Ian Makgill

Make data publishing part of their audit process, no spending data, no org charts etc - then your accounts can’t be signed off.

I had a friend who’s high Tory mother spent 30 minutes of every morning of her retirement calling the BBC to complain about bias on the Today programme. Same energy.

The Telegraph’s frothing rage at art will never not be funny to me.

“Good natured detours” is now a fervent ambition of mine.

Which reminds me of the single best book ever written ever.

And a shop with hammers and ladders and buckets for the occasional leaky roof.

That doubles as a post office

And at @benunsworth.bsky.social for driving with his door open

The best high street: bikes, coffee, books, prints, cheese - all you could want.

A little gallery of maps and prints with a kettle and some biscuits.

Betcha no one from OnlyFans has been invited to a "how can we use technology to unlock growth" roundtable at No 10.

Old boxes. Ah, those were the days, when you'd form a band, make a noisy 7" record, ring up John Peel's producer, ask for a session, get a call back saying "yes, OK then," go to Maida Vale, spend the day recording ridiculous songs on extremely posh equipment and GET PAID £471.20 FOR THE PRIVILEGE.

I should have said “learned” not “discovered”.

I did some work on using payment cards with vulnerable adults many years ago and the first thing I discovered was that vulnerability was inconsistent, it varied over time and often increased when engaging with authorities (eg banks). Simple techniques like a ring back could be very difficult.

I should qualify that, it’s not housing costs per se, it’s the proportion of discretionary spend from salaries that it consumes that is the problem, it stops £££ getting to the parts of the economy that can grow.

Yes your buying power is reduced, hence why housing costs are such a drag on the economy.

Oh my. It’s almost as if there wasn’t a vivid history of terrible outcomes from industry lobbyists leaning heavily on regulators.

It is what it is, I just have a slight obsession about the negative externalities that all taxes create.

If you’re buying anything from a man who brags about doing ketamine you’ve got a risk issue.

That’s a case which absolutely isn’t related to tax and was rather stupidly promoted as a tax issue by parents.

I mean if he’s really petty he’s going to randomly break down Teslas on all the commuting routes used by Lula and his ministers.

Someone described him as the Nazi Whisperer the other day and it feels such an apt description.

Nice article too. I feel like there’s a really strong argument for including user needs like simple, cogent logins at the point of procurement.

It is a finely crafted pun worthy of a salute 🫡

Surely the best you can say is that the evidence is inconclusive or insufficient? Any school closing now can state that their revenue for next year has been affected and despite other problems we can’t ignore the possibility that they are telling the truth.

I’ll guarantee that 40 of those different sign ins is because the private sector wants a gazillion pounds to adopt department standards or use other data sources.

Surely it’s too early to conclude that? One or two might close over the coming months especially if they lose students.

I’m not standing up for the Christian Brothers management practices (or principles) I’m just arguing that we can’t take the tax out of the equation. They’re wrong to ascribe the closure to solely the tax, but it is still a factor.