Chinese robots are racing in half marathons and we can't even automate the Tube

James Price has a useful CAPX piece on robots, their rapid development and how Britain is plodding along at the back somewhere. Well worth reading on our meandering journey through the treacherous green swamps of Fabian Mire.

The robot race is on, and Britain is falling behind

• Chinese robots are racing in half marathons and we can't even automate the Tube
• Britain can address its robotics lag in a free market way
• There is an existential fear about the future among today’s political class

Can a robot write a symphony? Can it turn a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?”
Can you?

This exchange from the film ‘I, Robot’ (and later parodied in a million memes) captures human fears and concerns about coexisting with robots, and what it means to be human. Fast forward 20 years, and artificial intelligence is getting pretty good at composing both music and paintings, while my artistic efforts are worse than Shia LaBeouf’s performance in that film.

It has been weird to see AI become so effective at these skills before machines have become competent in the physical world, where they have long been hopelessly poor. No longer.

Last weekend, the ‘Lightning’ humanoid robot won the Beijing E-Town Humanoid Half Marathon in 50 minutes 26 seconds, beating Jacob Kiplimo’s human world record by nearly seven minutes. Last year, in the inaugural event, the winning robot took 2hrs 40min 42sec, something even I can just about beat. In 12 months of progress, that is a 70% improvement. As impressively, in 2025’s race, only 6 of 21 robots even finished. Last weekend saw more than 300 robots, including entries from all around the world – 40% ran autonomously.

Examination of attitudes

Examination of attitudes when buying a house: Government argues about explosive encroachment on property rights

In Berlin, the dispute over a possible test of conviction when buying a house is escalating. The background is a draft from the Federal Ministry of Construction by Verena Hubertz, who belongs to the SPD. According to the available reports, municipalities should be able to intervene if the buyer is suspected of "anti-constitutional tendencies". In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the BKA are to be involved in the examination, while the ministry explains that the text is still being coordinated by the departments. The initiative therefore hits a highly sensitive core of the rule of law, because not only criminal offenses, but already political suspicions could have consequences for the purchase of residential property.

The real scandal, however, lies deeper than in a usual departmental debate. If the state links the purchase of a house to a preliminary examination, it shifts the line between danger prevention and political selection. Property would then no longer be just a question of contract, financing and compliance with the law, but at the same time of the state's assessment of the person of the buyer. This is precisely a pattern that free societies must strictly limit.

Why Is The World Becoming So Ugly?

 

Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

Joseph Dinnage has a useful CAPX reminder of Keir Starmer and Labour's underlying problem, dishonesty. Incompetence too, they aren't even competent at hiding the dishonesty. 

A familiar issue of course, but the whole piece is well worth reading because as Dinnage says, the dishonesty is becoming intolerable. Intolerable? This suggests some kind of major upheaval may be lurking on the political horizon, quite apart from the May elections.


Labour’s dishonesty has become intolerable

• Between Peter Mandelson's sinophilia and Chris Pincher's wandering hands, we've suffered sleaze for too long
• Keir Starmer will ultimately leave Britain in an angrier and materially poorer position than when he found it
• Whoever leads Britain into the next decade must be guided by one principle above all: honesty

It takes a special kind of political crisis to make a right-winger agree with Diane Abbott.

As Keir Starmer faced MPs on Monday over his appointment of renowned sinophile and friend of Jeffrey Epstein Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, Abbott struck at the heart of the Prime Minister’s weakness. Portraying himself as feeling as hurt, betrayed and confused as the rest of the nation, Starmer insisted time and again that he believed due process had been followed. But as the Hackney MP pointed out, ‘ordinary people don’t really care about process and procedure, they want transparency and they want to know that they have confidence in the words of elected politicians’.

She’s absolutely right, and at one time Starmer seemed to think so too.

Has it had an impact?

Earth Day started as a US 'teach-in' 56 years ago. Now it's a global event

Millions of people around the world will pause Wednesday, at least for a moment, to mark Earth Day. It's an annual event founded by people who hoped to stir activism to clean up and preserve a planet that is now home to some 8 billion humans and assorted trillions of other organisms.

Here are answers to some common questions about Earth Day and how it came to be...

Has it had an impact?


Indeed it has -

 

Hang on - this circus is all clowns

‘Dismissive approach’ from No 10 over Mandelson vetting process, Robbins says

The former top official at the Foreign Office said there was a “dismissive approach” to Peter Mandelson’s security vetting from Sir Keir Starmer’s No 10.

Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked by the Prime Minister last week over the failure to disclose Lord Mandelson’s failed security checks – but he was granted developed vetting (DV) clearance anyway, said there was pressure from Downing Street to clear the appointment.


Ed Miliband to give major energy speech as fury erupts over 'lunacy'

Ed Miliband's "anti-oil and gas stance" will fuel fresh price hikes for families already struggling with the cost of living crisis, critics warned.

Energy Secretary Mr Miliband will "double down, not back down" on the shift to clean energy, including speeding up the rollout of renewables and electrifying heating and transport to get homes and businesses off fossil fuels.


Reeves’s cash Isa reforms in chaos

Rachel Reeves’s plans to penalise savers who hold cash in investment accounts have stalled despite months of Treasury meetings, The Telegraph understands.

In last year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced the controversial cut to the cash Isa limit from £20,000 to £12,000 for under-65s from April next year.

HMRC said later that it would penalise savers trying to use loopholes to circumvent the limit, including putting cash into stocks and shares Isas.

But industry sources told The Telegraph that after months of talks, the Treasury has not made crucial decisions about how the rules on investment accounts would work in practice.

Quality Accouting Center

With delightful accuracy, Babylon Bee hits yet another nail firmly on the head.

Ilhan Omar Assures Public Her Finances Were Handled Honestly By Professionals At 'Quality Accouting Center'

 

Source

Pylon Men (1956)

 

The reality of the Starmtrooper’s ambition

Felix Hardinge has a fine Critic piece on what he calls Soft-Play Britain, the shallow and superficial urban schemes which go no further than trying to make the place look a bit nicer.

