About five years since I ran a public procurement in the public sector but the social value part was complex and involved a third party, so sensible. But as always the issue is legals and perceived risk in procurement teams that hold back British / SMEs.

Lucy Fisher@lucyfisher.ft.com · yesterday

EXC: UK govt is “stripping back” onerous public procurement rules in pro-growth shake up of system, Louise Haigh tells FT Overhaul will make job creation/skills development the only ‘social value’ requirement for biz competing for Whitehall contracts worth £90bn annually www.ft.com/content/9878...

If you've got a net worth estimated at £10 million you can afford a driver... And that's before the question whether someone 83 years old should be driving.

James Chalmers@jameschalmers.bsky.social · 2d ago

Yes I acknowledge it makes sense in context but “I need my car to meet criminals” is now my favourite basis for an attempted exceptional hardship plea. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On August 5, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is predicted to crash onto the Moon. What has crashed on the Moon before? The very first human object to touch the Moon - Luna 2 in 1959. A probe, 3 bombs, and a rocket body! 🧪 🔭

1959: Luna 2 (USSR)

YouTube video by International Astronautical Federation

m.youtube.com

It's noticeable, too, that there wasn't a single question on the climate, at a time when Europe is experiencing catastrophic wild-fires & record-breaking heat. It's astonishing how low down the political agenda this remains in Britain, when all the environmental indicators are signalling disaster.

Back when I had Twitter I used to offer free headshots for low-income authors, not sure I have much reach here but the offer is still there. London or Birmingham (although I’m in Glasgow and Edinburgh at the end of Aug and can fit in a session. Will have lights so can be indoors).

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d ago

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

Monique Hawkins, acting chief executive of the3million, said the impact of the Home Office’s retrospective review was devastating for many. "People applied to the EU settlement scheme in good faith...by building their lives in the UK and putting down roots." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

EU citizens in UK get letters telling them post-Brexit residency rights were given ‘in error’

After years of building lives in UK, potentially hundreds of thousands of EU citizens are being told they have no right to remain

theguardian.com

I had this as well... It's very irritating.

Jonathan Potts@uccellolirico.bsky.social · 4d ago

Eurostar has its own, very annoying form of (not) customer service. It suggests you look for the answer to.your question in their FAQs. I know ot won't be, but I do as asked. It's not. So I use the contact form. Immediate automated reply by email says "try this link, we'll assume you found the >>

In case you missed it, Mischief just announced our first game since Adios!!!!!! It's in a city @pabastien.bsky.social and I have been dreaming about for years, and is a postmodern pastiche of... all the games we didn't make! And there will be a shotgun in it. ;)

Mischief@mischief.games · 6d ago

Welcome To The New Apocalypse

Every minute that an out-of-touch managing director makes their staff spend writing a report for a grant funder about the methodology used to spend a £2500 grant to write an academic PDF is a minute that staff isn’t doing the real work with real impact that the challenges before us need, right now.

@jonworth.eu thought you might know the answer to this question: we travelled From Brussels to Cologne on Thursday. Eurostar retimetabled it the day before. Can we claim compensation based on the journey arrival of booking?

The biggest challenge of electrification: we need people to switch but we should definitely not embed the idea of cheaper electric motoring, as it'll be very difficult to move away from This where unfreezing fuel duty is the smarter choice.

EVA England@evaengland.org.uk · 6d ago

New polling by @yougov.co.uk, commissioned by ChargeUK, shows that cutting public charging prices to below petrol would move the needle on EV sales. This research found it would boost demand by nearly 50% and put sales above the government's 2026 target of 33% of new car sales.

We are finally abandoning our failed experiment with the radical centralisation of political and economic power. I have spent my whole career arguing for this. It's a good day. The question for me is what happens next with councils - more power for mayors goes nowhere if the tier beneath is bust.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 6d ago

This is a great move:

The rules for governing car use should be equivalent to non-car use (eg street parking charged at the same rate as street skip licence, aggressive driving to intimidate is common assault).

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?

Okay, fellow AI/sociotechnical researchers, I'm looking for a name for something but can't find anything in my lit searches: is there a term for the phenomenon where someone has false confidence in an AI output? ie a developer thinks their code is more secure, but it's actually less secure

Please become a subscriber for free and premium articles It’s not the cost that counts, but the value open.substack.com/pub/transpor...

