I reckon the day after the local elections with outsider Colonel Alistair Scott Carns, DSO, OBE, MC, MP as the new leader.

It's appalling from BBC News, but not surprising given they have provided Farage with a prominent broadcast platform since Brexit.

BBC News this morning...I'm not sure the graphics are wise for a supposedly independent news channel.

I wonder if you’d see it differently if you lived in a rural area like most of Cambridgeshire, where public transport is extremely limited and relying on your car is essential.

It's funny how the government stays quiet about receiving the difference between the half-hourly wholesale price (often set by gas) and the cost paid to newer renewable contract generators.

The mistake we've made is to incentivise renewables without pairing it with grid-scale electricity storage tech.

This leaves gas as the UK's primary source of stored energy having phased out coal.

To push gas out of the system we need to develop and deploy, at scale, electricity storage.

No, I suspect not.

I think this announcement will put pressure on the early wind farms, which generously get paid the wholesale price (often set by gas), with the threat of a tax if they don't comply.

To change marginal pricing on HH market is a huge step and has many unintended consequences.

Even in market towns like St Neots, supermarkets such as Waitrose, M&S, and Lidl are conveniently located near parking. I suspect this is because most people prefer to carry their weekly shopping only a short distance to their car rather than haul it by hand, bike, bus, or train?

Indeed, you'd be hard pressed to find two cities more different than Peterborough and Cambridge.

The combined authority area is far too small, and too rural, to benefit from the economies of scale seen in urban CAs like Manchester (x20) or London (x50 larger than Cambridge).

I live in a village and rarely visit St Neots because of the parking situation, and when I do, it’s surprising how many older people I see at the payment machines looking completely confused about how to pay. These kinds of things put people off from visiting market towns and spending money there.

I do question whether urban decision makers understand rural areas, particularly in Cambridge(shire).

Cambridgeshire is predominantly rural with only about 1/8 living in the city. Most of these rural residents have little, if any, public transport and are therefore 100% dependent on their cars.

I ageee

Maybe evidence is not in the format you prefer but how else do you explain the growth in of out-of-town shopping that coincides with the demise of market towns (where parking has to be paid for)?

Somehow market towns have to fight back or they will fade away - what other solution do you suggest?

For anyone who doubts BBC News promote Reform please see this morning's BBC News (at 6:10) where Reform policies are presented with full Reform branding...yes this is on BBC News!

Incredible!

See here on iPlayer about 6:10 in
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Exactly, Starmer would be much better off saying that as plainly as he can.

It might well risk upsetting Trump, though what doesn't, but it'd be the honest answer that everyone believes is the most likely explanation.

No it's Peterborough and Huntingdonshire DC as stated in the article "working in partnership with Peterborough City Council and Huntingdonshire District Council".

St Neots is in Huntingdonshire

Take Waresley, 15 miles from Cambridge, with one bus per week into St Neots. Leave at 10:08 and return at 13:00 on Thursdays - that's the entire timetable for the whole week.

See why these people rely on cars?

enjoy taxpayer funded public transport options within the city.

Just a few miles outside that city, people rely entirely on their cars since public transport options are scarce or non-existent.

Market towns, like St Neots, desperately need to attract shoppers in from surrounding villages (with no public transport) to keep the High Street alive. Free parking is how out of town won and towns need to repeat that trick.

I realise urban residents will never understand this issue as they...

That would assume Labour had leadership...they don't they are directionless with a follower in the PM role.

It's the marginal pricing formula used for the half-hourly wholesale market that keeps electricity tied to gas prices - as the last unit of generation needed to meet demand sets the price for *all generators* for that half hour. Most often that last bit comes from gas fuelled power station.

My money's on Colonel Alistair Scott Carns, DSO, OBE, MC

Changing the electricity market away from marginal pricing isn't a trivial project! I'm sure there are many unintended consequences if it's not really well thought through and planned.

Agreed, the BBC have handed Farage a huge platform since the Brexit days. I assume it's because they crave the clicks in our attention economy.

Why BBC News, a publicly funded organisation, are chasing clicks is a big question.

A natural follower rather than a leader?

Yes, definitely. Reform, and before it the Brexit Party and UKIP, held very few parliamentary seats, yet their influence on UK politics has been enormous.

You don't need parliamentary seats to have a big influence on politics.

Do you think Labour would be doing all the performatively cruel policies if Reform didn't exist?

I suspect not. Whilst "forcing" might not have been the best word Labour have clearly been dragged onto Reform turf for a fight they cannot win.

Yes, agreed. Labour completely misunderstood the GTTO vibe as implicit support for themselves, which might explain their poor standing in the polls today.

Ok, if Reform didn't exist do you think Labour would have adopted these performatively cruel policies on their own?

I suspect not, they have been dragged to this place because they are trying to win back their xenophobic "hero voters" who prefer Farage's brand of macho identity politics.