Zipcar's UK closure is devastating loss to shared economy, and to those of us who used it to avoid ever owning a car. UK's low VED (annual car tax), hidden subsidies for residential parking and TfL's ambivalence to car sharing all take share of blame. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Our information space is dominated by a system that demands and rewards continous and immediate emotional gratification, so you can't even begin to have a discussion about complex issues. It's a bright cancer that spreads and multiplies with every interaction.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

We're only just learning that Ultra Processed Foods harm all human organs: how long to work out full costs of AI? "AI could be for human relationships what junk food is to nourishment" observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

The deeper problem isn’t just misinformation, its the collapse of shared verification environments and the rise of influencer-led moral-epistemic systems that feel more authentic than institutions.

Here is Trump's full 28 point plan for Ukraine. It would destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state and leave it helpless to face a Russian attack in the future. It would also give Putin full vindication and immunity from prosecution. www.axios.com/2025/11/20/t...

Was Indonesia moving its capital the first climate migration at the state level? Pretty wild that we’re already at the point of multiple governments moving due to climate conditions making their capitals unlivable. #COP30

Is Oxford Street pedestrianisation a missed opportunity to cut car use and improve cycling in surrounding streets? Despite Mayor Khan's rhetoric for a greener and cleaner London, the proposals have "no material effect on air quality" and cut CO2 by just 2%. haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/oxford-stree...

I've tried to argue why I think the cut to affordable housing targets in London is a really terrible idea in a considered, rather than shouty, way here. A clumsy patching up of a broken status quo: open.substack.com/pub/peteapps...

Residential cycle parking standards in London are being slashed, as Labour's war on blockers to new housing takes an unexpected turn. This deregulation was justified by the rise in e-scooters & dockless bikes. But planning rules don't yet require making space for them. www.gov.uk/government/n...

First offsetting was found wanting, now CCS. What will they come up with next to avoid cleaning up emissions? Carbon Capture & Storage has less than 4% of the potential previously assumed says new study. on.ft.com/4nigq4Z

This is a real photograph of Washington, DC this week, where the United States president has ordered military occupation in peacetime, and ordered the display of colossal portraits of himself. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Insightful & important reporting by @carltonreid.com Surely begs another question: whether sharing footage of what are now decriminalised traffic & parking contraventions is lawful? These are now enforced by councils rathern than the police.

A number of politicians, "news" outlets and social media influencers have been actively trying to promote violent protest and an assault on law and order. We shouldn't be complacent - they'll keep pouring petrol & lighting matches - but so far they have singularly failed. That's a good news story.

It is very hard to see how the UK government can sign this statement, which makes it absolutely clear that it recognises that Israel is committing - as a matter of state policy - deliberate and systematic war crimes, without at a minimum cutting all military cooperation with Israel.

Good statement that makes clear Israel is deliberately massacring starving civilians. "We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. " www.gov.uk/government/n...

“If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.” RIP, Joanna R. Macy (May 2, 1929 – July 19, 2025)

Another 1990s revival! In the depths of today's Devolution Bill, Mayors in England are to be given a duty to consider setting traffic reduction targets for key routes. This is resuscitates the Road Traffic Reduction Act 1997: its congestion & climate aims are surely more relevant than ever.

Well you can't say England won't fund rail electrification. Today's DfT announcement lists the "electrification of the Midland Main Line between Kettering and Wigston". Except that went live a year ago ⚡🚄😳 www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/power-l... As bad as Tory Network North debacle?

With obesity now costing the UK £126bn a year, how ambitious is the new 10 year health plan on physical activity? - an annual city of physical activity competition, modelled on UK city of culture - "identify simple changes" to boost active travel that can be shared as best practice And that's it?

Coming same day as figures showing obesity now has £126 billion annual cost to UK economy, this statement by mayors (inc one from Reform) on physically active travel is hugely positive. www.gov.uk/government/p... Hope to see more details and funding soon.

"Opposition leader Keir Starmer" Freudian slip in today's Standard, as time runs out for PM after welfare vote debacle?

While a great idea in theory, let's not lose sight of fact that the mayor still has no credible plan on how to deliver this in practice. Westminster council has elections in May 2026, so relying on its consent (rather than GLA Act 1999 powers) is at best a risky move.

The £15.6bn announced today to fund urban transport in England for five years is significant, even if more detail needed. In particular, will the government follow its infrastructure advisors' recommendation to make funding conditional on demand management schemes? www.gov.uk/government/n...

