Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦

Six-panel meme from The Simpsons. In the first panel, Superintendent Chalmers points at Principal Skinner and says, “GOOD LORD, WHAT ARE YOU NEGOTIATING IN THERE?” Second panel: Skinner replies, “GREENLAND FRAMEWORK.” Third panel: Chalmers says, “A PERMANENT FRAMEWORK ON GREENLAND? IN AN HOUR? WITH THE HEAD OF NATO? WITHOUT DENMARK?” Fourth panel: close-up of Skinner saying “YES.” Fifth panel: Chalmers asks, “WELL CAN I SEE IT?” Sixth panel: Skinner, half-lit by a red glow, replies, “NO.”

Thank you Mr President, that clears things up.

I sometimes feel like I am going mad.

Owning a £1.5m home is not normal in London or the South East of England.

😂
Even then there's no impediment to driving from Cowley Rd to that posh pen shop on High St (presumably parking on Merton St).

Building contractors will typically use a van to get to the site. Vans are unaffected by the congestion charge. It's good news for van drivers who are no longer sat in congestion! That's 3 councillors now who clearly don't understand the policy. Are they ignoramuses or liars?

Utter nonsense. The drive from Didcot to Cowley Rd is completely unaffected by the congestion charge gates.

Say what you like about Rachel Reeves, she has done wonderful things for tenants' rights awareness

"Nutpicking" has a longer history. I've traced the origin of the term back to what appears to be its invention in 2006: web.archive.org/web/20060820...

It was Helen Lewis: 'nutpicking'.

Thank you!

IIRC @stephenkb.bsky.social gave a snappy name to the act of mining for the most idiotic takes you can find - what was it? Because it's in overdrive today.

In case it's not obvious to anyone, they don't genuinely care about the fire risk. It's just an excuse - they simply don't want it.

As @duncanstott.bsky.social points out in The Other Place, West Oxfordshire District Council declared a Climate Change and Ecological Emergency in 2019.

Had not expected to have to verify my age to send a message about rail subsidies on Bluesky! The camera took one look at me and decided immediately I was over 18...

Choosing parenthood is choosing to neglect hobbies.

Give people a say over wind turbines or nothing, plenty will opt for nothing. Particularly when they've opted for rural living.

Another quarter not only stayed sane, but positively thrived under an authoritarian lockdown. I think that in itself increased public appetite for heavier-handed government.

Making indoor temperatures vastly more comfortable, and the only trade-off is a urban-localised 1°C temperature increase? I'm sold, get the A/C installed.

Bizarre discussion on the radio likening air condition to passive smoking because it accounts for 3% of CO2 emissions.

But: we don’t moralise turning heating on in winter, and heating accounts for 15% of emissions. If aircon is intrinsically immoral, so are radiators.

Lol.

"This is what we believe"

Lifetime ISAs leave some with less money than they put in, MPs warn MPs call for reform to the savings account which aims to help people save towards retirement or a first home.

"It noted a surge in withdrawal charges, with almost double the amount of people making an unauthorised withdrawal (99,650) compared to the number of people who used their LISA to buy a home (56,900) in 2023-24"

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Solar PV was not the cause of the blackout': Report on Spain's power outage reveals failure of thermal plants a key factor Renewable energy advocates accuse commentators who blamed renewables for black out of 'jumping the gun and oversimplifying the cause'

Will be interesting to see if certain media outlets just ignore the report from the Spanish government confirming the key role of thermal power plants in the Iberian power outage or still try to erroneously spin it as a failure of renewables. www.businessgreen.com/news/4515109...

Cartoon by Stephen Collins for the Guardian, here's the script: [Scene is the inside of a SOUP. Some CARROTS and BITS OF BROCCOLI are floating around and a STOCK CUBE and a BAY LEAF have just been dropped in.]  1 STOCK CUBE: Alright lads - this is Bay Leaf. My colleague from the spice rack. 2 BROCCOLI: Hi Bay Leaf BAY LEAF: Yuh yuh hi 3 CARROTS: You up for getting proper blended with us later, Bay Leaf? BAY LEAF: Nuh mate, getting scooped out before soup stage. 4 CARROTS: Oh! So… you’re not being eaten then? BAY LEAF: Eaten! Haha 5 BAY LEAF: Not allowed mate. I’m afraid I’m a lil’ bit *toooo intense*... 6 BAY LEAF: Just here for the flavour hit. Special forces, y’know. That’s why there’s just one of me. 7 BAY LEAF: Over-deploy and you’d have this whole soup stiiinking of bay leaf… 8 BAY LEAF: You might wanna stand back actually. This place is about to get preeetty bay leafy... 9 [Silent pause] 10 CARROTS: Are you doing something BAY LEAF: Sure am mate. 11 BAY LEAF: Suuuuure am. 12 BAY LEAF [Getting scooped out by chef’s spoon]: You need training to perceive it. CARROTS: OK

I’m convinced this is how a bay leaf would talk

Fab local reporting. Oxford should be getting congestion charging as soon as this autumn! 💪

Meh. Is flooding a worse crisis than the housing crisis? Oxford has both bad, but the housing crisis is a constant drag on more people all the time.

The same principle backpropagates up the system. If a consultee wants to effectively object, they need to do so in a timely manner.

Is that a bug and not a feature? </cynicism>

Auto-approval after 6 months of indecision?

Administrative challenge with that, making sure recipients of several of those benefits only receive WFP once.