Rob

@Eddystone506 Did it 3 years ago :)

Who else is thinking of installing a battery storage system which pays for itself in 3 years?

@BenGrahamUK The scandalous issue here is of course that applying some paint to a road cost £48,174. What colour paint was applied isnt the issue.

This rainbow junction in Hounslow cost £48,174 of public money. Some will say it promotes inclusion. Others will question the cost. Where do you stand?

@danny__kruger 20 paragraphs to say "here are some weird straw men that I use to suggest islamic public prayer is entirely different in character from other faiths so I can uniquely criticise it". They are of course nonsense. Undisguised islamophobia dressed up with lots of pointless words.

Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are wrong. Small groups of people, of whatever religion, praying in public places is fine. And as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square. What we don't want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions. What happens in our national spaces is not neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make a point about the kind of country they want us to be. The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we are - not as individuals (many or most of us don't identify as Christians at all) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the ground of the Bible and our most solemn communal moments, from coronations to funerals, mediated through the liturgies of the Church. A mass Adhan held there, or in any town square, is making a different point: that Britain is not a Christian country, and that - inshallah - one day it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our constitution. As ever with these debates, the issue is partly one of kind and partly one of degree. There is an issue with Islam itself as a religion which in most interpretations does not admit of pluralism or freedom of conscience, and therefore is inherently aggrandising, including over territory. But with a bit of confidence and a bit of toleration we could handle that - if it were not for the issue of degree. It is the scale of Islam in Britain, and the ambition of its leaders for greater scale, that makes the problem. The numbers of people who assembled for the adhan in Trafalgar Square, clearly and openly claiming the territory for a faith with no connection (indeed, with strong doctrinal disagreement) with the model of Western liberal democracy that Britain has developed and exported to the world - that is the problem. The numbers, whether everyone there understood it this way or not (and I suspect many did), convey an explicit threat to the foundations of our country. Being relaxed about other people's religion is a good thing, a very British thing. I don't mind modern druids dancing around Stonehenge in my constituency (arguably, though the historicity is tenuous, they have a claim to the place). I don't mind small groups of Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims demonstrating the reality of Britain's religious toleration by worshiping in Trafalgar Square. But let's not kid ourselves about this adhan, or pretend that we're just seeing another harmless expression of Britain's religious diversity. We are seeing an abuse of liberalism, led by people who are not themselves liberal; or - let us imagine they are acting in good faith - who are themselves deceived about what they are doing. It should not happen again. And it would be good to hear the Church of England say so.

@AlexisTavi @manzap @AvantiWestCoast @Bluestocking63 Its not (just) privatisation. Half the TOCs are govt owned, Norhern, TPE etc are all at least as bad. It's the fact that we privatised them but left 1970s management attitudes, working practices and industrial relations in place. Worst of all worlds.

@manzap @AvantiWestCoast @Bluestocking63 Privatisation

The Shadow Justice Secretary’s comments are unacceptable and risk fuelling division - we must stand firmly for respect, tolerance and the right to practise one’s faith freely. 👇 #StandUpToHate

Just imagine being so rubbish as a company that you publically answer customers' valid questions about failing to provide basic facilities with "well we wrote on our website that nothing is guaranteed" and passive aggressively telling them their expectations are wrong.

@Alicetweets @glaisian Oh, I know exactly how it started, and the multiple stages it could have been stopped earlier. It was about malfeasance in specific organisations. Fixing the water problem properly would involve challenging the relationship between govt and the entire private finance industry.

@RobinJPickering @glaisian Post Office scandal began w/Dept for business commissioning Horizon for failed ICL PFI benefits card project, then offloaded Horizon on Post Office with Law Commission recommended law change creating presumption of guilt See full story at Eleanor Shaikh’s drive.google.com/file/d/10zw8I3…

I watched Dirty Business and expected the sort of outcry that followed the Post Office Scandal. Tumbleweed. The water companies are stealing from us and poisoning our environment. Where’s the outrage? #C4News

@NJ_Timothy There is no wilful misunderstanding. You made an illogical post to stir up hate about public worship by a particular religion. We are coming to the Easter season where another religion will be gathering in civic spaces to profess our one true god. Will you be attacking that too?

The wilful misunderstanding in this post says everything about the people behind the “Islamophobia” definition. The point is not that Sikhs have danced on Trafalgar Square. Or that the Passion Play has been hosted there. Neither is the point that Muslims gathered on Trafalgar Square. The point is that mass ritual prayer in public - in this case next to a church - is an act of domination. So is the public call of the Adhan, which explicitly denies other religions including Christianity. That is the difference. And yet neither Dominic - nor the Labour MPs who were instructed by No10 to attack me last night - will engage with the substance. Instead he claims he knows my personal views when we haven’t talked, and incorrectly describes me as a spokesman for the Free Speech Union. People like Dominic can’t work out why the ideological world they built is falling apart. They never pause to wonder if perhaps they might have got things very badly wrong.

