James O'Malley

The main story on this week's pod is mad – in which @mjrobbins.com discovers a mad legal loophole that means no one technically owns a major road in a town near his home.

Go have a listen!

The main story on this week's pod is mad – in which @mjrobbins.com discovers a mad legal loophole that means no one technically owns a major road in a town near his home.

Go have a listen!

[Woke lefty snowflake planning meeting]

"Right, so does anyone know any big burly, violent football hooligan types who we can hire to discredit their protest?"

How Britain can make it The country needs a new way of looking at politics and economics. This might just be the answer

I was in @thenewworldmag.bsky.social over the weekend arguing that we need a new way of looking at politics and economics – and what the answer could be:

www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-omalle...

Some lunchtime listening! It's a good one this week.

How to make a road disappear Plus are e-scooters about to be legalised at last? And we speak to Labour MP Alistair Strathern.

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA!

🚗 How to make a road... disappear!
🛴 How the govt persuaded the Daily Mail that e-scooters should be legalised!
🌹 And Labour MP @alistrathern.bsky.social on the fraying social contract between politicians and voters.

www.abundancepod.com/p/how-to-mak...

ICYMI it on Friday, my latest and it's a good one, if I'm allowed to say so myself:

Very disappointed Carole Cadwalladr disconnected her original tweet from my thread! Clearly the dark conspiratorial forces got to her!

How to make a road disappear Plus are e-scooters about to be legalised at last? And we speak to Labour MP Alistair Strathern.

Listen to The Abundance Agenda on:

Substack:
www.abundancepod.com/p/how-to-mak...

Apple:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/2OrB7qx...

Or wherever you get your pods!

How to make a road disappear Plus are e-scooters about to be legalised at last? And we speak to Labour MP Alistair Strathern.

New episode of THE ABUNDANCE AGENDA!

🚗 How to make a road... disappear!
🛴 How the govt persuaded the Daily Mail that e-scooters should be legalised!
🌹 And Labour MP @alistrathern.bsky.social on the fraying social contract between politicians and voters.

www.abundancepod.com/p/how-to-mak...

I find I write best when playing music I know really well, as it sort of fades into being pleasing white noise. Struggle with less familiar tracks. Don't understand the psychos who claim to be able to watch TV while working.

The secret to Ikea is realising you can watch basically everything being constructed on YouTube now.

(And then arguing with your partner who insists she doesn't need to watch a video first...)

No, the government isn't planning to introduce ID cards What the government is actually planning for digital ID

And for good measure, here's something interesting on the current digital identity framework:

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/trust-but-...

The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state A British "DOGE" (of sorts) is rearchitecting the government

And here is a detailed analysis of what the government's digital plans are and how digital ID plays into it:

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/login-to-a...

The "BritCard" digital ID proposal is a good idea Why I've changed my mind on ID cards

Here's why I changed my mind on digital ID, or more accurately nudged my weighting of the trade-off slightly:

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/britcard?u...

What if – hear me out – some people just sincerely think digital ID would be a good idea for public policy and that the trade-off with civil liberties is worth taking, and a weird quasi-conspiracy isn't required?

ICYMI!

(Suspect this last point is more present in my mind as I’ve recently been reading Helen Lewis’s The Genius Myth.)

It also has the flaw all superhero films, from Iron Man to Black Panther have, of how it can be that one guy has invented loads of wildly futuristic technologies that no one else has, when that’s not how invention works.

Fantastic Four (2025): Completely fine.

Like the Jetsons stuff and the lack of homework, but the film makes it hard to anchor the tech capabilities of the universe, more so than other Marvel films. eg, is travelling faster than light a thing they can do, or a uniquely difficult skill?

Always has been and always will be a red herring, and a convenient fig leaf for people who don’t want to appear to be Nimbys, while actually being Nimbys

OUR FUTURE TOGETHER - I AM JOINING ADVANCE UK!!! I am sick and tired of being politically homeless, I am sick of the establishment lies of @Nigel_Farage , I am putting my faith in @benhabib6 and his new political party @_AdvanceUK Join us here - https://advanceuk.org.uk Give this a share to everyone you know. #UnitingTheKingdom

Tommy Robinson has joined the Advance UK party led by Ben Habib

This seems to me a very implausible political project, pitching for the niche market which is OK with these three propositions at once
- Reform + Farage are too woke
- Ethnic minority leadership is OK
- Tommy Robinson is not toxic

ICYMI!

A nice way of summing up the difference between UK and US governance. Our labour statistics are borked through incompetence, and theirs are about to be through deliberate manipulation.

Now the working day is over you can read this:

Some lunchtime reading!

Absolutely not an expert but I think there's still capacity on the line to increase - they went back from 3tph to 4tph from Ebbsfleet to StP about a year ago. (I also live, er, not a million miles away.)

What new towns can learn from Ebbsfleet Britain's only real new town of recent years is both a cautionary tale, and a lesson in how to do it right.

What new towns can learn from Ebbsfleet

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/what-new-t...

MasterChef: BBC faces mounting pressure to not air new series after Gregg Wallace and John Torode sacked It comes as a MasterChef contestant says she was edited out after asking for the new series not to be broadcast.

This is very old world vs new world. Give the edit to a YouTuber and they'll hack it around in Final Cut Pro to cut out the presenters, and use voice-over and on screen captions to fill gaps. It'll look like shit but, as YouTube demonstrates, people will still watch.

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

If you want to read this full piece - which is full of maps and nerdy details - I currently have a summer sale on, with 20% off annual subscriptions!

So if you value my writing, today is a particularly good day to sign up!