Charlie Allen

@soniasodha @VictoriaPeckham @thetimes What do you make of the cartoon?

@VictoriaPeckham @thetimes Almost enough to make one nostalgic. Almost.

Oh bless, just like old times. I’d reply to Owen directly but the brave little warrior blocked me years ago. Here’s a link to my “disgusting” @thetimes column which oddly he doesn’t provide 🤔 thetimes.com/article/b8e58c…

@Madz_Grant Do you want lawmakers drunk

Find this selective (and possibly sectarian) Puritanism quite funny when her party wants to legalise heroin

@Yas_Wisden And great commentary!

Best part of 5,000 in at the Oval before tea to watch Pope and Smith reach their hundreds. Very good early summer vibes.

@GoodwinMJ Don't come back then fella xxx

All these things happened to me in London today I paid nearly £30 for a train ticket to take me into London from a town just 30 miles away —on a Saturday The first person I sat next to, I think from India, decided to have a FaceTime conversation with his friend on speakerphone so we all had to listen to it The train was late by 40 minutes due to unexplained “signalling issues”. It was also filthy. I paid nearly £8 for a pint I offered a woman my seat on the tube without realising she was with a man who intervened and said “no man”. He was not from the UK. I think he took my gesture as an insult. I was asked for money by homeless people 3 times in one day I noticed several people who are paid to give information to taxpayers and tourists over the tannoy on the London Tube cannot speak English properly A cabbie told me “London is dead most nights”, unless you are the global high net worth set or top 1% Restaurants are visibly struggling and often hideously overpriced I had dinner in a neighbourhood where the average rent is £3,663 per month while half of all local social housing has gone to people who were not even born in the UK I was constantly aware I should not get my phone out on the street as 80,000 were stolen last year I also read on the way back while checking that stat that there were 90,000 shoplifting offences in London last year, up 54% My train back —delayed—was suddenly changed at the last minute with all passengers on board. They were told it would no longer be stopping at all stops. I bought a tin of instant coffee on the way home and it had a security tag on it Maybe I’m in a bad mood and perhaps it’s amusing to think how somebody of my political outlook is “triggered” but to me there is a deeper point here London is over —it’s so over It’s a city in visible decline with deteriorating standards and no real sense of identity or belonging Going in and out of our capital city is a truly miserable experience Infrastructure is falling apart, as is the social contract I’ve been coming in and out of London since 1981 I simply cannot remember a time when it’s been this visibly dire and when so many things just do not work as they should

Big run in the Lake District • English breakfast • Sky Go downloads on a long soothing train...

@KemiBadenoch Ask thatcher

New nephew with little grasping hands • fresh pasta and white wine, Bristol • Paddington in melancholy spring light

Crossword on Saturday • lunch and post-lunch snack (Tuesday) • excited about the IPL , truthfully

Mr Tambourine Man, recorded on my new Guild M-240E Troubadour Sunburst. Good weeks, all!

New specs • Cafe Nero, Soho • run this morn through the greying, dead belly of Rotherhithe

Leighton House, Kensington • Paddy McG • nocturnal cortado

The @UKLabour government desperately needs to start taking meetings with the creators & creative industries whose livelihoods their proposals on AI will destroy. telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/…

I had a nice afternoon in Costa Coffee today. I liked how they served the coffee (hot) in mugs. I also liked how this (hot) toastie was presented. Everything pictured cost £5.99 in total. That is only 19p more than what a nearby shop sells a jar of chickpeas for. Thanks!

Oedipus at the Old Vic • passport photo • nice painting

@caitdoherty’s dispatch from the World Economic Forum on the last days of Davos. “I wanted to see whether globalization was dying, dead, or might yet recover from the blow delivered to it by a concatenation of historical events.” harpers.org/archive/2025/0…

Long weekend in Vienna • Mahler • decadent little morning coffees...

😀

My name is Nick Maynard and I am a surgeon in Oxford, UK. I have been travelling to Gaza since 2010 to teach and carry out surgery. Dr Hussam AbuSafiya is a doctor and humanitarian to the core and has been illegally abducted by the Israeli military. #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiyah

UK households paying the licence fee (24m households) are involuntarily funding AI companies, since the BBC’s content has been scraped from YouTube for AI training. Why is the UK government planning to legalise this, instead of enforcing the law / strengthening protections? (The BBC has ‘opted out’ of AI training, but opt-outs are ineffective, so there’s every sign their content is still being used.) proofnews.org/apple-nvidia-a…