Soft-Play Britain

Britain’s governing class talks of growth and grandeur but focuses on planters and paint schemes

On X, you see the little impulses and fixations that ani§mate [sic] the people who actually run Britain. And time and again, the revelation is the same. The people who speak most grandly about “doing things” and “growth” in practice, to be obsessed with cycling infrastructure, shopfront beautification, pedestrianisation and the general moral necessity of making places look a bit nicer.

No government has embodied this dissonance more perfectly than Starmer’s. The promise was of restored standards in public life fused to technocratic seriousness: growth, competence, a bright (and green) industrial future, perhaps even a faint revival of that old Blairite hum of modernisation. This vision could not, at least initially, be laughed out the room. Unlike the stagnant 2010s, the world has begun to recover some sense of technological momentum, above all in artificial intelligence and in space: NASA’s Artemis II mission launched on 1st April, and this week completed the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17.

Yet the reality of the Starmtrooper’s ambition is far more often the moral and aesthetic world of the municipal functionary: traffic management, frontage improvements, “public realm” tidying, and an endless preoccupation with making everything feel safer, softer, and more convivial. Millennials were the first generation to invent the “kidult”, so it makes sense that they should wish to turn the streetscape into a kind of giant soft-play area.


The whole piece is well worth reading as anyone paying attention here in the UK must see such kidult streetscape schemes all over the place.


That is why these schemes so often feel less like urbanism and more managed irritation: not a positive vision of how to build better places, but a negative politics of making existing habits harder. In practice, as Chris Bayliss notes, the supposed policy substance often dissolves into a motte-and-bailey: the attractive claim that everyone should live near life’s necessities, followed by silence when asked how those amenities are actually to be made economically viable where they do not already exist.

Replica Activists

Greenpeace installs 'wind farm' at Trump's golf resort

Environmental campaigners have staged a renewable energy demonstration at Donald Trump's golf resort in Scotland, installing mock wind turbines on a green to protest his stance on fossil fuels.

Greenpeace confirmed that three activists set up six small, replica wind turbines on the fourth hole green at Trump Turnberry Golf Club in South Ayrshire at approximately 6.30am on Monday.

The demonstrators later removed the turbine models as golfers approached, ensuring their round was not disrupted.


At least we don't have to subsidise them.

Britain is poorer than people think

Matthew Lesh has a useful CAPX piece on an old British problem, the sluggish nature of economic growth. Worth reading, although voting for political charlatans and loons who don't believe in economic growth is also an old British problem. They don't believe in education either. 


Britain is poorer than people think

• New polling shows that growth still matters to the British public
• Britons know something has gone badly wrong – they just need to see how far we’ve fallen
• The public want prosperity, not excuses

Not too long ago Keir Starmer was banging on about how growth is his ‘number one mission’. Now, with the economy once again faltering – real GDP grew by an anaemic 0.1% in the last quarter of 2025, following an equally disappointing 0.1% in the previous quarter – we are hearing a bit less on this topic.

But have no doubt: the British public still dreams of a more prosperous society.

An expansive new public opinion research project, published by the Institute of Economic Affairs and undertaken by Freshwater Strategy, highlights that despite widespread pessimism, few have given up. When asked whether the UK should focus more on growth, an overwhelming 87% agree, compared to just 9% who say the country is already wealthy enough. This view cuts across the usual political divides, with strong support across genders, age groups, educational levels and regions. We may have a more divided politics than at any time in modern history, but there’s at least one thing pretty much everyone agrees on: growth.

Monday to Friday

Monday

Labour put on united front as Starmer, Rayner and Burnham reunite at breakfast club

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner joined Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham at a visit to a school's breakfast club.


Friday

No invite for Starmer? Rayner and Burnham spotted holding late-night meeting in Manchester fuelling talk of a leadership challenge days after pair were all smiles with PM

Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have fuelled speculation about a challenge to Keir Starmer after being spotted holding secret late-night talks.

Greater Manchester mayor Mr Burnham was seen leaving Ms Rayner's constituency home in the city late on Friday, days after they played happy families with the PM on the campaign trail.

Ms Rayner is seen as a leading candidate to run for the leadership if Sir Keir is challenged in the wake of a poor showing in the May 7 local elections.

No way Lammy wasn’t told

No way Lammy wasn’t told Mandelson failed vetting, says former foreign secretary

Exclusive: In an interview with The Independent, former foreign secretary James Cleverly sets out the reasons why ministers must have known Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting

It is “inconceivable” that Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy were not told about Peter Mandelson failing the security vetting process for the role of US ambassador, a former foreign secretary has claimed, amid growing accusations that the prime minister scapegoated the head of the Foreign Office in order to save himself.

Describing his own recent experience, Sir James Cleverly, who was foreign secretary from 2022 to 2023, said: “I cannot envisage a universe where someone senior in the Foreign Office wouldn’t have sat down with the foreign secretary and said something to warn about this.”

Hmm, so the highest Ministers in the land are not entirely truthful. 

Queen Anne is dead too apparently.

The colour of intolerance

German survey finds Greens voters least tolerant of differing opinions

Supporters of Germany’s Alliance 90/The Greens are the most likely among the country’s main political groups to say they become annoyed when confronted with opinions that differ from their own.

The poll, conducted by the Allensbach Institute for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, asked respondents whether they are often annoyed by people who hold completely different political views or whether they usually have no problem with it.

According to the results published on April 17, 28 per cent of Greens voters said they are often annoyed by differing opinions, the highest figure recorded among the main party electorates.


Probably not a surprise, but given the survey uncertainties there are no dramatic differences overall. This finding is interesting though -


A majority of respondents — 57 per cent — said there was at least one person in their family or circle of friends with whom they believed it made no sense to discuss political topics because opinions were simply too far apart.

The boiling frog effect

AI use causing ‘boiling frog’ effect on human brain, study warns

Turning to AI to complete tasks may be eroding people's ability to make an effort to think for themselves and makes them more likely to give up, new research has found.

This could leave us in a "boiling frog" scenario, in which the capabilities of our brains are progressively compromised as we lean on AI more heavily, the study warns.

An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford, MIT, UCLA and Carnegie Mellon said their research provides evidence for two alarming consequences of using AI to help complete tasks: "Reduced persistence and impairment of unassisted performance.”


