They told us that we had to leave the EU to take back control of our borders…that was a lie Now they tell us that we must leave the ECHR to take back control of our borders…that is a lie

First. Enact PR ! Second An elected. second Chamber ! Third A written constitution requiring a two thirds majority in each chamber. Fourth Press Regulation! Not necessarily in that order. #PR #FairVotes #Leveson #Ofcom #LordsElection

Nescio Bridge in Amsterdam allows people to cycle over the Amsterdam-Rhine canal to the new housing distrcit IJburg. It cost €16.5m and was designed by British architects. The garden bridge in London cost £43m and was never built. The Thames cable car cost £60m. Silvertown tunnel was £2.2 billion.

Newcastle gets £50m to tackle potholes but needs more - BBC News share.google/CN79OpAkHTgV... I think I've found most of the 50 potholes they claim to be "fixing" each day. There's 30 on this one patch on the slip road off the Central Motorway alone 🤣

Driving didn’t “naturally” become inevitable. We designed a society that make driving inevitable in most places. We can design something different

One of these shop units at St Ann's is available to rent. The Council Property Team don't seem to want to let you know. There's no "To Let" board, on the shop front, nor on the busy road. They're relying on interested parties finding the details on page 33. www.newcastle.gov.uk/sites/defaul...

The Labour Cabinet have confirmed they'll ignore the vote at Newcastle City Council, and proceed with the contract to burn waste at Teesside. It's not a magic bullet though: Incinerator electricity generation below capacity 'for months' - BBC News share.google/iG4ofKmfBPnG...

St Binibus. The Arles monk who (only once) forgot to take out the bins. Here in dispair, he is immortalised for ever.

Great work being done by Lib Dem councils across the country.

Hmm. They could call it the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation, might save time designing a logo and printing stationary. More seriously, does the Mayor think she can deliver more, by setting up a new thing, from scratch, head hunting staff from Local Councils, than by empowering the existing?

Anti-racist demonstrators blocking Tommy Robinson’s fascists from marching through the centre of Newcastle - successfully so far But being kettled and apparently the police are agreeing an alternative route for the far right

It's not difficult.

How is this not front page news? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Accessibility Denied. Developed for Steven Hardy-Braz (pictured) who does work in the accessibility space.

www.bbc.com/news/article... (From Mastodon): You know your plan is garbage when Alliance, DUP, UUP, SDLP, and Sinn Féin are all on the same side. With one fell swoop, Keir Starmer unified Northern Ireland (against his BritCard).

Is it "move to Dubai"?

Excuse number 454 on the Clacton Property Farage now claiming he didn’t want his name on the electoral register on the Clacton home he claimed he owned for security reasons? You can opt out on the electoral register, so that your details are not shown publicly? Anyone going to challenge him?

🚨 This is serious. Ex Reform UK leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, 52, pleads guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament when serving as a UKIP MEP.

All credit to the journalists from the @chroniclelive.co.uk for managing to simultaneously frame this as somehow being the metro's fault while not making any mention of a driver whatsoever. Self driving cars, ignoring the flashing lights and sirens and hitting the Metro train. #AbsentDriver

Another morning on the Number 1. Despite @kimmcguinness.bsky.social using Bus Service Improvement Plan money to subsidise a 7 minute headway from a private company, the bus is still held up by drivers in private cars. The 08.25 was ten minutes late. And absolutely packed not a seat on the bus.

UK household energy debt hits £4.43bn. 1,133,683 electricity, 926,545 gas customers in debt. Since 2020 top 20 energy companies made £514bn operating profit, causing inflation/poverty. 128,000 people a year die in fuel poverty. Profiteering causes social problems. Regulators do nothing.

Another great evening at the Active Travel Forum last night. Loads of people trying really hard, despite the lack of infrastructure. Nearly all the barriers and challenges discussed go away with good infrastructure. But there's no clear plan as to how the forum can influence the Movement Strategy

#NorthernPowerhouseRail announcement delayed… when the thing holding the economy back outside London is the difficulty of getting around. Does HMG actually have a clue what it’s doing?

Sir Keir Starmer has no plans to attend the UN COP30 summit in Brazil in November, despite having branded Rishi Sunak’s absence from the world’s top climate conference a “failure of leadership” just a few years ago.  www.ft.com/content/5f8f...

