Rachael Unsworth

Reform UK will be using scrapping the 20 mph limit as a key Welsh manifesto pledge.

There’s been a 11.8% fall in road casualties in the 18 months since it was brought in. The majority of 16-34 year olds support the 20 mph limit.

Another case of Reform being out of touch with future generations.

You possibly look like 'a citizen of the world', as I put it. (I'm a geographer - boringly English myself.) I personally think it's rather wonderful to defy categorisation like that, though I guess it does make for some weird moments.

Tomorrow night!

A line-up that would grace any of the top festivals in the country, except we're bringing it to you for free...!

How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail    I would rather  eat Quavers that are six weeks stale,  blow dry the man bun of Gareth Bale,  listen to the songs of Jimmy Nail,  than read one page of the Daily Mail.    If I was bored  in a waiting room in Perivale,  on a twelve-hour trip on Network Rail,  halfway through a circumnavigational sail,  I would not read the Daily Mail.    I would happily read  the autobiography of Dan Quayle,  1001 Things You Can Do With Kale,  selected scripts from Emmerdale, if it meant I didn’t have to read the Daily Mail.    Far better to  stand outside in a storm of hail,  scratch a blackboard with a fingernail,  be swallowed by a humpback whale,  than have to read the Daily Mail.    If I was blind   and it was the only thing in Braille,  I still would not read the Daily Mail.    Brian Bilston 

Today’s poem is called ‘How Much I Dislike the Daily Mail’.

Parties may support PR when NOT in power & it would help them.

Parties with an effective majority aren't in favour ... until it might help, & are then taunted.

Imperfect PR + compromise over governing seems better than:
↔️ lurching L/R
🚶‍♂️ not putting up candidates in some places
🗳️ tactical voting

Hannah Spencer: councillor, plumber, greyhound lover and the only candidate who can beat Reform in Gorton & Denton today 💚

Putin tried to freeze Ukraine. Instead, he sparked an energy Revolution. Russia is bombing fossil-fueled power plants, so the country is building solar and wind.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I've become increasingly obsessed with the fundamental principles revealed by analysis of real-world events - writing that rises above the particular instance to give broader insights of enduring relevance.

This is glorious.

Huw Dylan, historian of intelligence:
"a long history of intelligence analysts unwilling to predict that future events will create a dramatic break with the past. People could not imagine what a major European land war would look like in the 21st century, so assumed it was unlikely to happen".

Liz Oyer is a former pardon attorney who was fired by Trump! I love how she breaks down this recent SCOTUS decision and how this will have far reaching implications curtailing Trump’s excessive use of the Emergency Powers clause and hamper his entire agenda!

Watch this!⬇️⬇️

#USDemocracy
#Pinks

Yes - quite a bit of skullduggery. Our speaker covered this.
We went for drinks and supper at The Cross Keys after the event. 🙂

This is a day to note: 200 years since the death of a hugely influential Leeds innovator.
Ace at cast iron and an enabler of industrialisation.
Maker of the first commercially successful locomotive- in 1812. Predated the Stephensons and should be more famous.

Plaque erected in 1929 to commemorate engineer Matthew Murray, born c.1765, died 20 February 1826. This is on a building on the edge of Murray's Round Foundry site in Holbeck. This structure, known as Matthew Murray House, was built after Murray's lifetime. A wreath of fresh flowers in white and red hangs over the plaque.

OTD 1826, death of Matthew Murray, Father of Mechanical Engineering in Leeds.
This plaque, erected in 1929, is on the edge of the Round Foundry complex in Holbeck.

Who cleaned the plaque & added the wreath of fresh flowers?

Nearby, we had a good Leeds Phil & Lit talk about Murray last evening.

Extraordinary fluidity and completely confident tricky perspective.

Yes, the current municipal election in Paris, less than 50 days away, is a crucial choice about lifestyle.
Returning to using cars everywhere, falling into populism, mistrusting others because of their skin colour or origin? Paris must remain pioneering, innovative, open, popular, lively and proud.

Targeting 'Bad Landlords,' Mamdani Invites New Yorkers to Testify at 'Rental Ripoff' Hearings | Common Dreams Mayor Zohran Mamdani is taking action against "bad landlords" in NYC with Rental Ripoff Hearings, giving tenants a platform to share their struggles. Will this initiative lead to real change for rente...

Targeting 'Bad Landlords,' Mamdani Invites New Yorkers to Testify at 'Rental Ripoff' Hearings www.commondreams.org/news/mamdani...

Fortunately, I have never been so desperate/isolated/lazy that there has been no alternative to a Starbucks.
I'd rather wait longer for the caffeine.

YouTube video by Rep. Ro Khanna Ro Khanna reveals 6 redacted coconspirators in the Epstein files on the House floor

We're in a mind-blowing period of history, and I'm guessing it's like this from here on out for various reasons.
youtu.be/U_zWBOV_bng

Raskin to Bondi: "You're not showing a lot interest in the victims. Whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal government violence against citizens in Minneapolis, as AG you're siding with the perpetrators and ignoring the victims."

It's a mystery how anyone ever buys a second cup.

We don’t have a functioning democracy when the people who lied to our faces to ‘get Brexit done’ are never held to account for the damage they’ve caused… and, worse still, are rewarded for life, for cynically or moronically selling our country out.

They deserve nothing but our contempt. Forever.

She must surely be considering whether she'd stand at the next election (she's already 72), and this would release a potential London seat for the party leader.

A politically incorrect thought, but is the Mother of the House receiving calls from supplicants (or outriders thereof) that she might gracefully retire & open up a suitable seat for a Labour leadership challenger?

YouTube video by Private Eye Magazine Mandy Lifeboats! Private Eye on Peter Mandelson, Epstein & Keir Starmer's Chances

Page 94: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnCe...

With insightful musings in the final section about which hats might be thrown into the ring re Labour leadership, why it isn't a good moment for anyone to try to replace KS & whether any potential replacement has a coherent vision to offer.

?First demonstration in the new King's Cross.
Support Google workers standing up for Palestine!
WHEN: Feb 12th, 8.30am until 1.30pm
WHERE: Lewis Cubitt Park, Handyside St, N1C 4UZ

'Transatlantic Apocalyptic Populism' - overall result:

"This was not collusion but a single information ecosystem, animated by theology & executed by networked propaganda.

Ideologues sought spiritual war; politicians sought power; media entrepreneurs sought clicks; algorithms sought engagement".

Seems Epstein was a 'super-connector', stirrer of a dangerous vortex of money & ambition.
He peddled influence, matched ill-gotten gains with investment in tech-enabled & -amplified political projects to further a destructive agenda of power for the sake of power.
With luxury, fun & girls as bait.

Thiel, Musk, Epstein, Bannon - all state explicitly that they want to destroy democracy worldwide.
That, IMO, is worthy of investigation by EVERY nation they are messing with.
Isn’t taking down governments either treason, sedition, or an act of war?

What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit The long read: Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out – but it’s going to take collective effort

What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit