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Tom Forth
@thomasforth
, 14 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
I'm about to go to the NEC. I have Birmingham's transport smart card. It is the best possible system within UK law. It is going to be hard.
I wrote here exactly how hard it is. I have to choose some mix of 7 "public" transport companies to go a few miles. tomforth.co.uk/faresdata/
The journey begins. I have my swift card. This is the best system possible for a big city in the UK. TfWM are good.
This bus came. The third bus company that runs this route. Driver didn't know how to sell me "a day ticket that works on the train".
So I got this bus. I asked for "a day ticket that works on the train" but the driver sold me a national express only day ticket. Standard.
It's a paper ticket. Swift Card PAYG is just for paying. Manchester tried to move beyond this, which is why you've read about their issues.
The bus I'm on has an app too. But it doesn't sell tickets. And it only lists its own tickets. Not competitors or multi-company tickets.
Anyway, I'm on the bus now. And in traffic. Because Birmingham. The paper ticket for the bus is in my wallet to get home with tonight.
Got to New Street. There were ten options for a ticket to the NEC. I opted for an all-operator one. But I can't understand the restrictions.
And of course the Swift Card PAYG doesn't work with trains. So three more pieces of paper for me. Paid by credit card.
A reminder that this is the best possible system within UK law. You can't do better. I explain why here. tomforth.co.uk/taptopay
So if you read that piece about Manchester's smart card and blamed Manchester, and not the UK government in London, you made a mistake.
The only thing that will fix this properly is sovereignty & regulation. The UK's cities must take back control of transport from London.
Without that we'll stay poor, stay low-skilled, and remain a drain on the UK state.
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Tom Forth
@thomasforth
This piece on Roubaix is fantastic. Worth a month's FT subscription alone.

And of course Roubaix is a city close to our hearts at @ODILeeds -- it is the French Bradford to our 50-year twin city of Lille.

I spent a week there in February expanding @TheDataCity to France.
@ODILeeds @TheDataCity From now on I'm going to be talking Lille (Métropole Européenne de Lille -- @MEL_Lille) which contains Roubaix, Tourcoing, and other similar cities and town.

The economic history (weaving, clothes, etc...) of Leeds and Lille are extremely similar. Their present too...
@ODILeeds @TheDataCity @MEL_Lille We don't have easily-comparable data at small scales. But Lille's region has performed almost identically to Yorkshire in recent decades. And Leeds City Region feels very much like Lille. But with the usual UK vs. France differences. imactivate.com/regionexplorer…
Read 9 tweets
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Tom Forth
@thomasforth
Economists tracking the impact of Brexit created a really interesting technique, that I'd never have thought of, and that I really like.

They took the other countries in the G7 and said "what combination of these economies was the UK economy most like, up to 2016?"
It's like a recipe, for example,
The UK = 1/5 of Canada, 2/5 of France, 1/10 of Germany, 1/10 of Japan, 1/5 of USA, 0 of Italy.
The UK economy is really like France, a bit like Canada and the USA, hardly like Japan and Germany, nothing like Italy.
An original paper on this is "The Economic Consequences of the Brexit Vote". They create a "doppelganger" UK, then compare how it performed compared to the real UK since 2016. It's such a good paper. centreformacroeconomics.ac.uk/Discussion-Pap…
Read 9 tweets
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Tom Forth
@thomasforth
A short thread from me about #opendata and transport.
1/ Ask Google Maps for public transport directions in Lille, and it'll probably tell you to walk. It might offer some out-of-date timetables for local trains. But it doesn't know about the trams, the metro, or local buses.
2/ Pop over to Rennes (consistently France's best city at #opendata) and you'll get metro and bus and train times and usually the (very simple) fare.
3/ Jump back to Lille and now use Here maps, and you'll get the full set of travel options.
Read 11 tweets

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Charity Majors
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an interesting and subtle point. The team you recruit, hire and retain with a 6 month time horizon is very different than the one you hire with a 2y or 5y horizon.

People *tend* not to think on a long enough time scale. But sometimes too long!
I used to think "not a good fit" was always a bullshit term. After 3 years of running a company, and parting ways with ever so many brilliant, wonderful people for the right reasons which also had absolutely no reflection on their worth -- it's not (always) bullshit. At all.
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ELECTION NIGHT THREAD: This will be my thread for the night, starting with this great story from @katherinemiller, with its hour-by-hour accounting of what is going on tonight and when it's (likely) going to happen. buzzfeednews.com/article/kather…
And ... polls are closed in Kentucky and Indiana.
NOTE: As happens every election, there'll be a couple polling places/counties in several states that stay open later due to issues from earlier in the day. So, check your specific county/polling place if you need to vote! For ex, Monroe County in Indiana: idsnews.com/article/2018/1…
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Penny Midas Rollo
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001/ [article content in this tweet series 001-180 reproduced with permission from Martin Howe QC of Lawyers for Britain @lawyers4britain]
#quote "Leaving the EU on WTO terms: pulling down the barriers to world trade
Introduction: why prices will FALL after Brexit, not rise" /002
002/ #quote "Over the past couple of weeks, the media have been full of lurid scare stories about what will happen if the UK leaves the EU on WTO terms, because negotiations with the EU do not result in a withdrawal agreement." /003
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Mangy Jay
@magi_jay
I'm a proud Democrat. I was raised as a Democrat by Democratic parents. I took a brief, embarrassing foray into dabbling w/ the Green Party when I was 16, but, other than that, I've basically always been a Dem. It's part of my identity.

But it doesn't have to be part of yours.
I see a lot of talk about what the Democratic party needs to be. They need to be more left. Or they need to be more center. Etc. Some of this talk is framed as "forcing," i.e. "force the party left." I've participated in this myself, in the past. I won't anymore.
The party will be different in different places. It's a big tent. It's gotta incorporate a lot of people w/ diverse opinions & backgrounds. And it's those people who will decide the identity of the party by voting.
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Doug Gay
@DougGay
There has been a material change of circumstances and there must be now be another referendum on independence for Scotland in 2019 - the Westminster system is utterly broken and we are heading for a disastrous, chaotic shitshow of a hard Brexit
As someone said last week we are entering the kinetic phase of the Brexit car crash - and I think this week will be seen as a decisive turn - on all sides we now need to plan for the worst and work to secure as good a way through it as we can - but the damage could be massive
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ProWhite Media
@ProWhiteMedia
LOST FOUNDATIONS
by Bertrand L. Comparet

"Most church goers will say they believe the #Bible, but the question is what #Bible?
"If pinned down to specific answers, they will discount the #OldTestament about 90%. They are skeptical of its history & they give no credence to its #miracles. They know only utter confusion as to its #prophecies and they reject its laws as being repudiated by the #NewTestament.
"For their beauty of language, they will accept the #Psalms, those which are not controversial. Any verse is accepted which could not offend even the most #wicked, but they reject all the others which sternly call the #Christian to the duties he wants to evade.
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