Curse of private equity Up to 150 ex-WHSmith stores to close as rescue deal approved. Substantial debts owed to creditors written off. Will have knock-on effects. Post offices housed within shops will go. Many towns/districts, missing bank branches, will have no post office or bank branch

This shadowy treaty on medicine imports will cost the NHS billions and take funding away from doctors, nurses, cancer scans and the rest. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Such voters don't actually care about Burnham's mandate or lack of it, they just think their preferred party would do better in an election so they want an election now. If you asked them "Do you want an election if Labour changes the Minister of Sprockets?" most would also say yes.

Is talk of 'trackless trams' an attempt to try to get passengers to think they're not on a bus? My chum won't ride buses as he thinks they're for poor people, but he wouldn't ride a tram, trackless or otherwise, either as to him all public transport is for poor people.

The real reason for promoting 'trackless trams' is the UK government won't/can't fund actual new tram systems. When applicants are effectively told 'ask for trams & you'll be refused' the promoters back cheaper/2nd rate trackless trams (known as buses) rather than get nothing.

Yep, it is. Liverpool City Region talks trackless trams too and is regularly ridiculed for it. Why not just call it a bus?!

A trackless tram is a bus

The Amos report confirms our worst fears: maternity services in England are fundamentally broken, and the cost of political neglect is being paid in trauma, injury, and lost lives. The recommendations must be implemented in full and without delay.

Hope Street. #liverpool #merseyside #blackandwhite #rain #hope #liverpoolcathedral @angiesliverpool.bsky.social @daveyph.bsky.social @yoliverpool.bsky.social @stratusimagery.bsky.social

This iconic Fabian Todorovic cartoon is still one of the best I’ve seen at illustrating the remarkable amount of space we surrender to cars, leaving little space left for everyone and everything else. The text added later makes the bonus point that many drivers still manage to complain about it.

Forcing people who have often already lost so much to try and start rebuilding their lives in significant debt helps nobody. It doesn't help "integration". It won't make much money in practice for the government. It is designed to punish people for seeking safety. #r4today

🏏What a great Test match at the real home of cricket Trent Bridge, Nottingham. 🏏New Zealand were the better team and deserved the match and series win. 🏏The pitch was well prepared and a credit to the Notts ground staff.

You make a very valid point. That the Coop Party has deferred to Labour who don't seem to give a damn about coops is bizarre indeed.

Humans should not be forced off pavements by delivery robots, but that's exactly what's happening. The people who pay the price are those with the least room to give it up.

Of all the idiotic and irresponsible ideas this government has come up with this must take the cake. A self selecting group of people massively undertrained and under prepared to evaluate what are often nuanced and complex situations for asylum appeals. www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Perversely, I think if people in other northern towns and cities get a sense that only Manchester and London matter – instead of, as now, feeling like only London matters – it will make them angrier, not the opposite. (Source: relatives scattered across said northern towns and cities)

A donation from the North West Meccano Guild to Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre (Merseyside UK) - A boxed 'Prima' set No.2. Introduced in the mid-1970's, aimed at children under 6, it wasn't particularly successful so sets don't pop up often. A big thank you to the North West Meccano Guild.

Mm, well it was Labour's biggest mistake, when they elected the wrong Miliband, as it effectively kick started many of their troubles.

But air conditioners are heat pumps! Modern (air-to-air) heat pumps are likely to have a reversing valve enabling them to both heat and cool, and they will likely use less climate-damaging refrigerants than older models, but the technology is the same!

I suspect they're not liberals!

Under this Labour Government the War on Disabled People has intensified and is relentless buff.ly/MhMpUpN This motion is about fairness, inclusion and solidarity @marisharay.bsky.social @unisontheunion.bsky.social @drjogrady.bsky.social @ucuequality.bsky.social @unitesharon.bsky.social @tuc.org.uk

Breaking News: Tories baulk at Tory policy.

One pound in every £11 of UK government spending on contractors went to private equity-controlled companies last year, research shows, including key services such as transport, waste management and healthcare

Oops...

