Leo Murray
@crisortunity.bsky.social
Trouble making. Problem solving. Doing my best to help.
Pinned
Leo Murray
@crisortunity.bsky.social
· Oct 31
Railways: Firms develop new tech to electrify trains
Railway operators have new options for electric trains including getting rid of locomotives altogether.
www.bbc.co.uk
Delighted to feature in this @chrisbaraniuk.com piece for the BBC on the imminent rollout of solar to power Great British Railways 🙌
Get on board - here comes the sun! ☀️
Get on board - here comes the sun! ☀️
When you made a manifesto pledge to reduce energy bills, but also made a series of foolhardy promises to build new nuclear power plants
‘Troubled Hinkley Point C #nuclear will add £1bn annually to UK energy bills as soon as it’s switched on, official figures show. The money will be taken from consumers and handed to the French owner #EDF.'
renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2025/12/end-...
renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2025/12/end-...
renewextraweekly.blogspot.com
December 7, 2025 at 3:19 PM
When you made a manifesto pledge to reduce energy bills, but also made a series of foolhardy promises to build new nuclear power plants
Reposted by Leo Murray
‘A move towards an authoritarian state’: what those with trial experience think of removing juries
‘A move towards an authoritarian state’: what those with trial experience think of removing juries
David Lammy’s plans to cut the the number of jury trials in England and Wales. A defendant, a victim, a barrister, a KC, a judge and a juror have concerns
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:33 AM
‘A move towards an authoritarian state’: what those with trial experience think of removing juries
Maybe it’s time for Putney’s politicians to grow up, find some political courage and own some more reality-based traffic reduction solutions for their blighted town centre - even if car drivists do wail and gnash their teeth about them?
Putney MP Fleur Anderson INSISTS that their traffic problems cannot be solved without reopening Hammersmith Bridge to cars. But this FOI request to TfL for comms b/w them & Wandsworth Council abt these problems discloses 138 pages of docs, in which there is not 1 single mention of Hammersmith Bridge
tfl.gov.uk
December 6, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Maybe it’s time for Putney’s politicians to grow up, find some political courage and own some more reality-based traffic reduction solutions for their blighted town centre - even if car drivists do wail and gnash their teeth about them?
Putney MP Fleur Anderson INSISTS that their traffic problems cannot be solved without reopening Hammersmith Bridge to cars. But this FOI request to TfL for comms b/w them & Wandsworth Council abt these problems discloses 138 pages of docs, in which there is not 1 single mention of Hammersmith Bridge
tfl.gov.uk
December 6, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Putney MP Fleur Anderson INSISTS that their traffic problems cannot be solved without reopening Hammersmith Bridge to cars. But this FOI request to TfL for comms b/w them & Wandsworth Council abt these problems discloses 138 pages of docs, in which there is not 1 single mention of Hammersmith Bridge
Reposted by Leo Murray
My piece for The Guardian about why I am far more concerned about Reform's aversion to scrutiny than I am about them calling me a c***.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I don’t care if Reform calls me a bad word on WhatsApp. But the story behind its gaffe is far more worrying | Will Hayward
The leaked exchange shows how much the party dislikes scrutiny – which reveals a lot about its approach to governing, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:09 PM
My piece for The Guardian about why I am far more concerned about Reform's aversion to scrutiny than I am about them calling me a c***.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Leo Murray
“Farage has suggested that it’s inconceivable that anyone could recall such events of more than four decades ago. I would simply ask: can a victim of such abuse ever forget?…I recognise his walk every time I see it on TV as that same walk that used to approach me”
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
I’ll never forget the look of hatred Nigel Farage had for me at school, simply for existing
The Reform UK leader doubts people can recall their abuse from years ago. I’ve never forgotten his – it felt malicious
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:52 AM
“Farage has suggested that it’s inconceivable that anyone could recall such events of more than four decades ago. I would simply ask: can a victim of such abuse ever forget?…I recognise his walk every time I see it on TV as that same walk that used to approach me”
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Leo Murray
"'Where are you from?’ he asked. Within seconds of offering my rather confused and sputtering answers, he had a clear response: ‘That’s the way back to Africa,’ with an accompanying hand gesture pointing towards a place far away."
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Former Dulwich pupil says Farage told him: ‘That’s the way back to Africa’
Exclusive: Yinka Bankole says he felt compelled to speak out after Reform leader’s attempts to ‘dismiss’ hurt of alleged targets
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:42 PM
"'Where are you from?’ he asked. Within seconds of offering my rather confused and sputtering answers, he had a clear response: ‘That’s the way back to Africa,’ with an accompanying hand gesture pointing towards a place far away."
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Meanwhile
🌊 Serendipity often drives science forward.