Campaign group Transport Action Network is appealing against the government’s decision to cut funding for cycling and walking schemes in England. Leigh Day's Rowan Smith will argue at the Court of Appeal that the decision 'could set a dangerous precedent'. leighdaylaw.info/436KHw6

Court of Appeal is hearing @transportaction.bsky.social legal challenge against Department for Transport cuts to funding for walking and cycling. And you can watch it live or on catch up! www.youtube.com/channel/UCsh...

It's off to court we go for biggest challenge to road-building in English legal history 🚙🛣️ ⚖️🚴🚌👨‍🦽‍➡️ Depending on connectivity in court, will try posting some updates!

Fourth rebrand lucky as it's goodbye National Highways, hello Great British Highways! 👋🛣️🇬🇧🚘 This brilliant new name has won over the fiercest detractors, with even @transportaction.bsky.social finally getting behind the roads programme! transportactionnetwork.org.uk/fourth-time-...

Some cultures deify objects or animals. It is an offence to insult those objects or animals. It is a heresy or a blasphemy to even question those objects or animals. We are now to kneel - perhaps lay even prostrate - at the altar of Tesla. To do anything else will be unlawful, even criminal.

There was a lot of #AcademicFreedom, good scholarship, and independent thought in German universities before Hitler. After Hitler had risen to power, many academics fled the country. Some resisted the Nazi regime and were persecuted. Most adapted to a new situation. Here are some examples. 1/n

🧵 This is a perfect example of what I've be describing as disordered discourse, and it's threat to democracy. Politicians are afraid to speak openly about key issues. Why? Because disordered discourse has captured the system itself—forcing obedience, punishing dissent, and making truth irrelevant.

The issue of the US being able to effectively disable European weapons is an existential one, but we're all experiencing it on a small scale with books, software, cars and other goods that we've bought and paid for, but can be disabled or downgraded at the whim of the company that produced them.

Always remember--this is not a case of Trump appeasing Putin--its actually him joining Putin. Its not Munich 1938, its the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.

Planning reforms can be hard to get your head round. So the UK govt has published an easy read version of its proposals, and now its response. At 109 and 67 pages long, perhaps not the easiest read! Also it came out after consultation ended, but still an important step. www.gov.uk/government/c...

While it accepts that "Frontier innovation thrives in walkable districts", today's London Growth Plan contains zero ambition or action for active travel. growthplan.london Walking & cycling are the most affordable way to get around, and they create livelier town centres. Time to join up the dots.

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

"the predictability and fairness that comes with the government holding itself to high legal and ethical standards is essential to growth and productivity"

Really smart and good piece by @janus.bsky.social about steps you can take during this time to build power that are not posting www.404media.co/you-cant-pos...

1/ The UK government’s ‘growth vs newts and bats’ agenda has sparked a bit of a ‘Team Bat Team Newt’ response It’s heartening and uplifting, but it plays right into their hands 🧵 Graphic: @rosie400.bsky.social

Several conversations today w people in the key executive departments. And while the particulars are hard to pin down my impression is that the Musk take over stuff is considerably worse than is being presented in the press. By this I don’t necessarily things they *done* yet but the level of …

This is perhaps the most clear-eyed reporting yet of the horrific events in the US, imagining how press would cover overseas what's happening to the U.S. right now.

The things we can learn from Brexit is that populism is a ratchet, not a ladder: it only has the capacity to ramp up the anti-establishment & anti-immigrant rhetoric, until something snaps. It can't de-escalate. "So what's going to snap?" is a scary, scary question when it comes to a superpower.

This is nuts. Maybe time to stock up on almonds, California's major (& thirsty) export.

"Progressives and environmentalists must now reflect on how it is that opaquely funded, climate indifferent, right wing think tankers and lobby groups have won the argument on planning and growth with large parts of the Labour Party." @shaunspiers1.bsky.social, executive director, for the blog:

Brilliant news from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🙌 Shows up UK govt's talk this week about road & runway expansion as an ill thought out distraction ↩️🤷‍♂️

I’m beginning to think Musk’s strategy is to get Europe to burn down X so he can collect in the insurance policy.

This is so spot on. As a climate scientist and public intellectual, I see or experience these often

Handy new chart showing why we urgently need to cut motor traffic and vehicle weight (if not max speeds and sharp braking). PM2.5 is the most dangerous form of air pollution, linked to cancer, dementia, respiratory and cardiovascular risks. www.gov.uk/government/s...

One of the biggest lessons from Syria is that, just a month ago, almost no one could have predicted the Assad regime would fall today. The "realities on the ground" crowd would have denied such a possibility. A reminder of why people in Ukraine fight rather than surrender.