It is worth suggesting an alternative view here - that AI and the wider internet may possibly reduce the boiling frog effect for those paying attention. 

Taking it further - it is almost possible to divide people politically into those who notice the boiling frog effect affecting their lives and those who don't. Governments and politicians have always known about it. As the AI explanation says -

Explanation of the Concept

The boiling frog effect is based on an anecdote in which a frog is placed in a pot of water that is slowly heated. The story suggests that if the temperature increases gradually, the frog does not perceive the danger and is eventually boiled alive. While this story is not literally accurate in biology, it serves as a powerful metaphor for human perception and behavior. The key idea is that gradual changes are often overlooked, whereas sudden changes would trigger an immediate response.

We are so doomed

 

Investing in Indulgences

Paraguay expects over US$1 billion in Singapore carbon credit investments

Paraguay's government expects investments from Singapore in carbon credit projects to exceed $1 billion, Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Rolando De Barros said on Wednesday, as a delegation from the Asian nation visited Asunción led by Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu Hai Yen, accompanied by 20 business executives.

De Barros said President Santiago Peña received the delegation and expressed confidence that if “all processes of interest with Singapore are completed, more than $1 billion can be generated between both governments,” without specifying a timeline for the investments, EFE reported.

A chap is bound to wonder if Ed Miliband has looked into this. Would it be cheaper and less destructive to replace the entire UK Net Zero policy with bits of paper purchased from Paraguay?

Starmer faces calls to quit not quitting and just quit

Starmer faces calls to quit after revelation Lord Mandelson failed vetting for US ambassador role

Security concerns about appointing Lord Mandelson as UK’s chief diplomat in Washington were overruled

Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign after it was revealed Lord Mandelson failed security vetting but still became ambassador to the US.

The Prime Minister has been accused of misleading parliament after repeatedly insisting due process was followed in the appointment of the disgraced peer and that he had been vetted in the normal way.


Maybe someone is counting the number of times Keir Starmer has faced calls to quit, but this security vetting malarky does miss the starting point of the whole debacle, the starting point which everyone knows anyway -

How the blue blazes did anyone in government, including Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, how did they ever imagine for one millisecond that Lord Mandelson was a suitable candidate for British ambassador to the United States?

Lens Making in the 1600s

Interesting video on how Antoni van Leeuwenhoek might have made the tiny lenses he used to make hundreds of simple, single lens microscopes using techniques he kept secret.

EU Raises Price of Indulgences

Brussels sets new CO2 price – EU drives up import costs in the middle of the crisis


In the midst of the tense situation surrounding the Iran war, the EU Commission in Brussels has set the first fixed CO2 price for its new border tariff, thus creating an additional cost risk for importers, industry and agriculture. For the first quarter, the reference value is 75.36 euros per certificate of the CO2 border adjustment mechanism CBAM. Imports of steel, aluminum, cement and fertilizers are affected. The fees will apply to imports from January 2026, while the necessary certificates will not have to be purchased until 2027. The critical point, however, lies in the timing of this decision, because supply problems and rising costs are already massively burdening the markets due to the Iran war. The main consequence is therefore clear: companies have to plan for new additional costs, farmers continue to come under price pressure and Europe's dependence on sensitive supply chains remains.


Meanwhile -

Million-dollar fraud with invented wind farms

The German case is so destructive because it hits the core of the business. According to reports on the ARD documentary, Hendrik Holt is said to have obtained around ten million euros with accomplices and relatives. Alleged wind farms were sold to foreign energy companies, although these projects did not actually exist. In addition, according to reports, there were forged documents, bogus structures and bribery. The judiciary sentenced Holt to almost nine years in prison. So the damage did not occur in spite of formal processes, but in the middle of them.

Eco-Dentistry

 

Something Zack Polanski and the Green Party could pursue is dentistry without links to the hated oil industry via local anaesthetics such as lidocaine. 

Unfortunately for eco-zealotry, this is produced via various chemical pathways beginning with such oil-derived compounds as xylene. 

Maybe the Green Party could promote eco-dentistry without anaesthetics at all? 

As an alternative to oil industry pain relief they could promote dentists' chairs with straining bars attached. Eco-patients would take a firm grip of the bars during the more painful eco-procedures.

Alternatively and with Zack's background, hypno-anaesthesia could be promoted as a way to enhance the efficacy of the straining bars.

Beefed-up Becomes Beefed-down

'Corrosive complacency' - Lord Robertson tears into Starmer and Reeves in extraordinary intervention on defence spending 

Labour's ex-defence secretary accuses the prime minister of risking the country's security by dragging his heels on how the government will fund a beefed-up military in the face of the growing threat from Russia.

UK military chiefs asked to find £3.5bn in savings - and get ready for war

Insiders told Sky News that military top brass are meeting to discuss funding pressures - at a time the government also wants to carry out a programme of re-armament.

Okay - but at what age do they grow out of it?

The age at which children begin to exhibit deceptive behaviour

• A new study has explored the age at which children begin to exhibit deceptive behaviour, with some parents reporting recognition of the concept as early as eight months old.
• Published in the Cognitive Development journal, the research involved surveying parents of more than 750 children aged up to 47 months across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
• Findings indicate that about a quarter of children understand deception by 10 months, and half by 16 months, becoming more adept fibbers by the age of three.
• Elena Hoicka, the study's lead author from the University of Bristol, highlighted how children's understanding and use of deception evolves significantly in their early years.
• Researchers identified 16 types of deception, noting that younger children's deceit is often action-based, while older children employ more complex tactics like exaggeration, fabrication, or withholding information.

  

The government’s nutrient profiling model

Lidl and Iceland become first retailers to have ads banned under new junk food rules

Lidl and Iceland have become the first retailers to have advertisements banned under the UK’s new rules restricting the promotion of junk food.

The Advertising Standards Authority said ads from the two supermarkets breached regulations introduced on 5 January, which ban HFSS products (foods high in fat, salt and sugar) from being advertised on TV before 9pm and in paid-for online advertising at any time.

Under the regulations, confectionery products such as sweets and chocolates automatically fail the government’s nutrient profiling model and are classed as less healthy, meaning they cannot be promoted through paid online advertising.

Admittedly supermarkets do sell what Mrs H and I see as junk food, but we wouldn't ban supermarkets from advertising it even if we could.