A “lost” Argo float drifted under Antarctica’s ice shelves and resurfaced with a warning: warm water is creeping under major glaciers like Denman and Totten.
What’s at risk? Up to 5 m of global sea-level rise.
theconversation.com/what-our-mis...
A “lost” Argo float drifted under Antarctica’s ice shelves and resurfaced with a warning: warm water is creeping under major glaciers like Denman and Totten.
What’s at risk? Up to 5 m of global sea-level rise.
theconversation.com/what-our-mis...
What our missing ocean float revealed about Antartica’s melting glaciers
Our ocean float spent years adrift in the Antarctic ocean and beneath massive ice shelves. What it found will help us estimate global sea-level rise.
theconversation.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Meanwhile
Yeah this tracks
December 5, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Yeah this tracks
On the plus side the £3 bus fare cap has been extended to March 2027, which I had also missed
I missed this in the budget!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
4/4 Budget unbundled plus where next for walking, wheeling and cycling?
Podcast Episode · Calling All Stations - The Transport Podcast · 05/12/2025 · 50m
podcasts.apple.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:41 PM
On the plus side the £3 bus fare cap has been extended to March 2027, which I had also missed
I missed this in the budget!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
4/4 Budget unbundled plus where next for walking, wheeling and cycling?
Podcast Episode · Calling All Stations - The Transport Podcast · 05/12/2025 · 50m
podcasts.apple.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
I missed this in the budget!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
“She announced a further £891m further public money going into what the government contends will be a privately financed solution” for the Lower Thames Crossing - the vast new motorway tunnel linking Essex to Kent. 😫
Just the PFI consultancy is costing £24m!!!!
Good afternoon to nearly everyone (footage from this morning, I just forgot to post it)
December 5, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Good afternoon to nearly everyone (footage from this morning, I just forgot to post it)
“in Scotland, decarbonisation is spelt E-L-E-C-T-R-I-F-Y”
Just re-reading old articles on Scotland’s rail electrification programme in an attempt to understand how they have got it so right in comparison with England 😢🏴
Just re-reading old articles on Scotland’s rail electrification programme in an attempt to understand how they have got it so right in comparison with England 😢🏴
Decarbonising Scotland’s railway - Rail UK
Decarbonising Scotland’s railway - Electrification
railuk.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:31 PM
“in Scotland, decarbonisation is spelt E-L-E-C-T-R-I-F-Y”
Just re-reading old articles on Scotland’s rail electrification programme in an attempt to understand how they have got it so right in comparison with England 😢🏴
Just re-reading old articles on Scotland’s rail electrification programme in an attempt to understand how they have got it so right in comparison with England 😢🏴
Reposted by Leo Murray
Lots of news coverage this morning about £28 billion investment approved to upgrade the UK's energy network.
BUT: The majority of the spending – £17.8 billion - announced today is to maintain Britain’s gas networks rather than build new transmission lines.
BUT: The majority of the spending – £17.8 billion - announced today is to maintain Britain’s gas networks rather than build new transmission lines.
December 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Lots of news coverage this morning about £28 billion investment approved to upgrade the UK's energy network.
BUT: The majority of the spending – £17.8 billion - announced today is to maintain Britain’s gas networks rather than build new transmission lines.
BUT: The majority of the spending – £17.8 billion - announced today is to maintain Britain’s gas networks rather than build new transmission lines.
Reposted by Leo Murray
It's almost like every single reputable expert who has been saying this exact thing for years was right.
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Hardline migration policies are fuelling people smuggling, report finds
As leaders try to break smugglers’ business model, research suggests strategy so far has had opposite effect
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:16 AM
It's almost like every single reputable expert who has been saying this exact thing for years was right.
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Home Office recognised this fact 15 years ago. Successive governments, globally, continue to ignore it, and continue to push harmful "tougher" policies. 1/
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Reposted by Leo Murray
A Thailand-based crypto investor has handed a record-breaking £9 million to Reform UK, shortly before Nigel Farage used media interviews to plug his crypto firm and promise lower taxes and deregulation on the industry
bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...
bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...
Crypto Investor Donates £9 Million to Reform UK After Nigel Farage Plugs His Company and Tells Industry 'I Am Your Champion'
The Reform leader recently used media interviews to back Christopher Harborne's company while promising to cut taxes and regulations on crypto firms
bylinetimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:19 AM
A Thailand-based crypto investor has handed a record-breaking £9 million to Reform UK, shortly before Nigel Farage used media interviews to plug his crypto firm and promise lower taxes and deregulation on the industry
bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...
bylinetimes.com/2025/12/04/c...
