Jamie 🏳️‍🌈

@Rombodog @jim_macfarlane @MhairiHunter You called the lady a 'moron' when making your point despite having on your bio text your apparent belief in having 'respectuful debate'. Discussing ideas, opinions and policy suggestions is good, doing so using abusive terms directed at individuals isn't.

@jim_macfarlane @MhairiHunter Lost what? I'm warning her about a danger to life.

My twitter feed is full of people saying cycle lanes are a waste of money, nobody uses them, we have the wrong kind of weather for cycling ... I don't really know why. But here are some facts.

@SCP_Hughes Platform4 has huge potential, if they get it right and keep hold of assets they build, and continue diversifying..

Japan has the world’s best railway system. 28% of Japanese passenger-kilometers are by rail. Germany manages 6.4%, and the USA manages 0.25%. Just one Japanese company, JR East, carries more passengers than China’s entire railway system, and four times as many than Britain’s. What is the secret of its success? worksinprogress.co/issue/why-japa… Part of the answer is that Japanese railway companies don't just operate trains. They run hospitals, supermarkets, department stores, amusement parks, office complexes, and retirement homes around their railway stations. One of them co-built Tokyo Disneyland. Another owns a baseball team. A third created its own all-women musical theater in 1914, which is still running today. The logic is elegant: a railway increases the developable value of land around its stations, but normally that value accrues to landowners, not the railway operator. Japanese railway companies captured this value by owning and developing the land themselves. About half of the revenue of Japanese railway companies comes from ‘side businesses’ like these. Allowing railway operators to capture more of the value they created meant that more lines were profitable, making a far larger system financially viable. This may sound like a radically novel approach. But in fact, an exactly similar system existed in nineteenth-century America. The success of Japanese railways does not lie in some unreplicable feature of Japanese culture: it lies in good policy. If they learnt the right lessons from it, many countries could replicate Japan’s success. Read more (much more) in @Borners1's & @carto_graph's new piece for @WorksInProgMag Issue 23.

@iyad_elbaghdadi @threadreaderapp unroll

Note for context: I was born & raised in the Gulf, and lived the first 37 years of my life in the UAE. I still have friends & family in the UAE & the rest of the Gulf who I love dearly and worry about daily. Anyway, on to it.

On Friday, I presented a risk assessment briefing re the Iran war to my team on an internal call. We thought it was worth sharing the notes (which were AI-transcribed & summarized), so here goes. Posting without much editing to save time.

@s8mb @Sasha_Metcalfe They do look aesthetically good. It would be interesting to know how much more the decorative and higher quality external finishes compared to the usual brick boxes built by volume housebuilders - worth looking in to?

A very attractive new development outside Newcastle at Lambton Park (via @Sasha_Metcalfe). lambtonpark.com/new-homes/

@SimonM_72 @cmonmun @tomhfh My point stands that a large number of UK headquartered manufacturing and engineering companies have been sold overseas over the past few decades and many have been asset stripped/ manufacturing shifted out the country etc

@cmonmun @jamie_th @tomhfh ARM was a British company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The shares were owned mainly by institutional investors, similar to other large companies. No single entity had majority or controlling ownership. You are right about GKN though, bought by Melrose.

People forget that in the 1990s, Britain was the fourth biggest manufacturing economy in the world. Through the 1990s the number of jobs in manufacturing *increased*. From 1993 to 1998, British manufacturing employment increased from 4.1 million to 4.3 million. Not unrelatedly, across the same timespan, electricity prices dropped by 22%. Our manufacturing crisis today is above all an energy crisis.

@tomhfh Cadbury, £11.5bn, 2010; Autonomy, £7.4bn, 2011; Invensys, £3.4bn, 2014; ARM Holdings, £24.3bn, 2016; GKN, £8.1bn, 2018; Cobham, £4bn, 2020; Meggitt, £6.3bn, 2022; Ultra Electronics, £2.6bn, 2022; DS Smith, £5.8bn, 2025. This clearly had an impact @tomhfh (2)

@tomhfh Worth noting these were sold to overseas buyers: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, £40m, 1998; Bentley Motors, £430m, 1998; LucasVarity, £4bn, 1999; BOC Group, £8.2bn, 2006; P&O, £3.9bn, 2006; Pilkington, £1.8bn, 2006; Corus Group, £6.7bn, 2007; Jaguar Land Rover, £1.15bn, 2008.. (1)

@Zaphod2042 @hallen_a This was all previously explored, check out the options around an Automated People Mover - all rejected though: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk

@hallen_a Only if it's a monorail!