The interesting aspect is the government’s nutrient profiling model which has been around for a while. Interesting because it's yet another example of the mind-boggling depths to which government micro-management has descended. 

The current version is Nutrient profiling model 2004 to 2005 which gives this brief outline of how it works -

The Nutrient Profiling Model 

The nutrient profiling model was developed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in 2004 2005 to provide Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, with a tool to differentiate of foods on the basis of their nutritional composition, in the context of television advertising foods to children. The model uses a simple scoring system where points are allocated on the basis of the nutrient content of 100g of a food or drink. Points are awarded for ‘A’ nutrients (energy, saturated fat, total sugar and sodium), and for ‘C’ nutrients (fruit, vegetables and nut content, fibre and protein). The score for ‘C’ nutrients is then subtracted from the score for ‘A’ nutrients to give the final nutrient profile score. Foods scoring 4 or more points, and drinks scoring 1 or more points, are classified as ‘less healthy’ and are subject to Ofcom’s controls on the advertising of foods to children on TV.  

Bad news for ‘annoying people’

Digital ID consultation: Bad news for ‘annoying people’, good news for future governments – and five other things we learned

  

Source

At a Downing Street event launching the consultation, chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones (pictured above) told PublicTechnology and other reporters that new forms of identity are key to his administration’s vision of “government-by-app”...

…and levelling the playing field for service users who aren’t ‘annoying’
A world in which citizens can use digital platforms to access government services and information at any time of their choosing is one that will be much more egalitarian, Jones claimed...

“People often end up getting to the front of the queue because they [are] being a bit annoying. And, so, if you’ve got the time to ring and ring and ring and say: ‘Where is the answer? Where am I in the process?’, you do get treated differently to the person who doesn’t have the time to do that. And that’s just inherently unfair, because it means you’re not prioritisng [sic] people in a fair way in terms of their need for support.”


Naturally all this has nothing to do with throttling Freedom of Information requests or anything as annoying as that.

Nothing to do with bureaucrats erecting digital walls between the bureaucracy and those 'service users' who aren't annoying because they no longer have any way to be annoying.

Carney Doubled

 

No issues ever seem to be resolved

Adam James Pollock has a topical Critic piece on the recent round of industrial action by doctors and what it tells us about the many failures of political oversight when faced with powerful bodies such as the BMA.


Why are doctors special?

Doctors have a lot less to complain about than other workers

Britain these days is a crucible of permacrises. No issues ever seem to be resolved; the goalposts for complaints are being constantly moved. One such problem which has reared its ugly head, despite previous assurances that the issue was finished, is that of pay strikes by junior doctors.

They are back. This is the fifteenth round of industrial action by doctors since March 2023. The problem is becoming so severe that the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, is considering taking a page from the playbook of that classic Labour heroine, Margaret Thatcher, and banning strikes.

The Government’s last offer, which the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected as being wholly inadequate, would have left the average resident doctor 35.2 per cent better off than they were four years ago, according to Streeting. Their pay has already risen by over 30 per cent since 2023, with the majority of this coming under the Labour Government. I would wager that this is a significantly larger pay rise than you, dear reader, or I have experienced in the same period. Why, then, are medics so implacably unhappy?


A familiar issue but the whole piece is worth reading as a reminder that union leverage still matters in certain areas of the public sector. 

The doctors should be paid more. So should the warehouse workers, the small business owners, the weary 30-year-olds who are considering opting out of their pensions in order to add an extra £75 a month into their Lifetime ISAs in the hopes of buying a house. The difference is that none of these people are in a position to shut down an NHS trust for the best part of a week and generate a month of consistent media coverage in order to be given yet more money from the taxpayer.

The question of whether resident doctors are sufficiently compensated is a legitimate one. It is, however, a great deal less urgent than the question of why no other workers seem to matter.

Mark needs a smarter plan

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney may have a plan but past performance tells us it won't be smart enough.

Mark has a Plan

Mark Carney’s party sweeps to victory in three special elections

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has secured a slim majority in parliament after winning three key by-elections and attracting several opposition MPs to switch sides.

The Liberals now hold 174 of 343 seats in the House of Commons, allowing them to pass legislation without relying on other parties and potentially remain in power until 2029.

In a statement, Mr Carney congratulated the three newly elected Liberal MPs and said that the voters “have placed their trust in our new government’s plan”.


His scheme was defeated by the unforeseen and unforeseeable. His failure illustrates the truth of Herbert Spencer’s dictum that social phenomena are too complex for prevision to be possible. But without prevision, no plan can be devised that will certainly produce the effects intended. That is where social reformers and all sorts of other planners fail.

R. Austin Freeman - The Jacob Street Mystery (1942)

Maybe someone has joined the dots

Rachel Reeves’ wealth fund pumps £600m into Rolls-Royce SMR

Rachel Reeves’ flagship wealth fund has announced a fresh heap of financing for Rolls-Royce SMR following its tie-up with Ed Miliband’s state-owned energy company.

The National Wealth Fund has revealed a £599m financing package for Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in a bid to kick start delivery on its project with Great British Energy.

The partnership will see the creation of the UK’s first small modular reactors as part of the government’s drive for clean energy.

Small modular reactors are designed to produce up to about one-third the electricity of conventional reactors. Developers argue that small reactors can be constructed more quickly and cost-effectively than larger power reactors, with scalability to meet specific local demands.

Some interesting political language here such as "Rachel Reeves’ flagship wealth fund" plus  "tie-up with Ed Miliband’s state-owned energy company" and "part of the government’s drive for clean energy". 

Maybe someone has joined the dots for Team Reeves while Keir Starmer still whizzes around the international circuit trying to get someone to notice him. 

There won't be any admission that Ed Miliband and Net Zero are both absurd, not yet, but the language has an entertaining touch of lessons learned.

Not Your Party

Your Party 'over' in Scotland following mass resignations

It comes just two months after the Scottish founding conference in Dundee

The leadership of the Scottish branch of Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party has resigned en masse, citing the “consistent disrespect” shown towards members by the organisation down south.

The 12-strong Interim Scottish Executive Committee (ISEC), which was made up of volunteers, accused the UK leadership of a “dismissive attitude” towards Scotland.

