Happy Friday!

Links are coming late this week because, I’ve been tired and busy…

Thames Water could raise bills to £627 a year to help fix leaks. I can’t explain how angry the Thames Water situation makes me, I can switch energy suppliers, I can move my phone and broadband provider, I have to use Thames Water, there are no other water suppliers in London. It’s a monopoly and the shareholders have extracted all the value from the company, whilst making no major improvements to the system, essentially profiting from years of government investment and now there’s no money left they’d like everyone else to pay. I’m so mad about this.

The Tories are playing a risky game with their relentless pursuit of Angela Rayner

Starmer’s rail plans must only be the start. It’s full renationalisation that Britain needs. I’ve said it before but rail, water, energy should all be nationalised, this is a great beginning but privatisation of national resources has been a disaster..

Lies, confections, distortions: how the right made London the most vilified place in Britain. I love the term ‘aboriginal Londoner’ and I don’t recognise the city Susan Hill and her ilk are describing either.

The cost of living crisis has made the UK a poorer, more anxious nation – and worse is yet to come

The Supreme Court effectively abolishes the right to mass protest in three US states

‘I Gullah Geechee, too’: the educators keeping a language of enslaved Africans alive

‘Every penny has a purpose’: the rise of zero-based budgeting

Landlord speaks out after pub sign goes viral. Having grown up in an era where all pubs were child free, I find this interesting, how immediately, it’s ‘you hate children’ rather than an acceptance that children don’t belong everywhere.

The stress of cheating on my wife is making me ill – but I can no longer suppress who I am. There are times when I miss the less sympathetic agony aunts. The bisexual thing is a total red herring. I wasn’t aware that being bisexual meant that you had to sleep with a man and woman it just means that you can, it doesn’t make cheating ok. I have two theories, a) he’s actually gay, b) the wife is probably carrying the majority of the domestic load because if he has time for an affair, he’s probably not in the trenches of caring for young children. Either way he’s a liar, but wants sympathy because of the stress he’s under. Man up, be honest and make a decision, live with it.