Sarah Whitebread

This is *really* important.

Our elections regulator isn’t independent. Reform’s Arron Banks has said the Electoral Commission should be abolished

The architecture of British democracy is really weak and easily ripped out. It needs to be protected now

In the last week of the 1936 campaign, FDR reminded a massive crowd in Madison Square Garden that "organized money" was "unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred!"

And then the country rewarded him with a 523-8 landslide in the electoral college.

This is, in fact, good politics.

Fiona Harvey pulls no punches in this great podcast. Why do most of the media cover climate change so poorly?
1. Vested interests (follow the money).
2. Right wing papers can't now blame all thing bad on the EU: net zero is a convenient substitute.
3. Willful ignorance (hello BBC presenters!).

Labour splurges taxpayers’ cash on poor value road schemes Transport Action Network is dismayed at today’s announcement by the UK Government to fund a raft of poor value and expensive road schemes. Most of these are legacy schemes from the Conservative govern...

Why has the government failed to announce funding for Ely and Haughley junctions, a rail freight scheme that has a far superior value compared to the many roads funded today?!
transportactionnetwork.org.uk/labour-splur...

A family cycles on CS2

In the five years leading up to the replacement of blue paint with segregated cycle tracks and floating bus stops 5 people were killed on CS2. In the ten years since they were constructed no cyclists had died and there have been no significant collisions between cycles and pedestrians at bus stops

Improving living standards, particularly for those on the lowest incomes, should be seen as a precondition for a healthy and prosperous country, not an eventual reward for growth. 3/3

New Statesman cover this week. Online tomorrow. On newsstands Thursday.

Not a lot of love for the press at the tipping points conference

Rockström says the media is “getting it very wrong, seriously wrong”

Dr Carlos Nobre points to a lack of coverage of the impacts of the degradation of topical forests, noting the "tremendous risk of epidemics and pandemics”

Reads: My parents started out with nothing, not a penny from their families. My mum was a dinner lady, Dad was a secondary school teacher. They paid off their mortgage in their 40s. As children we had a holiday abroad every year and multiple uk holidays throughout the year. They had a lease car which would be replaced every 3 years with a new one. They paid for mine and my sisters weddings and house deposits. They’ve travelled all over the world in their retirement and I’ve just found out they have £200k in savings. WTF?! DH and I have comparable careers, we run 1 old banger of a car, we have 1 uk holiday per year, we’ve stopped at 1 child, we’re on target to pay off our mortgage when we reach retirement, we have a grand total of £4k in savings. We don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t buy expensive clothes.

Really interesting and I think very insightful thread on Mumsnet about just how entirely different the intergenerational financial experience has been:

Interesting to ponder whether the govt would have been better to leave winter fuel alone and raise fuel duty a small amount instead. They would have been hammered for either decision...but maybe easier to move on from the fuel duty one as they could freeze in subsequent years& still get the benefit.

Beyond infrastructure and design, we also acknowledge that embedded transport cultures can influence whether rapid changes in transport mode share last or not. Exploring this relationship is a direction for future research. For example, the fact that so many locations around the world experienced substantial reductions in pollution, road trauma, and associated chronic disease health risks during 2020 and 2021 appears to have been insufficient incentive for more societies to seek a more permanent transition away from transport modes that contribute to such risks. In fact, in many locations, car culture has not only been resilient to change but has strengthened, especially in locations where city design has facilitated car culture, but even in locations where strategies have been attempted to prevent car culture or at least establish benefits from alternative, active, and sustainable transport modes.

Thoroughly depressing statement.

From this open access article: ‘Effects of city design on transport mode choice and exposure to health risks during and after a crisis: a retrospective observational analysis’

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bidders demand Thames Water granted immunity over environmental crimes Exclusive: ‘Ransom note’ requests would leave Environment Agency unable to prosecute company or management

No-one, NO-ONE,should be granted a “request for near-blanket immunity for serious environmental crimes”

If the potential buyers of Thames Water can’t clean up, they shouldn’t be allowed to buy

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Ed Davey speaks to audience including Daisy Cooper at launch event for LDNC

Great to be at the launch of Liberals and Democrats for Nature & Climate tonight. Impressive turn out from MPs, peers and environmental NGOs inc party leader & deputy leader

We don't want:
UK Energy Security.
Long tern reductions in our energy bills.
The UK Green Economy which grew by 10.3% last year to drive UK economic growth & prosperity.
Any new jobs or investment in our area.
And lets stop investment in flood defences because we like being under water...