Amusing of course, but worth reminding ourselves that when he was leader of the Labour Party, millions voted for Jeremy Corbyn in his bid to become UK Prime Minister in the 2019 General Election.

A sobering thought, but it is still worth asking if Corbyn would have been worse than Starmer. What a question that is though - I think I'll go for a walk round the garden instead of considering it.

Strained

Streeting admits Trump relations 'strained' after recent attacks

• Wes Streeting, the health secretary, branded Donald Trump's language as "incendiary, provocative, outrageous" but urged people to distinguish between his words and actions.
• Streeting criticised Trump's personal attacks on the Prime Minister, including comparisons to Neville Chamberlain, and his statements about wiping out a civilisation.
• He labelled Nigel Farage a "plastic patriot" and condemned both Farage and Kemi Badenoch for initially supporting Trump's stance on Iran.

Oh dear Wes, your only concern is "strained relations" with voters and you know why those relations have festered since the general election. 

As you know, it's your ghastly, mendacious boss "Sir" Keir Starmer and his "words and actions". Yours too for that matter, although you do seem keen on salvaging something from the mess. 

How are the negotiations with resident doctors going? Strained?

Praise from Ed Davey - can't go lower than that

Starmer 'deserves credit' for handling of Iran war but must do more to help Britons with rising costs, says Sir Ed Davey

The Liberal Democrats leader told LBC the Prime Minister to go further as fuel prices surge.

Speaking to Lewis Goodall on Sunday, the Liberal Democrats leader called on the Prime Minister to do more to support people struggling with rising costs due to the war.

It comes as fuel costs have surged following the outbreak of the Iran war, which has led to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit route for much of the global oil supply, being blocked as fighting rages on.

Okay, the headline isn't quite accurate because praise from Jeremy Corbyn would be worse, but even a modest accolade from "Sir" Ed Davey is pretty grim.

Headline and Video

Labour 'turning a blind eye' to Traveller encampments and 'letting communities down'

Labour is accused of "turning a blind eye" to Traveller encampments by ending a requirement for councils to count the number of caravans twice a year. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the Government is "concealing the truth and masking the true scale of the challenge local residents and the police face". The former policing minister claimed Labour is pursuing a "soft-touch approach" which is "letting communities down".

Zack Polanski’s rental populism

Maxwell Marlow has a useful CAPX reminder that the fog of war should not divert our attention from nutters closer to home. This time it's not Keir Starmer's legion of useful idiots, it's Zack Polanski's.

Worth reading as another reminder that most political rhetoric is driven by whatever low information voters can be persuaded to support. It is not aimed at those who pay attention to how political rhetoric is used and why.

Zack Polanski’s rental populism won’t help anyone

• Rent controls will only make our housing crisis worse
• From Berlin to Stockholm, rent controls have failed wherever they have been tried
• If the Greens were serious about helping urban renters, they would be campaigning for planning reform

The Green Party has a new plan to solve the housing crisis that is simple: make it worse. With local elections looming, the Greens are set to offer rent controls and various measures against ‘commercial housebuilders’ as part of their local election offer. It is the political equivalent of treating a fever by smashing the thermometer. It might feel satisfying for a moment, but nobody ends up healthier.

At their 2025 conference, the Greens formally adopted a motion to seek what they called the ‘effective abolition of private landlordism’. They want to end buy-to-let mortgages, impose rent caps and build 150,000 social homes a year through public acquisition and council-led construction. It is the most radical housing platform of any party with elected MPs while also being the most economically illiterate. An impressive feat.

Warning Booster

Warning lights for a coming war are flashing red – and Britain is not prepared

Almost all warnings and indicators that a wider war is coming are flashing red and it is "breathtaking" that the UK government is failing to better prepare, a top academic has warned.

Dr Rob Johnson, director of the Changing Character of Conflict Centre at Oxford University, said China is taking the steps that would be expected to have the ability to attack Taiwan, while Russia could well be readying to launch military operations against a NATO country.

This comes on top of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is in its fifth year, and the US and Israeli war against Iran.

Mr Johnson has compiled a list of 80 "indicators of conflict preparation and coming armed attack" by drawing on the lessons of history, including the run up to the Second World War.


That's odd. Only last month it was climate indicators flashing red. 


'Every indicator is flashing red,' says UN as it warns of record 'climate imbalance'

The Earth is close to breaching the key warming threshold of 1.5C - beyond which increasingly severe and compounding climate impacts are triggered.

The answer of course is startlingly simple. What we need is a warning light warning light. This special warning light would be one which flashes red when the next warning light is about to start flashing red, thus giving us a double dose of warning. 

To be, or not to be, that is the question

How often should you wash your sheets and clothes?

Bath towels absorb moisture and the dead skin cells each time one takes a shower. And when wet, they may easily form habitats to bacteria and mould. It is advisable to wash the towels after use on approximately three occasions to ensure that their hygiene is maintained.

To be Green, or not to be Green, that is the question.

What would Greens say about taking a shower in the first place? There is no way round it, taking a shower involves the feckless pollution of water, whether tap water or rain water. Washing sheets, towels and clothes simply adds to the pollution.

How about not having a shower and regularly bashing clothes with a stick to knock out any unwanted lodgers? Could work and we may as well try to be constructive about the problem. A stick bashing approach does sound reasonably Green.

Moving on to flint kitchen utensils...

Ann Packer 1964 Tokyo Olympics, 800m world record

Commentary by David Coleman who becomes quite excited.

The weight of optimization

An interesting TechRadar piece which embraces a range of assumptions and speculation about the future of the internet.

 
The bifurcation of the internet is coming

We’ve quietly crossed a threshold. For the first time in the internet’s history, bots outnumber humans online. This milestone signals a deeper shift in how the web functions and for whom (or what) it’s designed for. What started as an ecosystem built by and for humans is increasingly becoming one optimized for agents.

There are 8 billion humans today, and there will likely be about 8 billion in a decade. Human growth is linear. Agent growth won’t be. Within the next few years, I believe an 80/20 internet will emerge: 80% agentic traffic, 20% human...


