David Gooda

Miners vs Gardeners

‘Cleaner, greener and absolute reliability’: trams make UK comeback Pioneering light-rail tech poised to revamp network after chancellor announces £15bn transport boost

We can install light battery powered trams everywhere, really quickly. We've got the tech, we've got new rules about the cash: let's go for it. Could make a big difference in so many ways. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

How a false solution to climate change is damaging the natural world | George Monbiot George Monbiot: In growing maize for biogas, the crop that does most damage to the soil is being specifically exempted from the rules

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social’s warning about maize, also used for biogas.

We seriously didn’t encounter a single insect in 170km of cycling through rural Brittany, heavily focused on maize.

Deeply worrying.

Only on day 3 as we rode on disused railways, spared from Roundup™️, did we spot a few.

The radicalisation spiral Why does it happen and can it be stopped?

Sam’s interest in right-wing trends and the prevalence of conspiracy theories continues with a look at processes of radicalization. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/the-radica...?

This is clear-eyed about the challenges, but optimistic about our power to defeat it.

I always wonder what these old men envisage as the future they want: the Dark Ages, but with smartphones?

Britain’s political impasse in a nutshell:

A: It’s a nightmare out there! Everything is smashed! We must change everything?

B: A is a exaggerating and a bit weird. They've some legitimate concerns but here is some context, fact & detail.

A is a political strategy. B is an essay assignment.

What cars did to your city, AI will do to your brain Once again, I rage against the dying of the light. Also this week: some maps to show that England is not concreting the countryside; and the longest conveyor belt in the world.

There’s a concept in transport planning called “induced traffic”, which is essentially the evil twin of “if you build it, they will come”.

What cars did to your city, AI will do to your brain.

It’s obviously the fault of both Starmer and the many very serious commentators who condemn him, but it remains surreal a government committed to the complete decarbonisation of a modern economy within 25 years can be routinely accused of having no vision or ambition.

Claim: "Water vapor is a greenhouse gas!"
Reality: Yes, and there's more of it in a warmer atmosphere

-"CO2 is plant food!"
-pretty hard to eat when you're on fire

-"Climate has changed before!"
-We know, we told you that

-"Scientists don't know everything!"
- doesn't mean we know *nothing*

FT Editorial: "Unless the Israeli government agrees to an immediate end to the war and a surge of aid into Gaza, western countries should be sanctioning Netanyahu and his government." www.ft.com/content/69d5...

As an immigrant, disinfo like this pisses me off.

We don't move here penniless. We can't.

EVERY international student brings £150K for tuition fees & living expenses. Then we work hard to make that money back and pay taxes.

Moving countries & careers is VERY HARD and we do it and we succeed.

It is a really good, informative and sensitive piece of history, which brings a very valuable range of voices together. A friend was injured that day, and I feel she would be content with this account.

The German Election The General Election in Germany is likely to be the most fiercely contests of any since the war. Chancellor Hitler has proclaimed a Four Year Plan to banish unemployment and make Germany great once again but others have made promises of this kind before and failed to deliver the goods. --The Rugeley Times, 11 Feb 1933

1933

Spot-on from @nixonsimon.bsky.social

One year on: UK communities count the cost of anti-immigration riots Charities and politicians describe a ‘tinder box’ atmosphere in some areas

Fantastic piece by @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social:

It's all feeling quite 2007.

An excellent piece which reinforces my view that the current government’s unwillingness to fund local government properly, together with the long standing Whitehall problem of never learning from experience, will be its undoing, and, sadly, the making of Farage .

Two in five arrested for last summer’s UK riots had been reported for domestic abuse Police data indicates overlaps between public violent disorder and domestic violence and abuse

In "Legitimate Concerns" news.

41% of the 899 arrested for taking part in Farage Riots last year had been reported for crimes associated with intimate partner violence.

For those arrested by one police force, this figure was 68%.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Severe malnutrition in under-5s has tripled at Gaza City clinic, charity reports Charity says number of people needing care for malnutrition has quadrupled and blames Israeli ‘policy of starvation’

This is a terrible war crime by an Israeli extremist government.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Marseille graffiti: Your children are going swimming, those in Gaza are dying.

Marseille: tes enfants se baignent, ceux de Gaza meurent

Sure seems like a good few members of our press have gone from 'worrying there might be riots this summer' to 'really hoping there will be riots this summer' in the last few days

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

Reform received over 90% of its funding from fossil fuel interests and climate science deniers

It’s worse than “Gaza is being starved and destroyed and no one cares.” It’s that hundreds of millions *do* care and are powerless to stop it. We need a world where that can never happen, where the masses actually have political power.

Abu Dhabi-owned SEND school firm profits soar to £45m Rise in private special school pupils helped deliver 30 per cent profit boost, company says

schoolsweek.co.uk/abu-dhabi-ow... Abu Dhabi-owned SEND school firm profits soar to £45m

@jenwilliamsft.bsky.social is far better informed than I, but I agree that the riots last year really shook the new gov: I suspect they were taken aback by the violence and fury, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to have significantly disrupted those early months.

BBC Sounds - The Coming Storm - Available Episodes Listen to the latest episodes of The Coming Storm on BBC Sounds.

I’m sure you’ve heard this, but in case it’s new to anyone:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/serie...

Statistics can prove anything, especially if you ignore them.

thecritic.co.uk/toug...

The whole horrifying thing about this AI bubble is just how it proves there is, in fact, enough money to do whatever we want as a species but some people seek demand to be enriched beyond avarice if such money is spent.

This is a neat summation of why the government is finding everything so difficult. On so many fronts the previous government really did salt the earth.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...