It’s not the cost that counts, but the value

A call comes in from the BBC.

open.substack.com

Listened to this yesterday - it was great. Reminds me that Games Workshop is a genuine UK success story both culturally and financially, yet doesn't get the praise it deserves Someone needs to do a Tetris or Air style film of it's story.

John Bull@garius.bsky.social · 2w ago

In 1975, three men in a grotty London flat started a games company. It brought D&D to the UK, then redefined wargaming. This week on Untitled History Podcast, it's the history of Games Workshop with @jordansorcery.bsky.social. On Youtube or your pod app of choice! open.spotify.com/episode/3iSn...

All the stats show that the more you earn, the higher status a job you have, the more likely you are to work from home. Yet as Rachel correctly says all the thinking is still about creating local jobs, not being able to access jobs globally.

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · last wk.

One of the things I find odd about UK skills and jobs policies over the last 10 years is the idea that - for young people - place is destiny. It's like we've taken the Brexit memo and double stamped it into meaning you need to stay put to be a success. The geographical footprint of the UK is *tiny*

I think it's funny, given how often you hear about "paid in all my life" and "European pensions are higher", that an earnings-linked system would probably be deeply unpopular in the UK.

Interesting conversations due about what actually constitutes working class these days, given that a good portion of so-called blue collar manual labour jobs now earn more money than white collar office work.

Does the CJEU's most recent judgment on EU citizenship and transgender certificates make sense? Analysis by Marzia Genovese eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2026/07/from...

From recognition to positive obligations: the ECJ’s judgment in Shipov (C-43/24)

By Marzia Genovese , Postdoctoral Lecturer and Researcher in Public Law at the European Documentation and Research Centre of the Unive...

eulawanalysis.blogspot.com

Sigh, there goes any prospect of reform. It's ridiculous that a £200k max flat (which can't be sold due to cladding) is the same band E as a £483k house in Birmingham.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · last wk.

Correct decision, obviously. Genuinely there are quite a few Labour MPs I just want to ask “without googling, how many parliamentary seats do you think there are in the south?”

Plug-in solar panels are coming to the UK from August 27th! It's been in the pipeline for a while & it's already common in Germany. But it's BRILLIANT because it opens up these technologies to renters & ppl w/o their own roof. Plugs into a normal socket & supplies ~ 10-20% of household needs. ☀️🎉

UK households free to install plug-in balcony solar panels from end of August

Law change means renters and flat owners may be able to cut bills as energy costs soar amid Iran war

theguardian.com

This is a good comparison but and does visually show how worse our public transport has got. But even if we retained the 1957 network, it would still have been worse now, as the trams would be held up in car traffic. I suspect the 2026 tram map would be better than bus but not by as much.

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.

I've never understood why expand Heathrow. If we want to expand flights (which is a big question with the increasing climate change crisis), it should be to our regional hubs.

Shivaji Shiva@shivajishivalaw.bsky.social · last wk.

“As the GDP case for expansion has evaporated, and the environmental damages will be significant, it’s unclear why this is proceeding. The winners from the scheme are the foreign shareholders who, as things stand, will be gifted a guaranteed return in exchange for taking on minimal private risk.”

The British legal system is based on being tried for a charge by the government with a defence and jury decision based on that charge. It makes a mockery of the system, if the decision is about a much more serious charge, we didn't tell you about. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Palestine Action activists face being sentenced as terrorists over bank damage

Exclusive: Judge intends to consider ‘terrorist connection’ after convicting five for damage to Barclays in Burnley

theguardian.com

If Havering Council is worried about the impact ULEZ is having on its residents, it can fund a scrappage scheme for the likely small amount of vehicles affected. If they're not willing to fund it then they're not really worried about it.

Steve Chambers@planningtransport.co.uk · 2w ago

On top of the big issues. Someone needs to explain to them how a zone works. They aren't speed cameras.

As a punishment for his world’s-worst-in-class Routemaster buses, Thomas Heatherwick should be banned from ever enjoying air conditioning for the rest of his life. And from May to September every year he is only allowed to travel in London via bus routes which use his sweat box behemoths.

the policy positions of joe biden would be considered left-wing extremism in the uk

This combined with the wealthy people in city regions tending to live in the shires outside the city core and objecting to paying higher taxes.

Richard Mann@transportparadise.bsky.social · 2w ago

The spatial distribution of transport problems (heavily concentrated in congested areas) doesn't match the spatial distribution of voters. Devolution of funding is going to be a problem unless people buy into the importance of fixing cities.