However speculative it may be, the piece is worth reading. The paragraph below for example, where the intriguing phrase 'weight of optimization' is used. It is possible to imagine a development such as this, but where would it take us if AI works as its proponents expect? Perhaps we should hope it doesn't.


Emotion gives way to precision. The internet that was once chaotic, occasionally quirky, and deeply human starts to flatten under the weight of optimization.

Lanyard Class Fiasco

Multimillion-pound push to transform 'broken' UK military is a 'fiasco'

A multimillion-pound push by the defence secretary to transform how the UK rearms and fights is a "fiasco", with too much focus on changing structures instead of preparing for war, according to interviews and conversations with a dozen defence sources.

Time has even been spent inside the Ministry of Defence (MoD) quibbling over the name of a new organisation charged with procuring billions of pounds worth of weapons - despite war gripping both the Middle East and Ukraine, and Donald Trump mocking British military weakness.

Two sources said some people would like to rename the newly established National Armaments Director Group, or NAD Group, as the Royal Armaments Directorate.

One of the sources claimed this was in part because the abbreviation "NAD" also means testicle - an unfortunate source of amusement. The other source said it was because the word "royal" would engender a greater sense of pride.

Sounds serious. If they can't agree on a name then the lanyards won't be ready for the first round of meetings. 

We are not customers

HMRC lifts lid on £1bn-plus programme to ‘create a generational shift in customer service’ with single taxpayer view

HM Revenue and Customs has revealed details of a new major project set to be worth more than £1bn and intended to “create a generational shift in customer service” by creating a single unified view of each citizen’s interaction with the tax system.

The department has revealed that its Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (ECRM) programme is a recent addition to the government’s major projects portfolio. Details of the scheme were contained in a newly issued transparency document formally announcing the appointment of HMRC senior official Mike Beddington as the project’s senior responsible owner.

Surely there are many more accurate words than 'customer'. There are many better words than 'service' too. 

Maybe HMRC should stick 'taxpayers' which is at least accurate, although it may not be so easy to find a more suitable word than 'service'.

Correcting the blunt language shortage

Opposition leader says personal income tax in Spain can drop if government would steal less

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of Spain’s main opposition People’s Party (PP), has promised to cut personal income tax from the first year of a future PP government.

He and staked his political future on the pledge, declaring he would resign as prime minister if Spaniards end up paying as much tax as they do under the current Socialist administration...

In unusually blunt language, Feijóo told the audience that there is “margin” to reduce taxes and improve services “if superfluous spending is eliminated and nobody steals within the government”.

If governments rake in significantly more money than it costs to run the machinery of government then what do we call it? 

If the welfare state becomes so bloated and unaffordable that heavy taxes drive people and businesses away, then we need blunt language to describe what is going on. If politicians don't even know where all the money goes, then we also need blunt language to describe the consequent lack of democratic accountability.

Blunt language is not abuse, but serious problems with the machinery of government have to be described in terms harsh and accurate enough to make political points worth making.

Attack of the Opinion-Page Generals

Peter O'Brien has a topical Quadrant piece on Trump, Iran and the tendency of so many commentators to assume their views should count. As O'Brien points out, that's not Trump's view and there is no reason why it should be.
 

Attack of the Opinion-Page Generals

I watched President Trump’s address to the US nation last week on Sky News. My immediate reaction was that he had done a pretty good job. So, I was startled at the overwhelmingly negative reaction of commentators Laura Jayes and Jonathan Kearsley. It seems that the President had failed to answer their questions. That he had added nothing new to what he had already told them. They seemed genuinely puzzled by this dereliction on the part of the leader of another country. Did it occur them, I wonder, that they were not included in Trump’s intended audience?

A few minutes earlier, Jayes had expressed the view that the Iran incursion might just be the next logical step in a strategy that involved the US becoming even less dependent on the Middle East for oil. The lightbulb glowed, however dimly, with the appreciation that there might be method in his madness. But that thought seemed to evaporate immediately post Trump’s address.


The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that Operation Epic Fury was not intended to please anyone Trump and the US do not need to please at this time. This includes numerous journalists, celebrities, pundits,  politicians and national leaders such as Keir Starmer.


If only President Trump had stuck to the ‘rules-based order’ and acted with the steely determination of, say, President Obama or the crystalline moral clarity of, say, President Biden, oil would still be below $100 a barrel. That has been the maysayers’ chorus. Of course, Iran would be that much closer to having a nuclear bomb. But would they use it? Probably not. Maybe not. Fingers crossed.

Knock Knock

Rayner's 'workers' rights police' get powers to arrest, use 'reasonable force' and search buildings

Angela Rayner's 'jobs police' have powers to arrest people, use 'reasonable' force and seize documents while conducting workplace searches, it has been confirmed.

The Fair Work Agency (FWA) is being established as part of Labour's overhaul of workers' rights via the Employment Rights Act.

The legislation, which was spearheaded by Ms Rayner before her resignation as deputy prime minister last year, began to take effect this week.

A new document published by the Government has now detailed the powers that the FWA - dubbed Labour's 'jobs police' - has to enforce workplace laws.


That's Starmer's Labour, the party in love with the notion of policing everything...

Although come to think of it, I don't pay Mrs H for cutting my hair...

Crikey.

Ed's Dream

 

From Dave R

Rodney tries to climb aboard

Starmer heads to Gulf as he says he will ‘support US-Iran ceasefire’

Sir Keir Starmer is set to travel to the Gulf on Wednesday to meet allies in the region and discuss diplomatic efforts to “support and uphold” the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran.

The prime minister welcomed the news of the agreement reached between Washington and Tehran overnight, saying it will “bring a moment of relief to the region and the world”.

The UK was already floundering

'Economically naive, ignorant and at times stupid': Labour blasted as UK hurtles towards recession

Britain faces a painful bout of stagflation and even recession as business is battered by soaring costs stemming from the Iran war on top of Labour's tax hikes.

In a bleak report, S&P Global said its index of activity among UK services firms crashed to an 11-month low of 50.5 last month...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that Britain faces ‘significant’ economic challenges as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

But analysts said the UK was already floundering before the war erupted – with recent official figures showing the economy was no bigger in January than it was in June last year.

