Conor
1K posts
Problem is it doesn’t have sovereign borrowing powers or indeed much borrowing power at all so the assets are all underinvested.
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You know there’s part of the UK that’s already doing Burnhamism? The state has control of city & regional buses, the rail network & the trains. The water company is state-owned. Care is part of the health service, not councils. A centralised gatekeeper for social housing.
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@CatRedFront Additionally, the position of Minister of Justice is not assigned by the d’Hondt method, but is instead elected by the Assembly using a ’cross-community vote’
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@CatRedFront However, the position of First Minister must be held by the largest party and the position of deputy First Minister must be held by the largest party that is a different designation.
If neither of those two parties want to join the Executive then no government can be formed.
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@joncstone I feel like a court would decide that it’s illegal to leave people without representation, just like they decided it was illegal for Johnson to shut down parliament (even though there was no law against it).
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@Nassreddin2002 should the poll be the actual results of this year’s general election, since the liberals do not enter parliament, does this allow a s-mp-v coalition?
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In February, the progressive opposition led with 6 points
The right thought they could reverse this by further cosying up to far-right SD. "We are a united & stable, the opposition is chaotically split" as message
Instead, the opposition's lead has now grown to almost 11 points
Europe Elects@EuropeElects
Sweden, Verian poll: S-S&D: 33% SD-ECR: 19% (-1) M-EPP: 17% V-LEFT: 8% MP-G/EFA: 8% (+2) C-RE: 6% (-1) KD-EPP: 5% (-1) L-RE: 2% +/- vs. 23 March 2026 - 06 April 2026 Fieldwork: 27 April - 10 May 2026 Sample size: 2,991 ➤ europeelects.eu/sweden
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@NavyLookout @BIOTGov We wanted to do it because the ICJ said the current status of the islands was illegal. We can’t accuse other countries of not following international law if we don’t ourselves do so.
We negotiated a deal and the US supported it. When they withdrew their support, we abandoned it.
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While you still can, follow the British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Islands) Administration on @BIOTGov
UK Government still hoping to implement crackpot plan that would see defence funds used to pay Mauritius to take sovereignty over the islands. A deal which doesn't help the wronged islanders, needlessly annoys the US and helps China while UK taxpayer is footing the bill.
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@PandaStaubball Someone has mixed up their tenses. All this should happen in the future.
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@matthewhodg @CLondoner92 Yeah I agree that’s prob where the bulk of the journey time improvements come from. They only need to get about 13 mins off to get it under 2 hours.
It’s just so much money to spend on rolling stock, even with depots, maintenance, simulators etc.
There must be something else!
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@Conor435_ @CLondoner92 Pretty sure that’s just through greatly increased acceleration. The current setup isn’t exactly a rocket ship. 😅
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🇮🇪🇬🇧🆕🚆 Contract signed in Belfast for eight new Stadler FLIRT trains on the Dublin–Belfast Enterprise line between Ireland & Northern Ireland.
€698m PEACEPLUS-backed project delivers tri-mode trains by 2028 cutting journey timeshours boosting capacity.
irishrail.ie/en-ie/news/con…
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@matthewhodg @CLondoner92 The reports also mention infrastructure upgrades but I’m not sure exactly what that entails.
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@nixoninexile Those are decisions made by national governments, not city ones.
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See also: Heathrow 3rd runway, and Amsterdam imposing arbitrary flight restrictions and refusing to let an already existing airport operate
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One of the weirdest trends in European city governments in the past 10 years, and this really is a Europe-wide issue, that they seemingly don't want their city airports to have any kind of success or relevance
Sander Tordoir@SanderTordoir
The Berlin airport is in a death spiral They’ve jacked up the cost so much that many airlines are abandoning it. And Lufthansa treats it as a spoke to herd cattle into its long-distance flights from Frankfurt. The result: fewer direct flights, no competition, soaring prices
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London Rd, Bicester could be amongst one the more contentious aspects of East West Rail. With the proposed service it could be closed for over 30 minutes per hour. Therefore EWR Co. proposes closing it and building a single lane limited height underpass.
