When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?" So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵

Schindler's Lift

Your chance to sample the vibrant West London arts scene this weekend and next: Borough of Ealing Art Trail share.google/UUSs4GMhEAT8...

From black bins to green gains: how Leeds transforms waste Leeds’ recycling and energy recovery facility turns black bin waste into electricity, heat and even roads – cutting landfill for good By Dr Pam Jarvis @yorkshirebylines.co.uk

What has London’s Bakerloo line got to do with the government’s ability to invest in the North? Put simply, if we let London raise more money from high land values to pay for its infrastructure, this frees up more government spending for the rest of the country. Read below to see detail 👇

Putin on his way? Following plane is "Russian Special Flight Squadron" too

If a new west-east railway line can be this transformative for London, then it's high time we had similar lines in the Midlands and the North Want to know what’s going right in Britain? Come to the capital, look at the Elizabeth line railway | Jonn Elledge www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interesting and informative, but depressing:

Blackpool's rate of new business formation (5.6 per 1000 people/yr) exceeds Oxfordshire's (4.2 per 1000 people/yr) It's that greater degree of entrepreneurial spirit that must account for the fact that Blackpool is famously more prosperous than Oxfordshire.

US climate scientists need all the help they can get. Including from foul-mouthed comedians! 🤡😱😱 Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated". #climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience

The Spectacle continues. Meanwhile Project 2025 is 42% complete. www.project2025.observer

📣 New report 📣 In a volatile world, we need an economy that is firing on all cylinders - but regional imbalances are driving overheating and stagnation in different places. www.labourtogether.uk/all-reports/...

The UK car industry contributes £22bn to the economy and employs c 35k people. Universities contribute £265bn and employ nearly 400k, over 10x as much. Yet he seems ok to let that sector implode.

I'm surprised that so many people seem to be taken aback by Trump's imposition of tariffs and the way in which the sizes of these tariffs have been calculated. But the pros and cons of tariffs and the effects of implementing them in various ways is all spelled out in Trump's script: Project 2025.

Euro up 1.2% against dollar this afternoon, and £ up 1.1%. Looks as though markets not too impressed by Trump's stated intentions so far.

Trump says the future will be golden. Well, it will certainly be orange, unfortunately.

Philip Hammond peddling the myth on Radio 4 that recent public sector pay rises fueled inflation. They didn't, since at least 30% was immediately returned to the employer (the government) in the form of income tax and national insurance, and more when VAT on purchases is taken into account.

Yesterday, Lancaster was disrupted by the visit of a very minor Royal to rededicate (why?) a war memorial: Richard Duke of Gloucester. Yes, I had never heard of him before either. He is 31st in line to the throne apparently. Do we really need such an extended Royal family to undertake such "tasks"?

So, Lord Frost apparently suffers from prosopagnosia, or face blindness. No wonder he made such a pig's ear of our Brexit negotiations if he didn't know who he was talking to most of the time!

Should anyone be interested in my science (and I'm not holding my breath!), some details can be found here: scholar.google.com/citations?us...

Just as taxation can be used to redistribute income from rich to poor, so it could be used to encourage EV purchase. Tax sales of each new petrol/diesel car by, say, £3000, and offer it as a subsidy on the price of a new EV. Could also use fuel taxes to subsidise charging point electricity sales.

I am not surprised that electric cars are proving difficult to sell. My research tells me that the average price of a new EV is £28k compared with £22k for a small petrol car. Also, whereas an EV costs £18 - 24 per 100 miles to run using public chargers, a petrol car costs typically £17 in petrol.