Clive Black, an analyst at City broker Shore Capital, said: ‘An economically naive, ignorant and at times stupid UK Government will soon be blaming international affairs for a potential recession that exposes its poor policymaking.’

It's not news of course, we already know this absurdly ideological government is floundering when it comes to carrying out its economic role. Everyone who pays attention to these issues knows it and also knows the main political actors will continue to blame international affairs.

Yet Polanski's Greens would be worse.

Strewth.

How to build the wrong reputation

The biggest car heist in history: How 1,000 Volvos went missing

Half a century ago Volvo shipped 1,000 cars to North Korea. The Swedish Export Credit Agency is still sending reminders to pay the bill.

In 1966 Volvo launched the 144 series. The timeless design, safety features and classic Volvo practicality made it a best seller. Over the next eight years, 523,808 models were produced, making it Volvo’s biggest volume model by some margin.

The 144 attracted admirers across the globe, including in North Korea. At the time, Sweden was one of the few countries to have established diplomatic relations with the state – and some Swedish companies saw both a potential export opportunity and a means to cement that relationship.

Some of the 144s acquired by North Korea are still running, many as taxis, though likely somewhat roughly, given limited access to parts.

Reputations are easily acquired but not so easily erased -

North Korea courts Chinese private investors for Pyongyang commercial complex

Ministry of External Economic Affairs leads effort to secure goods and foreign currency through private Chinese capital, as legal risks give investors pause

Chinese investor reaction has been mixed. Some view North Korea as an untapped market with significant upside, but others are urging caution, citing policy uncertainty and a lack of institutional stability.

The Disney Touch

Fury in France as 930-year-old cathedral turned into 'concrete UFO' in 'architectural massacre'

A 930-year-old cathedral in France has sparked fury after its facade was replaced by a massive concrete structure.

A 450-tonne concrete gallery has been added to the Saint-Maurice Cathedral in Angers - which has been compared to a UFO.

Source

Tidying the Shed

I've been tidying the shed this morning. It's really a brick extension to the garage which looks as if it was originally used as a small workshop. We call it the shed and use it for shed-type storage such as garden tools, lawn mower, strimmer, paint tins, general tools, electric drills, wellies, bits of wood and so on.

Anyhow I've been finding out how many useless and/or hopelessly corroded bits and bobs accumulate in sheds. I knew of course, but tidying the shed always seems to hammer home the relationship between sheds and stuff which might have been useful one day but never is.

I'll resume operations after a well deserved cup of tea.

Defence readiness bill isn't ready

Defence readiness bill won’t be ready for another year

A bill to put Britain’s industries on a war footing has reportedly been delayed by a year.

The Defence Readiness Bill, which would require key industries to prepare their workforce in the event of a conflict, was set to be laid before Parliament in this year’s King’s Speech.

The legislation, which was recommended by the Strategic Defence Review, would also have included provisions to make energy networks and railways a military priority.

Lord Coaker, the defence minister, said last year the bill would be introduced at the beginning of 2026.

A chap is bound to wonder if Mad Ed Miliband is involved in "provisions to make energy networks and railways a military priority." 

Oh well, there is no need to worry about things like that, the paperwork isn't ready yet.

 

The European Commission and fact-checking experts

Mercosur, climate and immigration: the hoaxes targeting rural Europe

The European Commission and fact-checking experts have identified a growing wave of disinformation targeting rural areas and the agri-food sector across the continent, with campaigns exploiting the controversy surrounding the EU-Mercosur trade deal, climate skepticism and anti-immigration sentiment.

Sources from the Iberian Digital Media Observatory (Iberifier) and the European Commission's services confirmed to EFE the existence of coordinated campaigns aimed at rural populations. Russia is cited as one of the identified sources, though not the only one, and the motivations remain difficult to pinpoint.

The European Commission and fact-checking experts eh? Can't they do better than telling us it was the Russians what done it? 

Damaging the way you think

Damning study reveals how ChatGPT is damaging the way you think

Scientists are sounding the alarm on a tool used by millions worldwide after finding it sends people into a 'delusion spiral' of destructive thinking.

A pair of studies by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford revealed that AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google's Gemini regularly provide overly agreeable answers, doing more harm than good.

Specifically, when people asked questions or described situations in which their beliefs or actions were incorrect, harmful, deceptive or unethical, the AI replies were still 49 percent more likely to agree with the user and encourage their delusions as being the correct viewpoint compared to responses from other people.


So what's new here? We've been aware of the echo chamber effect forever, so have the media, celebrities and politicians. The political effects can be disastrous, we know that too, leading to all kinds of mischief endorsed by high level echo chambers and their delusion spirals of destructive thinking.

Our destruction of course, not theirs.

 

A shining example of net zero policy.

Hydrogen boiler scheme handed £25m taxpayer cash uses tech that 'is not proven'

The two-year H100 pilot in Methil, Fife, by SGN, was previously hailed by John Swinney as a “shining example” of net zero policy.

A hydrogen boiler scheme handed £25million of taxpayers’ cash has been branded an unviable “policy misstep” after UK ministers admitted the technology is unproven. The two-year H100 pilot in Methil, Fife, by SGN, previously hailed by John Swinney as a “shining example” of net zero policy, has seen 300 homes switch to hydrogen for cooking and heating...

Prof Baxter claimed he was asked to leave when he tried to raise his concerns at a meeting of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster in 2022. He added: “Hydrogen for home heating was a misstep that should never have progressed beyond early exploration."

Follow the money. Such a useful phrase.

A Peculiar Ritual

Emmanuel Igwe has an interesting Critic piece on the gap between the Starmer/Blob narrative on UK-EU trade and ONS data. 


Brexit was not an act of economic self-harm

Whatever you have heard, UK-EU trade is doing just fine

Some circles of the British commentariat have perfected a peculiar ritual: that of prodding through good economic news, only to declare such news as bad. A major target for such investigation is Britain’s post-Brexit data. The latest data released by the Office for National Statistics quietly refutes the established narrative that “Brexit did deep damage to our economy”, as our Prime Minister said on 1st April. I promise you, it was not an April Fool’s joke.

