In a detail which will surprise no one, the first of the "patriots" to plead guilty to offences connected to the rioting in Southampton on Tuesday night has a criminal record as long as your arm, including.... possessing a knife.

Absolutely wild interview featuring Reform’s unelected Zia Yusuf on the World at One just. Just rabidly uncontrolled. Frighteningly myopic, zero reasoning. It’s clear what a dark place the UK would be with them in power. We’d face WW2 levels of instability with the division they delight in.

Rupert Lowe is, quite simply, mad on his own notoriety, and through Facebook has a dial he can turn further and further to the right without consequences.

Another day, another snapshot of hostile Birmingham roads. My Sunday litter pick included the retrieval of 5 nitrous oxide canisters discarded on a grass verge. 100 metres up the road next to a popular park, a damaged street tree. Visible skid marks on the road, oil stains and strewn vehicle parts.

News of yet another innocent pedestrian killed by a driver high on drugs in an overpowered SUV on Birmingham’s streets. A city that has declared a Road Safety Emergency without grasping what that actually means and Police who will not properly invest in policing of roads on residential streets.

We desperately need a return to some calm on Birmingham’s roads. Our suburban streets are being badly disrupted by the whims of some seriously sociopathic drivers c.org/kjxNbvgXZs

it’s still possible to be surprised by the sheer vindictiveness www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is a wonderful article extolling how good it is to walk or cycle and how it makes you much more in touch with your surroundings than in a hermetically sealed car isolated from the world. HT @ppushbike.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

I did a thread on 15 minute cities on X which went so viral I ended up in the Times and on BBC Radio. I thought I'd repeat it here... This was my parents house in Coventry. They bought it in 1965 and it was my home throughout the 1970s & 80s. My mum lived there until 2021. It was a happy home. 1/22

A decade ago, analysts were calling Spain a cautionary tale. Too much solar, too fast! Today, Spain is rapidly on its way to having the cheapest power in Europe. Maybe this time, solar naysayers will learn... haha, jk, they'll just move the goalposts.

Shocked - shocked! - to read ex-head of National Cybersecurity Centre, Ciaran Martin, saying: ‘Senior figures in public life should not make unsubstantiated claims about foreign (especially Russia) hacking against them when something inconvenient comes out’

As we face an unprecedented May heatwave, please remember that globally we haven't any idea how many are killed by extreme heat. The given estimates may be a small fraction of the real total. A huge and shocking data gap, which illustrates rich world indifference. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The UK has squandered at least 20 years where it could have been electrifying and retrofitting for the heat.

Oof. What a master of his craft.

Here’s just one detail from @thenerve.news #HarborneReceipts timeline. On the *exact same day* Christopher Harborne gives Reform £3m, Nigel Farage says Reform will lift cap on stablecoin ownership. Where does Christopher Harborne’s money come from, you ask? Stablecoins!

Here's where we stand (via @climateactiontracker.org): climateactiontracker.org No longer headed towards 4C thanks to global decarbonization efforts. But current policies could give >3C-that's truly catastrophic, civilization-threatening levels of warming. That's why we need additional action.

Within a week of the local election where he lost his cabinet role with responsibility for road safety, the man who led the roll out of 30mph speed limits in Birmingham is now saying reversing them is ‘a key priority’. Integrity used to be a framed as a key component of a political career.

Teach nature in schools…

American money is behind so much of the UK far right, from little Tommy to anti-abortion activism. It’s not even hidden

No one expected Keir Starmer to solve our pressing problems overnight. But what we did expect – and had every right to expect – was that he would lay out a clear vision and roadmap for doing so. Instead, we’ve had drift, appeasement and a startling absence of ideas, values and ambition. 🧵1/6

This is insane. This is the government’s “independent” advisor on antisemitism. He sees four antisemitic cartoons targeting Zack Polanski. His response? To demand an end to the antisemitic targeting of Polanski? No. It’s to attack the Green Party.

Reform keep making abhorrent announcements to attempt to distract voters from the fact they want to privatise our NHS, roll back worker's rights and hand out tax breaks to their billionaire backers. Want a party focused on solutions, not scapegoating? join.greenparty.org.uk

I just updated my near 4 yr old petition on local road safety. Local election manifestos reveal how much prospective parties are committed or otherwise to addressing road safety in this city. The incumbent’s record is less than glowing: www.change.org/p/we-demand-...

