Jeremy Driver

What’s the point of a licence fee or anything like it if not to provide coverage of the boring but important stuff? Stopping Politics Live just the latest in the slow killing of any proper coverage of the party conferences.

How air conditioning could help us tackle climate change Heatwaves always lead to debates about air conditioning. But did you know most air con systems could actually be a green and cost-effective way to heat your home?

Reposting this piece (from a September heat wave 2 years ago) about how air conditioning could be helpful in tackling climate change.

Air con is usually actually a type of heat pump, and can provide efficient, clean heating as well as cooling

www.nesta.org.uk/blog/how-air...

36 degrees indoors! Have a look at the temperatures our supporters recorded at home with no air con (post a pic in the replies if you can beat them!)

Only 5% of British households have air con due to anti-air con rules.

It's time to change them and COOL BRITANNIA.

London hasn't built enough homes since the 1930s.

1937: 3 page planning application

2025: 1,250 pages (25 pages longer than War and Peace)

It didn't used to be this hard to build homes, it doesn't need to be today.

Feel like the camp, day-time tv, low culture element of Reform is a very important part of its identity as a party and political project, but undercommented on.

9th anniversary of Brexit means that nobody you meet under the age of 27 voted in the referendum.

Feels like quite an important thing to remember, really.

Interesting that the mission to land man on the moon polled really poorly at the time

We need Estate Renewal Passports to give automatic planning permission to plans residents support.

At the Aberfeldy Estate in London, a plan to turn 330 post-war homes into 1,600 new ones was rejected, despite 93% support from residents (who all get new homes).

Lunchtime Briefing: How To Make Planning Reform Work For Workers A 30 minute briefing discussing Britain Remade and Community's joint report, 'How to make planning reform work for workers'.

🥪💼NEW LUNCHTIME BRIEFING 💼🥪

How can we make planning reform work for workers?

🗓️ Friday 6 June, 12-12.30pm

We've teamed up with Community trade union to find out.

Join our Sam Richards and @samdumitriu.bsky.social, with @domarmstrong.bsky.social.

www.britainremade.co.uk/lunchtime_br...

What do the Scottish public think about the ban on new nuclear power? A deeper look at some Britain Remade polling

"What do the Scottish public think about the ban on new nuclear power?"

In my latest post, I take a deep dive into some recent @britainremade.bsky.social polling to look at attitudes to the Scottish Government's effective ban on new nuclear power:

normielisation.substack.com/p/what-do-th...

Front cover of Community Union and Britain Remade's joint report 'How to make planning reform work for workers' by Sam Dumitriu, Ben Hopkinson and Dominic Armstrong.

Britain’s planning system is broken, and working people are paying the price.

High bills. Low wages. Sky-high house prices and rents. A system built for blockers, not builders. It doesn’t have to be this way. 🧵

Cover of the essay Rediscovering British Progress available at https://britishprogress.org/articles/rediscovering-british-progress

💫 We’re launching the Centre for British Progress

Our founding essay: Rediscovering British Progress is a case for growth that drives shared progress, rooted in Britain's values and industrial heritage.

It all starts with a postcard from 1870 👇

britishprogress.org/articles/red...

There are good reasons why you can't compare Norway's tunnelling costs to ours, but this is comparing planning to tunnelling costs!

Welcome news, but worth remembering that the £300m spent on the planning application for the Lower Thames Crossing is more than it cost Norway to actually *build* the world’s longest road tunnel and the world’s deepest subsea tunnel.

Also thought that its attempt to hold together a large, diverse cast meant some characters slipped into being two dimensional ciphers

Enjoyed the ride of this, but it's a hell of a lot of "book" for a novel that doesn't quite stick it's landing.

Wild how the 'technology' of the alphabet we use in English has barely changed in 2 millennia

Revealed: How the UK tech secretary uses ChatGPT for policy advice New Scientist has used freedom of information laws to obtain the ChatGPT records of Peter Kyle, the UK's technology secretary, in what is believed to be a world-first use of such legislation

This feels like a terrible precedent to set to me?

www.newscientist.com/article/2472...

A truly remarkable story this

www.express.co.uk/news/politic...

Obviously the Canadian election hasn't actually happened yet, but this is yet another important datapoint against inevitability in electoral politics.

Me: *exists*
My 2 year old: "NO DADDY!"

Places in Europe that are smaller than Leeds but have trams.

2) The route to Reform winning (define winning as ending up as the definitive party of the right after GE29) is "easier" than it is for the Tories *right now* and it's in their hands whether they chuck it

I’m Worried About Reform You are still not taking Farage and co seriously enough

Think this v good piece has two important big insights:

1) Reform voters are functionally pre GE 2019 BXP voters. These people have already held their nose once for the tories and were phenomenally let down

open.substack.com/pub/marlowe1...

Going to Cambridge (without the kids) for a night on Saturday. What are some good things to do? Only ever been for assorted work things over the years

Why is building new nuclear power in Britain so expensive?

@samdumitriu.bsky.social explains why, and why it doesn't have to be. Part 1/2

A south London ICON

The FT reports that Sizewell C's price tag is likely to hit £40bn.

This would make it the 2nd most expensive nuclear power station in the world. (Hinkley Point C is the most.)

It doesn't need to be this way.

South Korea builds nuclear plants for one-sixth of the cost.

56) 56) Last Night A DJ Saved My Life- Brewster and Broughton