Best Of

A story that TSE will fully understand

https://www.londoncentric.media/p/london-phone-thieves-prefer-android-iphone-l

Even muggers don’t want Samsung phones

Apple is the best.

Last week I was in London for a few days again, I had my iPhone 17 Pro Max 2TB in Cosmic Orange out on public display whilst wearing an expensive watch and I wasn’t mugged, again.

Crazy day in London yesterday. I wasn't mugged. I wasn't subject to Sharia Law. I somehow avoided all the no go areas for white prople. All this despite the absence of protective flags on lampposts. Insane!

Ditto. Trip to Islington and Highgate. Meal out then went to see Dea Matrona at The Garage. I was at Activate at the O2 the previous week and walked to the Southbank for dinner and the week before that I visited my son in Tottenham. Helping him move from Cambridge. Still got my wallet and phone. Shockingly disappointing.

My wife and I celebrated our 50th birthdays on Saturday with a big party in New Cross. We walked home around 3.30am without incident, although one guy in a passing BMW did note the "50" helium balloons I was carrying back from the venue and was inspired to shout "old c*nt" at me. In SE London the c word is largely used with affection, though.

Many happy returns.

I am running in 2026 but with a delayed start to campaigning to get my head into a better place. 2025 has been horrible, hoping for more fun and less grief in 2026.

Anyway, Movember update! I'm up to £707 raised still with 40% or so of the month left. That's a real positive!

Tache is already bristly, and I have more to grow. Might need beard oil or something to try and condition it as this is getting silly already.

Whats next? I am giving myself 2 full weeks fully off over Christmas. Grow a beard maybe...

Good morning

I am so sorry you have had a horrible 2025 and with a couple of members of our family suffered mental health issues I know it is important you do not overcommit and have lots of 'me' time

Hopefully you can enjoy your Christmas holiday and look forward to a much better 2026

Good morning everyone.

Our Tesla correspondent's report rant about the 3p per mile tax for EVs.

Nice objective report on the Telegraph. Essentially "This is from the Telegraph, so half of it may be bollocks."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-Fv39zGyAc

No no, it was a rant. And a bit clickbaity. Successfully so.

Provoked the desired response from the kind of people who are reading the Telegraph/Mail and watching GBeebies/TalkTory and are OUTRAGED that Tesco have banned Christmas trees.

I am depressed at the moment. But having good fun calling out performative wazzockry.

Also check out Emergency Podcast where we tore into "British Culture" and I unveiled my war against wazzocks
https://youtu.be/VkvpriRHc8s

Sorry to hear you're feeling shitty - my commiserations.

Trump says that tariff checks will 'probably come in the middle of next year'
The president has doubled down on his promise that the revenue raised from his sweeping tariffs will result in $2,000 checks for American families. “We’re going to be issuing dividends later on, some somewhere prior to probably in the middle of next year,” he said. “We have a lot of money from tariffs. If we didn’t have tariffs, this nation would be in serious trouble.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/nov/17/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-republicans-democrats-world-cup-us-politics-live-news-updates

Surely he ought to delay the bribe until after the mid-terms: "Vote Republican to get your $2,000 Tariff Check"?

Ah yes, $2,000 cheques from the government on the eve of an election. Real subtle.

This year, the US fiscal deficit will be 5.9% of GDP, down very slightly from 6.1% last year. (It is worth noting, of course, that the absolute deficit is going to be higher, it just looks slightly less as a percentage of GDP because of the inflation caused by tariffs...)

A roughly 6% budget deficit, in peacetime, when not saddled with a financial crisis or a pandemic, is not a great place to be. It is also somewhat worse than the budget deficit the UK government is currently having kittens over.

Handing out $2,000 cheques to people as some kind of tariff 'bonus' when you can't even balance the books is the kind of thing that would have driven Republicans to apoplexy... when they weren't in government.

Wow. Feel this might need to be tomorrow's header:

S Mahmood: “Well, firstly, Nigel Farage can keep his opinions to himself. He can frankly sod off . I'm not interested in anything that he has to say. And let me just say to people of all political persuasions who are watching, I'm not making a political calculation here. I'm not making an election calculation here. It is my responsibility as the home secretary of this country who can see a broken system, to work out how to fix that broken system and to work out what is the right thing to do and then to go out there and make the argument for why these changes are the right thing to do for the right reasons. Because they will fix the problems that people genuinely see and genuinely are occurring, and in doing so, to retain support for having an asylum system at all. Everything else, that's politics, that’s downstream of all of the main choices that I'm making. My responsibility is to deliver a system that the whole of the country can have faith in.”

https://x.com/Peston/status/1990543713852907660


Finally. Someone in Labour is coming out of the traps and fighting for the future.*


* doesn't matter if you agree with her or not but this endless wishwashy, hand wringing, Reeves and Starmer marching up hills and then back down again is over.