Sky News, "Zack Polanski described it as an illegal strike.. When asked to condemn it Keir Starmer refused to do so"

This fact needs to be spread widely: Brits, get off twitter before you get arrested...

In news that should surprise no one…

Among dreadful climate news, some sunny news: 2025 was the sunniest year in records dating back to 1910, with 61.4 more hours of sunshine more than the previous record set in 2003. Over 6% of Britain’s annual energy requirements were met by solar this year = a more than 50% increase on recent years.

2025 was the warmest year on record for Central England in a dataset that starts in 1659. (Daily data available since 1772.) www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadce...

And a bonus - @londoncycling.bsky.social's annual Solstice Ride meet at Richmond Hill (this year with @croydoncyclists.bsky.social crew). Was there again on foot the other day - middle picture is 8:30pm in June, last one is the same view in December - at 4:25pm, a few days after Winter solstice.

Three days low-key bikepacking in North Norfolk (UK) with the 17yr old and friends. King's Lynn to Norwich via Wells-next-the-Sea, Sheringham, Cromer. Not especially big or clever but it doesn't have to be. Great weather and scenery, easy trip to organise at short notice, 50 miles/day give or take.

A little fun homebrew thread for NYE.. follow along 🍾 So among other things on the allotment, I've got grapes. Sauvignon blanc, to be precise. They've been in the ground six or seven years now, so starting to be reasonably productive...

It’s worth mentioning, though it’s been said repeatedly: the Lizzie Line carries 1/6th of UK daily rail passengers (not including the Tube) and has already paid off its entire costs. And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.

Well worth a watch. Some excellent things coming, but along with the usual suspects dragging their feet (RBKC...), a notable lack of progress in Wandsworth - a borough with all the right ingredients.

"Reed being let loose as a Christmas Day attack dog shows how worried Labour have become about Polanski and the Green Party,” Really awkward for Steve Reed that it just drew lots of attention to the unlawful hacking of a website! insidecroydon.com/2025/12/27/m...

Painted cycle lanes are the non-smoking sections of today's urban landscape. Both recognize a problem and the harms it causes, but are designed without the will or imagination required to implement a real solution.

A Christmas Day tale in 3 parts. 1) Steve Reed - Housing Minister - launches a Xmas Day attack. 2) It's the Labour Governments usual shit. 3) join.greenparty.org.uk Merry Xmas! www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exclus...

It is likely that 2025 will be the warmest year on record for the UK. Why does this matter? Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet, including the UK, causing heatwaves to get hotter. For Central England this is happening 2x faster than the mean change. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Greta Thunberg arrested for holding a sign opposing genocide. When peaceful protest is a crime, democracy is in deep trouble. Happening under a Labour Government.

Nonetheless I've always thought we should have an Erasmus-like scheme for people who weren't in education. Just take a checkout worker at Aldi in Plymouth and let them be a checkout worker at Aldi in Bruges for a year or something. Never does harm to let people see a bit of the world.

If your cost-benefit model tells you it isn't worth investing in a tram or light rail system for an urban area with a population of well over 1m, like Leeds-Bradford, your model is wrong and should be thrown in the bin.

These people should be nowhere near government, as I hope events across the Atlantic have sufficiently demonstrated.

"Goddamn tree-huggers, taking our votes!" "Boss, it appears the racists might have taken a few as well?" "I know, I know. Which is why we must appease them and win back their trust.." ".. and the same for the tree-huggers?" "ABSOLUTELY NOT EVER. Cut down every tree, leave not one newt alive."

In 1991 Mt Pinatubo spewed out 50 MILLION TONNES OF CO₂!! That's a ridiculously MASSIVE amount!

I always reflect on the response to the 'Rivers of Blood' speech. Powell expelled from the Tories, Wilson calling him evil. And yet Powells views were popular. His speech at the time was popular. Where is that spine now when these views have massively decreased in popularity?

Best description of the challenge of communicating the climate crisis I’ve ever read.

