Hold on - is it ten years from publication date to the collapse of the west or was the clock already ticking? I’ll need to know for my calendar.

These are the leaflets the Conservative Party is currently putting out in London.

Just straightforward disinformation, designed to trick people into handing over their data.

China respectfully explains there is no great power rivalry with Britain, as Britain is no longer significant

Will this be India's last democratic election? The degree to which Modi has used pliable judges, tax authorities & other forms of coercion to silence critical journalists, imprison opposition leaders, close down pesky NGOs, and bring civil society to heel is massively…

'Let's all applaud an animal for being able to consume its staple food.'

The low bar we set for pandas contributes to their woeful underachievement as a species imho. Soft bigotry of low expectations.

The Wirecard fraud story started out as a movie but will have to become an entire franchise now we know that the chief fraudster, Jan Marsalek, ran Russian spy ops around Europe. Kudos to Financial Times colleague Dan McCrum for uncovering this brilliant story for entertainment of…

Books?

As an American, a Jew and a strong supporter of the Biden Administration, it has been gut wrenching to watch us go from responsible support for Israel on 10/7 to becoming complicit in Israel's crimes against humanity in Gaza. We must change course now. thedailybeast.com/biden-should-s…

Ditto writing about tech in San Francisco.

100% guaranteed includes having a great boss and will *never* involve working with me.

Terrific job here on the UK news desk in London.

(To reassure you, this almost never involves working with me.)

Brexiter Matthew Lynn...

I mean... this is definitely what we should be doing (and are when it comes to the film industry) wsj.com/finance/invest…

it’s the two-year anniversary of the UK declaring it wants to be a global crypto hub

My Trade Secrets today. Australia’s defiance of Chinese trade coercion isn’t just about smart exporters.

It’s also a consensus among Aussie politicians and public about trade & preventing Beijing playing divide and rule. Brussels & Washington take note.

on.ft.com/3QbZejB

Eg: why did we see such a deterioration in public services, and why didn't reforms offset spending cuts? Do you believe the research showing a relationship between austerity and Brexit, and if not, why not? Was cutting investment a bad idea when interest rates were low? Etc.

OK am informed that actually herring gulls are endangered despite the vast quantities of chips we give them. In that case they must be pretty rubbish. The pandas of the seaside.*

*Please note that this is, at heart, a joke. I do not endorse the extinction of the herring gull.

'Prime Minister underestimating local radio day' seems to come around quicker and quicker each year

By the great John Hegley*

Happy Easter all.

*Please buy his books amazon.co.uk/Family-Pack-Br…

If you were writing a social satire about modern Britain, this subplot of the Thames Water story would be considered a little on the nose

My new book, The Illusionist, is out on April 25. It's the *true* story of Dudley Clarke, an extremely unusual British Army officer who spent World War 2 running military deception on a scale no one imagined possible. A scale, indeed, that no one quite grasped even at the time.