So there's money for a second runway at Gatwick (high emissions) but not for better trains (low emissions). In a climate emergency. Make it make sense!

Mandate car helmets now. 🙃

Lolz. Note to correspondents: on UN escalators | United Nations Secretary-General share.google/zAekaP0eiH0O...

Someone had to say it

If you are fed up with the two old parties letting you down. If you are scared of the rise of racism and extremism. If you believe in decency, tolerance and the rule of law. Join us. Because we believe in the British people. We love our country. And together, we can change it for good.

Trudeau named not reforming the voting system as his big regret. Starmer shouldn't repeat his mistake. The stakes are now much higher than just who wins the next election. When there's such a disconnect between how people vote and who wins seats, trust in democracy is at risk.

statistic of the day

Donald Trump announces that paracetamol can be very effective for treating outbreaks of people discussing the Epstein files.

There are 4.24m people with Indefinite Leave to Remain (or equivalent). 82% are in work, compared with 74% of Britons 3.8m are in relationships with Britons They have about 2.4m British-born children. This bullshit is never going to happen. Again. But... www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Ed Davey, "I'm afraid Nigel Farage should be apologising for helping cause this problem in the first place" "Before Brexit we didn't have a small boats problem because we had 27 return agreements with EU countries and we could return people" -Maybe we should call them Farage's Brexit Boats

Imagine you're walking down the street, right now. Trump / Farage's ICE goons pull up next to you in an unmarked SUV. They're wearing a uniform of sorts, but no ID badges, no police numbers, and their faces are covered. They start questioning your right to remain in the UK. Cont.

No written Constitution. No Proportional Representation...!! What could go wrong??? #libdems have been warning of this for decades !! #Labour refuse to act, zilch because they want absolute power and damn the consequences!!

Anyone shocked that Reform plan to deport immigrants with Indefinite Leave to Remain hasn’t been paying attention. Next it will be stripping citizenship from dual citizens, then deporting them. Who do you think Reform are? This. This is who they are.

It's #CarFreeNewcastle day today. There's a website and a series of events planned: Car Free Day – Leave the car, love the city. share.google/dADmQ3BJAWWJ... Unfortunately it's all a bit more "in hope" than "in expectation". There's no new bike lane to launch / open, nothing to enable (IMHO)

A shitty decision, & the govt knows it, that's why they snuck it out on Sunday night hoping Starmer's controversial Palestine statement will monopolise Monday's news roundup. 110,000 additional flights per year on top of the extra 276,000 additional flights at Heathrow. #ClimateCrisis #Gatwick

It's almost as though wasting a year consulting and then writing a "Movement Strategy" might have been a stalling tactic. Wonder how long we'll have to wait for a delivery plan. On the upside, Newcastle gets £750k for (not) School Streets. Cont.

Always worth reading behind the headlines. I'm supportive of the Northumberland Line project, but it's massively over budget and late. And the money is only available because other projects are also running late. There's a massive issue with capacity to deliver projects in the North East.

a) Labour rules against dozens of motions about Palestine being debated at party conference b) The Lib Dems have declared that a genocide is taking place c) Resign your Labour 🥀 party membership d) Join the Lib Dems 🔶 libdems.my.salesforce-sites.com/LiberalDemoc...

Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.

Reform UK’s Darren Grimes chooses naive headline grabbing dogma over sanity. Durham Reform have scrapped a scheme that would have saved £77,000 per year. Reform UK removes Durham council solar panel building scheme

Interesting development here. Now the Council has accepted handover from the Contractor, the Council will be responsible for rates, utilities, maintenance and security. Big costs on a building this size. My prediction is that this will be loss making for years until (or if) the Sage opens. Cont.

And here's me thinking that Crafty and his mates were going to fix all this? Is the reality a bit more difficult than they thought? Are they ever going to be able to deliver any of the things they promised?

An actual quote from the Secretary of State for Business and Trade Too often people go to university to ‘explore research and knowledge’ Look forward to Wes S saying 'too often people go to hospital to have operations' or Heidi Alexander saying 'too often people go to the station to catch a train'

What we call things reveals a lot about our priorities and biases. Graphic via @reenamahajan.bsky.social