Helen H@Bluesomeh

It's amazing what evidence based policy can do.

The evidence that the 20mph limit is working fantastic from the point of view of saving lives and saving the taxpayer money in Wales is overwhelming.

You can be annoyed about it.

But you can't argue that it isn't doing what it was supposed to do.

Only Flans An exclusive look at Gregg Wallace's new £11.99 a month chatroom for middle-aged men

Only Flans
open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

Southern Water applies for permission to draw water from rare chalk stream Environment secretary urged to stop drought order that could damage the ecology of River Test in Hampshire

Southern Water applies for permission to draw water from rare chalk stream.

Macquarie controlled company loses 91m litres of water per day to leaks.

No new reservoirs built since 1989.

Dumped sewage for 300,000 hours into rivers.

Customer bills up 47% this year.

End fleecing. Nationalise water.

It ain't going away, no it ain't going away....

Labour MPs urge Thames Water to recover £2.5m paid to executives in April Exclusive: Letter to water company sets out demands, including resolving most severe cases of pollution

Labour MPs urge Thames Water to recover £2.5m bonus paid to executives in April.

TW has branded bonuses as 'retention payments'.

What is the point of urging TW? It knowingly circumvents rules.

OFWAT/Govt have failed to act.

End privatisation. Give customers a vote on exec pay.

More than fifty private schools shut since Labour put VAT on fees Department for Education defends ending tax breaks for independent institutions, after parents lost a legal battle at the High Court this year — view map

The headline here should say:

"Number of private schools increases by 35 - showing fears of an exodus to be unfounded".

(The increase is mentioned way down the article.)

www.thetimes.com/article/19ef...

💰 How much public wealth do you think was given away for free via Right to Buy? 

1bn? 10bn? 100bn? 

Try 200 BILLION pounds. 

🧵 Here's how Britain’s most infamous housing policy became its biggest housing disaster — and near the largest privatisation in British history.

BBC framing racist rioters as the victims here

Eating more ultra-processed food raises your risk of lung cancer A 12-year study of over 100,000 adults reveals that your grocery shop may be increasing your risk of lung cancer, even if you’ve never smoked. Study: Association between ultra-processed food consumption and lung cancer risk: a population-based cohort study. Image...

Eating more ultra-processed food raises your risk of lung cancer
->News-Medical | #Food | More info from EcoSearch

Justin Webb talking about immigration policy being "interfered with, to put it mildly, by judges".

What an impartial presenter would refer to is immigration policy coming up against the law.

#r4today

not at all clear to me. He couldn't have been clearer that he really doesn't care and nor do the majority of women.

A welcome return to form

Wise words (as always) from @iandunt.bsky.social

16% of the UK population was born overseas (21/22 census)
12% of UK prisoners were born overseas
Therefore people born overseas are less likely to be in jail than people born in the UK.
That should be the headline.

Great Britain National Insurance Fund Account for the year ended 31 March 2024

The National Insurance Fund Account has a surplus of £86.4bn.

Plenty of resources to increase pensions, benefits, compensate the 1950s women.

Govts raided it to fund NIC cuts for the rich, NIC holidays in freeports, and general tax cuts for the rich.

As new life is discovered mining companies are trying to ruin the ocean floor at lower depths to make a bit of money. These environments grow and reproduce exceptionally slowly.

Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker

“Dear God, please let me make it through." A frightened driver prays as she and her passenger drive through a flooded tunnel, after severe thunderstorms caused flash flooding around the Detroit Metro Airport on Monday.

Remember: Turn around, don't drown!

Fears of summer of riots intensify as online hate speech doubles. A year on from Southport attacks abusive posts are rife. Sanya Burgess reports online abuse against migrants doubled in the aftermath of the Southport attack. The day after the murder of three girls on 29 July last year marked the start of the worst riots in more than a decade. In the 12 months since, the number of abusive online comments against UK migrants has soared, according to data from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). Since July last year there have been almost three million abusive posts on X - more than double the 1.2 million recorded in the 12 months before the attack. While Southport coincided with one spike, abuse also seemed to increase in line with a march by the nationalist party Britain First earlier this year, and when the X owner Elon Musk made comments about grooming gangs last year: Southport's MP, Patrick Hurley, is deeply concerned about the impact abuse on social media is having on his constituents and the country. He is calling on regulators to crack down harder on sites like X. He and his team partnered with the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) to see how many "violent" posts would be removed from X if the comments were flagged to the site's safety team. They reported 100 such posts on 7 and 8 July this year but claim just three were removed. Hurley believes the speed with which people can post abuse without taking the time to reflect on their words is a significant problem. He said: "[It] is definitely damaging for public discourse and there is growing evidence that it is damaging for the maintenance of a cohesive society." He said the platform "is not even attempting to mitigate the issues, and seems in the business of actively promoting violent threats and content designed to lead to civil unrest. Without adequate enforcement from regulators, this is unlikely to change. It's high time enforcement was stepped up."

Any debate about online safety needs to include X.
And why our govt and most of our politicians are still on it.
It’s a hellpit of radicalisation, disinformation and abuse. Too many politicians see it as a focus group to inform policy rather than a dangerous cult that threatens us all.
(i Paper)

NEW: Inside the race for AI capacity.
The quest for superintelligence is spurring a data centre boom — but critics question the cost, environmental impact and whether it is all needed.
ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

Janan Ganesh has done a better “Britain’s not broken” than anyone www.ft.com/content/c34f...

Rasmus Jarlov on Twitter writes: "There is nothing to celebrate. Moving from average tariffs of less than 2% on trade between the USA and Europe to 15% under today’s deal will inevitably lead to inflation. Almost everything will become more expensive in both Europe and the USA, and we will all be worse off. The economic illiteracy in the White House is doing serious damage to the West." Stylish Skunk replies: "I have a feeling you have 0 idea what you're talking about. In fact I know you do." Rasmus Jarlov responds: "Of course. I am former minister of trade in Denmark and you are an anonymous Twitter profile. You probably know a lot more than me. For sure."

lol

Ask Nigel A new advice column from Britain's leading fascist Nigel Farage, taking a reactionary approach to life's puzzles and grey areas

Ask Nigel
open.substack.com/pub/mrhenrym...

BBC Radio is unbearable.

I’ve not listened in years - but just now parents had it on. First BBC discussed starvation in Gaza with the repeated phrase “the Hamas-run Health Ministry”.

Then interviewed a random Scot who played golf with Trump 11 years ago, about Trump’s golfing.

England’s farmers to get new payments for cleaning up waterways Environment secretary says Defra will be launching changes to post-Brexit scheme for sustainable farming

This is welcome but curious as to why Steve Reed thinks he needs to loosen planning restrictions on agricultural reservoirs. There are already very generous permitted development rights for these - no planning permission required.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is epic, Greenpeace made a huge protest artwork next to Trump’s golf course.

www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/huge-pr...

So Donald Trump, President of The United States is allegedly on The Epstein List.
This totally SHOCKED me.
Never in a million years did I think Donald Trump was a member of The Beatles.
😳

Tomorrow's front page 📰

Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland

Stop Trump Scotland protest details – 26 July Stop Trump Coalition

Trump is about to touch down in Scotland – and we are ready.

Protests have been called for Aberdeen, Edinburgh and now Dumfries. More may be added:

stoptrump.org.uk/stop-trump-s...

Not for the first time I am begging angry people to put the phone down, walk through actual streets, go to actual pubs, stand on the touch line at local sports clubs, browse Saturday markets, chat with ramblers on footpaths and rediscover beauty & contentedness.