Yeah, it’s not exactly a fun walk even now. I normally go through Soho if I’m in the area even if it takes longer.

I read a while back that the average speed of a bus in central London is 3 (three!) miles per hour.

You are right that they can’t compete directly with online shopping, but that’s not why people go there. Studies have consistently shown that closing shopping areas to through-traffic is good for businesses, precisely because it makes them easier, not harder, to access. Shops don’t benefit in any way from hundreds of cars (or, in this case, buses and taxis) driving past them!

EDIT: Thought I should link to a specific study rather than just vaguely waving at them. There are many to choose from but this one is particularly interesting because it’s from the US, where they generally don’t have good cycling and public transport infrastructure, but it still shows benefits for businesses:

While we observed some mixed results, we generally found that street improvements have either positive impacts on corridor economic and business performance or non-significant impacts.

It’s important to note that nothing always works everywhere (‘some mixed results’, here), but the balance of evidence is in favour of at least trialling traffic reduction schemes in commercial districts.

What about this one person I heard about who’s old and also blind and she needs to take her cat to the vet and if she can’t drive at 30mph past a primary school her cat will die? What about her?

If you want to help, blood.co.uk is the place to sign up!

A salutary reminder that humans can hallucinate things better than any bot.

Yeah, I was worried their misinformation, combined with understandable frustration with some of Labour’s actual policies, would swing it to the Tories.

Yep, smashed it. I voted for him and I’m pleased for the guy. Not many people have had to put up with the level of shit he’s had. I hope the Tories will recognise there’s no electoral mileage in banging on about cars and dogwhistling about Muslims, but if they were capable of that, they most likely wouldn’t be Tories.

The polls were still way off, though. A 10% lead is great, but it’s not a 20% lead!

True, but if they win that will validate the strategy and they’ll get worse!

PSA to everyone:

Remember to bring photo ID.

You cannot vote without it. Along with abolishing STV, the requirement for photo ID was brought in by the Tories as a deliberate strategy to suppress their opponents’ vote. Don’t let them get away with it!

I’d actually be okay with any of those, though not necessarily for those reasons! But then, unlike the writers of the Mail, I’m not constantly on the lookout for reasons to go insane.

You’ve now got me thinking they should’ve gone with the Clement Attlee line for the old East London line.

Yeah, it’s a bit vague, really. Named after both the concept of freedom and the… medieval municipal administrative unit?

It’s now the Suffragette line.

The Mail would’ve named all six after Kate Middleton. Middleton line, Duchess of Cambridge line, Princess of Wales line, etc.

I was thinking that, too. These can’t be the only ‘unreadable’ ancient scrolls. We might be on our way to uncovering a huge number of previously lost texts!

He was the original furry! Cosplayed as a bull and as a swan. And as a, uh, golden shower, on one memorable occasion.