A new housing development under construction in the Netherlands The cycle infrastructure is already in place, complete with junctions ready to connect to future homes, along with dedicated bus lanes Active and sustainable travel is planned from the very beginning, not bolted on as an afterthought

Climate science denial in physical form. The Land Rover Defender X (yup - they've gone full Musk). Price: £103,460, plus a few kids' lives. 🧵

Composed 47 years ago Handwritten lyrics for "Love Will Tear Us Apart," penned by Ian Curtis in August 1979 Curtis sings about himself, revealing his pain and speaking of his inner torment over his separation from his wife Deborah #punkrockhistory #iancurtis #joydivision #lovewilltearusapart

Last night I dreamt I was some sort of trainee pub landlord and Andy Burnham, the actual landlord, said I wasn't ready to run the pub. I guess pub landlord is a reasonable metaphor for running the country.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Over the hill.

“We’ve moved into the Age of the Oligarch which is defined by a network of the rich and powerful and the authoritarians they prop up. The group transcends national borders and has zero interest in the countries that elevated them to power.”

The Third World War Is Here

And it's not what you think

open.substack.com

Efforts to conflate the Spain -Morocco borders in Africa with the outer border of the EU have been epic today. Sure, they suit a certain narrative, but they needs to be pushed back vigourously. There is no free movement from Ceuta and Melilla to the European continent.

Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.

Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says

LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance

ft.com

Booking systems and fees introduced in public pools, in the name of funding needs and safety, have quietly redesigned who our pools and ponds are for. The effect is exclusion, whatever the intent, and it falls hardest on working-class families and their kids.

Who Gets to Swim?

Public pools, a tale of two cities, and the moonshot for a swimmable city

marianamazzucato.substack.com

What I love about this story is that, at its core, it rests on the idea that French naval officers can identify members of the Shadow Cabinet from a distance, something most politicos can't do from up close.

Henry Mance@henrymance.ft.com · last wk.

update: Chris Philp has invaded France.

Fix the schools - and you'll fix the city. Meanwhile, Paris has now 300 "rue aux écoles". These are school street where walking, playing, relaxing and cycling is allowed, and driving is forbidden. Around 50% of all public nursery and elementary schools in Paris now have a school street in front.

PHOTO OF THE DAY. Coronation Street star Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) looking out over Manchester (1968) 📷 John Madden.

I know Tate are skint. But it's one thing not competing on salary with Louvre Abu Dhabi or the Met, and another not competing with a delivery gig at Papa John's pizza.

I was amused when I learned that when he was a European Commissioner Roy Jenkins was sometimes known as King John XV.

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · last wk.

Yesterday I learned that during appeasement French journalists mockingly called Chamberlain Monseur J'aime Berlin, which is exceptional work. Well done France.

Loconundrum #134 ⬜⬜⬜ 🚂🚂 ⬜⬜⬜ 🚂🚂 🟩🟩🟩 But the algo wasn't right, you can get there direct from where I was starting.

Tell me again how fighting climate change is bad for the economy, EPP.

FR #France@fr-france.bsky.social · 2w ago

Incendies en Gironde : le trafic ferroviaire totalement interrompu au sud de Bordeaux https://www.europesays.com/fr/1088463/ Aucun train ne circule ce dimanche matin entre Bordeaux et Arcachon, Dax ou Hendaye, les voies traversant plusieurs…#fr #france

Loconundrum #132 ⬜⬜🟨 🚂🚂 ⬜🟩⬜ 🚂 🟩🟩🟩

The current situation in France

One of the greatest ironies of modern times will be that the anti-immigration far-right, by also denying climate-change for so long, will bring about the largest mass migration in the history of our species by making large parts of our planet uninhabitable. #NetZero

This image from Biscarrosse. 😪 www.sudouest.fr/faits-divers...

Loconundrum #131 ⬜🟩🟨 🚂🚂 🟩🟩⬜ 🚂🚂🚂 🟩🟩🟩

Beech Nut anyone?

I like the granularity of this calculator by @dantaylorwatt.com of your personal AI environmental footprint. I find the moral panic about AI on ecological grounds a bit tiresome so it's good to have some apparently well-sourced data to work with: www.dantaylorwatt.com/ai/ai-enviro...

Exhibit A: British Gas explains how it's the customers' fault that they're cutting 1,300 call centre staff - people just prefer chat bots! Exhibit B: Trustpilot summary of reviews of British Gas customer service: frustration of being forced into online channels and unable to speak to a person.

Have you noticed an opaqueness to the blue sky this morning? Wildfire smoke from North America is drifting south across the UK, meaning the clear skies may not be as blue as you might expect 🌤️

As many of us wonder what’s happening with what used to be GDS, the “they forgot it existed” explanation is the most plausible one for me. Ministers now focus on “give lots of money to AI techbros”. “Digital” has the same level of attention as basket weaving - nice but historic. #GovDesign

Mark O’Neill 🐻@radiobeartime.com · 2w ago

I beg readers not to try and work out why parts of government are being moved between departments. THERE ARE NO LOGICAL REASONS! DECC was made part of BEIS simply because May forgot it existed.

It's hardly the biggest issue in all of this but this machinery of government kerfuffle is going to expose the short-sightedness of tying the GOV.UK brand to a DSIT brand that's about to go in the bin - the horrible cyan was taken from DSIT's logo

Lisa Nandy still around...

From Liz Kendall's cabinet departure letter, posted on… you guessed it… X