Rebecca Sharkey

Remembering John Lennon on what would have been his 85th birthday 🕊️

“As a kid, I had a dream – I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike.”

@petergeoghegan.bsky.social talks about the financial powers behind the UK's right wing politics.

#ukpolitics #farage #podcast

Today in life under competitive authoritarianism

Photo of a woman making a peace sign while resting astride an orange cruiser bicycle.

In 2013, when faced with Miami-area gridlock, tennis champion Serena Williams made headlines by riding a bicycle to her match. "It was probably one of my best memories I think ever, riding a bike to a match" she said.

#BicycleBirthday Serena Williams
September 26, 1981

In other news, I’ve discovered that I don’t mind sitting facing backwards on trains after all.

I’m already enjoying my new thermal winter gloves!

Between this & zero traffic deaths in Helsinki last year....

The simple truth that's somehow utterly unintelligible to capitalism & those in its thrall is that doing the right thing by the vulnerable (be they houseless, pedestrians, or anything else) makes the world BETTER FOR EVERYONE.

🚨🚨 Sound up loud for our brand new video! 📽️📽️

People riding to the song of the moment - turn it up and enjoy! 🎶

Last Saturday, Haringey Cycling organised a marshalled family ride around local animal murals.

We got an amazing turnout, because People Love Cycling. … /1

Moving Up North - Walk Ride GM The northern perspective on walking, wheeling and cycling.  Harry and Will digest each month’s policy and delivery news into a friendly, easily accessible round-up. Walk Ride GM campaigns to make walk...

Get your headphones on and go for walk with @walkridegm.org.uk's excellent podcast Moving Up North, to learn more about what effective #ActiveTravel campaigning looks like🚲🚶🏾‍♀️🧑‍🦽 🛴 www.walkridegm.org.uk/2024/11/01/m...

After the rivers of blood speech, precisely no one in the major parties patted themselves on the back and declared free speech to be alive and well. They declared Powell a pariah, and he was only able to re-emerge in public life as the incongruous unionist MP for South Down.

You can spend your time arguing with their bot accounts. You can dismiss them as an extreme minority we should ignore.

It won’t shift the dial.

To reclaim our future use your voice to build and strengthen the communities they attack and show firsthand how hope beats hate.

Three reasons to feel hope Things are incredibly grim, but there are small, tentative signs of improvement. Maybe.

Things are incredibly grim, but there are small, tentative signs of improvement. Maybe. iandunt.substack.com/p/three-reas...

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

There’s a HUGE Elon Musk shaped hole in the Government’s new plans to improve our elections: shady billionaires like Musk can still donate massive amounts of money with no cap: effectively buying our democracy. Add your name to call for a cap on donations today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

Breaking: Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup.

This is the appropriate consequence and punishment for attempting to overthrow your own nation's democracy.

Notre ville change ! Nos rues sont peu à peu rendues aux habitants, de nouveaux arbres sont plantés et les promenades facilitées et sécurisées.

C'est le cas de la rue Chaptal dans le 9e ou celle du Docteur-Lecène dans le 13e !

Where would I start? Discouraging short car trips for those who can walk, obvs, and taking steps like banning pavement parking and fixing pelican crossings to make walking easier and quicker. Getting house builders to stop building car-dependent transport deserts could also be a lasting impact

Streeting’s bid to get Britain off the couch and save NHS £10bn Health Secretary’s Get Britain Moving campaign could be undermined by difficulty to walk in some areas

It's disappointing that the government's plan to get people moving is focused around "Go for a jog" rather than, as the evidence suggests, building environments that encourage everyday incidental exercise: the ability to walk to amenities
liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/388...

Labour's cowardice in the face of extremism iandunt.substack.com/p/labours-co...

People on bikes fear that without protected bike lanes, people in cars will “completely kill” them.

Latest report from me below, and here's the Guardian's coverage (thanks to the environment team for covering it).

Current policy won't deliver the emissions reductions from transport needed by 2030 and risks widening inequality. Prioritising fairness is the key to unlocking faster climate action.

Britain’s shameful past holds a vital message about immig... Deplorable attitudes to refugees failed to stop solidarity across the divides

So, (very) belatedly, my @theobserveruk.bsky.social column on immigration, culture, the Judeo-Christian tradition and echoes across a century: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Robert Jenrick and the Conservative Party's Embrace of 'Blood and Soil' Nationalism The British right is adopting an increasingly extreme form of ethnic identity politics, while failing to explain what the rest of us are supposed to be so worried about, argues Jonathan Portes

"All this is not overtly “blood and soil,” but the underlying logic – that your ethnicity and ancestry is your primary and most important identity is essentially the same" @jdportes.bsky.social getting to the root of populist racism - from Goodhart to Goodwin. bylinetimes.com/2025/08/19/r...

Letter of the day (in the Times)

It’s not just eyesight but also reaction times and risk judgement- we risk testing what is easy to test and missing important factors.
Improved public transport and safe walking (e.g. even pavements and well segregated pedestrian and cycle infrastructure) would help reduce need for car dependency.

Father in law driving, passes a cyclist.

ME: that was a bit close

HIM:

ME: imagine it's me next time

HIM: okay

ME: thank you

Road traffic deaths are not inevitable!

"Challenging car dominance is never simply a technical decision about street layouts or emissions levels. It is a challenge to a deeply embedded status quo" - Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

People of all ages and abilities walk, cycle, sit, and socialise on the Strand Aldwych—a former arterial turned pedestrian zone in London, which is lined with buildings, trees, flowers and plantings, benches, and terraces.

People of all ages and abilities walk, cycle, sit, and socialise on the Strand Aldwych—a former arterial turned pedestrian zone in London, which is lined with buildings, trees, flowers and plantings, benches, and terraces.

People of all ages and abilities walk, cycle, sit, and socialise on the Strand Aldwych—a former arterial turned pedestrian zone in London, which is lined with buildings, trees, flowers and plantings, benches, and terraces.

People of all ages and abilities walk, cycle, sit, and socialise on the Strand Aldwych—a former arterial turned pedestrian zone in London, which is lined with buildings, trees, flowers and plantings, benches, and terraces.

London's Strand Aldwych is more than a facelift; it’s an ambitious metamorphosis of an inhospitable traffic sewer into a vibrant civic stage for culture, learning, play, and human connection. This is city-making refined for the 21st century: turning underutilised asphalt into spaces of possibility.🔚

1 in 3 doctors were born overseas.

1 in 2 builders were born overseas.

1 in 6 nurses were born overseas.

1 in 4 transport workers were born overseas.

1 in 7 UK business founders were born overseas.

1 in 5 university academics were born overseas.

The UK would be screwed without them.