In the news

Let me read that for you Ed
The concert by Fally Ipupa, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, had reportedly angered opponents of the DRC regime and its president, Félix Tshisekedi, who took office just over a year ago. Opposition activists have accused Fally Ipupa of being too close to the country’s rulers.

The Guardian made it look like I need to subscribed to read the rest, turn out not to be the case.

Whall may have believed he had covered his tracks by having the Land
Rover destroyed, possibly believing any telematics data would also go
up in smoke, but his every move had been recorded and stored, back at
Jaguar Land Rover.

When police obtained the data, it provided another, key piece of the
puzzle.

It revealed Whall had parked at Porth Dafarch beach - a short walk
from Mr Corrigan's home - at 23:10 on 18 April.

The boot was opened at 23:11:04 and closed 39 seconds later. This was
Whall, said prosecutors, removing the crossbow.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51466273

That bellend got grassed up by his own motor.

https://twitter.com/nhk_news/status/1233300650903179271?s=19

Boris increasing his brood again.

Can't wait for the "Just how many is that now exactly?" questions from the journos.

Well that's a nail in Twitter's coffin. Echo chamber ahoy.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/29/paul-singer-elliott-management-twitter-jack-dorsey

On a friend's fb timeline...

1 Attachment

I didn’t think there was any doubt about that?

Johnson becoming a father for the ninth time was well known.

Altho there's a rumour that the reason he's been laying low is because his Mrs gave him a black eye.

For getting her pregnant?

Understandable...

Ha!

No. Infidelity I think.

All allegedly natch.

It always baffles me why women choose to pair up with serial philanderers, you're really asking for trouble, gurls!!

He's changed, its different this time....

"When a man marries his mistress, he creates an automatic job vacancy." Boris is the ultimate incarnation of that. Each new one seems to think she's the special one that he'll stop with. No chance.

Something about Borris's Johnson.

Downing Street vetoes access to EU pandemic warning system.

Matt Hancock’s department wanted to retain membership of the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as part of the EU-UK future relationship deal, but No 10 said “no”, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Senior health advisers warned that exiting the EWRS, which has helped coordinate the response to the virus and played a vital role during the bird flu outbreak, would put public health at risk.

However, the British negotiating team, which reports to Boris Johnson, did not want to blur the UK’s request for a basic, Canada-style trade deal, it is claimed. Every add-on requested by the UK would risk giving the EU leverage to demand post-Brexit alignment.

This is a local plague, for local people.

Drivers in the capital stop paying for London's roads next year:

Page 32 of Transport for London's Business Plan(link is external)
published in 2017 says: "We have to, for the first time, address the
critical issues of London’s road network, including congestion, road
danger, maintenance and air quality, without any Government operating
grant. Furthermore, from 2021, the £500m raised every year from
Londoners paying Vehicle Excise Duty will be collected by central
Government and only invested in roads outside the Capital.

"This means the net operating costs of London’s roads, currently
almost £200m each year, and the cost of renewing these roads, between
£100m to £150m each year, are effectively being cross subsidised from
fare-paying public transport users. This is neither sustainable nor
equitable. As a result, in the short to medium term we will have to
significantly reduce our programme of proactive capital renewals on
the road network, although we will ensure safety of the network is
maintained."

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/fc-20171205-item10-draft-business-plan.pdf

https://road.cc/content/news/271651-why-dont-motorists-pay-road-tax-cyclist-turned-boxer-zico-waeytens-has-say?fbclid=IwAR1HeywUtW1Nor8_aLzy5EF6gbxkA8x01VaKR89n4La0x4YhxX0bVrxilnE

"Furthermore, from 2021, the £500m raised every year from Londoners paying Vehicle Excise Duty will be collected by central Government and only invested in roads outside the Capital."

? The roads are probably a lot worse in other parts of the UK, but they say the upkeep alone is 200m a year. Does it not make more sense to only route 300m away from London then?

Does that mean that as an occasional public transport user, I can now start ranting at car drivers about how they don't pay for the road?

VED was never hypothecated and so the VED money was chucked into the big tax bucket along with council tax, income tax, capital gains, VAT and then roads were fixed out of council or Government funds.

The re-introduction of hypothecation was a political stunt a few years ago and doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. With it or without it the same amount is going to get spent since the amount spent on roads country-wide is way more than is collected by VED so hypothecation is meaningless.

they say the upkeep alone is 200m a year. Does it not make more sense to only route 300m away from London then?

If you keep reading there's another (up to) £150 million of that used for renewing roads.

The roads are probably a lot worse in other parts of the UK

If we're talking "probably", they're probably less used as well.

Good thing that some of the more remote parts of the UK get money from the EU for their roads and general infra.

Oh.

200+150, that means 350 in total, still doesn't make sense to me why the government decides to take more away than is necessary, rather than rethink the whole approach.

Fair enough on the quality, I don't know if there's a "pothole depth" or a "congestion cos there the roads should have been widened 10 years ago" or other metrics to compare London to the rest of the UK.

Some of the roads in Belfast city centre are a collection of patched potholes, but they haven't been renewed for a very long time, which is probably simply lack of cash allocation.

What's the motivation here, move cash to pursue the "level up" agenda for the North, and take it performatively from London to reinforce the seriousness of that?