Rick

Both PayPal and QuickBooks have remarkably crap front ends. This, alone, must be an opportunity for Europe.

PayPal ban on York firm’s Cuban coffee imports A YORK company had half of its business put on hold after payment system PayPal froze its account for selling Cuban coffee.

Example: we don’t need no stinking PayPal imposing domestic American moral panics on us in Europe. We do payments far, far better than anything America has. And we certainly don’t want members of the International Criminal Court being debanked by the Trump regime.

The thing is, little of American tech is very difficult. It just requires the will to move from the status quo and to something sovereign. China has been doing this for a while, and it’s time for Europe to do the same.

Europe just started building a ‘kill switch’ for U.S. tech — and the market isn’t priced for it, says this strategist — MarketWatch Zoom and Microsoft are among those companies that could lose business, says Matthew Tuttle

“The main event is this: the world is building optionality away from U.S. policy and platform dependence. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it — because it’s showing up in procurement decisions, supply chains, defense budgets, and capital flows”

One thing to be added to the whole Mandelson saga - those who want to be close to the centre of power and will do anything to get there are unlikely to be the most morally upstanding of folk.

Something that those reporting on politics like to ignore.

A keystone of future prosperity? Or a drain on London's efforts to build new homes?

We go inside the data centre boom rewiring the capital. Link below.

The Londoner is being sued by a holiday let grifter. We’re going to fight him in court Mysterious emails, incessant demands and a fake lawyer — an editor’s note about a serious threat we’re facing

I'm being sued for libel by a man who ran a rental arbitrage scheme involving some of London's priciest properties. The Londoner have been brilliant in standing behind me & refusing to give into this naked attempt at silencing the truth. Read below -
www.the-londoner.co.uk/the-londoner...

It makes me grind my teeth with frustration that somebody has to say what should have been bleedin’ obvious from the start.

Another good’ un from @chrisdillow.bsky.social.

chrisdillow.substack.com/p/no-magic-m...

I explained here why Stogia is wrong: there's no magic money tree which means finance is more available to the private than public sector, & the constraint on investing is real resources, not the public finances: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/no-magic-m...

Kevin Warsh: you have to make a bet What comes after data dependence?

“Everything technology touches gets cheaper.”

Hmmm. Not sure that’s always true,

www.ft.com/content/057a...

Another reason to boycott BrewDog.

Who secretly owns Britain? Map of hidden UK property owners Explore an interactive map of nearly 100,000 UK properties owned by offshore companies. In over 40% of cases, the real owner is hidden.

As ever @danneidle.bsky.social is on the case.

taxpolicy.org.uk/2026/01/29/w...

Every time there is an attempt to improve transparency in land ownership it seems that a loophole is built in.
Overseas owners of UK property now have to declare the beneficial owner but that can be an offshore trust.

Sunrise and sunset times in London, January 2026 Calculations of sunrise and sunset in London – England – United Kingdom for January 2026. Generic astronomy calculator to calculate times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset for many cities, with d...

Well the day is about 1h 25m longer than it was at the solstice. And the rate of change is speeding up.

www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/londo...

About what?

Today is Candlemas, a cross-quarter day traditionally marking the mid point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This year, the astronomical mid-point is tomorrow at around 20:00 GMT.
It marks the end of the year’s darkest quarter.

www.russellcottrell.com/blog/solarEv...

This is truly shocking - glaring holes in the UK’s AML regime which urgently need fixing.

I’ll be writing to Companies House next week.

Churchwarden linked to foreign-born billionaire is behind £200k Reform gift The man whose firm made the donations will not discuss where the money came from, nor his ties to wealthy Farage allies who may not hold citizenship

How is it that a church warden behind an interior design firm originally incorporated in the BVIs & tied to a Kazakh billionaire can make a £200,000 donation to Reform UK?

Source of funds not disclosed.

Farage has questions to answer.

The Electoral Commission must investigate.

GOP STUNNED: Democrat Flips Reliably Republican Texas State Senate Seat President Donald Trump immediately distanced himself from the loss. It's a district he had won by 17 points in 2024.

Another similarity between Trump and Farage. When Trump’s candidate loses, he drops her like a hot potato.

www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-...

Why do people who step down to “avoid further embarrassment” for their family, company or Party always hang on until maximum embarrassment has already occurred?

Google to pay $68 million over allegations its voice assistant eavesdropped on users Class-action lawsuit alleged that Google's voice assistant illegally recorded and shared private conversations with advertisers.

Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"?

Well, it happens they were doing exactly that.
www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...

Donald Trump threatens to sue Trevor Noah for telling jokes at the Grammy Awards. I'm sure the self-declared free speech absolutists will be rushing to Noah's defence at any moment.

Christian Nationalists are basically Jane Austen fans who don't get the irony.

Corbyn’s role in enabling Brexit and the Johnson government is a neglected chapter of the last decade’s story.

She swears she did not already know this and was making a flippant remark.

Earlier this evening:

“Your Party have not yet named a candidate to fight Gorton and Denton because they probably have still to elect the committee that will select the candidate,” said my wife, jokingly.

Er….

OPINION: One month into nationwide protests, the Iranian people are still making history — at the cost of their lives.

The free world can no longer credibly claim neutrality in the face of what has occurred.

🔗 www.politico.eu/article/iran...

Only today?

Those are both brilliant.