Anglophone visitors to Wales often seem weirdly obsessed with "Dim Parcio". But—from an etymological point of view—parcio is honestly far less interesting than it might look. The much less promising looking Welsh word "car" (which means "car") turns out to be quite a bit more interesting... 🧵

@acjsissons.bsky.social what's the besr place to look for reliable heat pump advice?

It is a "boost for Burnham", but it's much more a boost for the principle that if you stick to a regional growth strategy for 30+ years you can see productivity and living standard improvements at the end of it. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Men at work in the south crypt of Guildford Cathedral, Surrey, 1938

Smart phones are given the greatest blame here

All with Government support. Job removal scam ✅ Making taxis less accessible ✅ Making congestion worse ✅ Endangering lives ✅ Breaking laws ✅ Wealth transfer to tech giants ✅ Literally zero redeemable features

Hmm. I'm not sure Whitehall would simply stop being a barrier to getting things done locally, which it has successfully been for at least 40 years, just because there is a new PM.

Even in engineering reports, the prejudice is pervasive: transportation policy must prioritize drivers because Americans prefer to drive. The void of historical amnesia is filled with contrived pasts that excuse this presupposition, perpetuating public policies that deter everything but driving. ...

Born on this day in 1889, Paul Nash was a British surrealist painter & war artist, as well as a photographer, writer & designer of applied art. Nash was considered a fine book illustrator, and designed stage scenery, fabrics & posters. 'Wood on the Downs' (1929) #art #arthistory

Happy #EuropeDay from orbit! 🇪🇺 On 9 May, Europe Day reminds us of something our astronauts witness every day from 400 km above: a continent of remarkable diversity, bound together by shared skies 🧪🌍

Rather than endlessly debating why the state is broken, we could just try reversing Osborne-ism

Lovd this, but to be fair it was over 20 years ago. And, as far as I can see, remains unique in Seoul. Seoul is good at access to green space ...

Long may we remain members

"About 140 data centres are in the queue to be connected to Britain's power grid, & their combined energy requirements are estimated to be more than the current peak electricity use for the entire country." www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/2606448...

How trains SHOULD be

The answer to British malaise has been clear since 1980 and yet not ONE Westminster political party has ever tried it.

makes a convincing case of the army of American engineers who bulldozed thru Western Europe and South Pacific during WWII directly translating their tools and skills back home to postwar urban renewal, suburbanization, and environmental clearance. if it worked there, why can’t it work back home?

I don't really get this. We heard exactly the same during the 1980s and we ended up the economy most hurt by 2008.

And there it is...the devolution bill is an Act. Hard to comprehend how big a deal this is for devolution. It is huge step forward, and something many of us have been working toward for some time - not least the minister! @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social www.gov.uk/government/n...

"We should be like other countries and allow limitless building. It works so well!"

A great time for British railways .

After a failed attempt the day before, the growling of a diesel from the distance disrupts the morning calm. And then, like a ghost from the past, BB 67511 emerges from the vast dark & mystic forests of the Voges onto sunlit plains. Folks: The very last diesel loco hauled regional train of France! 😍

More of this combined with compulsory sales, rental & custodian squatting #DerelictIreland

The European Commission will set out plans ⁠to cut electricity taxes and coordinate the summer refill of countries' gas storage, as it seeks to cushion the energy fallout from the Iran war.

In that economy across the water that so many Brits seem to wish to emulate...

In Germany, neo-Nazis broke into and vandalized the home of a Protestant pastor known for speaking out against far right extremism. Now, that IS persecution of Christians taz.de/Rechte-Gewal...

Wow looks like part of £17 million of public money needed to purchase a shopping centre that retailers are leaving. Why is this mall worth that much then?

“Polanski’s housing policy should be a wake-up call for Labour, which must quickly grapple with the real reasons why housing is so unaffordable in London: it has become too difficult and expensive to build anything at all.” labourlist.org/2026/04/gree...

Thank you @SarahjLonsdale.bsky.social for this vital historical information.

Next time someone tries arguing that it’s “social engineering” (cue ominous music) to give people more CHOICE to walk, bike & take public transit in their city, tell them that designing our current car DEPENDENCY has been the largest and most damaging social engineering experiment in human history.

excellent, comprehensive examination into Japan's railway successes by @borners.bsky.social ky.social and @carto-graph.bsky.social. was flattered they linked to a couple of my Japan railway history posts on Substack to reinforce their many good points worksinprogress.co/issue/why-ja...

Who should own the value of land? New report by Ed Shepherd and myself on the political economy of land value capture. A major research undertaking (incl 50 interviews) examining the power relations that structure how land values are (unjustly) distributed in England. @housingevidence.bsky.social

#OnThisDay 63 years ago the first trial public Automatic Train Operation (ATO) service commenced on The Underground. Not the Victoria Line, nor Central Line Woodford to Hainault, but Stamford Brook to Ravenscourt Park; a modified District Line R Stock train (pictured: LT Museum collection)

I’m spending the day sitting in front of a laptop with your ex-husband, where we’re taking turns to refresh the live national grid energy stats until it shows 0% fossil fuels for the first time in history. When it happens we’ll nod and smile at each other then celebrate with a can of 0% Guinness.

China has built over 50,000 km of high-speed rail since 2008. Trump has given billionaires enough tax breaks since 2016 to do this, plus give Americans free healthcare, college, and daycare. Instead, he wants to cut existing benefits while spending trillions on the military and more tax cuts.

In Belgium, employees receive compensation for every kilometre they ride, with some cyclists earning up to €810 per year. And why not? Biking saves public money for everyone. “All employees in Belgium who cycle to work are entitled to a bicycle allowance of €0.28 per kilometre of their commute.”

Nail on head.

Best thing about interrail is it covers your outbound/inbound from home - for me the £0 cost of Devon to paddington RT alone makes the "savings" This year's hols trip was to Seville. Last year's to Bari (w 2x night trains). It's best way to go. Get on board.

Problem here is that sensible debates on this are high jacked. "Bike lanes?" "Nah. European." "Social housing?" "Nah. European. We left Europe." Repeat with "woke" etc at will

“When mayors in other cities ask me how #Copenhagen afforded to invest in its cycling networks, I ask them how on earth they have been able to afford highway projects. We invested in bike lanes because that was the cheapest option.” What the world can learn from Copenhagen’s cycling revolution.

Albanese telling people to reconsider driving is incredible optics. Mate, you built a country where driving is mandatory. A country where cyclists, pedestrians, and anyone not using a car is treated as a second-class citizen. Car-dependence is baked into every major policy you have architected.

This thread. Especially the third post.

In case you missed it, Utrecht, Netherlands has begun building the largest Dutch “car-free” neighbourhood. 12K people 6K homes 1.8K social rental homes 1.5 mid-range rental & affordable owner-occupied homes 21.5K bike parking spaces 250 shared cars 2 parcel hubs Parking structures on the edge.

One of the very last railways to be built. Imagine if we'd stopped road building in 1900...

For those of you wondering why we can’t have nice things.

Truth: new housing doesn't create traffic, driving creates traffic. Lie: buses are wasteful because they're empty sometimes.

Fuel shortages are now discussed as a real possibility in the next weeks. If that happens, you might be interested in this study mapping the most vulnerable areas in England (because of high expenditure on car fuel, low income and poor accessibility) twitter-thread.com/t/1134020934...

Pretty radical design to convert a multi-storey carpark into 111 apartments in Staffordshire I’d estimate this would save around 30% embodied carbon compared to a new build! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Trouble in publicsector paradise