“This plan puts the UK public at the heart of our energy future. By investing in clean power, supporting local projects, and unlocking British industry, Great British Energy will help deliver an energy system that works for everyone.” 👏👏👏👏
1,000 UK communities to get mega payout for small #wind turbines and #solar panels.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
1,000 communities to get payout for having small wind turbines and solar panels
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says state owned company is 'at the heart of our mission to take back control of our energy from dictators like Putin', as he announces a huge renewables drive
www.mirror.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 9:11 AM
“This plan puts the UK public at the heart of our energy future. By investing in clean power, supporting local projects, and unlocking British industry, Great British Energy will help deliver an energy system that works for everyone.” 👏👏👏👏
Reposted by Leo Murray
Hundreds of lives lost & millions devastated. Crops under water means more hunger & struggle to come, when many in already suffered food insecurity. Sri Lanka is facing a “humanitarian crisis of historic proportions,” Disaster Management Centre. This is what climate change & deforestation means.
Floods across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have killed nearly 1,000 people in less than a week.
Rescue efforts under way after severe floods across Asia kill nearly 1,000
Floods across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have killed nearly 1,000 people in less than a week.
bit.ly
December 3, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Hundreds of lives lost & millions devastated. Crops under water means more hunger & struggle to come, when many in already suffered food insecurity. Sri Lanka is facing a “humanitarian crisis of historic proportions,” Disaster Management Centre. This is what climate change & deforestation means.
Reposted by Leo Murray
On the Englishness of Sir Tom Stoppard, RIP
www.britishfuture.org/on-the-engli...
www.britishfuture.org/on-the-engli...
On the Englishness of Sir Tom Stoppard - British Future
Sunder Katwala reflects on the life and shifting identity of playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who has died aged 84.
www.britishfuture.org
December 3, 2025 at 10:50 PM
On the Englishness of Sir Tom Stoppard, RIP
www.britishfuture.org/on-the-engli...
www.britishfuture.org/on-the-engli...
Meanwhile
#Arctic air temperature rank by month over the satellite era - now updated through November 2025...
+ Ranks: 1=warmest (red), 46/47=coldest (blue)
+ Download higher resolution version: zacklabe.com/arctic-tempe...
+ Ranks: 1=warmest (red), 46/47=coldest (blue)
+ Download higher resolution version: zacklabe.com/arctic-tempe...
December 4, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Meanwhile
Regret to inform that the incorrigible motor lobby of Ealing are still at, this time hysterically opposing a school street. On the plus side, it looks like the council might possibly have finally learned to ignore the shrieking of car brains though, which is better late than never
December 3, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Regret to inform that the incorrigible motor lobby of Ealing are still at, this time hysterically opposing a school street. On the plus side, it looks like the council might possibly have finally learned to ignore the shrieking of car brains though, which is better late than never
Reposted by Leo Murray
Pleased to discover that slightly misnaming the national chess championship you won as a school child is a much more serious offence than repeatedly racially abusing your fellow pupils and telling them they should go to the gas chamber
December 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Pleased to discover that slightly misnaming the national chess championship you won as a school child is a much more serious offence than repeatedly racially abusing your fellow pupils and telling them they should go to the gas chamber
Reposted by Leo Murray
Do we think the 33% of the voting public that backed Labour understood they were getting e.g. a vast ramping up in calculated cruelty against migrants and transgender people hounded out of the public sphere by legal gangster tactics? I am going to say: no, they didn’t understand that.
December 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Do we think the 33% of the voting public that backed Labour understood they were getting e.g. a vast ramping up in calculated cruelty against migrants and transgender people hounded out of the public sphere by legal gangster tactics? I am going to say: no, they didn’t understand that.
Details TBD but broadly there is a good logic to this
@crisortunity.bsky.social Zipcar is going to disappear in London from the end of the month, making it harder for many Londoners to live in the city without owning a car.
Brand new petition here to take the service into public ownership 👇
Background: www.londoncentric.media/p/zipcar-lon...
Brand new petition here to take the service into public ownership 👇
Background: www.londoncentric.media/p/zipcar-lon...
Sign the Petition
Keep Zipcar operating in the UK
www.change.org
December 3, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Details TBD but broadly there is a good logic to this
Reposted by Leo Murray
In the Netherlands, where the Dutch invest in safe cycling, the over-65s cycle around a quarter of their journeys, while the over-80s cycle around 10% of theirs.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle lanes don't 'restrict freedom', they expand it.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle lanes don't 'restrict freedom', they expand it.
December 2, 2025 at 2:41 PM
In the Netherlands, where the Dutch invest in safe cycling, the over-65s cycle around a quarter of their journeys, while the over-80s cycle around 10% of theirs.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle lanes don't 'restrict freedom', they expand it.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and cycle lanes don't 'restrict freedom', they expand it.