4 articles
• via The Standard
Transport for London handed out £639,164 to its chief executive while trains ran late, passenger targets went unmet, and cyber attacks left children unable to access discounted fares. This isn't administrative incompetence—it's how Britain's public institutions now function by design.
• via The Guardian
HS2 was supposed to cost £20 billion in 2012. It will now cost over £100 billion and won't open until at least 2035. The first trains were meant to run in 2026. That target became 2033. Now Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admits there is "no reasonable way" to meet even that revised deadline.
• via BBC News
Scotland has just admitted it can no longer perform one of the state's most basic functions: keeping violent criminals in prison for their court-ordered sentences. In February and March 2025, authorities released 312 inmates—including 152 violent offenders—after serving just 40% of their terms, down from an already inadequate 50% threshold established months earlier.
• via The Spectator
Louise Casey's grooming gangs report has revealed a truth more damaging than the crimes it investigates: Britain's institutions have systematically avoided collecting the data necessary to understand and address widespread child sexual exploitation. Two-thirds of police forces have failed to record the ethnicity of perpetrators, creating what Casey diplomatically terms a "culture of ignorance."