@AlanJLSmith I'm sure there are productivity changes, but we need to ask some deep questions about changes in what we expect the state to do over that time rather than just making petulant demands that it should all just be done more cheaply and everything will be fine.

@AlanJLSmith To equate cost with productivity you need to calibrate output. Tough questions like: How many more people are being paid in-work benefits now? Social care? SEN provision in Schools? Policing new laws and regulations? Demographic and social changes are the big cost driver.

UK government spending per person: 2004: ~£8k Today: ~£18.6k Even after inflation that’s ~40% higher. Two decades of the internet. Cloud. AI. Automation. Yet public service productivity is still below 2019. Where did the efficiency gains go?

@ebury 1: Unless you are talking about our Olympic Squad, they mostly really don't. 2: When they do, they aren't breaking the law as it applies to motor vehicles only. 3: If you think this is a problem, you don't understand the physics of kinetic energy, or science of rsk management.

Cyclists do over 20mph everyday

@BishopDewar Cosplay Bishop say what?

As a Bishop, I cannot stay silent. I have today drafted and sent an open letter to His Majesty King Charles III, the text of which reads as follows: To: His Majesty, Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and the Realms, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Bearer of the ancient title Defender of the Faith. Your Majesty, I write to you neither as a politician nor as a commentator, but as one of your loyal subjects who, as a bishop of Christ’s Church, cannot remain silent while the Christian foundations of this kingdom are steadily dismantled. Sir, there are moments in the life of a nation when silence becomes a form of betrayal. If I refused to speak to Your Majesty now, this would be such a moment. For more than a thousand years the Crown of this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith. The laws of this land were shaped by it. The liberties of our people were nurtured by it. The conscience of our civilisation was formed by it. From the abbeys of medieval England to the parish churches of our villages, from the preaching of the Reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain — it has defined her. Yet today that inheritance is being quietly but deliberately eroded. Across the institutions of this nation there is a growing hostility toward the faith that built them. Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age. Within the very Church that bears the name of England, voices have arisen that appear more eager to mirror the spirit of the age than to proclaim the eternal truth of the Gospel. Meanwhile, beyond the walls of our churches, powerful political movements openly speak of removing Christianity from its historic place within the life of this nation. What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state. It is in this context that I write to you, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand apart from this crisis. The Sovereign of this realm bears a title that is not merely historic but sacred in its origin and meaning: Defender of the Faith. Those words are not decorative. They are a charge. They speak of a monarch whose duty is not merely to preside over the ceremonies of the Church, but to stand as a guardian of the Christian inheritance of the nation. Yet many among your subjects now ask, with increasing anxiety: “Who will defend that inheritance today?” They see a nation drifting from its foundations. And they ask whether the Crown will remain silent while that inheritance is dismantled. Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to observe that your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn vow made before Almighty God to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law. Those words bind the conscience of the sovereign. They remind the Crown that its authority is not merely constitutional but moral. The monarch is not merely a symbol of national continuity, but a custodian of the spiritual inheritance that shaped this realm. History records moments when kings and emperors were confronted by the Church and reminded that their authority was accountable before God. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan stood before the Emperor Theodosius I and reminded him that even the ruler of an empire must bow before the moral law of Christ. That tradition of prophetic witness has never disappeared. Nor should it. For when rulers forget the foundations upon which their authority rests, the Church must speak — not with hostility, but with holy clarity. And so, I write to say this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating assault. If the Crown does not stand visibly and courageously in defence of that inheritance, history will record that the guardians of Britain’s institutions watched in silence as the foundations were removed. The issue before us is not nostalgia. It is civilisation. Remove Christianity from the story of Britain and you do not create a neutral society — you create a moral vacuum. And history teaches us that moral vacuums are never left empty for long. Your Majesty now stands at a crossroads that few monarchs in modern history have faced. For the erosion of Britain’s Christian inheritance will not ultimately be judged by speeches made in Parliament or debates in the press. It will be judged by whether those entrusted with the guardianship of our ancient institutions chose to defend them — or merely preside over their quiet surrender. You may preside over the quiet dissolution of Britain’s Christian identity. Or you may rise to the ancient responsibility entrusted to the Crown and speak with clarity about the faith that built this kingdom. The first path requires little courage. The second will require a great deal. But it is the path that history honours. Your Majesty’s subjects are not asking for religious coercion. They are asking for leadership. They are asking that the sovereign who bears the title Defender of the Faith remember what that title means. They are asking that the Crown hear the growing cry of anguish from Christians across this land who feel that the spiritual inheritance of their nation is being surrendered without resistance. And they are asking whether the Crown will stand with them. For the faith that shaped Britain is not merely a cultural ornament. It is the wellspring from which our laws, our liberties, and our moral imagination have flowed. If it is cast aside, the nation will discover — too late — that it has severed itself from the very roots that sustained it. Your Majesty, to many the Crown is a symbol of authority. But before God it is also a symbol of stewardship. And stewardship carries with it the duty to defend what has been entrusted. May Almighty God grant Your Majesty the wisdom to discern this hour, and the courage to fulfil the sacred duty entrusted to the Crown. Yours faithfully, Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC Missionary Bishop Diocese of Providence Confessing Anglican Church @PhilHs10 @RevBrettMurphy @revwickland @BishopRobert1 @GBNews @TalkTV @danwootton @Jacob_Rees_Mogg @LozzaFox @BackBrexitBen @RupertLowe10 @KemiBadenoch @JohnCleese