In any other major city in Europe the streets of Soho would obviously be pedestrianised and businesses/visitors on a glorious day like today could enjoy al fresco dining. But thanks to Westminster Council and the way we give outsized power to absurd local complaints, not here!

Why oh why is Cambridge so slow at counting...it's the eternal question that never gets answered.

This is why mooting 'ditching net-zero' as the solution to Labour's woes is so silly. It's a policy that is popular with their core voters, critical to progressive voters they need to woo back, and Reform voters are sceptical but it's way down their priority list.

Let's bring cars back to Carnaby Street (pedestrianised in 1973), said no-one ever.

Picture of kids and adults gathering on Lincoln Square, playing jump rope. Text overlay saying "I will never understand the appeal of playing in a street"

Picture of Chicagoans of all ages lounging on Lincoln square, enjoying a beautiful spring day. The sun is out and there is chalk art covering the ground. In the foreground a man in sunglasses sits on a yellow bench. Text from a local facebook group reads "It's really unfortunate that they feel the need to create this kind of chaos for the community, our square, and the small businesses trying to thrive here, this feels like a targeted effort."

a man blows bubbles for a group of children playing in Lincoln Square, the kids are jumping and pointing at the bubbles. many adults are circled around watching. A quote from the Lincoln Square facebook page reads "FORGET ABOUT IT. Ban kids from playing in the street."

A wide shot of Lincoln Square. People are congregating in the road, lined up to patronize local businesses, or sitting on the curb watching neighbors stroll by. A truncated facebook comment states "how dare you... People like you in this community absolutely disgust me."

Lincoln Square Road Closure and Accompanying Comments From The Local Facebook Page (April 2025)

This "debate" about who should use what toilet doesn’t benefit anyone. It doesn’t fix the underfunding of women's refuges, NHS waiting lists leaving women in terrible pain, mums skipping meals to feed their kids. How about we get on with tackling the real issues affecting women?

Hi Anthony, do you know if there a link to watch this online at all?

Ban smartphones for UK under-16s, urges Adolescence writer Jack Thorne, whose Netflix series has shone a light on incel culture, calls for restrictions on teens’ social media access Smartphones should be treated like cigarettes and banned until the age of 16 in the UK, according to the writer of Adolescence,…

Ban smartphones for UK under-16s, urges Adolescence writer

This is the critical point. Somehow net zero - a scientific term about how to halt anthropogenic climate change - has become completely detached in much political and media discourse from climate change - the phenomenon the target was adopted to tackle.

Your daily reminder that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods reduce air pollution across an entire area. Maps are nitrogen dioxide levels Waltham Forest 2007 vs 2017, after installing LTNs and protected cycle lanes.

🌱 lcc.org.uk/campaigns/lo...

The preventative shift: how can we embed prevention and achieve long term missions Published in collaboration with Demos, this briefing looks at how to shift the culture of public bodies to think ‘prevention first’ and target spending at activities which are value for money and…

🧵 NEW: The shift to prevention in public spending is gaining momentum, with recognition at the Autumn Budget and the NHS making it a priority in its 10-year plan.

Our briefing with @demos-uk.bsky.social explores how to support this fundamental change.

Read now ⬇️
https://buff.ly/4gAgJUN

YouTube video by LBC Elon Musk's main aim is 'world domination' | Lewis Goodall on LBC

On LBC this morning, I spoke about why we should be far more worried the power Elon Musk is accruing, especially in light of his Open AI moves.

The normalisation of his actions and activity by quite a bit of the US and even UK media is a big part of the problem. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGnt...

Overgrown vegetation including nettles covering the walking section of the Trumpington Road shared path.

By the end of the week we need a list of the top 10 walking and cycling routes in Cambridgeshire that need an urgent cut back of overgrown vegetation.

Please pitch your ideas now!

📷 Trumpington Road cycleway, summer 2024 (timbo, Cyclestreets photomap)

According to this article, a UK government spokesperson actually said “We are committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever and recognise the importance of this to our number one mission – economic growth."

... I mean, where do you even start with that?!?

Bradford clean air zone saves NHS over £30,000 a month in first year After one year of the zone, which is the second largest in England, GP visits for respiratory illnesses were down by a quarter

Bradford clean air zone saves health service £360,000 in first year

- Doctor visits for respiratory illnesses and heart problems were down by 25%

#airpollution
Story by @drgaryfuller.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The press lobby is going feral—ignore it Given the pressures of 24-hour news, lobby journalists cannot plausibly understand policy detail. Their skillset is to nose around and cause trouble

My Prospect column this month is on the increasingly feral Lobby and why Labour has little choice but to ignore them www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/691...