This one roundabout will cost ~40% of what the UK government spent on supporting local bus services outside London in 2025.

@gazza-d.bsky.social on Bluesky FFS. Despite being evaluated as poor value for money at almost £800 million the govt has announced that a big junction on the A19 will be upgraded. The money could be better spent on alternatives. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/government-confirms-major-upgrades-notorious-33663941

Well it seems that's their way to waste more of taxpayers money around the UK. bsky.app/profile/did:...

Children on the Witney Walking Bus

Today saw the launch of a Walking Bus in Witney – “much like a normal bus route but on foot”, encouraging children to walk to school. The first route is to Witney Community Primary School, but West Oxfordshire District Council says there is the potential for more routes in the future.

Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire elected Paris mayor, as National Rally fails to take key cities City hall veteran beats rightwinger Rachida Dati in French capital, while far-right RN fails to win Marseille and Toulon in French local elections

Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire arrives on bicycle after being elected mayor of Paris www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Schoolgirl, 12, raises final funds for zebra crossing Amalie says the council

Why the absolute hell does a child need to raise money for a zebra crossing so her and other kids can cross a busy road safely.
That council should be ashamed of itself.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

Children at an Edinburgh hospital painted pebbles for the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo and will be able to watch them choose and present them to their mates via livestream.

#SundayMorning

Reform UK suspends Scottish candidate less than a day after announcing him Stuart Niven found to have diverted Covid grants to personal account as party faces criticism for candidates’ Islamophobic remarks

Reform has suspended one of its 73 Scottish candidates on day one, over diverting Covid grants to personal accounts. Defending candidates who said Humza Yusuf "not British" & who supported Britain First + Tommy Robinson, saying those posts were prior to selection!
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Does anybody in the UK support this?

The answer is no.

I'm not going to recirculate the racist list of MPs by 'foreign descent' [sic; they mean not white], but a notable aspect is that it includes people with a white parent born in England. The one drop rule still lives on in the fevered minds of racists today

It has not happened since 1957.

Calling for expulsion and deportation of the Deputy Speaker - simply on grounds of birthplace, race and faith - and for the deportation of other MPs (based on the views they have expressed but in combination with their ethnic heritage) is a stronger case than Junor.

I wonder if Lucy White herself could now be summoned to the bar of the Commons as a Stranger, given her public/broadcast calls for MPs + a deputy speaker to be deported. (Or maybe just ban her from the estate?)

A party in parliament engages directly with her: a member + activist + ambassador.

Given the rapid unscheduled disassembly of Reform's Scottish election candidates' selections today, it's worth remembering what Nigel Farage promised about the quality and rigour of his party's revamped selection process in January - here's a #ReformUK thread 👇🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🧵1/4

Labourism and Social Conservatism "Social conservatism has always been part of Labour!", so wrote Connor Naismith last week. Seeing that Labour suffered humiliation in Manch...

"The danger, the existential threat to Labour lies not in the call for the party to be less racist and binning off Blue Labour, but in its refusal to act as the political fulcrum of the class that made it. And this is why that class is now turning elsewhere."

NHS hospitals urged to reject £330m data platform part-owned by Trump ally The NHS Federated Data Platform is designed to collate information from across the service so hospitals can analyse it more easily and improve how care is delivered and supporters say it is already he...

Palantir has no place in our NHS.

The Labour government must get this Mandelson and Trump backed company out now.

Listen to what health workers are saying.

news.sky.com/story/nhs-ho...

Sad to see the Ides of March becoming commercialised like this. I really feel like we're losing track of the true spirit of the holiday. It's not about how many knives you can stick in a tyrant all at once, it's about the whole community coming together to stab the tyrant as many times as possible.

These are literally war crimes, under the Geneva Conventions.

‘It beggars belief’: MoD sources warn Palantir’s role at heart of government is a threat to UK’s security Experts say that claims UK data remains under government ownership miss the point that the company has the capability to build its own detailed picture of the British population, and even infer state ...

"Palantir, the US AI surveillance and security firm with hundreds of millions of pounds in UK government contracts, poses 'a national security threat to the UK', according to two anonymous high-level sources working with the Ministry of Defence."

Philippe Chancel's photos of the Nazi hunting Rockabilly street gangs of 80s Paris.

What is it with Nigel Farage and the people he associates with?

Me walking a bike and a bike lane with two kids sitting on it

Don’t consider myself an advocate, urbanist, activist or part of some fringe group. Just a dad that was tired of their kids losing their childhood independence at the hands of a toxic and normalized car culture

Quite sad that wanting kids to walk/bike/roll safely to school is considered radical.

Phillipson accuses lawyers of exploiting parents of children with special needs Education secretary claims lawyers’ criticisms of her department’s policy changes are motivated by profit

What is supremely daft about this line of attack from Phillipson is that any lawyer motivated by profit would not be acting in special needs cases.

There are far more lucrative areas for any lawyer motivated by profit.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Phillipson said: “It’s been little surprise to me that there’s been such vociferous criticism from lawyers about the changes that we’re bringing. You know, they’ve got a vested interest in maintaining the failed status quo. There’s profit to be made. “They want the system to remain as it is, because they make a profit often out of exploiting parents. And I don’t, for one second, blame parents [who] are pushing really hard for what their children need. Who wouldn’t? But it’s a fundamentally unfair system if parents who’ve got the money to hire lawyers end up getting a better deal than those who don’t.

Incoherent, populist ('let's kill all the lawyers') garbage, from Bridget Phillipson.

If you "don't blame parents" for "pushing really hard for what their children need," and "hiring lawyers" means you "get a better deal" aren't parents right to hire lawyers, and what is it lawyers are doing wrong?

