Martin Boon
4.1K posts
@martinboon
“Battle hardened veteran of the polling industry”.
Every bookstore should have a cat.
EXCL: Senior Labour politicians across London warning govt not to take progressive voters for granted amid concerns they face “political earthquake” in May after surge for Greens. They have been privately circulating new data that suggests Labour could drop from first to fourth place in London – losing control of all but two of their councils – with the Greens soaring into first place to take nine. New modelling indicates Labour, which holds 21 boroughs, could lose flagship authorities like Hackney and Lambeth, although the Greens would struggle to field 1800 + candidates across capital. Reform could take one: Barking and Dagenham. However, Nigel Farage’s party could win 132 seats and be largest party in Havering. theguardian.com/politics/2026/…
Only if they're stupid. Student loans are such a good deal that any sane rich person has their kids take the maximum amount they're eligible for.
Yes but no. 👍Croydon’s clear rules DID lead to a doubling of small site development by de-risking planning (v good) 👎BUT by having no rules on popular design the changed policies were unpopular locally, led to some real horrors & meant that NIMBYs were fundamentally correct in their complaints that the suburb was losing its nature. The policy was reversed after 3 years, indeed we understand the policy helped lead to the defeat of the Labour Council against the London-wide political swing. Any policy, which is that unpopular & politically unsustainable is clearly not working. One of the officials responsible for the scheme (in our hearing at a public meeting) was openly dismissive of public design preferences. Whoops! Far better is to create a sustainable policy. Fortunately, this is possible. Here’s how …
🚨 NEW: The first by-election poll from Gorton and Denton shows Reform UK winning the seat ➡️ REF - 30% 🔴 LAB - 27% 🟢 GRN - 17% 🔵 CON - 6% 🔶 LD - 2% Don't knows - 18% Via @FindoutnowUK, 143 sample size, January 26-27
Quite a big correction by the OBR here. Reeves has nuked schools budget, but somehow forgot to mention it.
For years, critics mocked King’s insistence that buildings should be humane with legible streets, rhythm, depth & materials encouraging care, not contempt. New study co-authored by our founder @boys_nicholas with Prof Nikos Salingaros put the common-sense view to a simple test..
A chart to make @thomasforth's blood boil, via @resfoundation. Imagine if we actually let other cities build transport systems!
In life, the answer you get depends on who you ask. In Vancouver, only 38% of self-selecting respondents backed new homes on a local site. But when a representative survey was held, support rose to 65%. In @CityAM, I make the case for @RepPlanningGrp👇 cityam.com/the-silent-maj…
