabled bay that he needs to use.

Lovely People.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

It's a depressing trend that 'progressive' parties – the Greens, now the SNP – are promoting fantasy economic policies. Seems not very intellectually healthy!

I have seen a lot of NIMBY selfishness in my time, but "my convenience matters more than cancer care" is a new low. Quite seriously tempted to email them and tell them as much.

Screen grab of a telegraph story that the Tory leader doesn't think police should be targeting drivers who break the law by speeding.

Badenoch: breaking the law whilat driving is fine and should be ignored by police.
She is a dangerous idiot.

It’s worth remembering that the Green party opposed the infrastructure needed to plug this wind farm into the National Grid.

Freethinkers

The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇

Oh. My. Word.

there will be more joy among active travel campaigners over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance …

A very stocky Exmoor Horn ram.

Happy 8th anniversary to the tweet that changed us forever. Look at this absolute unit.

Starmer is not participating in Genocide. That’s a truly disgusting thing to say. Using a centuries old conflict for your own narrow political advantage is utterly, utterly repulsive.

Dream-pop at its most divine: Cocteau Twins’ 20 greatest songs – ranked! Forty years on from the release of their Victorialand album, we rank the Scottish band’s 20 best tracks, from goth beginnings to weightless masterpieces

This is wrong. Musette and Drums is the best Cocteau Twins song. Fact. It’s a rare example of where the BBC session version isn’t as good as the original recording.

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/a...

There are people living in council homes in Southwark that the Greens campaigned against. Polanski is lying about the Labour Party and promising things he can’t deliver. Every day I talk to people who equate him with Farage.

Britain breaks solar energy record twice as UK’s biggest solar farm gets approval Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather

But Zack Polanski said that Labour is in the pockets of fossil fuel donors. How wrong he is.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Yeah, why hasn't the elected leader of one of the world's biggest economies prioritised insulting a madman on social media? It's not like he's got to balance grown up diplomacy or hoping not to upset the maddest leader of the free world in history for fear of needless economic sanctions! Wtf?!

It's good to know that if Zack were PM he would not be working hard behind the scenes to defuse an immensely delicate, hugely dangerous situation by trying to talk a madman down from genocide, he'd be Tweeting to inflame it all for narrow political advantage.

A screenshot of a hideous Trump posting on Truth Social

A relative in their 90’s, not known for left of centre views, says the only reason they watch the 6 o’clock news is to find out if Trump is dead.

To grow the economy we need more trams, and fewer kebabs Britain’s second-tier cities are being held back by a simple problem, too many people still cannot get across them quickly enough to reach the jobs, customers and opportunities that drive growth.

Why do our second-tier cities underperform?
Why do we have fewer trams in the UK?

I try my best to give an answer to these two interconnected questions.

chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/to-grow-th...

Though, having spent the last couple of days bimbling around country lanes in Sussex with t son, almost everyone has been really courteous.

It would be nice to see Zack Polanski unequivocally welcoming the end of the two child cap, the higher minimum wage and new statutory sick pay rules all coming into force today.

A few years ago my dad got hit by a van when out cycling. He was almost killed and left permanently disabled due to 3 broken vertebre.

The bloke who did it was speeding and fled the scene. Multiple previous offences.

He served less than a year in prison. My dad still cant walk longer distances.

Anecdotally, it feels like driving standards have deteriorated recently. Lots of speeding, terrible parking and close-passes when I’m out and about in London.

I do understand this view. Austerity as implemented was a disaster (as I said very publicly for a decade)

But we are not seeing/have not seen a huge increase in inequality and the idea that there's some soak-the-rich get-out-of-jail-free card just doesn't add up

What I learned from my first few weeks as a Green MP? Most politicians have no clue how tough things are out there | Hannah Spencer With this escalating cost of living crisis, so many are really suffering – yet Labour lacks the imagination, boldness and will to do anything about it, says Green party MP Hannah Spencer

This sort of facile populism is really damaging to trust in politics. Most British MPs are highly attuned to the cost of living crisis and challenges faced by their constituents.

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

One of the things that gives me joy is the number of kids, even tiny ones, now cycling around Dulwich. Officers tell me we have the highest rate of children cycling to school in the borough. But still much more to do.

Goodwin would not be ‘banned’. He could Substack as much as he wanted. But we could make an editorial decision that, on balance, that he has discredited himself and has no further useful contribution to make.

This is absolutely spot on from Emily Thornberry 👏

This is … very interesting … I’ve begun advising clients to consider the risks of storing assets on digital infrastructure which may present a geo-political risk.
So very glad to see it may be possible to get another provider to run the NHS federated data platform.