When your brand is so mistrusted that rebranding yourselves as Estate Agents counts as an upgrade

There are other reasons for the UK government not to award or continue Palantir contracts but this statement of intent by its CEO must surely be decisive?

“In essence: Palantir commercially colonised the Ministry of Defence because the Ministry of Defence let them.”

Rob Mullins: “Biological Sex”, Social Segregation, and the Freedom to Reassign Sex Following the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 (“FWS”), there has been much public debate about the lawfulness of policies adopte…

1/ A short thread on my post. I've been travelling and wanted to make some additional points. ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/03/09/r...

A company being awarded UK Government contracts👇🏻

Four weeks ago today I was in college, A plumber learning how to plaster. And today I'm in parliament, as an MP. And being here is the honour of my life. But I don't want this to be unusual or exceptional. I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these benches. And where I'm from, we're taught to look after each other. To look out for each other. To stick up for each other and to stick together. To see each other as human. And I am so proud of that humanity, and that people in Gorton and Denton, and Burnage, and Levenshulme and Longsight and Abbey Hey feel that way too. It's in our blood and in our bones. We see each other as human Where I'm from, we give a nod to the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, we remember the farm worker and seamstress Hannah Mitchell, the Trade Unionist Mary Quaile and the mill worker Annie Kenney. And of course Elsie Plant, who’s from just down the road from me, and who I named one of my beautiful greyhounds after. I think of these brilliant women a lot and especially today as we debate International Women’s Day. And I think of many others too, from pits, slums and factories. The women who changed the system so that I could be here. The women of colour, whose names we will never know because history didn't bother to recognise or remember them. But we do today, because without their struggle and their fight and their determination to stick together, none of this could be possible. And it's bittersweet, to recognise these brilliant people but to be reminded that we still need to try and be them. The constituency that elected me is the 15th most deprived constituency in the country. It has suffered decades of neglect and broken promises. And we see this every day, right in front of us - the litter, the flytipping, the state of housing, the struggle for a job that you can build a life on, the filthy polluted air and the reduced life chances. The sheer unfairness of it all.

And my constituency has been hit hard by the ongoing cost of living crisis. And now none of this is fair, none of this is right, and none if it happens by accident. So I very much share my predecessor’s strong commitment to tackling health inequalities and putting local people and all our communities at the heart of decision making. That’s how we begin to turn things around, to give people agency, and a genuine chance of a better today and a better tomorrow. And to the girls who I saw photos of [sorry], who went to school on International Women's Day dressed as ‘Hannah the plumber’ in their overalls, spanners, and trademark hair. To the 10 year old boy at Hideout who rockclimbed an incredibly high wall with me and who saw me suddenly become very terrified of how far up I was, and who said to me ‘don’t ever give up, and if it's scary looking down then just look at what's in front of you’. To the women in my life who’ve had my back, who've fought for equality alongside me. And to the men that I work with (especially the lads on my plastering course who dealt with my new found spotlight in the middle of our training very well), but those men who will suffer the effects of this unequal society through their mental health. To the veterans I know who were willing to risk everything and come home and find that society was turning its back on them. To the white working classes, who are always lumped into one group and never appreciated. To everyone who will have nowhere to sleep tonight, or will barely exist in a cold, damp and insecure home. To my Trans siblings who get blamed for everything.

To the Muslims everywhere who are constantly and often violently scapegoated. To the disabled people who can't access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable. To the people of colour, who have to work harder at everything. I don't always get it, I won't say I always understand it. But what I do know is what it feels like to be looked down on. To be let down and left behind. To be less worthy because of something about me. And our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same. We always stick together- we always fight for each other. And that is what I want us to take forward from International Women’s Day - and to do that every single day. The cleaners, the bus drivers, the nursery workers, the foster carers, the home carers, the unpaid carers, the teaching assistants, the bin collectors, the warehouse workers, the delivery drivers, the school dinner staff, the lollipop wardens, the supermarket workers, the posties, the library staff, the kitchen porters, the farm workers, the mechanics, the groundworkers, the scaffolders, the electricians, the plasterers, and the plumbers. We deserve to be here. Every single one of us. And I will make space for you to come and join me, to get to have your say. And from the bustle of Longsight market, to the many Irish pubs in Levy, Sue's Chippy and Tony at California wines in Gorton, the amazing young people at Hideout, the best hash brown butty at Cafe Plus in Denton, and the women-led social enterprise at Dahlia Café on Burnage Lane. You are the best of our brilliant communities.

I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positives about our community - the spirit, the warmth, the grit, and the way that we help each other out, every single day. Whether that’s our neighbours where we live or our siblings in places like Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan, Iran. Wherever we are, we deserve to live freely as the human beings that we all are. We do things differently in Manchester and it makes me proud every single day. And now I want to make Abbey Hey, Levenshulme, Burnage, Longsight, Gorton and Denton proud of me - thank you so much for putting your faith in this plumber and newly qualified plasterer. Together, we can make hope normal again. And we will look after each other, whoever we are. Because where I'm from, that is just what we do. Thank you.

"Together, we can make hope normal again. And we will look after each other, whoever we are. Because where I'm from, that is just what we do."

New Green MP Hannah Spencer has made he first speech to the Commons today, and the transcript is well worth a read.

University staff demand fair pay & an end to sector wide cuts UCU alongside its sister unions, Unison, Unite, EIS & GMB has today (Tuesday) demanded university bosses protect pay, protect jobs and improve working conditions across the sector.

30% real-terms pay cut since 2011.

Vice-chancellors attempting 15,000+ job cuts since last September.

UCU & sister unions are fighting back - submitting our 2026/27 pay claim to UCEA demanding fair pay, protected jobs & an end to casualised contracts.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1443...