When measured in real terms, after Brexit total exports rose by more than 23 percent, from £735 billion in 2015 to £905 billion in 2025. Meanwhile, the fact that Britain’s trade has grown faster than GDP in the same period is an even sharper rebuttal of assertion by erstwhile Remainers that Brexit was an act of economic self-harm. These numbers are empirically robust, unarguable, and yet noticeably avoided in mainstream political discourse.

The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another indicator that Starmer/Bob has yet to get over their hatred of Brexit and those who voted for it.

Despite the growing prevalence of non-EU trade for Britain, our current Labour government continues to insist on the importance of “dynamic alignment” with various EU standards and regimes — that is, mirroring EU regulations onto British statute books whenever the EU changes them. Under dynamic alignment, Britain’s regulatory scope would be defined in offices it cannot enter and decided by parliamentarians not elected by the British people.

Canada Bids for the Rabbit Hole Record

 

Paying bureaucrats to define marmalade

Marmalade may need to be relabelled as part of post-Brexit deal

Marmalade may need to be relabelled if a post-Brexit food deal is a agreed with the European Union as part of the government’s attempt to slash red tape and reduce trade friction with the bloc.

The spread will need to be sold as “citrus marmalade” if the agreement - which would see Britain readopt EU food regulations to boost trade - goes ahead.

The name change would reportedly be required because the EU is relaxing its labelling rules to widen the legal definition of marmalade across Europe.


We're used to this of course, it's just one of an uncountable number of EU petty bureaucracy stories we've been treated to over the years.

Oh well, it's worth reminding ourselves that there are bureaucrats paid to perform excitingly vital tasks such as relaxing the legal definition of marmalade. After previous bureaucrats were paid to make it tight of course. 

Yet it would surprise nobody at all if the relaxed legal definition has to be tightened again when a marmalade scandal erupts. The Tight Marmaladians could yet win.

Relaxing the marmalade definition doesn't quite put the Artemis II project in the shade, but it seems to be closer to the kind of adventure Keir Starmer favours. I bet he's a closet Tight Marmaladian though.

Dyson on Miliband's destruction of our energy assets

Sir James Dyson accuses Rachel Reeves of 'revenge economics' with taxes on farms and delays in North Sea gas drilling damaging nation and its security

So far, Sir Keir Starmer has declined to comment publicly on the debate over expanding North Sea operations.

Sir James described this as ‘folly.’

He said: 'As President Trump likes to remind us, the US has its own energy so can survive without the Strait of Hormuz being open, while Britain, under Ed Miliband's perverse destruction of our energy assets, cannot.'

It's far worse than perverse of course, it's hopelessly deranged as the consequences have been obvious for such a long time. Evil too - that's in the Miliband mix.

The Helen Keller story doesn't add up

Below is an interesting video on why the Helen Keller story could reasonably be classed as dubious. It doesn't add up as the video title says.

Also interesting is that Wikipedia gives no real hint that there are good reasons to doubt the validity of the Helen Keller story while Grokipedia gives those doubts reasonable coverage. 

 

Something none of us believe

M&S boss issues stark warning over worsening crime

Retail director Thinus Keeve has demanded action after groups of young people wreaked havoc in south London over the past week...

He also questioned claims that crime rates are falling in the capital.

He said: "I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London - something none of us believe, and very few people working in retail would see."

It's the problem with politically important statistics, to believe them is to invite deception. 

Sadiq Khan warns Londoners

Vote Labour or risk Farage, warns Sadiq Khan as party launches London elections campaign amid dire approval ratings

The Mayor launched Labour’s London local elections campaign in Peckham after poll showing party could lose all but two of its councils

Sadiq Khan has warned Londoners that backing smaller parties at the local elections could pave the way for Nigel Farage to become prime minister, as Labour faces a difficult set of polls.

The Mayor of London launched Labour’s local election campaign in Peckham on Thursday.

Calm down Sadiq, these are council elections, not the general election. 

He knows this of course, but once Labour strategic "thinkers" have decided to demonise someone for political advantage then that's it - they demonise away like crazy.

Fortunately Labour spin doctors stopped short of claiming a Labour vote would help keep Donald Trump out of No.10 but I bet it was a closely fought argument.

     

The fashionably feckless vote

An interesting video, Charlotte Gill on the Green Party way to hoover up fashionably feckless voters.

 

Handing over the managed decline of the UK

Starmer signals need for closer ties with EU in light of Iran oil crisis 'storm'

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour’s manifesto red lines on closer relations with Europe remain, as he signalled the Government will seek stronger ties with the EU in light of the Iran war’s global impact.

The Prime Minister said the “volatile” international situation caused by the US-Israeli conflict with Tehran meant Britain’s “long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union”.


Keir Starmer hardly needs to spell it out. He would deny it of course, but all we can read is his behaviour and that is clear enough - the managed decline of the UK is something he is prepared to hand over to the EU.

UK ruling elites have experience of managed decline but the EU has more. The Iran conflict is merely an opportunity to hand over the incompetence too. Another area where the EU has bags of experience.

Drowning in communities

Henry Clifford has a very useful Centre Write piece on the common but misleading political use of the word 'community.' Not an unfamiliar source of mendacity, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that it is a very common one.

Most “communities” are empty categories

We are drowning in communities. Gay community, Muslim community, international community, business community.

Yet, we feel increasingly isolated. Forty-four percent of Britons say they sometimes feel like “strangers in their own country,” and 50% feel “disconnected from society around them.” Indeed, these “communities” seem to be sources of opposition and division rather than connection. After losing the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwin took to X to proclaim, “We are losing our country” to a “dangerous Muslim sectarianism.” Battles over the place of the “trans community” within society have likewise become incredibly divisive. While public figures like JK Rowling have faced death threats and boycotts over their views on the topic, trans people themselves have been increasingly suffering too — according to the Home Office, in 2014/15, 607 recorded hate crimes were motivated by trans identity. By 2024/25, that figure had risen to 4,120.

Community ought to be the bedrock of our society, the things which bind us to one another. Why then are individuals isolated and “communities” in conflict?

A large part of the trouble stems from a wrong, and statist, view of what ‘community’ means.

Community, properly conceived, is formed from the concrete connections between individuals — not from shared characteristics. Communities are existing networks, not downstream from categories, but groups of real connections.

I've Got Two Legs