This is insanely racist, fascist rhetoric. And it's gone in less than a decade from being widely considered shockingly beyond the pale to relatively close to mainstream politics. I'd laugh at horrible dumb Americans if it wasn't for a) how terrible this is for us all and b) Brexit/Reform/Farage etc.
This comes as news from LBC shows Met basically aren't following up hit & runs against cyclists. Criminal drivers are clearly considered by many police as 'unfortunate but not a priority'. The consequences of that approach to society are horrific.
HT one of the good guys @andy-cox.bsky.social !
Great to see @areeq.bsky.social for @newhamgreens.bsky.social commit to Streets for Cycling campaign in Newham, a borough making big cycling moves of late. Which other candidates to replace Mayor @rokhsanafiaz.bsky.social will commit to a cycle network?
Take action in your borough lcc.org.uk/streets
🚴♀️ Council leaders have the power to make a local safe cycle network a reality - they just need to see the demand!
Email and ask them to back Streets for Cycling 👉️ lcc.org.uk/streets
That is a comment. A worthwhile human interaction. Your other comments in this thread not so much. That was my point. Gnomic interjections that are all catchphrase and no substance achieve the same outcome as a chatbot. Whereas your last comment is far more human. Thanks.
3 years and a reopened investigation and still no decision to charge. This kind of pace and indeed approach still seems absolutely standard for roads investigation in the Met. We won't get to Vision Zero without a major cultural and institutional shift & effort from Police. Not holding my breath.
This level of debate, or rather monologuing without listening to those debating you, makes you look like a chatbot at best or worse, makes you look less able to actually debate than one. You'd be right to fear a chatbot taking your job on this basis IMO. Humanity needs better hobbies it feels like.
I'm not in disagreement with you or @kategokatego.bsky.social. We're long overdue a sensible conversation with evidence about river crossings: where does freight, buses, cycling, private motor traffic go (and how much). That would likely deal with few tall boats that 'need' to go into central Ldn.
See my reply here: bsky.app/profile/psim...
If we really wanted to put "safety first", I can think of many things we'd do before cycle helmets. 'Ban all private cars in Westminster' would be biggest single thing we could do for safety where @carlafrancome.bsky.social was. So... "safety first" right?
When it comes to safety measures for cycling. Kerb protected cycle tracks, as @carlafrancome.bsky.social was riding along, are right near top of top 10. This is why helmet wearing isn't mandatory in UK. And if we wanted to reduce head injuries, it'd be drivers and stair climbers wearing them FWIW.
Evidence on cycle helmets is very limited. While there is evidence showing helmet use reduces collision severity, there is also evidence showing in populations with lots of cycling but low helmet wearing head injuries are lower. As Sir Chris Boardman has repeatedly said, helmets aren't in top 10...
Fully agree spending a bill on the bridge would have been insane. But hey, Silvertown Tunnel cost... how much? And none of the alternatives have really properly been delivered either. Generally, walking/cycling crossings are way down priority list. Quick, let's repair another motor traffic bridge.
If we had a bolder set of folks involved (and would need from gov down to PLA), we'd maybe have been able to at least have the conversation about why mega-cruise ships & yachts need to go that far in that regularly & need that much tide time leeway etc. or whether alternatives could be found...
Port of London Authority are infamously intransigent but they are also 'forced' by decree to enable yachts with masts and also mega-size cruise ships past Tower Bridge. Thames is tidal there & these things are mega-polluters. Meant bridge had to be super-wide, lift super-high. Hence stupid cost...
Albert Bridge closes to walking, wheeling & cycling due to "movement" detected in bridge. metro.co.uk/2026/04/09/a...
While some politicians & residents want bridge reopened to cars, our @psimonk.bsky.social says we need "a grown-up conversation about all bridges & tunnels across the Thames"... 1/3
But let's also take in the same area's Elizabeth Line stations too? Manor Park, Chadwell Heath, Harold Wood, Abbey Wood. Here's Harold Wood - you can clearly see the trees. And "The Chippy". Obviously vitally and victually important for olde anciente hunting forays. maps.app.goo.gl/ujgFg1uToG3e...
Eastern edges of London's DLR clearly FTW with woeful attempts to avoid saying 'previously industrial hellscape where Stanley Kubrick did or could have filmed a war movie': Silvertown, Gallions Reach, Thamesmead, Barking Riverside, Cyprus, Abbey Road, Royal Albert, Beckton Park, Island Gardens...
Streeting is IMO worst of worst. A shiny & smoothe to insiders moral vacuum masquerading as caring. Doesn't seem like he has any moral backbone, just a hunger for power. Yet he's seemingly popular among the centre right of Labour. Which says a lot about them, frankly, and none of it good.
You'd think they could look across at what Lib/Dems did to themselves with coalition, student tuition & failed voting referendum & see the cost of betraying your base. But apparently not. They assumed no party left of them could ever do well so they were safe to cynically shift right. In all this...
'From greed for power I went all-in on an agenda designed by similarly greedy shallow men to court far right Reform voters and the culture war amplifying media and now we realise those folks were never going to support Labour, as widely predicted, and we are losing ground to Greens, sorrynotsorry'.
🙋♀️ Want a safe, connected cycle network in your borough? Ask for it!
👨💻 Email your local election candidates today: lcc.org.uk/streets
(Sunday nights also! I'm on holiday this week and my sense of days is clearly askew, happily so for once!)
In summary, Friday nights aren't for fighting on social media surely? And assuming 3 people being mean to you about 3 different subjects is a pattern applicable to an entire party, let alone that they're picking on you when you're out arguing on social media, seems worthy of some introspection IMO.
On top of this, the idea that Green activists are somehow tribal but activists for other parties including Labour are by implication not is risible. I've spent enough time around political activists to know that all too often the accusations you levy at Greens would also be case for Labour ones...
Does not seem from the outside so much like a bunch of tribal Greens attacking anything positive about Labour so much as it could be seen as you, rather angrily, looking for fights on social media and then blaming the Greens for a handful of disparate folks fighting you on disparate subjects...
About 4 people disagreed with you on other issues. 1 of which I can't see because they're blocked by me. Which on here is really rare & telling. 1 of which challenges you as above on Sure Start and seems frankly worryingly angry. And the others challenge you on Epstein/Mandelson etc. This imo...
Read this, felt sad, then read your replies yesterday which led me back here. You're right that it's ok to like some things Labour does and dislike others. But the Sure Start battle seems down to 1 person, who has major beef over Labour's treatment of disabled people far as I can see...
This is a bang on thread from @brenttoderian.bsky.social about how politicians need to get smart on how to listen to residents but also lead and deliver at pace. All too often 'consult more/better' is code for delay, weaken, cancel action & favour the status quo while our cities stay broken...
What's the most powerful thing London politicians can do to help more people cycle? Commit to building a proper cycle network before May's elections.
Please take 1 minute today to ask your next council leader to commit to that simple ask: lcc.org.uk/streets
Then tell friends/family to do same.
Latter broadly. The cost of closing that many roads for that long and the policing bill seems to be a major issue. Silvertown Tunnel also oddly appears to be a sticking point for TfL. But I don't understand how Bogota can close huge swathes of city weekly for millions of residents and London can't.