Nigel Bagshaw

🚗 UK Budget Response from Transform Scotland

Transform Scotland spokesperson, Emilia Lauder, welcomes the Chancellor’s baby steps toward fairer motoring taxes. The new mileage-based charge for EVs and long-overdue changes to fuel duty finally move us closer to a 'polluter pays' system.

Edinburgh must be bold on tram as we face the future Edinburgh must be bold on tram as we face the future

Politicians always have a choice: facing problems head-on and looking to the future or engaging in populism for short-term gain.
www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article...

Passengers on scenic ScotRail lines stuck with old diesel trains as greener power shelved Rural routes will be given hand-me-down ScotRail trains from other lines instead

Promise environmentally sound transport targets, abandon environmentally transport targets. Repeat.
www.scotsman.com/news/transpo...

This is shocking but not surprising. While private jets are the worst offenders, all flights are massively undertaxed.

£133 BILLION

Heathrow airport’s £33bn third runway plan chosen by government Scheme includes plan to move the M25 and could mean up to 760 more planes in the skies around London every day

Building the equivalent of the UK's second biggest airport right next to its largest?
Moving the M25?
Increasing noise pollution and air pollution for Londoners?

The UK faces many challenges. Heathrow expansion is not the answer to any of them - and is insanity in a climate crisis.

"Ukraine negotiations: How the Kremlin drafted a US peace plan: Who really wrote Donald Trump's 28-point plan? The core of the draft was explained to me by a source six months ago – it originated in Moscow."

North Sea exploration rules to be relaxed in new Labour plan The chancellor will unveil the North Sea Strategy in her Budget speech, the BBC understands.

Let's all be as green as the Labour Party - your future in their hands.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Trump’s 28 point ‘peace plan’ marks Europe’s last chance to stand up for Ukraine European national leaders have been too slow and cautious in their support for Kyiv. Can they rise to meet this defining moment?

For the sake of European security, Europe's leaders should agree to release Russia’s frozen assets for the support of Ukraine — and clearly state their willingness to defend Ukraine in the face of future Russian aggression.

Read Bronwen Maddox's latest analysis for Chatham House⤵️

Too big for our streets: the harms of SUV use in Scottish cities - Transform Scotland Professor of Transport & Health at Napier University, Dr Adrian Davis, writes for Transform Scotland. “SUVs are now one of the biggest emerging threats to road safety in Scottish cities.”...

🚦 It’s Road Safety Week, and like many of you, we’ve been thinking about what it feels like to move through our cities, whether that's walking kids to school, cycling to work, or just trying to cross the road.

The most on-the-money statement you’ll read today.

Here it’s the LibDems and the Tories.

Address "the needs of the people over the needs of luxury". #Bauhaus a 100 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Whenever you hear politicians say that to boost the economy they want ‘Deregulation,’ remember: that means they want ‘the loosening of rules made to protect the public’ — i.e. us.
And it means also that those politicians are acting for those whose pursuit of profit threatens us with harm.

‘If you put wings on it, it’s a plane.’

Ein historisches Foto aus den Nürnberger Prozessen zeigt mehrere angeklagte Männer mit Kopfhörern in einer Gerichtsszene, bewacht von Soldaten. Darunter steht ein eingeblendeter Text: „Scheint ein guter Tag zu sein, um alle daran zu erinnern, dass ‚Ich habe nur Befehle befolgt‘ bei den Nürnberger Prozessen als Verteidigung zurückgewiesen wurde.“ Oben rechts befindet sich das Logo „WEMEZE“.

Readers' letters: Trolleybuses are better than trams The disruption, cost and carbon dioxide generated by reopening Edinburgh's tram service after 66 years is not justified by the environmental gains, especially as not all the energy used to operate jou...

#Edinburgh Tram chestnut No 1: Trolley buses are a realistic alternative. No, they’re not. They simply do not provide the same capacity and are nowhere as efficient as metal wheels on metal rails.
www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Hammersmith Bridge Where did 25,000 vehicles go?

I really cannot recommend this excellent piece on Hammersmith Bridge highly enough

That I don’t know.

McKenna apart, they have some very good journalists - not that I’m supporting the awards tosh.

Some things a patriot does for free.

A council, one of whose members vocally declared it shouldn't pay a penny to the Edinburgh tram, wants £55 million for a climate-wrecking road. Makes as much sense as a sinking ship taking on ballast.
pentlandhouse.com/cbxpetition/...

More of a burden than a relief ... #InducedDemand

Meanwhile, in the civilized European world ...

Minister opens up speed limit on AVE trains - 350 kph Madrid - Barcelona in 2 hours Spain’s Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has announced an ambitious renovation plan for the high-speed rail line connecting Madrid and Barcelona, with the idea to cut the journey time to under two...

Not the sort of thing we aspire to in the UK.
euroweeklynews.com/2025/11/17/m...

... surprising that our moral leader, Charles III,
the Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
has neither apologised or paid reparations for
so much of royal wealth accruing from
the lethal abomination of
slavery and the slave trade

meme via The eloquent quirk

Climate change is no longer a threat of the future. It is a tragedy of the present. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Brazilian President

It appears the UK government is not taking any steps to investigate or help investigate Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

With Russia in Ukraine, the UK is giving millions to the ICC to investigate war crimes.

Some war crimes are more acceptable than others.

#DCUKparliament

And that applies as much to #Edinburgh as it does anywhere else.