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@MakeUSAVAT @Nassreddin2002 The Swedish left are serious. Unfortunately, they will probably have to share power with Centerpartiet, who are economically right-wing.
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@Nassreddin2002 How serious is the swedish left are they going to be a disappointment if in office?
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Disappointing poll for the Swedish right
They thought that by showing unity (allow far-right SD to enter govt with ministers), they’d make up ground on a message of “stability versus the opposition’s disunity”
Instead, the progressive opposition’s lead INCREASES to 8 points
Europe Elects@EuropeElects
Sweden, Indikator Opinion poll: S-S&D: 34% (+1) SD-ECR: 19% (-2) M-EPP: 18% V-LEFT: 7% C-RE: 6% MP-G/EFA: 6% KD-EPP: 5% L-RE: 2% +/- vs. 05-29 March 2026 Fieldwork: 01-27 April 2026 Sample size: 4,584 ➤ europeelects.eu/sweden
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@CLondoner92 Postcode usually only identify a single building if it’s very big and has multiple addresses within it. Most of the time they identify a street (or part of one). Compare that to Irish Eircodes which always identify a single address.
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The UK began its postcode rollout in 1959, trialling in Norwich before going national by 1974. Unlike US ZIP codes, ours are alphanumeric and incredibly precise, often identifying a single building. From Victorian London districts to modern SatNav, it’s a masterpiece of sorting.
Massimo@Rainmaker1973
In 1963, the U.S. introduced ZIP codes, with the Postal Service explaining what the numbers mean and how to use them.
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@carto_graph @ikisnick They have bus networks that operate so efficiently they might as well be tramways. I got the bus from Eindhoven Airport to the city centre and the route was completely segregated from other traffic the whole way, just like a tram would be.
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Thinking about the Netherlands, I think people abroad often mistake "lack of car-centric infrastructure approach" with "public transport is great" - I'm not sure that's true for some/a lot of our cities! It's just that it's very easy to get around by bike.
Giulio Mattioli@giulio_mattioli
Very interesting new study finding that *even in large European cities*, in most places it is easier to access opportunities by car than by public transport arxiv.org/pdf/2604.01019 The exceptions are Paris, Zurich and the innermost parts of Milan and Barcelona
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@SwisherYard @thomasforth You can get FT Edit for £5 a month that gives you 8 articles a day.
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@thomasforth FT, Economist and others should have a much cheaper subscription level for people with low incomes/on benefits. That way low income people get access to top level information, and the FT makes money from people who would normally not even be able to consider the FT.
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@NavyLookout @thetimes Even Sweden has managed to board these ships but we can’t?
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.@thetimes reports that no sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tankers have been boarded by the Royal Navy due to concerns over the cost of berthing and maintaining them once captured + crews might claim asylum in Britain.
Legitimate concern - large, potentially unsafe old vessels berthed in UK ports could present a major headache to safely unload, repair and/or dispose of.
thetimes.com/uk/politics/ar…
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@thomasforth ‘The map’ hasn’t done anything. Everything on OpenStreetMap is added by volunteers.
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@lord__mike @ChrisO_wiki It made sense at the time. The bad thing was writing it into a constitution that is ridiculously hard to amend.
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@ChrisO_wiki I never understood why the framers of the constitution gave such a long lame duck period to the president. Originally it was in March, 3 months after the electoral votes had been certified. That is crazy! What was the thinking behind that?
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This is exactly why interregnums are bad; the British approach, where the new Prime Minister and government enter office literally the day after the election, is clearly far preferable.
Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek)@magyarpeterMP
We are receiving increasing reports of large-scale document destruction from various ministries, affiliated institutions, and companies close to Fidesz.
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@AnnaVanAwesome @Starling3232 If you want a better comparison you should look even further back!
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You know i thought Welsh Rail network was bad (getting better now), here is the Irish one, used to be so much better it seems, you would think there could be more lines for the rest of the island for major cities like Cork or northwest Ulster too...
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