@NJ_Timothy So these acts of public worship that you want to ban, will this be all faiths, or is it just some specific faiths you want to ban.

Too many are too polite to say this. But mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan - which declares there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger - is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. Perform these rituals in mosques if you wish. But they are not welcome in our public places and shared institutions. And given their explicit repudiation of Christianity they certainly do not belong in our churches and cathedrals. I am not suggesting everybody at Trafalgar Square last night is an Islamist. But the domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook. Trafalgar Square belongs to all of us. It is a national memorial to our independence and our salvation. Last night was not like a televised football match or a St Patrick’s Day celebration. It was an act of domination and therefore division. It shouldn’t happen again.

@7Kiwi I only it were possible to buy a box about the size of a small fridge that can store enough electricity to power a house for 24hrs.

The solar choke point happens every night.

@ChrisLloyd__ @NathanpmYoung Best you can say is "relatively road-safe compared to other cities". Not a win if you are a relative of one of the 100 or so people killed each year. Taking steps to reduce both phone theft and kids being killed at nursery tea parties seems like a reasonable approach?

@NathanpmYoung if London is already incredibly road-safe, idk why the mayor is investing even more resources into road safety

I thought Khan had turned his comments back on; “Thanks for your work Sadiq. Good on turning your comments back on. Let’s make the case that you’re right. Good work on crime and phone theft. Can we build some houses? I think you can be reelected but I think you have to make the argument, to X at least.”

@pjryan51 @AndyBTravels Of course it is. Who wants to sit on a seat after your dog's backside, muddy coat, paws have been on it. If you want to let your dog sit on your sofa at home, your choice, but it is truly repulsive putting it somewhere in public that other people then sit.

@AndyBTravels Are you meaning because the dogs on the seat? Shit. I have to admit I'd do that. Is it frowned on?!

I have not intervened as the guy seems a twat - but this is disgusting.

@AndyFurnival2 @SalmaYaqoob £12.50/hr equates to about £22,200/yr Employers NI & pension contribs: £3k/yr Generous £3k for training,PPE,insurance. Total on cost £28k/yr, but budget 1.2 FTEs to cover holiday, sickness: £33.6k. Revenue per employee: £51.5k Gross profit p/emp £17k, 33% margin. Not shabby.

@SalmaYaqoob You’re conveniently forgetting employer NI, Pension, Apprenticeship levy, insurances, training and other materials. Those who don’t understand business, often look silly when arguing against privatisation

Private companies charging NHS £29/hr for carers they only pay £12.50/hr. Yet we are constantly fed ‘privatisation = efficiency lie. Privatisation is a rip off.

@FatherofTheProf @dimenpsyonal Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, Wolverton, Bow Brickhill, Woburn Sands stations are all also within Milton Keynes.

@dimenpsyonal If that is Central then where are the other MK stations?

Currently in some kind of weird car centric hellscape

@PaulSuttonKing Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin written in the road in a town big enough to have a one way system between 1970 and 1984. Newport I-o-W for sure. Love the detail of workmen up a ladder in the road "protected" by a step ladder. 1970s health and safety. Only thing missing is Frank Spencer.

Today’s no googling location challenge. Some interesting cars here but the orange Avenger places it firmly in the 1970’s. I’m not familiar with this area and wouldn’t have got it. No prizes other than the bragging rights. Where is it? #postcard