no words

Paper here: www.ippr.org/articles/str...

Looks like this story encompasses what we were trying to say in our paper earlier this year - the planning system has ended up acting as the last bastion of defence against a whole suite of negative outcomes - in this case it looks like water shortages - caused by failures elsewhere in the system...

New report: Taxing landlords more is good, actually.

Since 2016, tax reforms helped slash the growth of the private rented sector and boosted first-time buyers—without hurting existing tenants.

A big housing story hiding in plain sight? ⬇️

More people than ever are clapping along to the far-right soundtrack. For me, it’s not a particularly compelling one…some of the loudest voices could use more vocal coaching…

With all the noise, I was prompted to respond to a wonderful piece by Rohan Sathyamoorthy.

Read below 👇 @theguardian.com

Amazing how those democratic lawmakers who were hunted down in their homes in the middle of the night in Minnesota weren’t a watershed moment of political violence, huh?

Amid all the reshuffle chatter, genocide in Gaza continues

The answer is "no". And to add more: "no, and what's the real (economic) reason you are asking this question?"

The failure of the government to denounce these thugs is completely fucking sickening.

This is why I have become the sort of person who politely taps on the windows of drivers stopped at traffic lights and on their phones to remind them that being on their phone while driving is illegal

This should be headline news - the implications are horrifying …

"We did a review of all of the studies globally, which included half a million road traffic injuries, and that found that if you are hit by an SUV compared to being hit by a passenger car you are 44% more likely to be killed. Among kids it's higher - it's 82%”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

"already outpacing efforts to adapt"

“Journalism is the first draft of history and killing journalists can allow history to be rewritten by their murderers.”
~Sally Hayden

The Irish Times

☕️

Latest report from me below, and here's the Guardian's coverage (thanks to the environment team for covering it).

Current policy won't deliver the emissions reductions from transport needed by 2030 and risks widening inequality. Prioritising fairness is the key to unlocking faster climate action.

I can't see a story about retail theft without thinking about this episode from @ifbookspod.bsky.social

As they say in the ep, using 2020 as baseline will obvs lead to huge % increases! (No one was shopping in 2020!)

www.buzzsprout.com/2040953/epis...

Say their names: Mu'adh Abu Taha, Maryam Abu Daqa, Muhammad Salama, and Hossam Al-Masri. Israel killed FOUR journalists today, as they bombed Nasser, as they have bombed every hospital for two years now. They’re among 275 journalists murdered by US-Israel

think that if "we must debate the fascists not no-platform them!" is your view then we have probably reached the stage, globally, where you may wish to wonder if your preferred way of doing things is actually working

Gaza is officially in a famine as Israel starves 2 million people to death. This level of suffering is completely unimaginable.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/w...

This is the direct consequence of mainstream elites like Starmer legitimising far right politics

This is as much if not more on their hands as it is on Robinson's

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Israel has acknowledged that Anas and his crew were deliberately targeted. Palestinian reporters are being systematically picked off and slaughtered as the West stands by, issuing anodyne statements and tacitly (or directly) supporting a genocidal campaign.

Journalism is not a crime.

This was the initial story on the Reuters coverage of Anas' murder. Compare to the new version on the right.

The default was to cite the IDF. When they got proper writers in to rewrite the story, we get actual journalism.

Reuters' default source was the IDF.

Think about every pro-Israel person who denied this was the plan for the past 22 months; who gaslit you; denied this to you; pretended this wasn't the plan.

And then never believe those liars about anything ever again.

Horrible story. Apologising because a trans employee had the temerity to interact with a customer. What are we becoming?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08...