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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sure there would be fewer irritable reactions if he wasn't the "Matt nails it again" for Economist subscribers.

Reposted by Bob Melling

Huddersfield Exposed @huddersfield.exposed · 1d

Always interesting to compare the Halifax Piece Hall with the Huddersfield Cloth Hall (built 1766). The latter was reportedly described as the "ugliest building in Europe" and few were sad to see the long-disused building razed to the ground at the end of the 1920s.

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Reposted by Bob Melling

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal

"Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport."

www.economist.com/internationa...

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

Well he's not going to do a Hull accent is he. (I reckoned it was more Cas than Barnsley though)

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

This isn't just about transit.

It's also worth considering how every additional project taken on by local and regional government builds local state capacity.

JP Spencer @jpspencer.bsky.social · 2d

The map below shows how far behind France and Germany we are in mass transit. In France, every place with over 150,000 people has some form of tram or metro.

But if mayoral areas can 'become builders' as @tracybrabinmayorwy.bsky.social puts it in the foreword, we can turn this around.

🧵

1/9

The UK has very few mass transit systems compared to peers

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

Tory conference had me daydreaming about a rule that all UK born prime ministers should have a prominent, centrally funded statue in the town of their birth.

Just because it would be funny to force Oxford to memorialise Liz Truss and Johnson would be irritated by missing out.

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

What's going on here though?

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

From this.

www.centreforcities.org/data/high-st...

High streets catchment data tool - Centre for Cities

The size of a high street’s catchment is an important factor in determining its success. This data tool reveals how catchments vary across city centres, whether competition with other centres influenc...

www.centreforcities.org

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

Shocked to discover that Huddersfield's shopping catchment area is Huddersfield (as defined in Redcliffe-Maud).

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Reposted by Bob Melling

Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 2d

In the depths of the internet I just ran across a subgenre of Irish fanfic that re-writes Thomas Hardy novels and sets them in Ireland

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 2d

Good, factual refutation of Jenrick from @stephenkb.bsky.social

It's also hard to believe that Jenrick is honestly pitching for the diffusion of visible ethnic minorities amongst white british populations or that this would appeal to his target audience.

on.ft.com/42sNfEq

Thank the Tories for keeping Robert Jenrick out of high office

Shadow justice secretary’s comment about not seeing a ‘white face’ shows he does not understand integration

on.ft.com

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 3d

That's the great thing about powerful local corporations actually acting like corporations, and capturing the value generated by their control of services.
Labour could hate the local control and patchiness of cover, the conservatives could hate the public sector power.

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Reposted by Bob Melling

James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 7d

It’s a real mystery why the populists are doing so well when we’re told that everyone in politics is dodgy and corrupt.

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 8d

Pub renamed because the owner is an attention seeking throbber!

share.google/wkNYYkgSdVg5...

Wallasey pub renamed The George Orwell in digital ID cards protest

The James Atherton has been renamed in a bid to spark debate about civil liberties.

share.google

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 8d

Ynys Môn has the second highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales, it has a Plaid MP, a Plaid MS. 68% of the population was born in Wales.

I know it's popular with English retirees but I'm not sure it's settler central.

Reposted by Bob Melling

Robert Shrimsley @robertshrimsley.bsky.social · 8d

If you feel the need to do something in the wake of the Manchester attack why not donate to the Community Security Trust, the organisation that works to keep jews in Britain safe

cst.org.uk/donate-now

Donate Online Now – CST – Protecting Our Jewish Community

cst.org.uk

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Reposted by Bob Melling

Sarcophagus Gibbs @sararoseg.bsky.social · 8d

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

Remind me again how listing preserves buildings.

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

Not Keir's fault. It's the Green book rules.

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 9d

why won't keir starmer let him have sex with his wife :(

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 9d

In the WTAF department: Labour peer Lord Glasman has personally apologised to Farage for Starmer’s statement that Farage is a racist.

“I’m ashamed. It’s a disgrace.”

He went on Farage’s own GB News show.

Glasman is the architect of Blue Labour, the ultra-conservative Labour pressure group.

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

What's the argument?

Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

The Wellcome "people of the British isles" study

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Reposted by Bob Melling

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 9d

In addition, I think also: politics is about argument! When I say 'the free movement of services, goods, capital and people is good for growth', I am not saying it because it is popular, but because it is true. It is in fact racist to say that mixed-race people should be deported!

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 9d

The idea that "the median voter will feel attacked" by challenging Reform over racism is certainly not shown by the data in this piece. It shows they may be indifferent. (It may mean a different important swing voter, who isn't the median voter)

The New Statesman @handle.invalid · 9d

Crying racism only hurts Labour

Activists like it, but the median voter will feel attacked.

📊 @bwalker.uk

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

I don't have a version of this going well, or badly.

I just think it's a symptom of the UK's dysfunction that some sort of possibly historical, maybe linguistic nationalism is seen as the valid basis to decentralise power.

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Bob Melling @bobmelling.bsky.social · 9d

Yes, it dates back to the time of King Mark. They keep it in a crypt in Bodmin.