"Cars are the most absurd means of transport in a city. They are parked 95 per cent of the time. It takes two tonnes to move someone who weighs 70 kilogrammes. And the denser the city, the more absurd it is."
Make it nationwide
This is the company the UK government has embedded in the nation’s services. Seriously, fuck everyone who is excusing this.
Some daft twat (Stuart Rose) on BBC Radio 4 saying we should relax net zero targets and exploit North Sea oil/gas.
How do the idiotic, horribly ignorant views of these fuckwits get aired without challenge, or without some factual explanation of the consequences?
🤷♂️🙄🤷♂️
My first sighting ever of a Turtle Dove perched on a bare branch at Fingringhoe last June
A male Yellowhammer perched atop a Flowering Cherry tree in the late afternoon sunshine earlier this week
A lifer Turtle Dove at Fingringhoe last June #PerfectlyPerched and a Yellowhammer near Spellbrook this week #SongBird #BirdoftheDay
We are not that far away from a 5 way split of c20%. This, if translated to an election result, would be utter chaos.
Anyone who doesn't think we need electoral reform must have their head buried firmly in the sand. Or is called Starmer.
@makevotesmatter.bsky.social
Thank you for this, Tom, I would never have watched it, but did, and thoroughly enjoyed it 👏🏻👏🏻
Because accepting that "normal" does not mean "cisgender, heteronormative", but actually means "kind to eachother and not actively harming others" would put a lot of people currently in power out of a job.
“If you want to look at the economics, then look at all of it. For example, I've never seen a calculation of how much capacity, how much GDP, a poorly-paid immigrant working in a care home frees up for the family and relatives of all the people there, by taking on their caring responsibilities.”
A Common Greenshank and reflection in a pool near Lymington last November
Greenshank near Lymington last November #BirdoftheDay #WalkinginWater #Green
Glaucous Gull next to Herring Gull, showing size difference, in front of seals on the beach, between Waxham and Horsey Gap last week
Glaucous and Herring Gulls at Waxham last week, amongst seals on the beach #BirdoftheDay #SteppingOut #NorfolkBirding
Your regular reminder than a large majority of voters - and overwhelming majority of Labour voters - favour giving settled migrants access to the welfare state after five years or less. The Home Secretary is not reforming rules in line with public opinion. She is doing the opposite.
A male and female Bullfinch, with a male Greenfinch, in the bare branches of a Hawthorn tree, at Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve last week
Combining a pair of Bullfinches, with a Greenfinch, at Sculthorpe Moor last week #BirdoftheDay #MixedPairs #Finches
Can we stop comparing *any* UK leaders with Churchill please? Thatcher wasn’t Churchill, Boris bloody Johnson wasn’t Churchill, and Keir Starmer wasn’t Churchill.
Even Churchill wasn’t the Churchill everyone imagines.
Just shut up about Churchill.
This is a really good point about authenticity by Sadiq Khan
Reform: Stop the boats! Deport people!
Starmer: OMG we have to beat the Reform Party! STOP MORE BOATS! DEPORT MORE PEOPLE! ISLAND OF STRANGERS!
Hannah Spencer: Everybody deserves a nice life.
Starmer: Hannah Spencer is more interested in dividing people than uniting them.
I’m convinced that people like Starmer, Streeting and Mahmoud have a world view so shaped by Labour factionalism that they’re unable to view calls for them to change as anything other than a call for Corbynism.
Maybe in the real, non-Labour world people just want them to be kinder and more humane.
I know I keep pointing this out but: if you want immigrants to contribute to British society, integrate across community lines, become engaged civic actors, you actually *want* them to get citizenship, and as soon as possible in fact!
Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.
Huge thanks to @scottishbirding.bsky.social and the SBRC team, particularly @fatpaulscholes.bsky.social and @steelyseabirder.bsky.social, and all the speakers, for putting this fabulous conference together. More please! #BirdingScotland
Today's by-election is another illustration of the problems with FPTP.
The result may tell us less about what voters want to happen than whether they can game the system effectively to stop a result most *don't* want.
The electoral system should not be an obstacle that voters have to work around.
When you realise you’ll be flying budget airlines from now on.
It’s 100% in this 60YO individual.
We need a fairer voting system. 🗳️
Our current system "will lead to random and arbitrary outcomes, which will risk undermining democratic legitimacy and further damaging public trust in politics."
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/academics-warn-voting-system-not-fit-multi-party-politics
We should start by making flying pay its way, like all other forms of transport. Add VAT, add fuel duty, take away duty free shopping - none of those things exists if you travel by car, bus or train - which are all far more sustainable.
I like the government pivot to reminding voters that Farage is an avowed enemy of NATO & Europe & an ardent admirer of Vladimir Putin, who routinely orders the murders of critics & opponents. It is politically effective & morally essential.
This is everything it should be - meticulously researched, deeply thought out, uncomfortably probing, scrupulously fair, AND ALSO outrageously entertaining.
This is how progressives should tell stories. An hour flew by.
Johnson partied as pensioners died alone. Why didn't Johnson get this pressure to resign. Farage appointed a Russian Agent as the leader of Reform UK in Wales. Why doesn't Farage get this pressure to resign The answer is the Tory Press.
Very good from @verybrexitproblems.bsky.social
