It's not going to become 'the norm' though, is it? That's what so fucking terrifying about it. It's going to become a lot worse, very quickly.

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.

Would you be happy if this summer's weather became the norm? Happy: 38% Neither: 22% Unhappy: 38% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

I have known Le Porge since I was a child. Much of it is now ash. We were warned this would come. We kept burning fossil fuels anyway. Adapting to this is not a plan. Stopping the cause is.

Cities dismantled their tram networks to become “motor cities of the future”. The result? You could travel further within 30 mins via public transport in 1957 than you can in 2026. Cities are seeking billions to rebuild networks. Incredible piece of work this.

The Exchange@theexchangeleeds.bsky.social · 2w ago

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.

"Ball possession is not in our DNA like it is in the Spanish DNA or the Argentinian or Brazilian DNA,” Tuchel said after the game. 100% disqualifying www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Tuchel would rather put down the English game than admit to his own cowardice | Jonathan Liew

England’s coach said ball possession is not in the team’s DNA – it’s an opinion that should disqualify him from the job

theguardian.com

[boldly] I just don't think the British government needs to have Shabana Mahmood in it, I think we managed fine without her and we can just keep going without her, it's fine, Andy Burnham doesn't need to find a space for her in cabinet, there are other MPs

Just sharing one of my most Burnham-friendly old pieces: Lots of Little Things. In which I argue that the key to economic growth is doing lots of little things well - and that devolving more of those things to local areas is a good way to do that…

Lots of little things: what if there are no big answers to productivity growth?

One of the core problems with UK policy-making is that it is dominated by a quest for big, elegant, all-solving ideas that can fix…

acjsissons.medium.com

Really pleased that Morgan McSweeney has finally discovered that it's better to prepare for government. Thanks for that mate, nice one. Lucky there wasn't a lot riding on it, or you'd really have fucked up inews.co.uk/opinion/hard...

Starmer’s vacuous sidekick has just admitted something truly devastating

Ian Dunt: Labour attacked the Tories for governing like drunken clowns and then did the exact same thing

inews.co.uk

8) Double down on net zero, but as economic policy not climate policy. Stop talking about net zero and start talking about electrification. UK was fast to digital tech where others clung to fax machines; now it is fast to electric industry where others cling to clunky old fossil fuels. Own it.

3) Move the capital to Manchester. I've been banging on about this for almost a decade (see below) but the point stands: devolution is good but creating a viable second centre to UK would be much, much better. www.economist.com/bagehots-not...

The pragmatic case for moving Britain’s capital to Manchester

The vast Victorian complex by the Thames is in a dreadful state

economist.com

We need to start working on this seriously in the UK. Local Councils will need to manage equitable disconnection of the gas grids

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · last mo.

German cities are tasked with planning their way out of fossil fuel heating. The first 223 plans reviewed show fossil fuels gone by 2045. District heating rises from 16% to 40%, heat pumps reach 38%, and heating demand falls by a third.

Not to obsess over decentralisation but I think fundamentally the UK Government's approach to local government reform in England is paradoxically neither small nor big enough, when compared with pretty much any other country outside these (very bad at local government) islands.

Elledge had won the war against himself. He loved Big Burnham.

Yeah. It's just words, so far, but man it's nice to hear them.

As a proud northerner I’ve been depressed but not surprised by ridiculous and patronising responses to the idea of moving parts of our painfully centralised government out of Westminster People are talking about powerhouse global cities as if they are parochial villages in middle earth A rant 👇

Response to Burnham's northern plans is depressingly predictable

Hysterical and patronising reactions to putative Prime Minister's plans to move parts of government up north show exactly why such changes are needed, writes Liam Thorp

liverpoolecho.co.uk

I am genuinely excited about a PM who will be serious about devolution. If done right it could give people more sense of control about their locality; free up Whitehall to focus on big strategic issues; and make it harder for a future national govt to burn everything down.

Very relatable. If you want to get a heat pump, don't wait until your boiler fails!

Reminder, this “Blessing of the Bicycles” is tomorrow outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Yearly Murmuration of Starlings in Rome are incredibly adaptable songbirds known for their mesmerizing, synchronized aerial acrobatics, exceptional vocal mimicry, and shifting, shimmering plumage

It's amazing how many posts and stories like this you see. E-bikes are revolutionizing transportation, enabling people to go more places without cars, and there's an all-out assault to kill them.

Heating oil prices in the UK have trebled in a week. 2 million homes, no price cap protection, no warning. Heat pumps + solar are multiple times more efficient, don’t require an oil tank and oil deliveries and are an insurance against such frightening price spikes.

No rush lads, it's not like you've only got three years until the next election to demonstrate material change or anything.

Government pushes publication of revised NPPF back from spring to summer

planningresource.co.uk

I feel like given events in the Middle East, if I were the government I would want to be a bit more ambitious than planning to approve one (1) small modular reactor by the end of the Parliament.

"Welcome to Decline" -- still one of my favourite graphs from last year. In the late 1970s, Britain's economic fate very clearly split in two. How much you blame Thatcher will depend on your politics, but her leadership is useful to understand the timing. tomforth.co.uk/welcometodec...

Anyone with time on their hands that would like to run some numbers on this (or the comparable Bristol schemes) might find themselves wondering about a lot of elements of the British state...

Paul Connell@paulcconnell.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Anyone done a cumulative cost of how much the UK has spent on the work done for Leeds not to have a Tram in the years between 1980 and 2025. My back of an envelope call is about £1Bn ……. And that doesn’t include the opportunity costs and lost economic benefits

(Men's) football is shitttt change my mind

Even the miasma people thought anti-vaxxers were nuts.

People will be like "I would do anything for my kids!!!" right up until you suggest dropping the speed limit to 20mph.

I really hate incinerators (euphemistically called "energy from waste" or "energy recovery" plants by industry). They gave government, local and national, the option to stop promoting recycling which they duly took; just 44% of waste is recycled, and a rate that has actually fallen in recent years

Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · last yr.

Waste incinerators that burn household rubbish to generate power are regularly polluting the air with toxic emissions in breach of legally permitted limits observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

when driving on the highway it’s important to at all times have established an enemy