The ULEZ racket brings in £260 million a year. It’s just another disguised tax on working Londoners. On day one I’ll scrap it.

Some drum banging from the heat pump industry here and its leading salesman - Greg Jackson. Heat pump sales are actually down 20% this year. The doubling of demand Jackson cites is a doubling of enquiries not sales. Heat pumps don’t work as advertised and that message is getting through. They are simply uneconomic, never paying back their cost - even on the most optimistic bill saving assumptions and with a 50% grant - the payback period is 50 years. The pump will last 15. Solar is a totally different thing, far cheaper to install, works in all cases and the payback is 6 to 8 years - the panels will last 20. This report comes from estate agents. independent.co.uk/home-impro…

Updated Google privacy policy says your Gmail might be used for advertising arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026…

Here is George Clooney’s response after Trump accused him of being a "Hollywood elite." "Here’s the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies’ shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I’d have a tie to go on job interviews. I grew up understanding what it was like to not have health insurance for eight years. So this idea that I’m somehow the “Hollywood elite” and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable. People in Hollywood, for the most part, are people from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to have a career. So this idea of “coastal elites” living in a bubble is ridiculous. Who lives in a bigger bubble? He lives in a gold tower and has twelve people in his company. He doesn’t run a corporation of hundreds of thousands of people he employs and takes care of. He ran a company of twelve people! When you direct a film you have seven different unions all wanting different things, you have to find consensus with all of them, and you have to get them moving in the same direction. He’s never had to do any of that kind of stuff. I just look at it and I laugh when I see him say “Hollywood elite.” Hollywood elite? I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Donald Trump has a star on Hollywood Boulevard! Fuck you!" - George Clooney actor, philanthropist, humanitarian & activist

Pete Hegseth reportedly wanted Dwight Eisenhower's globe in his office, but did not want to wait for historians to move it and went rogue. Hegseth's staff then attempted to move it themselves and broke the historic globe.

Or what, asshole? You can’t just slap a reporter like you do with your wives and kids.

President Trump said that New Mexico “should immediately change its name to New America.” “We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America! The name would add great value and prestige to the State!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. wapo.st/4k5zKDV

As predicted, Zelensky’s now turning against his own allies. When a war “leader” does this he effectively concedes defeat

Name something Britain has given the world.

I don’t think that Europeans quite understand just how sick and tired of their bullshit we Americans actually are.

A mischief of mice, a flamboyance of flamingos, a waddle of penguins (or a ‘raft’ if they are in water). What is your favourite collective noun? Feel free to suggest new ones!

Am I alone in thinking the original Tesla Roadster concept is far better looking than the new one? Thrusters are insane tho (and pointless for a car) #tesla #teslaroadster

This is going to be a fantastic year for Britain.

A national heat pump rollout makes no sense, in fact it would be economic nonsense. Heat pumps don't work as advertised - they life expire one third of the way through their most optimistic payback period. It’s an expensive gimmick. And therefore this £3 Billion heat pump subsidy fund makes no sense - add in that it’s for better-off families (a middle-class subsidy) that can afford to spend around £8k after the grant on a new heating system that will (on the data) probably put their bills up - while 5 million people struggle to pay the energy bills they have now - and it’s also immoral. Sales this year are down nearly 25% for good reason. Labour should take back this mis applied funding pot and spend it on something useful. Likewise the half billion fund that gives £4k to people in the market for a new car (1% of the population in any given year) - to encourage them to buy electric. Middle-class subsidy, gives net zero a bad name. Oh and carbon capture - oil industry scam, shut that down and save £20 billion more….:) buff.ly/NnaZ30I

Human testicles have receptors that can taste sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami flavours. We are sure you are extremely glad you now know this fact.

Tesla is unveiling the new Roadster for real this time, promise electrek.co/2026/10/13/tesla… by @fredlambert

It could be done as a dedicated manifesto commitment without the need for a referendum Scrap Brexit without a second referendum, says senior London MP Emily Thornberry standard.co.uk/news/politics…