Them: "What radicalised you..." Me:

75 new social housing apartments in Glebe, Sydney A cross laminated timber (CLT) structure, robust brick cladding, stunning recessed brick balconies, fully-electric and 6 star green star rating. Would *love* to see more housing like this! By JPW Architects

@bawbag201 @GlasgowCC There were 12 trees in the Square previously and they are now planting 46 - that is more, not less. This is a great thing - @GlasgowCC can be criticised for many things, but the new George Square is going to fantastic for the city.

@GlasgowCC Wow that’s great. So less trees than we had before it was concreted over and less space. Well done! Now fix the fkn potholes !

The transformation of George Square is moving into its next phase, with the planting of the 46 new trees now taking place. Watch to find out more!

Just discovered 1920s German Brick Expressionism and my life will never be the same

@tomcopley Many people who live in affordable housing are teachers, nurses, refuse collectors, bus drivers, supermarket staff and other key workers who keep our city functioning @danielmgmoylan

Conservative frontbench Lord thinks “ordinary people” don’t live in affordable housing. This is a Build to Rent scheme, so all the homes are rented including much needed London Living Rent homes. If Tory-run Harrow council had its way none of these homes would be built.

Well done to everyone involved in this at @NetworkRailSCOT- a really good way to make some good come from this unfortunate fire 👏🏻

@GlasgowCC @TheEverydayMan_ that is good to hear - @GlasgowCC what about sections of the square as they complete, can parts open up and you move the hoardings back to give the space back to Glaswegians - or is the plan to wait until after the Games to open it all at once?

@TheEverydayMan_ Yes, John - the north carriageway work will be completed next month.

Work to lay the granite setts on the north carriageway at George Square has now begun 👷‍♂️ – watch this video to find out more!

@ProfessorPape But what is the estimated $ value of the destroyed assets and infrastructure within their country? I'd guess more than $1billion..

Iran is not losing. It is gaining power. Since Feb 28, Iran has exported over 10 million barrels of oil, earning a $1 billion or more—as price of oil has soared, and shock waves hit the region and western economies.

Here's an Iftar on Trafalgar Square. And here’s Easter, Diwali, Vaisakhi and Chanukah. London is, and will always be, a place for everyone. #UnityOverDivision

@jakejakeny @QuantumFlux36 Why don't you verify things like this before you post? Makes you look stupid to be honest

Okay, the Iranian embassy in Copenhagen has just raised the Lion & Sun flag... if any other embassies do this in the next few hours, it could really mean regime collapse is happening now.

@KuittinenPetri @4ArB2 @Mads_on_X @MichaelAArouet I don't think that is correct? "Finland has mandatory language requirements for most adults seeking citizenship. To be granted Finnish citizenship, you must demonstrate at least satisfactory skills in either Finnish or Swedish."

@4ArB2 @Mads_on_X @MichaelAArouet In Finland you just need to work for 12 months (previously was 6 months) to get social welfare + all the benefits for you and your family for life. And live here 3+ years to get a pension. No need to speak, write or read Finnish, Swedish, English. Crazy system if you ask me.

Isn't it ironic that many Brits voted for Brexit because they wanted immigration to go down? How did this happen?

@AaronBastani Do you have a statement/ evidence from the company to verify your assesertion this is the reason these stores are closing?

2 Coops near us close. Why? Industrial scale shoplifting by large groups of people in halfway houses nearby. Their ‘treatment’ fails them. Now business & jobs are gone too. But the Telegraph editor is writing about… saving US empire. Why Hannah Spencer won in Gorton folks…!

@marcoacarini @Peston Are you aware that the @Conservatives decommissioned the following minesweepers? ​HMS Walney, ​HMS Ramsey, ​HMS Blyth, ​HMS Shoreham, ​HMS Grimsby, ​HMS Pembroke, ​HMS Penzance, ​HMS Atherstone & ​HMS Quorn? Only 6 left in the @RoyalNavy now.

@Peston If only the U.K. had minesweepers.

Government sources are taking seriously the possibility that Iran has placed mines in the Straits of Hormuz. They are not saying it has happened. But they pointed me to what they call open source intelligence - which turns out to be a euphemism for the American president (see attached). If there is confirmation of mines in the Straits, the oil price would soar again. Because that waterway - which is a passage for 25% of all seaborne oil - would be shut for a prolonged period. And the cost to the prosperity of the world would be very significant. For what it’s worth, the government is putting in place plans to deal with a significant economic shock, if the worst were to materialise.