Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦

"Nutpicking" has a longer history. I've traced the origin of the term back to what appears to be its invention in 2006: web.archive.org/web/20060820...

It was Helen Lewis: 'nutpicking'.

Thank you!

IIRC @stephenkb.bsky.social gave a snappy name to the act of mining for the most idiotic takes you can find - what was it? Because it's in overdrive today.

In case it's not obvious to anyone, they don't genuinely care about the fire risk. It's just an excuse - they simply don't want it.

As @duncanstott.bsky.social points out in The Other Place, West Oxfordshire District Council declared a Climate Change and Ecological Emergency in 2019.

Had not expected to have to verify my age to send a message about rail subsidies on Bluesky! The camera took one look at me and decided immediately I was over 18...

Choosing parenthood is choosing to neglect hobbies.

Give people a say over wind turbines or nothing, plenty will opt for nothing. Particularly when they've opted for rural living.

Another quarter not only stayed sane, but positively thrived under an authoritarian lockdown. I think that in itself increased public appetite for heavier-handed government.

Making indoor temperatures vastly more comfortable, and the only trade-off is a urban-localised 1°C temperature increase? I'm sold, get the A/C installed.

Bizarre discussion on the radio likening air condition to passive smoking because it accounts for 3% of CO2 emissions.

But: we don’t moralise turning heating on in winter, and heating accounts for 15% of emissions. If aircon is intrinsically immoral, so are radiators.

Lol.

"This is what we believe"

Lifetime ISAs leave some with less money than they put in, MPs warn MPs call for reform to the savings account which aims to help people save towards retirement or a first home.

"It noted a surge in withdrawal charges, with almost double the amount of people making an unauthorised withdrawal (99,650) compared to the number of people who used their LISA to buy a home (56,900) in 2023-24"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Solar PV was not the cause of the blackout': Report on Spain's power outage reveals failure of thermal plants a key factor Renewable energy advocates accuse commentators who blamed renewables for black out of 'jumping the gun and oversimplifying the cause'

Will be interesting to see if certain media outlets just ignore the report from the Spanish government confirming the key role of thermal power plants in the Iberian power outage or still try to erroneously spin it as a failure of renewables. www.businessgreen.com/news/4515109...

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for the Guardian, here's the script: [Scene is the inside of a SOUP. Some CARROTS and BITS OF BROCCOLI are floating around and a STOCK CUBE and a BAY LEAF have just been dropped in.]  1 STOCK CUBE: Alright lads - this is Bay Leaf. My colleague from the spice rack. 2 BROCCOLI: Hi Bay Leaf BAY LEAF: Yuh yuh hi 3 CARROTS: You up for getting proper blended with us later, Bay Leaf? BAY LEAF: Nuh mate, getting scooped out before soup stage. 4 CARROTS: Oh! So… you’re not being eaten then? BAY LEAF: Eaten! Haha 5 BAY LEAF: Not allowed mate. I’m afraid I’m a lil’ bit *toooo intense*... 6 BAY LEAF: Just here for the flavour hit. Special forces, y’know. That’s why there’s just one of me. 7 BAY LEAF: Over-deploy and you’d have this whole soup stiiinking of bay leaf… 8 BAY LEAF: You might wanna stand back actually. This place is about to get preeetty bay leafy... 9 [Silent pause] 10 CARROTS: Are you doing something BAY LEAF: Sure am mate. 11 BAY LEAF: Suuuuure am. 12 BAY LEAF [Getting scooped out by chef’s spoon]: You need training to perceive it. CARROTS: OK

I’m convinced this is how a bay leaf would talk

Fab local reporting. Oxford should be getting congestion charging as soon as this autumn! 💪

Meh. Is flooding a worse crisis than the housing crisis? Oxford has both bad, but the housing crisis is a constant drag on more people all the time.

The same principle backpropagates up the system. If a consultee wants to effectively object, they need to do so in a timely manner.

Is that a bug and not a feature? </cynicism>

Auto-approval after 6 months of indecision?

Administrative challenge with that, making sure recipients of several of those benefits only receive WFP once.

The question remains .. if they're not guarding town centres what ARE the police actually doing these days?

Isn't the Chatham House Rule when you collect all the money paid in fines after landing on free parking?

This country is going mad.

For sure there's resistance to change. But the main political vehicle for that, the Independent Oxford Alliance, are 1) a minor electoral force, and 2) will be here-today-gone-tomorrow when the changes are proved a positive for the city.

Yes, Granville Court. It's also very popular with Brookes students. But I take your broader point.

It's the tendency for people to only get upset when it affects them - a common dynamic throughout politics (the 'Leopard Eating Faces Party' joke stems from this) but particularly potent when it comes to planning.

It's clearly NIMBYism when the complainants are overwhelmingly localised. They aren't complaining about the events near me this summer in South Park.