@garethdennis.uk
Railway engineer and author of HOW THE RAILWAYS WILL FIX THE FUTURE (https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways). Hosts @railnatter.uk. Chairs Yorkshire PWI and NEREF. Co-founder of the Campaign for Level Boarding. He/him.
🚨 WATCH: Labour MP Charlotte Nichols reveals she was raped as an MP as she opposes the jury trial reforms
"I waited 1,088 days to go to court. We've been told [by the Government] that if we have concerns about this Bill, it's because we've not been raped"
YES
FACTS:
Net Zero barely nudges your bill.
Fossil‑fuel wars send it through the roof.
So when Farage and his ilk slags off renewables while fanning conflict, remember who actually hikes your costs.
Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts!
Finally got round to reading @garethdennis.uk excellent book How the Railways will Fix the Future
it's roz on a big gun on the liberty ship John W. Brown. NS Savannah's bow seen in background
listen to @bloodwork.show
*of everything, dangit
Good story here by @aishadown.bsky.social, from the We Told You So world of AI bullshit - it's all the evidenced culmination in everything predicted by @edzitron.com, @trashfuture.bsky.social and anyone with half a brain and the ability to remember anything: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
The anti trans men who chased Hannah Spencer, this is exactly who these men are. Misogynists who just love an excuse to hound women for not doing what they tell us. All male terfs act like that. And the women are just as vicious www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...
Vessel movement around Dogger Bank & Sofia wind farms during November and December last year…
I've only scraped the surface of what's possible using the high-resolution AIS data. Thanks again to Kpler for providing it so I can continue my extremely niche visualisation projects.
Making conversion therapy the official NHS policy for trans youth
Meanwhile there is some small cause for optimism. The Green Party’s policy positions on trans healthcare are better and last I checked also include a trans-led public inquiry to hold people accountable.
Trans kids: stay alive
Everyone else: keep the receipts! 5/5
Pure evil and unadulterated cowardice.
Medical transition for trans kids is now banned for new referrals on the NHS. Trans kids in the UK can still go private or DIY (for now).
This means the new clinics that replaced GIDS are close to useless at best, conversion therapy at worst. 1/5
The Government has tabled an amendment in lieu that would grant Ministers the power to introduce restrictions on children’s use of internet services, following its ongoing consultation on children’s wellbeing. This would give the Government a significant delegated power to legislate in this area, despite the Bill containing very little policy detail explaining how it would work. In practice, the power would allow Ministers to require providers of internet services to impose restrictions on any “specified internet service” for children under a “specified age”. This could extend far beyond social media. In theory, it would allow restrictions on any designated website or category of websites, as well as services such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or AI tools. The amendment provides no detail about the types of restrictions that could be imposed. Restrictions would ultimately be decided by Ministers and implemented through a Statutory Instrument. This would mean that Parliament could not amend the Minster’s decision. Scrutiny would be limited to a short debate followed by a vote to either approve or reject the measure. The proposed provision therefore embodies two undesirable legislative practices. First, it introduces an extensive new power at the final stage of the Bill’s parliamentary passage, when opportunities for debate and amendment are already constrained. Secondly, when Ministers come to exercise that power, the resulting Statutory Instrument would itself be subject to limited scrutiny and could not be amended by Parliament.
Good summary from @hansardsociety.bsky.social on how today's ~the children~ Commons debate on a social media ban for <16s is, regardless of your opinion on the issue, very bad lawmaking and government, rehashing (as I've said) bad ideas which were smacked out of the OSA years ago for a reason.
Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies.
www.ft.com/content/ac77...
I've not read the whole thing yet, not sure there'll be anything interesting or new other than government and the press Noticing.
Nice!
...265m trains being swapped with 200m trains because 400m doesn't fit on the existing infrastructure.
It's one of a thousand examples of the cascading stupidity of cancelling HS2, but probably one of the single most expensive ones. It'll add billions to the overall price tag.
Essentially - it's what people like me and @railfocus.bsky.social have been saying since the major section cancellations under Sunak. HS2 spec was 2*200m formations. Cancel the HS2 legs and station expansions at Crewe, Manchester (let alone Leeds and Glasgow) and you suddenly have...
if your kids don't know about gay people by the time they are old enough to watch a movie, you've failed as a parent
There's something deeply obscene and broken about the fact that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are bombing elementary schools in an illegal war of aggression, and there's still a sense among the opposition that it has to be explained in terms of gas prices in order to get American voters to care.
(as a highly informed and prominent hater of both!)
This isn't hyperloop though, it's Loop!
Remember that time when @bigmoodenergy.bsky.social talked about goofy US gadgetbahns from the last century for a @railnatter.uk... Here's one of my favourite examples - URBMOBILE!
youtu.be/nTqTD_mkdQU
Conservative economic policy in the 1980s meant that Britain’s oil windfall was spent on enriching one sector of society and thereby deepening division and inequality, so that by the time the money ran out there was nothing to show for it, least of all a functional rail system. Contrast Norway.
a black and white British Rail poster titled "The argument for electrifying our railways, will become clearer in time." with four panels showing scenes from 1978, 1987, 1995 and 2005 with oil running out over that period
"The argument for electrifying our railways will become clearer in time."
British Rail, 1979.
Oh hey, @garethdennis.uk recently joined @hsrail.bsky.social for a conversation about rail and mobility in the US www.youtube.com/watch?v=vujY...
$250/barrel by next wednesday. $15/gallon, rationed gasoline. the total collapse of car culture and the suburban lifestyle. get ready to take the fuckin' bus folks
Energy insecurity. Higher bills. Exposure to catastrophic economic consequences of Trump's wars.
That's what happens when you fail to shift fast enough to renewables, and cut back on support for clean energy.
Let's cut bills & create jobs through a clean power revolution.
