Andreas SchulzeBäing

@AndyBurnhamGM You do like to use populist techniques to get your message across, perhaps, sadly, that's needed to fight a shameless populist like Farage.

I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election. I grew up in this area and have lived here for 25 years. I care deeply about it and its people. I know they have been let down by national politics. Ten years ago, I decided to leave Westminster. Why? Because, after 16 years, I came to the conclusion that our national political system does not work for areas like ours. I learnt this fighting its failure to invest in the Wigan borough, for justice for the Hillsborough families and against its treatment of Greater Manchester during the pandemic. Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics. We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures. However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again. This is why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people. Millions are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years. After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the Prime Minister and the Government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place. I want to recognise the difficult decision taken by Josh Simons and the sacrifice he and his family are making. I have worked closely with him as Mayor on issues like flooding and illegal waste dumping and have seen first-hand how effective he has been. He has put the communities of Makerfield first, made a real difference for them and should take great pride in that. Finally, I truly do not take a single vote for granted and will work hard to regain the trust of people in the Makerfield constituency, many of whom have long supported our party but lost faith in recent times. We will change Labour for the better and make it a party you can believe in again. ENDS

@thomasforth In response Brunet's blue banana, my old profs Kunzmann and Wegener proposed in the early 1990s the European Grape as an alternative regional development paradigm: spiekermann-wegener.de/pub/pdf/Patter…

The blue banana is fun because it tends to include North England and the Midlands by extending to Liverpool if the point it's making is about population and population density and it stops at London if the point it's trying to make is about productive economies.

@xvrmdf @thomasforth But that was its original purpose. Roger Brunet illustrated in the late 1980s the passive insularity of French cities including Paris, to argue for European regional economic integration.

@thomasforth Quite amusing that Paris is missing from this.

Happy belated 100th birthday to David Attenborough - worth watching this documentary again where he met the Icelandic musician Björk. youtu.be/c_jVvTW8Oco?si…

@Unusual_Times @WilliamShatner Just get a Two together rail card, it's often worth it just for two longer trips.

@WilliamShatner Bill, for my wife and I to have visited by Train, from Skipton to Liverpool, the cost would have been around £160. The journey itself is two & a half hours each way. So thats five hours on the train and the best part of £200 inc lunch. And you were literally only 65 miles away.

You think a train to Liverpool costs £300? Is that L for sterling or Lira? 🙄 🤨Are 5 of your friends traveling with you?

UK2070 Commission Chair Professor Cecilia Wong awarded RTPI Gold Medal url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/qsaZCL73oFPg…

@J_hanwell @SimonCalder @SLRRHODES @HamiltonNashHR In Cologne there are often long waits for non-EU arrivals, but that's more due to only one or two border check boots for non-EU nationals being staffed. But that's nothing to do with the new system, not yet introduced in Cologne.

@SimonCalder @SLRRHODES @HamiltonNashHR I'm travelling to Cologne this week, can I expect German efficiency?

EU entry-exit system not going well at Prague airport: busiest arrival point where the EES is due to be happening 100% on day one. Queues of up to 90 minutes reported for arrivals from the UK and other non-Schengen nations by @SLRRHODES and @HamiltonNashHR independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@sbmcnamara @the_transit_guy Those Stellplatzsatzungen in Germany often make it difficult/impossible to develop car-free settlements.

@sbmcnamara @the_transit_guy The legal requirements to provide parking space, including some onstreet are regulated in Heppenheim's Satzung über Stellplätze und Garagen. But for the historic core there are exceptions heppenheim.de/pdf/buergerser…

Where’s the street parking?!

Maybe @shockproofbeats should've read @seatsixtyone Interrail 3 day France is €165, kids under 12 free, then adults + kids 4-11 need €35 Eurostar seat resevations, plus reservations for French trains. And unlike on budget flights, this includes bags! observer.co.uk/news/columnist…

@GarethDennis At least in Istanbul they are not calling their freight and extra large bendy buses a tram - and they also have actual trams :-)

🚨 IMPORTANT REMINDER 🚨 THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A TRACKLESS TRAM!

@SCP_Hughes The exception to that are perhaps informal developments in South America, e.g. Brazil's favelas. They are perhaps more similar in density to China's urban villages, which are "kind of" informal.

@SCP_Hughes Informal urbanisation through self-built housing is easier with 1-2 storeys. And that form is more common in aub-saharan Africa. High rise requires more expertise and engineering knowledge, and formal housing. Informal housing in e.g. India is again more low rise.

Almost every city in Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly low-rise, whereas almost every city in Asia and North Africa is mostly dense mid-rise. Why is this?

NEW RESEARCH: new car bonnets are trending higher every year and drivers of high fronted cars unable to see children as old as nine 😱🚙🚸❗ #Carspreading is out of control. What’s the latest? 🧵1/9

@kitchentowel @another07047584 @SimonCalder Yes, I guess so. But the age of the ultra cheap tickets on budget airlines is mostly gone, unless you are very flexible & travel only with a very small bag. Particularly when travelling with children/luggage to the near continent, train is often similar in price to flying.

@baeing @another07047584 @SimonCalder It was also the cheap airlines that led to cutting that and the proposed cross channel sleeper too.

UK to Germany and Switzerland by rail. But not yet. Eurostar will run 4 trains a day London-Frankfurt (5h) and 3 London-Geneva (5h20m) from "early 2030s". Your view: will you use them, or do you prefer direct trains Manchester/Birmingham to Paris/Brussels? independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@40PercentGerman That map confirms to me that German food is predominantly brown/beige/yellow with a sprinkle of green :-)

I've never really understood why some people consider food in #Germany to be boring. Seems like a good variety to me...I can't pronounce half of it, but still.

@kitchentowel @another07047584 @SimonCalder It's worth remembering there once were plans for a regional Eurostar. But as it became increasingly unlikely UK would ever join Schengen, and then later brexited, those plans were quietly abandoned over the years. Plus part-cancelling of HS2 did not help. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_…

@another07047584 @SimonCalder Yes, and some kind of buggy service for those with disabilities again like an airport. Connecting hs2 and Euston better with thameslink and domestic hs1 services is an additional benefit. Use the capacity on hs1 for more varied destinations on the continent.

@SimonCalder Manchester to Brussels/Paris would be great, even as a night train beyond that - the original idea of the Regional Eurostar. But without full HS2 and not being in EU/Schengen, that won't happen anytime soon.

@the_transit_guy Is this what Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to achieve with his broadacre city dreams?

The Cleveland metro population hasn’t increased in 50 years, yet the area of developed land has nearly doubled. Our cities were hollowed out, and now we need twice the infrastructure to serve the same number of people.

@trudgeon666 @40PercentGerman Perhaps - but surely many Germans won't understand "Da war ich dann doch ziemlich gobsmacked!"?

@baeing @40PercentGerman Surely "flabbergasted" is a German word? Here, for example is Heine's poem "Die Flabbergast" set to music by Schubert.youtu.be/y9tb05DMlqg?si…

While working at a German company, I noticed managers used English buzzwords that most didn't understand. I started adding random English words & phrases to see if anyone would ask what they meant. It took weeks, the phrase that did it was "Das ist für mich nicht hunky-dory".