David Hendy

Love going from Berlin's public transport ("four connections arriving five minutes apart & your ticket is valid across them all") to Glasgow's ("that bus is a hallucination, your next one is in 38 minutes but is from a different company so you need an additional ticket").

A reminder about just how far rightwards GB News is taking public debate.

Guess what other growth engines we had that we are now destroying… universities

4. You see, the problem is this: History Reclaimed don’t know much about British colonialism. They’re not actually interested in it. They are a private company funded to prevent any truthful examination of the past that might challenge a right wing, white-centred version of the national story.

Won’t somebody please think of Britain’s poor £2m homeowners? Oh, wait – everyone already is | Jonathan Liew Contrast the furious reaction to Rachel Reeves’s ‘mansion tax’ to the response offered to those living with real housing injustice: indifference, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

‘All across the country, families are living in substandard housing, half-built housing, overpriced housing, housing under threat… Imagine if just a fraction of the spume and righteous fury over the new surcharge could be redirected to those who really need it.’

There was, though not a huge amount. In the end, about 50,000 words had to be cut. There's always more to say, alas, and some of the absences still haunt me.

The Ambridge Socialist. The Business of Beavers The Ambridge Socialist 30th November The Business of Beavers The Beavers have been unleashed and according to the BBC it’s the first time they have been resident in the Am since the seventeenth cen…

This week's Ambridge Socialist. The BBC is continuing its downbeat coverage of the affairs of working class Ambridge, the Horrabins & the Grundys but there is trouble ahead for George
wp.me/p15p2Q-fBR

Sunday walk, South Downs

Soon-to-be-axed 7am Manchester-London train will still run – but without passengers Exclusive: Rail regulator pulls Avanti service from timetable from mid-December but it is needed for staff travel

‘… “It will be on the platform – people will be able to see it, touch it, watch it leave. But they won’t be able to get on. The taxpayer will be paying five days a week for empty trains.”’

For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit.

For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit.

For every 100,000 drop in net immigration, the OBR adds £7bn to the deficit.

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

Times headline: ‘BBC failing to tackle systemic bias, says author of leaked memo’. In fact, when asked by MPs, this man, Michael Prescott, said he didn’t believe the BBC was institutionally biased. The Times failed to quote that, in an article about the issue of truthful reporting.

On Bregman, I was there in the audience and I can’t see what the BBC have gained by removing this line except more bad publicity. I will say that no such edits or censorship occurred when I gave the Reith Lectures and free-speech defenders might want think about whether this is the world they want.

See thread by @rutgerbregman.com

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Reith lecturer accuses BBC of censoring his remarks on Trump Dutch writer Rutger Bregman says claim that Trump was ‘most openly corrupt president in US history’ was removed

'... self-censorship driven by fear (Trump threatening to sue the BBC) should concern all of us,” he said. “It’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralysing cowardice’ of today’s elites.'

Israel begins seizing 1,800 dunams of West Bank land to develop archaeological site Civil Administration says development legal, taking place amid 'neglect' of site by Palestinians; Peace Now: 'Government's lust for dispossession and annexation is insatiable'

Israel, which has obliterated most of Palestine’s archeological and heritage sites, including ancient churches, mosques, and temples, has suddenly discovered an urge to protect one from Palestinian ‘neglect’. It just so happens to be in the West Bank.

www.timesofisrael.com/israel-begin...

There’s this, if you’re around in the North Wales/Deeside/Cheshire area on 17th January…

🧵 Thread: The Economic Cost of Long Covid – new 2025 study in Nature

1/ A new paper has modelled the economic burden of Long Covid in the U.S. and globally. Spoiler: it’s massive. Here’s a breakdown. 👇

Boris Johnson took four days off as NHS warned Covid could ‘overwhelm’ system Files show then PM was walking dog, riding motorbike and hosting guests as pandemic planning stalled in ‘lost month’

More details emerge of that ‘lost month’ of government inaction

#covid

Reform UK and Russian bribes: a Nathan Gill timeline As Reform’s former leader in Wales is sentenced to ten and a half years for taking bribes from a pro-Russian actor, here's a chronology of his actions and the wider context of Putin, Ukraine and Brexi...

NEW: If you have *any* interest in the Nathan Gill story, you need to look at this.

We’ve put all the dates into a timeline & it’s incredibly revealing.
1/

www.thenerve.news/p/nathan-gil...

I apologise for this, but I need everyone to join me in a rousing internal chorus of Where's the money from? to the tune of chirpy chirpy cheep cheep.
Because I shouldn't suffer alone and the Mail's last bid for the telegraph was funded by Qatar and Abu Dhabi I think

The BBC is under threat like never before. This is how to save it | Pat Younge A moment of peril demands a new approach – on everything from funding to the BBC charter, says Pat Younge, former chief creative officer of BBC Television

‘The BBC is our most effective defence against the dangers of global media power concentrated in the hands of a few private individuals, but we have very few obstacles to prevent a populist or authoritarian government from undermining it. This is a moment of peril that demands a new approach’

Thread

Well, that's us fucked, then.

I’m not sure how I would deal with being found to have been responsible for 23k deaths, but I think it would likely involve removing myself from public life and finding some way to help save lives.

Helsinki just went a full year without a single traffic death The capital city is Finnish’ed with car-related fatalities.

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas & city center in 2021.”

Brexit Hit to UK Economy Double Official Estimate, Study Finds Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist.

Brexit has caused almost twice as much damage to the UK economy than estimated by official forecasts, according to new paper from a group of experts including a senior Bank of England economist

Michael Gove claiming Covid was a lab leak on the today programme without one word of pushback.

Ukraine banned from Nato, Russia readmitted to the G8 and territory ceded: what’s in Trump’s draft plan Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he expects to discuss the plan – which was reportedly drafted by Russian and US officials – with Trump

🚨🚨This is no "peace" plan, it is a recipe for further suffering and #Russian imperialist expansion in the #west. It is difficult to appreciate just how much damage the #trump administration has done to #Ukraine and its war efforts. It is disgusting beyond words. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...