Patrick Willcocks

Going to reconcile myself to the fact that the “cost of net zero” debate will always be annoying.

Mainly because:
a) net zero isn’t a discrete spending line (e.g., you mainly buy an EV for the car bit);
b) you need a counterfactual (what would it cost if we don’t do net zero?) and that’s hard

LTN'S slow up the emergency services... not.

This is today and I am on my way to it.
##freepalestine

Guess I was brought up to love cycling.

'A national project to turn the tide': Government unveils £15bn Warm Homes Plan Long-awaited plan aims to help millions of families to cut energy bills by installing solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and insulation

This will get massively overshadowed today and as ever the devil is in the detail, but is should be one of the best things Labour has done. It has the potential to improve the lives and finances of millions of people.
www.businessgreen.com/news/4524489...

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Much more apparent in London than other UK cities.

Zack Polanski: Tax wealth and cut inequality to make London better city Exclusive: Green Party leader hits out at Labour ‘attacks’ on him as parties gear up for the May local elections

London is an amazing city.

But the wealth divide is growing wider & wider with people really struggling to keep up.

I spoke to the London Standard 👇🏼

www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Arles 2025: staging radicality within safe limits? Is the art world willing to take real political risks, or does it perform radicality within safe limits? What to make of aesthetic gestures of dissent without institutional accountability and without ...

Just came across this article by Peter Watkins. @peterwatkins. I felt the same about #photolondon.
Arts organisations duck responsibility for highlighting the genocide in Gaza; it is left up to individual artists to speak out. Thanks #nangoldin

1000wordsmag.com/arles-2025-s...

So much this 👇

Tech companies’ access to UK ministers dwarfs that of child safety groups Exclusive: Amazon, Meta and X among firms holding hundreds of meetings with people at heart of government, data shows

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Not a surprise @teamlabouruk.bsky.social

It was always a witch hunt from the moment Keir Starmer took the Israeli's side.

Maccabi Tel Aviv - again In which our politicians sided with football hooligans and against police chiefs

As a resident of Birmingham, I would like to thank @rachelshabi.bsky.social for writing this balanced and clarifying piece about Birmingham's Macabi Tel Aviv fiasco.

As someone who worked in Local Government it was often the case that we had 5 people measuring and checking up on what we were doing as against one doing. Over centralised control was a factor but there are many at local level who feel a need for such oversight.

In a sane world, this would be front page news everywhere.
But it will hardly be covered anywhere.

The North Pacific Ocean surface warmed over twice as much over the past 15 years than it did over the preceding 156 years.

That's an increase in warming rate of >2000%!

This is excellent at illustrating the problem.

But then the solution can’t be “look harder”.

We’ve just seen that we will continue to miss things.

So instead it shows the need to design out conflict (eg cycle tracks, LTNs) so we aren’t relying for safety on what we know isn’t reliable.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide: "International law is universal and binding for all states. The American intervention in Venezuela is not in accordance with international law."

The US attack on Venezuela is an illegal act of aggression against a sovereign country (with lots of oil). Venezuela has become a more deeply repressive dictatorship & urgently needs democratic solution but this is unjustified & unjustifiable. Look forward to seeing swift UK Government condemnation.

Time for sanctions against Israel.

Israel attacking Lebanon every 4 hours on average: Research LONDON: Israel is attacking Lebanon at a rate equal to one strike every four hours despite the reaching of a ceasefire more than a year ago, new data has shown. ACLED, the independent conflict monitor...

Israel has bombed Lebanon once every 4 hours on average since a “ceasefire” took effect in late November 2024, according to ACLED, an independent conflict monitor.

Writings on the wall, folks.
The key global crops, wheat, rice & maize, are expected to see losses to pests increase by 46%, 19% & 31% respectively when #Globalheating reaches 2oC

The UK media’s silence on the Palestine Action activists’ hunger strikes is a deliberate editorial choice - Media@LSE LSE's Professor Bart Cammaerts discusses the lack of coverage of the hunger strikes of imprisoned Palestine Action activists in the UK media.

Something very dark is happening here.

Can Israel be thrown out of Horizon because of its genocide?

LTN'S work.

I stopped eating meat a few years ago and wish I’d done so sooner. Seeing the impact of poultry waste on the River Wye was a turning point for me. And of course, deforestation in the Amazon driven by cattle ranching and animal feed is another stark example.

New Israeli settlement in West Bank town near Bethlehem threatens the Christian presence in Palestine Israeli settler groups have begun bulldozing Palestinian lands in the town of Beit Sahour to make way for a new settler outpost. The settlement threatens the existence of the largest remaining…

Israeli settler groups have begun bulldozing Palestinian lands in the town of Beit Sahour to make way for a new settler outpost. The settlement threatens the existence of the largest remaining Christian community in the West Bank, residents say. mondoweiss.net/2025/12/new-...

Currently - Four Months in Gaza - BBC Sounds A raw and intimate perspective on the terror, anger, and hope of living through war.

Four months in Gava. Moving testimony.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

UK households cut spending at fastest pace in almost five years, says Barclays Bank reports 1.1% drop in card spending despite Black Friday boost for retailers

UK households cut spending at fastest pace in 5 years.

Average real wage stuck at 2008 level.

Energy, water, broadband, rents, grocery, dentist, vets prices rising at more than CPI.

Poorest 20% pay higher proportion of income in taxes than the richest 20%.

Can't rebuild without redistribution.

Fascinating approach to linking inequality to sector based inflation.

This is just truly one of the most successful urban policies of our lifetimes and we need to replicate it in every major city.