In the news

“I think I counted almost 30 in the last year: pensions, planning, peerages, public sector pay, tuition fees, childcare, second referendums, defining a woman – although in fairness that was only 99% of a U-turn.”

I don't get what the 'joke' was about 99%.

Apparently Starmer had said that "99% of women don't have a penis" in response to a question.

Ah, thanks. Sunak isn't going to survive an election campaign, he's as slow on his feet as May was.

The party of fiscal responsibility

• ministers have secretly lowered performance standards for Govia Thameslink Railway after it failed on most measures of service quality

• the softening of the targets could trigger millions of pounds in bonus payments to the company

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1755858117835812881?t=wmw0TA1hFABnjY7Q-ojnMA&s=19

https://twitter.com/bethbourdon/status/1756082579462115554

Criminal mastermind.

Was she expecting ten reddit posts with advice from people with the same issue?

Nope, probably "one crazy trick that people are only just now realising"

From replies:

Once had a (serious) armed burglary case where google searches were:
“$800,000 homes in [city where burglary occurred]” & “how to kick in a
door without making noise”

Sunak £342 a day peerages to be UK unelected lawmakers for life to a
barrister removed from a flight by armed cops, council leader who
bragged about trying to kill moles with a blowtorch and three Tory
donors.

https://twitter.com/Kevin_Maguire/status/1756203112547701039

Such a friendly smile

Is this the guy who the "What we do in the Shadows" make-up artists used as a reference?

Tay has arrived at the stadium for the Super Bowl!!!!!

Oh thank god; I must turn over from MotD immediately

I didn't put my 50 quid in to get rich, I did it to help nudge London towards bicycle taxis and delivery services. I'm a bit glum about being pushed out but I still want PedalMe to succeed. I hope the other Crowdcubers don't sue them.

edit: There are Crowdcubers on Reddit who claim to have put in £500 or £1000. No mention of legal action yet https://www.reddit.com/r/londoncycling/c­omments/1ah656k/pedal_me_going_into_admi­nistration/

Interesting. I was considering investing. Like you, not to get rich, but to have a stake in something I believed in and to be, hopefully, one of a number of people giving them a nudge. Now I think I... wont

Now I think I... wont

From the outside it looks like they've been plagued by uneven management and internal disagreements. But I'd like to know whether they have proven the concept. Is the idea fundamentally sound or not? Would growth always be constrained by asking too much of the riders? Seems to me that they need to be highly skilled and resilient and very hard-working for not a lot of money.

Seems to me that they need to be highly skilled and resilient and very hard-working for not a lot of money.

This is the capitalist way

As if this Abdul Ezedi thing wasn't already grim enough, police have now found two unexpected corpses in the Thames while searching for his.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/abdul-ezedi-clapham-attack-met-police-river-thames-search-chelsea-b1138574.html

Grim in some respects, but if some other families get closure as a result of a search to find Ezedi, I'd say that is on balance a good thing to come out of it?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-68279358

I remember watching a very low budget TV documentary once about the London Port Authority (I think) and how they monitor the river using sonar to make sure there's no obstructions below the water that boats might hit, and they said they generally would find a body every week

Every other week apparently

Year No of bodies recovered from the River Thames
2022 23 bodies
2021 23 bodies
2020 20 bodies
2019 27 bodies
2018 26 bodies
2017 30 bodies
2016 28 bodies
2015 38 bodies
2014 21 bodies
2013 28 bodies
2012 15 bodies

https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metropolitan-police/disclosure-2023/march-2023/bodies-recovered-river-thames-2012-2022/

Sure, but it's still grim that those just turned up.

I forgot to post the other link with the latest stats--45 last year.

According to the Met, the 45 recovered in 2023 are among complex enquiries carried out by the specialist marine team.

They included 1,965 calls, attending 956 threats of suicide and rescuing 167 people from the fast-flowing river.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/thames-river-bodies-search-abdul-ezedi-clapham-b1138658.html

There are also always the complexities around reporting of suicides.

https://www.ipso.co.uk/media/1725/suicide-journo-v7-online-crazes.pdf

https://www.samaritans.org/about-samaritans/media-guidelines/10-top-tips-reporting-suicide/

It happens all the time and the veil is lifted very rarely.

Driver calls 999 to report himself for drink-driving in Knaresborough

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-68281661

So Biodiversity Net Gain regulations came in yesterday.

Will be interesting to see how that affects housebuilding in the shires given a requirement to make BNG 10% betterer.

Not to be too cynical but I can see the use of offsets allowing companies to develop Greenfield estates then achieve an offset by turning a brownfield site green, improving BNG at the second location by 100%?