Simon Hoolihan

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

Beware British Airways' questionable behaviour as it pushes people to overpay for american ESTAs, Australian eVisitor and other travel permits... https://t.co/9rabslZdCP

[The Critical Drinker @TheCriticalDri2]

Just Hugh Laurie eloquently destroying another clueless "journalist". What a perfect start to the week.

[Cat @catdeans]

This is awful. The last ever Denby Pottery going to the kiln. Why is there not uproar? Where’s the government in this?? We all have Denby in our homes, in family heirlooms, as our history and now it’s closing through lack of support, such a sad sad day. #SaveDenby @denbypottery

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

A robot kicked a little boy in the stomach

We're officially one software update away from Terminator

[BuBBliK @k1rallik]

> be Henry Cavill
> born on a tiny British island no one can find on a map
> bullied at boarding school. they call you "Fat Cavill"
> lose 21 lbs for your first film role at 17
> miss Batman. Christian Bale gets it
> miss Bond. Daniel Craig gets it
> miss Superman. Brandon Routh gets it
> they call you the unluckiest man in Hollywood
> Zack Snyder calls. you're playing World of Warcraft
> miss the call
> call back immediately. say you were "saving a life"
> become the first non-American Superman in history
> bench press the entire DC universe
> Netflix offers you The Witcher. you read all the books first
> they take both roles away anyway

Happy 43rd birthday to the most over-qualified man in Hollywood

[Zeducation @ZeducationYT]

👀

[James May @MrJamesMay]

I’m sure we have all now seen the footage of Metropolitan rozzers kicking a suspected terrorist in the head, repeatedly, when he was down.

We can all play a part in putting an end to this sort of police brutality. Mainly by not going around stabbing people.

[LB @Scousebird]

Entered Manchester Airport drop off.
Parked up.
Got bags out for sister in law.
Gave hug and said goodbye.
Drove to exit.

Entire time between the two ANPR cameras?

85 seconds.

Cost? Five QUID.

For less than a minute and a half of parking!

Criminal.

[Mrs P (Maggie) 👀 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @JustMaggie1st]

A friend in Tesco with full trolly. No cashiers open. Manager explains that she had to use self service as he had no staff to operate tills.
She said, including you I can count 6 staff here.
Well I’m sorry but they’re not till trained.
She said, and neither am I!
Have your trolley back!

[Mike Gardner @mikegardner_wb]

BREAKING NEWS: “Starmer denies knowing he was Prime Minister”

Sir Kier Starmer has revealed that no one told him until last Tuesday he won the 2024 election and had become PM.

He told Beth Rigby “I was totally kept in the dark by my officials. I’m really angry about it.”

[DJB @Skinwalker5110]

Went to the Oreo website and hit accept all cookies. Now we wait.

[Charles Archer @that_stocks_guy]

#ConsumerRightsAct #Currys #KnowYourRights

A rant for @currys, who are currently breaking the law.

Normally I'd let it go, but your customer service is a shitshow and your desire to wash your hands of the faulty items you sell is illegal.

On 10 October 2025, I walked into your Exeter shop and bought a PCSpecialist computer.

This was the birthday present for my 12-year-old.

A present they'd been dropping hints about for months with the subtlety of a child who remains terrible at poker. They'd saved their own pocket money towards it. I topped it up.

It was, genuinely, a lovely moment.

For four months, it was perfect. Homework. Games. The full experience of being 12 in 2025.

On 22 February 2026, four months and 12 days after purchase, it stopped working.

No final farewell.

It just… stopped.

My child sat there pressing the power button with increasing desperation, and nothing happened. The machine that had cost a significant amount of adult money, and a not-insignificant amount of 12-year-old pocket money, was dead.

Fine, I thought.

This is what a receipt is for.

I'll call Currys (the shop I bought it from, with my money, as a birthday present for my child) and they'll sort it.

Your staff told me that my contract wasn't with Currys, and that I should contact the manufacturer.