🩷 Lady Penelope 🩷 The issue #24🧵 On sale 29 June 1966 This week: A splendid portrait of Parker is his boating “gear” from the tv episode “The Cham Cham” The see through dress 👀 The UK Top 10 coalesces around the iconic tracks released in recent weeks

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.”

This is a national scandal. It is so obvious that the only aim is to save build costs for developers. And deprive us of the benefits of shade and cheaper power generation. It’s not even a lack of vision it’s inimical dislike of progress and reduction in quick profits.

Probably the best example of a rapid bottom-up energy transition: Pakistan imported more Chinese solar last year than any country on earth. No big subsidy, no rooftop scheme, no feed-in tariff. Solar is now around a quarter of electricity. More in my piece👇 www.thenewworld.co.uk/jan-rosenow-...

interestingengineering.com/innovation/o... Bloody refugees inventing machines that can make fresh drinking water out of thin air! Coming over here and preventing millions of people from dying through want of something to drink. Potentially robbing our water companies of their massive profits!

The sums involved in the MPs expenses scandal were chicken feed compared to the Farage £5m. HIs reaction - mind your own business - suggests he may not be cut out for this democracy thing app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/73952/...

Scotland's Darcey Carter is the first player to reach 200 runs at this #T20WorldCup 💪

Labour decided a while ago that the truly responsible, grown-up way to govern is to make sure it doesn’t upset the Daily Mail and that not listening to the Daily Mail would be irresponsible and reckless. It’s insane.

There is no such rule, unwritten or otherwise. This is constitutionally and historically illiterate.

The Telegraph & other #ClimateChange deniers are comparing this heat wave to 1976 & deduct there's nothing to worry about. Below, the temperature chart for the UK 1884-2020. The isolated red bars on the left - that's isolated hot summers. On the right, that's climate change. Source below.

Burnham has been fortunate as Lord Peter Smith deserves the real credit for getting the 10 GM councils to work collaboratively. They used to be so sectarian but Smith changed that. Scouser Burnham inherited a working model for council cooperation, he didn't create it.

📸 Women should be able to enjoy a night out without being filmed & degraded online. I was due to meet the former Minister to discuss this form of online misogyny before she resigned. I'm pleased the new Minister has agreed to meet - victims cannot be left waiting because of political uncertainty.👇

Last night Reform and Tory MPs voted against efforts to stop climate change. Don’t Look Up, guys, whatever you do. votes.parliament.uk/votes/common...

Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre (Merseyside UK) has had a special guest visit from former Mayor of Maghull & Mayor of Sefton Borough Cliff Mainey. Cliff was also a fireman for Merseyside Fire Brigade prior to his retirement. #bsmuseums www.frankhornby.co.uk

Which part of UK has outperformed the rest since Brexit? Northern Ireland of course, as it has effectively stayed in the EU’s single market!

"NHS England has also... admitted that an assertion that only its staff had access to directly identifiable patient data was 'an error' and apologising for the confusion. "The admission... follows reports... that some Palantir staff had 'unlimited access' to identifiable patient information."

I have to say, it's making me feel a little insane hearing commentators say Ed Miliband shouldn't be chancellor because of his "ideological zeal" for Net Zero, in a week where temperatures are so extreme that my kids are being sent home early every day and it's regularly 30 degrees inside my house

Thank goodness he described Bandwagon Burnham as 'liberal' and not 'Liberal'; I can't be doin with politicians on my political right being described as 'Liberal':-) www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

It tells you everything you need to know about Kemi Badneoch and Nigel Farage that as London schools, hospitals and transport networks all buckle under extreme record-breaking temperatures, they gather with fossil fuel lobbyists, climate deniers and the far-right to demand an end to Net Zero

All the Reform nutters opposed expanding the ULEZ because they don’t like change. It’s helped cut deaths from air pollution by 40%.

Burnham’s new chief of staff was chief executive of lobbying firm Flint It’s like the British political elite is addicted to conflicts of interest www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Good use here by a local authority of its power to apply for injunctions. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Here's David Cameron in 2016 explaining that if we leave the EU we'll be economically worse off and so have less money for public services Here we are in 2026, worse off, and with less money for public services