Claude Lynch
@claudelynch.bsky.social
Jack-of-all-geographies (except physical). PhD on the politics of transport modelling: @casaucl.bsky.social | PGR rep: @tgrg-rgs-ibg.bsky.social
As Europe burns, Shell has banked £7.4 billion in just three months. It's time to make the biggest polluters pay.
coming to terms with the damage at Minsmere RSPB Reserve, likely to be new normal (contrary to headline perhaps)
Fire-ravaged Dunwich Heath 'could take 25 years to recover'
The vast blaze at the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is still being tackled by firefighters.
bbc.co.uk
If you stood on Briggate at 8am on a weekday in 1957, and stood there again in 2026, in which year could you reach more of the city in half an hour? Samuel Bancroft has crunched the numbers. Since the 1950s, Leeds has got bigger - but the city has effectively shrunk.
Lots of talk at the moment about house building, as there generally is. What's missing from this debate, though? For me, it's "do we actually have a housing shortage?" That seems to be beyond orthodoxy in terms of questions, but I really think we should be clear on the answer. 🧵 /1
Clara Murray@claradoodle.bsky.social · 2w agoEveryone thinks the UK should be building homes on brownfield land - but while we have a lot, most of it is in just a few urban areas. Most local authorites have less than five years' supply. Just one of many reasons Burnham will struggle to meet his housing ambitions
I wrote a short thread on AI way back in the dim mists of tech history (last Jan), and I haven't seen anything to change things. bsky.app/profile/kole... /2
Andrew Cherry@kolektiv.xyncro.com · 2y ago1/ There's a lot of scepticism around the govt. pushing an "AI all the things" message at the moment. I think scepticism is right, but for the wrong reasons currently. Could public services be hugely improved through better use of technology? Sure, but that was true before the current AI hype cycle.
Here's a wild idea that might increase the reliability and reduce the carbon footprint of deliveries UK-wide: we ban all delivery companies bar one, merge all the operations, bring everything into state control and call it something like "national mail". We might even be able to pay the workers well
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.Delivery firm Evri sues BBC for £1.2m over Panorama documentary
These really are the worst of the worst. Not just the reactionary ruling class, but those endlessly prepared to kiss their boots and later claim there was no tongue.
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · last mo.All the stars are here spectator.com/article/spec...
Really great blog post on the institutional cart leading the consumer experience horse. It absolutely makes sense for regions to run railways, but that doesn't mean not distinguishing between local and intercity, metro and rural. Why would GBR look at London, WM, & GM and decide to do the opposite?
Thomas Ableman@freewheeling.info · last mo.The railway used to have a load of nonsense brands (e.g. Great Northern, which only served the south or South Western, which didn't go to Cornwall and barely Devon). But the GBR future looks like being even worse. My blog post is on why needs a brand strategy to focus back on customers.
We regret that our event on Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world has been cancelled due to the red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office. Our apologies to everyone who was planning to attend the event.
great details in this article about a Scottish packaged pastry
The cats in Streatham St Leonard's are coming out for the Green Party!! @lambethgreenparty.bsky.social
This is a really great piece in terms of its choice to focus on the application space that universities could occupy...
Max Nathan@maxnathan.bsky.social · 2mo ago2/ New long-read from @geoffmulgan.bsky.social. This one has a sharper political economy - politics exists! Funding exists! - and has more to say about AI. Lots to think about, as ever. But missing - for me - is discussion of what’s gone wrong in the UK. geoffmulgan.substack.com/p/rethinking...
"I used to cycle up to Scarborough, Whitby, a long way actually. You get to know it, and you know it’s hilly if you’re cycling. I was always attracted to it. I always thought it had a space. One of the thrills of landscape is that it’s a spatial experience.” — artist David Hockney
This nails the top complex to solve, too “woke” to bother, and too imperceptible a collapse to react de facto response from politicians. There’s a lot you could do by spending nothing - number controls, ban consultants, severely truncate REF etc. But Westminster can’t even imagine that.
George Eaton@georgeeaton.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhy is the universities crisis being ignored? Essential piece by @gsoh31.bsky.social for Arguably on the “grim dribbling away of one of Britain's great triumphs and economic advantages” – and why so few politicians seem to care. www.arguably.uk/p/the-quiet-...
It's been a tough day but enormously cheered by this Reddit thread of a guy demanding Tesco treat bananas as berries for the purpose of getting extra club card points. www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdvic...
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When the pilot was first announced, opposition was fierce. Protesters famously carried a coffin through Clifton Village, symbolising the “death” of the area if car parking and access was restricted. Yet the local council proceeded, and as the months passed, the feared collapse failed to materialise.
Much as this is great to see, it's quietly damning that the man had to face a leadership challenge to commit to something more than a glorified bus!!!
Brynley Heaven@brynleyheaven.bsky.social · 2mo agoWith Andy Burnham looming, Keir Starmer finally commits to Leeds Metro; another eastward extension to West Midlands Metro and a new branch line for Oxford. Something to shout about on your way out Keir
insane Transformers toy your rich mate owned and you were always jealous of
Best friends. 💕 Photo from my collection, no date/info.