They also told me to go in-store with the machine to have it looked at.

I went in-store.

The in-store staff told me to call the number I had just called.

I called again.

I was given the phone number for PCSpecialist.

Phone → store → same phone → manufacturer.

A perfect circle of not helping.

A masterpiece of redirection.

If it weren't happening to me, I'd almost admire it.

Now let's talk about the law, because I think someone at Currys may have forgotten it exists.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is not a suggestion.

It is extremely clear on this point: when you buy something from a retailer, your legal contract is with that retailer.

Not the brand on the box.

Not the manufacturer.

Not some third party you've never met.

The shop. The one that took your money and handed you a receipt.

Within the first six months of purchase, the law presumes the fault existed at the point of sale.

I don't have to prove the computer was faulty when I bought it. Currys has to prove it wasn't. The burden of proof sits entirely with them.

During this window, I am legally entitled to a repair or a replacement, and if either of those fails, a full refund.

We are currently inside that six-month window. I bought it on 10 October 2025. I complained on 22 February 2026. I am four and a half months in.

The law is not ambiguous about what happens here.

What makes this particularly spectacular is that Currys' own published policy acknowledges the six-month framework.

It is written down on their website. They know the rules.

They have typed them up and put them on the internet.

They are simply hoping that their customers are too tired from the runaround to actually enforce them.

PCSpecialist are entirely blameless in this story. They manufactured a machine.

Currys sold that machine to me.

My dispute is with Currys.

Directing me to PCSpecialist is the retail equivalent of Tesco selling you a gone-off chicken, and when you try to return it, handing you the farmer's phone number.

The farmer didn't sell you the chicken.

You don't have to knock on the farmer's door.

You go back to the supermarket.

This is not a controversial legal position. It is just how shops work.

My 12-year-old has been without their birthday present for a few days now. They have been, I have to say, considerably more gracious about this than I have.

They haven't complained. They've been patient. They are, in this situation, the bigger person — which is a sentence I never expected to write about a primary school leaver, but here we are.

They shouldn't have to be patient. They should just have a working computer.

So this is where we are, @currys.

I know my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

But before I go down the small claims court route, and start contacting every journalist in my network on a slow news day, I am giving you the opportunity to do the right thing, in the hope that public accountability is more efficient than your customer service helpline.

A child saved their pocket money for this. Sort it out.

[Simon Hoolihan @Sijoho]

@colinsutton That sounds awful. Personally, I've had 3 different EVs and updates have never taken this long. They can be scheduled whenever, and don't require you to be present. Maybe it's just this particular make/model? Like ICE cars, some are just not well designed

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

I live in an apartment complex. The guy above me stomps around at 2 AM every night. I was fed up. I marched upstairs to bang on his door and give him a piece of my mind. The door opened before I could knock. He was holding a crying baby. The apartment was bare. No furniture. Just a mattress on the floor and boxes. He looked exhausted. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I'm trying to walk him to sleep. The floor is creaky. I know we're loud." I looked past him. "Where's your furniture?" "Bed bugs in the last place," he said. "Had to toss everything. We just moved in. I’m saving up for a crib." My anger evaporated. "Hold on," I said. I went downstairs. I dragged my spare rocking chair up the stairs. "Sit," I told him. "Rocking is quieter than walking." He sat. The baby settled instantly. The next day, I posted on our building’s group chat: "New neighbor in 4B needs a restart. Who has spare stuff?" By noon, he had a crib, a sofa, a table, and three casseroles. He knocked on my door tonight. No stomping. just a quiet knock. "Thank you," he said. "We slept for six hours." Judge less. Ask more.

Anonymous

[Jim Chimirie 🇬🇧 @JChimirie66677]

There's a line in a democracy that, once crossed, changes everything: when elections cease to be an obligation and become a variable. That line has now been crossed in Britain, and it's the state's own elections watchdog saying so.

