Will Bramhill

🇬🇧 🇺🇸 WATCH — @mrjamesob.bsky.social: “I’m going to say this slowly… The President of The United States of America has sided with Putin against the United Kingdom. He has put the whole of Europe in the crosshairs.”

Active travel groups call for clear targets on walking and cycling in England Exclusive: Groups including British Cycling call for active travel strategy to be put on equal footing with road and rail

Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3 (CWIS3) Dear Secretary of State, Active travel directly advances all five of the Government’s missions — improving health, creating opportunity, delivering safer streets, driving economic growth and meeting our decarbonisation commitments. To realise this potential, the forthcoming Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3 (CWIS3) must move from good intentions to a clear, long-term, fully deliverable national plan comparable to other strategic transport programmes. Currently, CWIS3’s proposed objectives, “ensuring people are safe to travel actively” and “ensuring people feel it is an easy choice”, are open to interpretation and not measurable.

List of signatories

NEW: 50+ transport and health groups have written to the Government calling for clear targets in the upcoming Cycling & Walking Investment Strategy 3, as well as a comprehensive plan for a national active travel network, matching the long-term strategic focus given to roads.

Probably right though. Starmer is merely being pragmatic and Khan will understand that.

Never in the forefront but it is ahead of others in (usually) using metric. The exception is miles. Even I don’t use km unless I’m cycling!

The US is decaying socially but we are at risk of decaying economically by being unable to follow America and China’s technical advances at the same warp speed. Being third, fourth or fifth in that race will lead to social decay.

The Times dropped chairman and chairwoman a year ago, it’s now just chair.

Maybe they’re going to hang it on a lamppost?

Now compare that spending with just one scheme: the Lower Thames Crossing.

We could do with more money for cycling and walking. Pathetic £600m announced. Boris did far better. Does Rachel want people to switch to Greens?

“Zig zag lines, parallel crossing, I have no idea what any of it means”: Cyclists call for “regular compulsory retests” for motorists after driver filmed ignoring bike crossing + more on the live blog After finally (and rather reluctantly) putting his Christmas tree up at the weekend, road.cc’s resident Grinch Ryan is back enjoying his own version of some proper festive fun: droning on about cyclin...

This is why we need yearly theory tests covering changes to the highway code for all drivers when renewing tax or insurance, and 5 or 10 year practical retests.
If a car needs a yearly checkup to ensure it's fit for the road, then so does the driver.
road.cc/content/news...

Screencap of tweet by Jakub Wiech: "Hi, I'm from Poland, and I recently read in the US National Security Strategy about Europe's supposed "civilizational erasure." So I'd like to tell you a bit about European civilization. We have a more modest GDP, yet we still run a trade surplus with the United States, employ 2.5 times more industrial workers, have a higher export share in GDP, and maintain lower income inequality. We don't have a heavily privatized healthcare system, yet our life expectancy at birth is about three years higher, and infant mortality is nearly half that of the US. We don't have universal and unconditional access to firearms, yet European cities are far safer: we have clearly lower rates of homicide, violent crime, and car theft. We don't design our entire spatial order around a single mode of transport; instead, we build transport systems with a strong role for public transit, including rail. We don't have tech giants pumping up stock-market valuations, but we do equip ordinary workers with things like paid monthly vacations, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, and contracts that prevent sudden dismissal. So let's ask ourselves: which of these things truly reflects the kind of civilization we want to pursue? PS In the photo I'm sitting and waiting for some delicious food, did I mention that Europe is superior in this as well, because we have regulations that limit the use of harmful food additives?" 20:46 07 Dec 25

Response to the ongoing attack by the US administration on the EU and European values/lifestyle in general...

Ethical pushback like this needs to continue.

Come over to Britain to do science. We’ll have him.

So we get 5% of the cost of the Lower Thames Crossing, spread over entire country. Gee, thanks, Rachel Reeves. All those people who drive from Essex to work at Bluewater and from Kent to work at Lakeside must love you.

The same MSM widely blowing smoke up Farage’s arse are precisely the same ones coming for Labour with everything they’ve got - because this is the most progressive government we’ve had in generations. And they are delivering. This terrifies the right: With. Everything. They’ve. Got.

Active travel groups call for clear targets on walking and cycling in England Exclusive: Groups including British Cycling call for active travel strategy to be put on equal footing with road and rail

‘A DfT spokesperson said: “We have committed £616m to Active Travel England up to 2030’ - a pretty paltry sum.

www.the guardian.com/politics/2025/dec/07/active-travel-groups-call-for-clear-targets-on-walking-and-cycling-in-england

That last sentence is most telling. It will be interesting to see what happens to highways under local government reorganisation. There's talk of Colchester/Braintree/Tendring taking it on but I don't think they have strength in depth - which will lead to duplication and higher cost for taxpayers.

Nigel Farage given standing ovation at German far-right AfD election rally The former UKIP leader says the key poll challengers are refusing to discuss Brexit as it is a "huge embarrassment" to the EU.

I mean, we only have to look back a few years to understand why Farage won’t apologise for his Neo Nazi school days

Nigel Farage given standing ovation at German far-right AfD election rally in 2017

news.sky.com/story/farage...

This morning High St was shut for Xmas market and drivers were cruising Head Street/North Hill looking to park free of charge but blocking the buses at the same time. North Hill parking should be banned when High St is shut.

Shamina Begum must be held accountable for her actions when she was 15. Whereas I should not, because I was a mere child.

Colchester High Street showing restriction plate that no car driver takes any notice of.

Colchester centre gets choked with cars because drivers take no notice of "except for access" signs. What options are open to Essex Highways? How else could they limit private car traffic? Is booking via ANPR a possibility? @adamtranter.bsky.social @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social @willnorman.co.uk

We wanted somewhere smaller and opted to stay in Bayeux -- which was lovely. Be aware though that the Bayeux Tapestry will be in England sometime soon. The tour of the town is a must.

We hardly use our car at home here in the UK but even we hired a car to use over there.

Proud to support a Party who are making serious inroads into child poverty. Who gave us Hillsborough Law. Who protect the rights of renters and workers. Who help families with childcare and who are raising the Minimum wage yet again.

They’re worried about Starmer. He’s a winner

The Wheels Are Falling off the Nigel Farage Project The Reform leader's increasingly rattled public appearances betray a growing sense that the opportunity of a lifetime could be about to slip from his fingers

The Reform leader's increasingly rattled public appearances betray a growing sense that the opportunity of a lifetime could be about to slip from his fingers.

Why the wheels could be about to fall off the Farage project

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-wheels...

Book on edge of bin

Here’s a first: my wife actually threw a book in the bin. It was Portrait of a Murderer from the 1930s repubbed in 2017, which she says was a cracking Christmas mystery except for some sickening, casual antisemitism. “I wouldn’t want anyone else to read it,” she said.

‘A bike is more than transport. It puts safety in my own hands’ On the winding roads of rural Kenya, World Bicycle Relief offers a route out of poverty for farmers who would otherwise have to pay for hazardous motorbike trips

Bicycles change lives

www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...

Graphic showing good November economic performance of Labour government

Ecosia - The search engine that plants trees - Chrome Web Store This extension sets your search engine to Ecosia and customizes your new tab page so you can plant trees with every search.

Join me now: ecosia.co/join

YouTube video by Ecosia We Tried a Different Reforestation Method — With Incredible Results

This is why I use the Ecosia search engine day to day. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqh2...