In a rational world the government would be asking people to respond to the current fossil fuel crisis by car sharing, turning lights off, and generally saving fuel and energy. And yet Ministers can’t even propose better efficiency standards for tumble dryers without the right wing press going mad.

It’s unfortunate it takes our former West Midlands Cycling & Walking Commissioner to come out and say this ‘Birmingham used to agree on road safety. What changed?’ www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/news-op...

The failure to keep track of vehicle ownership makes us all less safe. Hit and run crashes are leaving people dead or seriously injured, while tracing the driver, shamefully driving off after causing horrendous harm to a fellow road user, is pretty much impossible. Government needs to grip this.

In news that should shock no one, many of our region’s High Streets are now a front for organised crime and this hasn’t just happened. It’s one of the symptoms of the managed decline of the apparatus of state that could have prevented this www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The underlying structural problems of UK politics that the country doesn't have the resources to do everything expected of it and a Westminster class in denial about this doesn't go away in the event of a new PM.

Excellent piece by @modacitylife.com in today’s Guardian. Female leaders seem to have the drive to change cities by challenging the dominance of private vehicles and making them more pleasant places to live in. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

So refreshing to hear a political leader @zackpolanski.bsky.social push back about this country’s motonormativity. The motor industry has been terribly effective at convincing us that car is king. We can do things differently as other neighbouring countries have demonstrated.

So happy for Hungarians - a chance to stop the erosion of democracy, corruption, and economic malaise. And such an unqualified middle finger to Trump, Vance and Putin - and all the politicians in Europe who endorsed Orban, like Meloni, Wilders, Weidel, Le Pen. All losers tonight

It may seem like nerdy detail that the increasing weight of cars is worsening potholes, but it matters. The car makers push to sell wider and heavier cars is increasing road maintenance costs and that affects us all. Not to mention worse crash outcomes and less space to pass (wider) parked cars.

The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇

The party candidate in the local elections that can commit to stop fireworks being let off in Birmingham at random times of day and night (particularly night) gets my vote

Alarm in health service over Palantir staff being given NHS email accounts www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Positive news! Moseley Village railway station has reopened after 87 yr since its closure during WWII. Birmingham has a lot of catching up to do but this is a great development. Let’s get the Camp Hill chords built to increase frequency & get other local lines reopened @richardparkerwm.bsky.social

A sadly familiar scene in many parts of Birmingham. Disgusting levels of litter and neglect. You’d think the road on approach to the city’s principal tip might be kept clean but no. It’s hard not to be left with the impression of a city that has given up on its public realm.

The biggest story in the world right now is that the president of the United States is a demented old man who takes pleasure in torturing and killing people and is committing crimes with impunity. And yet most legacy media outlets are too cowardly to tell it like it is.

Another day, another brain dead proposal. The USA is a joke: Trump seeks $152m to reopen notorious Alcatraz prison www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The power of the visualisation. ☺️

Disappointing this. Ed knows this’ll have zero effect on costs/supply for uk consumers.Feels like he’s bowing to pressure. However, watching the media now start platforming those who oppose this, to attack the gov, after pushing the drill baby drill rhetoric, to attack the gov, will be fun #r4today

Ed Miliband to approve first major North Sea gasfield project in decade

Just what we don't need. Already, our rivers are overloaded with both human and livestock waste, leading in many cases to #rivercide. Now the government, responding as always to lobbyists, wants to make it worse. Then it wonders why it loses public support. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Havering Friends of the Earth have created a visualisation of the proposed data centre.

You'll note Manchester in this list. But not Birmingham. @richardparkerwm.bsky.social knows poor road safety and dense traffic drains an economy of productivity Want to know why Manchester is the city on the up? 👇🏼. They have good leadership

These people have a funny way of saying "Environmentalists have been proved right yet again."

Just a reminder Afsar launched a homophobic mutiny on a primary school in 2019 and both led misogynistic abuse of Jess Phillips in the 2024 elections. But sure, give these losers a headline like this.

Nothing matters anymore obviously, but in the old world of - oh I dunno - a couple years back, this would have been career ending. You'd either have to settle into obscurity or go to the US and start again.

The deep, deep stench of corruption.

MPs urge UK government to halt contract giving Palantir FCA data access www.theguardian.com/technology/2...