The Electoral Commission has been explicit: Labour's justification for delaying local elections is not legitimate. Not unwise. Not clumsy. Illegitimate. Extending mandates damages public confidence, undermines local legitimacy, and creates a clear conflict of interest by letting councils decide how long they can avoid voters. In any functioning democracy, that would end the matter. Here, the government presses on regardless.

That's the scandal. This is no longer a party political dispute or a row between Reform and Labour. The referee has intervened and said the game is being rigged, and the players have decided to ignore the whistle. When a government continues with election delays after being told by the independent authority charged with protecting electoral integrity that its reasoning does not hold, the issue stops being reform and becomes power protecting itself.

The language Labour uses is revealing. Elections are framed as an inconvenience. Voters are framed as an administrative burden. Democracy is reduced to a cost-saving exercise, something to be postponed if the spreadsheets look untidy or the reorganisation plans are mid-flow. Ministers speak of "capacity constraints" as if the right to vote is a luxury item that must wait until the filing cabinets are rearranged. In a democracy, administration exists to serve elections. Elections do not exist to suit administration.

The conflict of interest identified by the Electoral Commission should alarm anyone who still believes in democratic norms. Councils are being asked whether they would like to delay the moment they must answer to voters. That's not consultation. It's self-dealing. No serious system allows those in power to decide how long they may remain there without consent. Yet this is now presented as a "locally led approach," as though outsourcing democratic suspension makes it virtuous.

Worse still is the uncertainty. Candidates have been selected. Campaigns have begun. Money has been spent. And with months to go before polling day, the government is still dangling the possibility of cancellation. The watchdog describes this uncertainty as unprecedented. That word matters. Democracies rely on predictability. Once elections become provisional, subject to last-minute ministerial approval, the entire process is degraded.

When challenged, ministers retreat into condescension. Chris Bryant waves away concerns as conspiracy and insists that "ordinary people" would think elections are "a bit daft." This is a familiar trick: speak for the public while denying them a voice. Redefine democratic rights as common-sense nuisances that sensible adults should stop fussing over. It's the rhetoric of managed democracy, where participation is tolerated only when it produces the correct outcome.

None of this is happening in isolation. Mayoral elections have already been postponed. Now council elections are being pushed back again. The pattern is clear. When the polls turn hostile, the timetable moves. When voters become unpredictable, the vote is delayed. Governments confident in their mandate do not need to buy time. They face the electorate and take their chances. Labour is not doing that because it knows what the numbers say.

The danger is not just that millions of people may be denied a vote next year. It's the precedent now being set. Once a government learns it can delay elections after the watchdog objects, after campaigns have begun and candidates are in place, the principle is broken. Elections become conditional. Democracy becomes something you are granted when those in power feel safe enough to allow it.

"Chris Bryant waves away concerns as conspiracy and insists that "ordinary people" would think elections are "a bit daft.""

[Dave @DaveAirCEO]

Dear @AvantiWestCoast

You cancelled the 0721 this morning so my 14 yo son was on the 0821 New St to MK. (Already late for school). Before Coventry your train manager “Parmi” ordered him off the train because he was travelling on a child’s ticket and couldn’t prove that he was a child. I bought him the ticket because he is indeed 14.

He called me, I spoke with the TM who was plain rude. She insisted that we bought another ticket or I send proof. I sent a message of his birth certificate.

Since when does a 14 year old need to carry identification on them? Children do not have a licence, an NI card and certainly can’t travel with their passport.

Shameful behaviour from your member of staff.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

@EdwardJDavey When you hung the sub-postmasters out to dry.

[Freyy @Freyy_is]

i finally did it: someone was talking on the phone with loud speaker sitting close to me while we were inside the bus.

so I joined the conversation with full confidence. when she gave me that “are you mad?” look, I said, “sorry,I thought it was a group call since you put it on loudspeaker for all of us.”

she quietly told the person, “I’ll call you back,” and ended the call immediately. 🙂