Some very silly stuff going around about ULEZ this morning, notably the idea that expanding the policy to greater London was imposed by the Tories as part of the TfL finance agreement. This is false The May 2020 funding letter from Shapps people are citing says Khan should urgently bring forward "proposals to widen the scope and levels" of schemes like Ulez, congestion charge, LEZ, etc (without specifying). It's not what it's being presented as content.tfl.gov.uk/extraordinary-…

it's key to remember that this was *actually built*. there is a link from the channel tunnel to the west coast mainline. British Rail invested £140m before it was privatised. the trains were built! but services never ran because operators didn't consider them commercially viable

https://twitter.com/yimbyalliance/status/1665442722394537985

running Eurostars north of London was always a political priority rather than a commercial one, and the service was ultimately a victim of the new idea that the only things worth having are those that make a profit

A tube train carries 1,000 people. what if they drove cars instead?

The average car carries 1.2 people and is 4.5m long, with a 10m gap between cars

so to fit the passengers of one train in cars you're looking at 11.6km or 7.2 miles of traffic

Tube trains come every 90 seconds this is 7.2 miles

This 1985 letter to Margaret Thatcher, from the No.10 policy unit, arguing why water should be privatised, is really illuminating because ALL of the arguments are terrible. We can go through them: margaretthatcher.org/document/234496 1) The first argument is that water authorities were in 'good shape' and don't need restructuring e.g. They would be profitable and quick privatisations. Clearly this is of no actual benefit to consumers and it is notable that it is the first point listed

A quick point about the Iran protests: Iranians make up the majority of people crossing the English Channel in small boats to get to the UK (51%, by far the largest group, from 2018-2020) 94% of people arriving in the UK by small boat claim asylum, and of Iranians who do so, 73% are accepted as refugees by the UK according to latest available figures migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/comm…

Labour will not nationalise rail, water or energy, Rachel Reeves says
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… After Reeves comment a Labour spox says: “We are pragmatic about public ownership as long as it sits within our fiscal rules –a point Rachel was underlining in the interview by referencing this framework. For example, we know there is a positive role for rail in public ownership”

Great to see the new Labour administration in Westminster and @maxpsullivan + @PDimoldenberg put out a call for ideas on improving cycling here. as someone who cycles all over the city a lot, here's a quick thread on what I would prioritise:

https://twitter.com/CityWestminster/status/1535268272924508160

Firstly, a quick win: the last administration put in a few temporary painted cycles lanes during Covid… make them permanent, but most importantly put in protective wands to make more people confident using them. Locations include Westbourne Terrace, Bayswater Rd, Abingdon St etc

Zero economic benefit from Brexit crowns on pint glasses, government admits independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… I've looked at the details of the Brexit pint glass crowns policy and it is somehow even dumber than it sounds... quick thread

National Rail ridership now is fluctuating between 75%-80% of pre-pandemic levels, the Tube is about 65% most on weekdays, 60% on Mondays, and around 80% on weekends. Things have plateaued at around these levels for a couple of months now On the roads… DfT reckons ‘all traffic’ is now slightly down on weekdays (generally averaging 95% of pre-pandemic levels) but on weekends it slightly *up*, usually about 105%. Note these are national figures and will vary by local area

Some good news for TfL's finances - Tube ridership is starting to recover from Covid. This weekend it hit 85% of pre-pandemic ridership on both Saturday and Sunday - a record since the start of the pandemic. Tube ridership is a still lagging on weekdays: but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week were all between 65%-68% of pre-pandemic levels, all higher than any other weekday since March 2020. Interestingly, Mondays are a few % lower, suggesting it’s a popular day to WFH

Parliament is ‘not the appropriate place to be raising’ Boris Johnson’s comments about Muslims, Speaker says independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… Video of the exhange is now in the top of the story - am awaiting comment from Commons authorities on what the Speaker’s reasoning was as he didn’t elaborate

"It is highly unacceptable for anybody to get into a small boat," Tory Home Office minister Tom Pursglove tells the Commons Labour shadow immigration minister Bambos Charalambous says encrypted online private messages are helping to drive illegal channel crossings:

Keir Starmer tells business leaders at CBI conference: "Labour is back in business. The dual meaning of this is entirely deliberate!" Starmer: "In a way we've always been bound together, the Labour Party and the CBI"

Keir Starmer urged not to drop Labour policy banning MPs from second jobs independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… From 2013 Ed Miliband committed Labour to ban MPs from “directorships and consultancies” – which would have prevented Owen Paterson scandal. By 2019 this was upgraded to a general ban on second jobs with "limited exemptions to maintain professional registrations like nursing".

The hysterical reaction to this is very funny - ‘non-EU’ is actually a stipulated wording in EU regulations for foods where there isn’t a single country of origin. But some people seem to think this chicken is some kind of anti-Brussels Brexit triumphalism gov.uk/guidance/food-…

https://twitter.com/mxofo/status/1455254299907432454

A few things are going on here
- EU labelling regulations were more or less transposed into UK law after Brexit
- Retailers have until October 2022 to change references to ‘non-EU’ to ‘non-UK’

Some Pendolino tilting on the West Coast Mainline *Jerusalem begins to play*

Here’s the composite motion which Andy McDonald resigned over - for anyone who doesn’t know, composite motions are lots of motions smushed together into a single package, officially to ‘save time’. This is agreed at a ‘compositing meeting’ where the combined text is agreed McDonald appears to have been told by the leadership to argue against the inclusion of the £15 NMW clause on the second page and also against the sick pay at living wage clause

John Bercow is talking at a fringe event at Labour conference - he just addressed the room as ‘comrades' Bercow refers to the prime minister as “the right honourable member for Uxbridge and West Ruislip, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson”. Says Keir Starmer is “a good guy” but Labour needs “clear policies"

A lot of people are trying to explain Keir Starmer’s behaviour and I genuinely think the answer is that he is a man who is easily impressed by PowerPoint presentations I actually mean this literally - his previous job as DPP would have involved sitting through lots of evidence prepared by civil servants and deciding what to do. It is how senior positions in the public sector work. And we know people around him in Labour now are briefing…

Given there’s notoriously no rail link between Brixton and Peckham you’d think someone would have built a decent cycle route on that corridor? But there’s not really anything, it’s a surprisingly tricky ride. Should be a priority imo If you were building a cycleway from Brixton to Peckham via Camberwell I think you would probably: filter Brixton station road, Barrington Road, then send people down Millbrook Rd through the little park. Then put a two-way protected cycle lane through Loughborough Junction...

Went to have a look at the HS2 rail tunnel under the Chilterns and had a poke around the machine that’s digging it Ok here’s a video shot where I’m standing on the tunnel boring machine, ahead of the constructed tunnel, looking backwards towards the portal; and they’re manoeuvring a piece of cast concrete tunnel lining into place