Can’t help but think that this air pollution is also harming motorised road users and their passengers?

Laura Laker@lauralaker.bsky.social · yesterday

“It’s perverse that people who want to walk and cycle are penalised because the motor traffic is too polluting". National Highways closes cycling and walking routes beside heavily polluted roads lauralaker.substack.com/p/national-h...

The trouble with prisons is that they make people more bitter and more dangerous and unemployable. Hardly good for public protection.

Institute for Government@instituteforgovernment.org.uk · last wk.

The government must focus on public protection when it comes to prison releases Managing prison capacity provides an early test of Andy Burnham’s ability to grapple with trade-offs, argues @cassiarowland.bsky.social Read our comment: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/publ...

I‘m fascinated by this front page posted by @adamjschwarz.bsky.social Did the people assembling that know the juxtaposition? Was it people lower in the hierarchy who dared do this, against the editorial line? Or no one assembling this front page made the connection?

12/ ... #TfL's half-arsed #Silvertown bike bus moves a regular 100-130 bicycles/day. X-river demand is up to 2k/hour from previous studies. Anyway, fill the empty seats with pedestrians 🤷 Press release 23/7/26: tfl-newsroom.prgloo.com/news/new-rep... PDF: content.tfl.gov.uk/silvertown-a...

A £2 bus fare cap will be back 'if the public purse allows' - Andy Burnham and new Chancellor John Healey have the opportunity to instantly save £1bn (and £bns going forward) if they scrap the poor value for money, privatised Lower Thames Crossing.

Transport Action Network@transportaction.bsky.social · 2w ago

Reintroducing the £2 bus fare cap is a good start. For too long, political under-investment has treated bus networks as an afterthought instead of the vital public service they are. inews.co.uk/news/burnham...

I mean, Mahmood is literally the last person I'd have kept in their role

Thanks for helping to keep the Green vote share up, I guess. This is a disaster for migrants, legal professionals and UK civil liberties.

Politics UK@politicsuk.com · 2w ago

🚨 BREAKING: Shabana Mahmood will remain as Home Secretary

The sackings were good... but the appointments were very bad.

Robert Hutton@roberthutton.co.uk · 2w ago

The gap between Fantasy Andy Burnham and Actual Andy Burnham begins to appear.

Andy Burnham opts to keep Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary. A big mistake

"[Lord Hermer] has said.. 'I've been so lucky to be part of Keirs team.. rebuilding the UK's reputation abroad, in particular in the rule of law'" Defending the deliberate starvation of 2m people. Refusing to confirm the enforcement of ICC arrest warrants. Arming a genocide.

The condescension of much of the BBC now embodied by Fiona Bruce going 'of course, most of the tourists outside Buckingham Palace today know anything about the politics of this'. You know, I think they might? Today? Feels like a reasonable guess that they've come specially, like.

Apart from Blair, I can't think of a Labour leader who has done more than Starmer to create division and polarisation. Pandering to Reform on immigration, complicity in genocide, attacks on the right to protest ... Now he presents himself as a great healer. His speech was not "moving" but sickening.

Jcvi have stated that Covid vaccine eligibility for a free vaccine has been narrowed to over 80s this Autumn. Why have they made this decision? 🧵 #Vaccine #Covid #HealthPolicy

UK restricts Autumn boosters to 80 year olds

JCVI noted in their cost-benefit analysis that willingness to pay privately increases with age

open.substack.com

If loudspeakers, heckling a failed Prime Minister, are banned from the vicinity of Downing Street, politicians should be banned from engineering an artificial applause of sychophants around him on departure, when he should be leaving in utter disgrace and shame.

Sharon Graham ' told the Sunday Times that Miliband’s fierce commitment to net zero would be a “noose around the neck” of job creation.' Lets tell Sharon that climate change is a 'noose around all our necks' #StopRosebank #StopSharon www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Progressive economists reject Unite leader’s criticism of Ed Miliband

Sharon Graham is urged to withdraw her claim that the energy secretary would cost jobs if he became chancellor

theguardian.com

Wow it’s crazy how his first two things are kicking traditional progressive voters right in the climate change and immigration balls.

Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Times reporting that Andy Burnham succeeded in persuading Shabana Mahmood to become Chancellor because it would give her more control over cutting immigration

Or much of a drop in public support. Fascinating example of elite consensus switching despite popular opinion.

Arieh Kovler@ariehkovler.com · 3w ago

In two years Net Zero went from broad political consensus to politically toxic, without any particular scandal over the policy.

Corbyn > Burnham as per 2015.

John West@jwestjourno.bsky.social · 3w ago

The most worrying thing? That Andy Burnham apparently has been flitting between candidates. That suggests a lack of grounded political economy. He should have come in with a view his chancellor could only be [INSERT NAME HERE], because that’s his agenda. Does nothing for the ‘weathervane’ fears.

For weeks we've been bombarded with people screaming hysterically that we need billions more for war, but when it comes to climate adaptation theres largely silence. And whereas Russians stomping down our streets is pure fantasy, climate change is happening.

UK public spending watchdog to investigate £11bn Lower Thames Crossing project. Cost more per mile than HS2. PFI funded, private sector will operate it. Levies forever to boost corporate profits. Uneven economic development causes environmental problems, starves the rest of the UK of investment.

UK’s public spending watchdog to investigate Lower Thames Crossing project

Exclusive: Campaigners voice concerns over rising costs of £11bn Essex to Kent road tunnel

theguardian.com

You can’t even call it a genocide, you coward.

Temperatures have exceeded 34°C today for the 8th day this year 🌡️ That makes it a record for the most number of 34°C or higher in a calendar year 👇 The record was previously set in 1976 and 2020 for 7 days

About last night... 🤩 🩵 | #VitalityBlast

Sensible and practical Hammersmith and Fulham Cabinet decision. 🌱 Hammersmith Bridge is still safe for people walking and cycling across the river while the cost of enabling people to drive across again has been escalating.

Leo Murray@crisortunity.bsky.social · 4w ago

Tonight’s Hammersmith & Fulham Cabinet meeting has just voted to approve their officers’ recommendation not to pour any more time or energy into the doomed effort to bring cars back over the river here. ✨ It’s a major moment for west London this, and it will soon be looked back on as Good, Actually

Nothing says 'man of the people' quite like a politician calling a by-election at public expense on the issue of whether or not he should have the right to secretly take donations from Thai-based crypto billionaires and a convicted fraudster

Honestly everyone else should just not run in Farage's personal little narcissism election except Count Binface.

New separated cycle lanes popping up on Shaftesbury Ave. All it takes is political will + the removal of some unnecessary parking spaces. London is becoming a cycling city, reflecting a generational shift that recognises driving in urban areas as slow, inefficient use of time.

Is the triple lock unaffordable? No And the group who it's most in the interest of to maintain it is young people Speaking to BBC #PoliticsLive earlier this week

I'm old enough to remember when the Bee Network* was for developing a GM cycling network. *Beeline, but that upset someone's copyright.

Bev Craig For Greater Manchester Mayor@bevcraig.bsky.social · last mo.

🥶Freeze fares for everyone and deliver free travel for 11-18s ⏰Free travel for older residents and disabled people all day, not just after 9:30 🚌Expand the Bee Network with more buses and trams - and trains in public control 🚗A new potholes fund to protect your tyres 🚏Next stop: a better GM!

MPs in a side‑room just voted to strip back democracy. Elected councillors and local people will be side-lined in shaping their own future. Nobody voted Labour to lose power over shaping the place they live. We promised to empower people - this does the opposite.