Paul Lewis

Student loans system risks collapse, says minister who trebled fees Lord Willetts calls for interest rates to be cut and regular reviews of repayments

Student loan Plan 2 creator David Willetts tries the Harland and Wolff Titanic defence - it was all right when it left here bit.ly/4ucZQYu but now he warns it could collapse

Govt woolly thinking could leave farmers fleeced rather than their sheep bit.ly/4rSSbgt

Council unlawfully created LTNs to make millions in fines, court rules The High Court ruled the cash-strapped south London council used its powers for an ‘improper purpose’ when it introduced a network of low-traffic neighbourhoods

Low traffic neighbourhoods in Croydon ruled unlawful by High Court bit.ly/4ur5574 main purpose was to raise money not health or environmental judge says. Await the lookalike campaigns!

How the Royal Navy shrank to its smallest ‘since English Civil War’ The state of Britain’s fleet is incomprehensible to Falklands veterans and a dearth of ships in the Middle East has left it unable to act for weeks over Iran

Britannia waives her rule bit.ly/46E5zfL just google world’s biggest navies and try to find us in the list.

Tehran an ‘apocalypse’ of hospitals in flames and children buried beneath rubble Highways choke with those fleeing as others shelter with nowhere left to run

Even the Telegraph bit.ly/4svJadb

The British expats stranded in unsellable Spanish villas Spanish government’s campaign against overseas buyers is trapping homeowners desperate to downsize

Of course it’s not unsellable, just being the price down! bit.ly/4aZEEMM it’s only worth what a willing buyer will pay on the day you want to sell it,

Russell Leeds boasted on Threads about paying $150,000 to charter a Gulfstream executive jet to fly from war-torn Dubai to London.

Property entrepreneur Russell Leeds boasted about paying $150,000 to charter a Gulfstream jet so that he and his family could escape war-torn Dubai. It’s not going down well in the comments.

Trump administration waging illegal war on Iran, experts say Administration offers shifting explanations as it acts without congressional approval or legal premise

USA waging illegal war bit.ly/4ctGKH5 say law experts as justification changes day by day, speech by speech.

Head of Police Federation arrested on suspicion of fraud Mukund Krishna, who was paid £701,100 last year, was one of three men held after a raid on the national headquarters in Surrey

Police Federation boss on £700,000 a year arrested on suspicion of fraud by abuse of position bit.ly/4aZvO1y along with two other men. Homes searched.

The other fib that was told about the Conservative student loan plan was that the debt though huge would not affect getting a mortgage. True, the debt itself doesn’t count against you but the 9% tax repayments reduce your net income which is used to assess affordability.

School talks compared student loan repayment to £30 phone contract Graduate presenters told to avoid words such as ‘debt’ and ‘free money’ during the government-commissioned lectures

Tories hired marketing firm to hide the truth about their new student loan plans in talks to school pupils bit.ly/4l7NH2H one graduate who took the fee to make the presentations says he ‘had sold my soul to the devil’.

Dubai influencers spin the positives as missiles rain down Warned they face jail for posting ‘misinformation’, content creators have been praising the autocratic regime for keeping them safe

They’re there to avoid tax but now they are trying to avoid jail as the sunny state makes clear the price of no tax is no freedom of speech bit.ly/3MHqAj3 so positive influencers love the sunny state and thank the regime for keeping them safe as 1000 weapons target it

That Mel Stride quote about Rachel Reeves as in Hansard “She comes to this House with nothing to say and with no plan—unless, of course, doing nothing is a cunning plan to avoid those U-turns further down the line.” Boom boom.

BBC v Trump - latest from Joshua Rozenberg. Subscribe on substack.

‘We’ll run out of food this week’: Israel’s Iran war brings new Gaza siege Israel has closed all crossings into Gaza, threatening to plunge 2 million people into a new hunger crisis

While we worry about flights and energy costs, Israel tightens its siege of Gaza bit.ly/4rbmbmy leaving 2 million people without food

Which political leaders we like most

Ministers to ban violent and degrading pornography online The ban will include content depicting acts such as rape and incest, bringing websites in line with pornographic videos sold in shops

Baroness Bertin who is behind this change bit.ly/3NbuiS4 admitted on @BBCr4today this morning that ‘you can’t stop bad people trying to find bad stuff but we can send a societal message to say enough is enough it has to end’ when asked how to stop people using VPNs to access foreign sites

Ban London march linked to Iranian regime, MPs demand Al Quds demonstrators have previously waved Hezbollah flags and called for the destruction of Israel

Calls to ban march supporting Iran bit.ly/4r2HAOB I guess a march supporting the countries which started the war - USA and Israel - would be allowed!

Energy bills could hit £2,500 a year if Iran conflict draws out Qatar stopped LNG production after attacks heightened concerns of a global supply crisis that could push gas prices even higher

War fallout could add £1000 a year to UK energy bills, warn analysts bit.ly/4bkLJIY even though our gas does not come from Middle East

Do cars run on gas in UK? Not many.

Vanity goes to war @mortenmorland today

The City lender to Bangladeshi elite at the centre of a £900m fraud scandal Implosion of a Mayfair-based ‘shadow bank’ sends shock waves through the City of London

I doubt if anyone in the City is really shocked by this. It’s been happening there for centuries! bit.ly/4u2dWM8

Maritime insurers cancel war risk cover in Gulf as Iran conflict disrupts shipping Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and vessels rerouted, sending some freight costs surging

Insurers - there when you don’t need them, not there when you do! bit.ly/4aIknMQ

Drivers lose faith in EVs’ savings as pay-per-mile road tax looms Duty on electric cars is ‘wrong tax at the wrong time’, says expert, as motorists believe new vehicles will not be cheaper to run

Electric shock - new tax threatens to make EVs more expensive to run than fossil fuel cars bit.ly/4tVfveK

‘Bad tactics’ for duke’s property firm to miss ground rents hearing Analysts say companies including the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor have given the floor to critics such as Angela Rayner by choosing not to attend a parliamentary session

Is this contemptible or contemptuous? bit.ly/4l4VKxb surely time to scrap this medieval fealty payment?

Monthly service charge for flat owners beats £200 for first time Freeholders increased charges by 4.6 per cent last year, and by 55.6 per cent over the decade, according to analysis by Hamptons

They are not flat owners they are lease owners and the uncapped and uncontrolled service charges are going up and up as the real owners - the freeholders - milk the cash cow bit.ly/4comCGi

Businesses curb growth to duck VAT threshold, HMRC data suggests Small businesses are said to be closing on quiet days or splitting up operations so as not to go over the £90,000 turnover limit

If you ever wondered what cutting your nose off to spite your face means, it is this bit.ly/4rFjPxa cutting the turnover of your small business to avoid registering for VAT, which anyone with a spreadsheet can sort out in half a day every three months

Epstein and Andrew’s week together in New York Former prince spoke of brief visit but documents describe dinner party, glamorous guests and an invite to the Boom Boom Room

Epstein papers reveal a very different truth about former Prince Andrew’s 2010 New York visit bit.ly/3MLj3Q8 not a visit to break off his friendship as he told Newsnight but a week of parties and socialising

Ministers could announce U-turn on student loans next week Options include increasing the repayment threshold and cutting interest rates amid warnings over crippling debt burden for recent graduates

Interest rates are only a psychological problem for over 70% of Plan 2 graduates as they will not pay off the loan until it is written off in their fifties bit.ly/4tRJTqB the burden is the extra 9% tax on income. Raising the threshold where that begins would help them all

Crypto assets the new offshore as wealthy men hide their wealth from their ex-wives