WHY ARE YOU ANNOYED THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO HAPPEN

Pictured below: terrorism. Grans sitting around with slogan t-shirts and cups of tea: Not terrorism. Whether or not you agree with their slogans: Not a factor.

Give a kid a calculator, and he'll use it to write 8008135. Give a kid a data centre with 3.5 exaFlops of state-of-the-art, lake-boiling GPU compute, and he'll.. yeah, much the same actually.

Really Sir Keir? "Watering down" protections against torture and inhumane treatment? On #HumanRightsDay?

Growth is the priority when it can be used for punching hippies, but appeasing racist pensioners is more important.

Normal?

Take #Treebybike 's name out of your mouth, slop merchants. Or I'm going to go ask ChatGPT why your burgers that look so nice in the bus adverts are so sad and depressing when you actually buy one.

Item 1 A highway that will cost billions, take 20 years and contribute to the destruc.....Approved! Item 2 A bike lane that will cost almost nothing, reduce traffic and align with our climate emerg...Do you have approval from every living and deceased resident in the city?

"I love the taste of boot leather. Especially in orange, it's the best! Indeed, people that don't like it make me really cross."

Labour are attacking Greens. Fine. I have yet to see any party that has entirely affordable aspirations. But at least the Greens HAVE aspirations. Labour have seemingly decided the status quo cannot be touched, even when it doesn't work for 90% of people, or the viability of life on the planet.

I'll accept the train being covered in ugly-ass flags if, in return, we get a country covered in trains.

"Hi, this is Green Party HQ. We need to order another eight-hundred.. no, make that twelve hundred vegan brownies. There's a queue of women outside going twice around the building. ASAP, yeah, thanks."

Latest from me: on overdiagnosis, a craze/bandwagon the govt is indulging by commissioning an official review, complete with the clunky blurring of mental illness & neurodivergence www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

July sunshine in a bottle. Was going to save this for the winter solstice, but today's weather was a case of "break glass in event of emergency..."

Pretty tired of the negativity and scorn directed at the Green Party, also by some here. Is every policy spot on perfect? Of course not; though I agree with more of theirs than I do other parties’. Don’t mock people for engaging, for having ideals, for refusing to play our flawed electoral system.

So, get things moving at a suitably urgent pace on climate, and rejoin the EU so youngsters have the freedom to work abroad...? Nope, didn't think so. 🤦🏻

(For context, I’m not an AI advocate; i just am very fluent in how working coders think, and it’s very different than tech tycoons and much more similar to writers and other creatives. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... )

Amazing how the money can be found to buy a few square miles of extra land and build a mile of runway on it, *and* reroute the M25 around it, but they can’t find the money for high speed rail projects which would largely obviate the need for more flights anyway.

I see the Infinite Growth on a Finite Planet lot are waving their Sensible Grown-Ups flags again. I don't really buy the MMT thing, but OTOH.. *third fucking runway*? So not a great interview for Zack Polanski - but the other two come across IMO as apologists for years of failure. No-score draw.

Just electrify the railways already you cowards

Zipcar is shutting down its UK operations, basically the only car club that worked in London. Massive kick to anyone who tries to live in capital without owning a car. Having been a customer for 17 years and used Zipvans to move house repeatedly, this is.... very bad! (Zipcar is owned by Avis)

I just don't need to know what the Telegraph has written about Dungeons & Dragons. It's a newspaper for people who are frightened of samosas.

state paternalism is good, actually - it's what the state is fucking *for*

To be clear, Jones is breaching the Green Party's code of conduct here. GPEW policy is now explicitly pro-HS2 and high speed rail, and at minimum she should state at much in her tweet.

Party of the Sensible Grown Ups™ having a normal one there.

Bit of #cycling good news from my lunchtime excursion. Southend Lane, probably the most dangerous junction on the Waterlink Way, finally got a push-button crossing. Thank you @willnorman.co.uk & others responsible! (Probably old news to you @rahario.bsky.social @lewishamcyclists.bsky.social ?)

Well worth a listen. Solid interview, solid responses. Particularly a fan of the section around 42:30 - GDP vs quality of life.