Joe

This website is a cess pit as it convinces itself that Labour is literally fascist because they don’t have an open borders policy. If you can’t distinguish Labour from Farage then you’re just an idiot, sorry.

Reminder that Rachel Reeves increased NHS funding (via NIC hikes) to a greater extent than Corbyn planned to. The activist left runs purely on vibes

Lots to criticise on Labour but Starmer is standing by Zelenskyy in DC while Reform is on TalkTV saying Ukraine should accept Russian occupation.

Bluesky is extremely weird when it comes to LLM and completely out of step with the general population

Energy in Britain has gotten scarce—and thus expensive.

Prices are high in absolute terms, and further above the European average than any point in at least 40 years (barring the 22/23 shock).

What's behind this, and is it crimping growth? I took a look for @economist.com. (🧵)

Why did I check the quote tweets on this? I knew they were going to depress me, just wall to wall people who are going to be poorer than they should be in old age who think that “invest more in stocks and shares ISAs” is some kind of spiv’s charter and not, you know, important advice.

Martin Lewis and its consequences have been a disaster for the British saver

As much as I think Reeves isn’t up for the job, and that Labour could do with a reset, the public and the media once again desire the impossible

According to them you must *never* raise taxes and *never* cut welfare whilst miraculously wishing the national debt falls to zero. Fantasy economics

So there you have the first problem.
Cut spending - PLP won’t wear it.
Increase borrowing - the gilt market pushes back.
You’re left with, raise taxes - break a manifesto pledge.
Option 3 likely the least painful.

I don’t disagree with any of that, but the numbers of claimants have sky rocketed in the last few years, particularly young people claiming for mental health. I think there’s more to the numbers than meets the eye

I totally understand the pushback from Labour MPs - cutting disability benefits is not a good look, and could cause real harm

But it’s essential that we reckon with the ever rising levels of sickness in society, and if that’s the case, how do we fund it

Funny how George’s idea of democracy ends up with rich villages in Buckinghamshire throttling economic growth for the north.

Naturally George is against the government’s planning & infrastructure bill, which would make it easier & cheaper to build

Thousands of people on the edge of the Seine in Paris.

Thousands of people on the edge of the Seine in Paris.

Thousands of people on the edge of the Seine in Paris.

Thousands of people on the edge of the Seine in Paris.

Fête de la Musique in Paris, aka Music Day, is today. There’s literally music everywhere. The whole city is public life. Including on the edge of the Seine, in a space that used to be a highway for cars. #MusicDay #ParisPlage

We can fit a lot into cities when we rethink cars.

River edge FILLED with people

River edge FILLED with people

River edge FILLED with people

River edge FILLED with people

Sadly, the now-famous summer activation of the former highway for cars running alone the Seine River in Paris, transforming it into a vibrant and popular people-place, doesn’t start for another two weeks.

So this is all that’s going on.

Yes, I’m being sarcastic.
#ParisPlage

The other is how vastly superior the public transport is compared to equivalent British cities.

Lyon is similar in size to Manc/Brum and has 4 metro and 6 tube lines

Montpellier is similar size to Stoke and has 5 tram lines

We could have it sooooo much better

Back from my Tour de France via high-speed train, to Paris, Lyon and Montpellier, and two things stood out:

One is the number of young people out and about in all the cities, with cafes and bars busier and open later than London in particular

Louise Casey explains why she changed her mind on a national inquiry.

"I felt more and more frustrated and I thought 'well, sod this', frankly. These are victims and we need to do right by them. If that takes a statutory inquiry, I'm going to go and get one for these girls." ~AA

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper Announces Law Changes In Response To Grooming Gangs Report Home Secretary Yvette Cooper apologised to child victims of grooming gangs and announced changes to the law in response to a report into the scanda...

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper apologised to child victims of grooming gangs and announced changes to the law in response to Baroness Casey's "damning" report into the scandal

She said the new national inquiry into the crimes is expected to take around 3 years

@zoecrowther.bsky.social reports

Been thoroughly enjoying ‘Abundance’ as my one of my reads for this holiday. It’s a real call to arms and could be a basis for a new kind of liberalism for the 2020s

I completely understand the scepticism towards LLMs, and the critique of the tech-bros, but ultimately they are an interesting technology, and they’ll likely become useful tools. Where did this moral revulsion towards them come from?

It is tho

£15 billion of public transport investment across the north and midlands is actually fantastic news

I wonder if this will sway Bluesky away from thinking Labour are Tory-lite…I suspect not

Reminded of this:

An Amsterdam street packed with colourful cars in gridlock in the 1970s.

Remember this picture, & others like it, every time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam."

This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s.

Many of the cities we admire made better choices regarding cars in the past. and are still making better choices today.

Better choices instead of excuses.