Paul M 🇮🇪🇨🇦🇫🇷🇵🇸🚲🐟

We can’t lose focus on what matters – right now, Republicans in Texas are trying to gerrymander district lines to unfairly win five seats in next year’s midterm elections. This is a power grab that undermines our democracy.

Funny - I thought the Pyramids were in Egypt. I hadn’t realised they’d been moved to Dubai.
I suppose they can afford to though.

Well, and terrifyingly, said.

Apt words for a country like ours today.

FPTP has been Labour’s “friend” for about one year in every three since it was founded a little over a century ago.

No logic?
Shurely shome mishtake!

Ireland is a yuge exporter of pharmaceuticals and pharma feedstocks, and of medical devices eg stents and contact lenses. IIRC 90% of one or other of those worldwide is made in Cork.

A day after the allotment society itself stepped forward to almost entirely debunk it. Is there a single NIMBY cause they won’t attach themselves to? We’ve yet to find it!

Philadelphia can choose to lead on public transit — or be the first domino to fall | Opinion What we see in cities around the globe is that transit is not just a service; it’s a core strategy for economic prosperity, environmental resilience, and quality of life.

OPINION: "The choices made today could determine whether Philadelphia becomes a national model for sustainable urban mobility — or a case study marking a heartbreaking collapse of public transportation in one of America’s great cities." — Sylvie Gallier Howard and Maurice Jones

Handy meme, this 👇

When traffic flow is more or less continuous, the same number of drivers are going to wait briefly when the lights change. So why not have lights change immediately? Why does it matter which specific drivers are the ones waiting?

Um - a company that Musk has a substantial but nevertheless minority interest in tanks *because of his association with it* and the reward him? You’d think the stock would rise if they fired him!

This is no more a story than if Mr Kipling had warned we were in danger of not eating enough cake

To quote the late great Dorothy Parker, "how can they tell?"

Lord Dannatt urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at request of US firm Police officer was concerned ex-army chief, a Teledyne adviser, sought to have ‘input’ into factory attack investigation

Another deeply concerning allegation, the latest in a long line of apparent commercial and political lobbying against protest movements, some of which has led to the extremely repressive legislation we now face.
Powerful lobbyists are the bane of democracy.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Guardian view on water boss’s undisclosed bonus: Labour won’t fix a system it won’t confront Despite tough talk on sewage and pay, ministers refuse to challenge the water industry’s broken model – leaving private capital in charge of a troubled public service

“Most countries retain public ownership, recognising water as a public good, not a commodity. The idea that better people could fix the system is a fantasy – decades of extraction, debt-loading and dividend grabs show the model itself is broken” 👍
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sign that says diverted cyclists obscured by a lampost and parked van

Nobody's gonna see this sign btw x

Whoever that was, I'd already blocked him so can't see the pearls he's cast.

Sharp corrective to the usual takes on how Trump has "won" by imposing tariffs. www.ft.com/content/6791...

Ah……

Seems to be conflating two different things - the Connolly sentencing, which strikes me as fair, and in any case she had freely accepted the risk of jail in deciding her defence tactics, and someone else’s remarks on it. Not sure there’s enough info there, but did it really merit sacking?

When HMRC ran a consultation on motoring taxes some years ago I wrote in suggesting among other things (a) increase fuel duty & (b) make IPT a form of VAT for car insurers so they could recover VAT on repair bills and reduce overall premium costs, ie to increase tax per-mile and reduce standing tax.

And:
3. are Jaffa Cakes bad for your teeth?

🎶See the pyramids along the Nile🎶

Another really lethal place was the Holborn Gyratory around Theobalds Rd, Procter St etc - scene of several mass protests over the years - so I’m pleased to see something finally being done about it.

I gather bridges are (were?) among most dangerous places for cyclists, because slow moving traffic got the chance at a couple hundred yards of speeding - to the next red light - on them. Hence they were among the first places to have 20mph limits imposed.

We used to have regular Critical Mass rides, “die-ins” outside Palestra on Blackfriars Bridge Rd, protests about the removal of ped crossings outside Blackfriars Station etc.

I personally caught three left-hooks from cabs amber-gambling the lights on the north side to turn left onto the Embankment. Third one put me in hospital with a shoulder injury. CS6 fixed that - the left turn disappeared, the bike lane went fully protected and bi-directional.

I only started cycling to work (from Waterloo) after the earlier protected lane came in, in response to the death of Vicky McCreery circa 2005. Before then, the bike lane was a meat sandwich between two fast moving motor lanes, with buses and other traffic lane-switching at speed.