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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦

@duncanstott.bsky.social
1.1K followers 240 following 338 posts

Geeky YIMBY liberal Housing, politics, liberalism and growth Oxford UK Only lurking here for now

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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 22/01/2026
Thank you Mr President, that clears things up.
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.”
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
I sometimes feel like I am going mad. Owning a £1.5m home is not normal in London or the South East of England.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
😂 Even then there's no impediment to driving from Cowley Rd to that posh pen shop on High St (presumably parking on Merton St).
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
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?
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Utter nonsense. The drive from Didcot to Cowley Rd is completely unaffected by the congestion charge gates.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
media.tenor.com
a man with long curly hair is wearing a tin foil hat and saying `` seems a little crazy '' .
ALT: a man with long curly hair is wearing a tin foil hat and saying `` seems a little crazy '' .
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Say what you like about Rachel Reeves, she has done wonderful things for tenants' rights awareness
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
"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...
web.archive.org
The Washington Monthly
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
It was Helen Lewis: 'nutpicking'.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Thank you!
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
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.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
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.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
James O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 09/09/2025
As @duncanstott.bsky.social points out in The Other Place, West Oxfordshire District Council declared a Climate Change and Ecological Emergency in 2019.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
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...
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Choosing parenthood is choosing to neglect hobbies.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Give people a say over wind turbines or nothing, plenty will opt for nothing. Particularly when they've opted for rural living.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
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.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
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.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
James Ball @jamesrball.com · 11/07/2025
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.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Chris Terry-Enescu @cjterry.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Lol.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 02/07/2025
"This is what we believe"
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Joe Sarling @joesarling.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
"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...
bbc.co.uk
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.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
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...
businessgreen.com
'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'
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I’m convinced this is how a bay leaf would talk
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.] 

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STOCK CUBE:
Alright lads - this is Bay Leaf.
My colleague from the spice rack.

2
BROCCOLI:
Hi Bay Leaf

BAY LEAF:
Yuh yuh hi

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CARROTS:
You up for getting proper blended with us later, Bay Leaf?

BAY LEAF:
Nuh mate, getting scooped out before soup stage.

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CARROTS:
Oh! So… you’re not being eaten then?

BAY LEAF:
Eaten! Haha

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BAY LEAF:
Not allowed mate.

I’m afraid I’m a lil’ bit *toooo intense*...

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BAY LEAF:
Just here for the flavour hit.
Special forces, y’know.
That’s why there’s just one of me.

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BAY LEAF:
Over-deploy and you’d have this whole soup stiiinking of bay leaf…

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BAY LEAF:
You might wanna stand back actually.
This place is about to get preeetty bay leafy...

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[Silent pause]

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CARROTS:
Are you doing something

BAY LEAF:
Sure am mate.

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BAY LEAF:
Suuuuure am.

12
BAY LEAF [Getting scooped out by chef’s spoon]:
You need training to perceive it.

CARROTS:
OK
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Fab local reporting. Oxford should be getting congestion charging as soon as this autumn! 💪
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
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.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
The same principle backpropagates up the system. If a consultee wants to effectively object, they need to do so in a timely manner.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Is that a bug and not a feature? </cynicism>
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Auto-approval after 6 months of indecision?
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Administrative challenge with that, making sure recipients of several of those benefits only receive WFP once.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
The question remains .. if they're not guarding town centres what ARE the police actually doing these days?
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Isn't the Chatham House Rule when you collect all the money paid in fines after landing on free parking?
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
This country is going mad.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
For sure there's resistance to change. But the main political vehicle for that, the Independent Oxford Alliance, are 1) a minor electoral force, and 2) will be here-today-gone-tomorrow when the changes are proved a positive for the city.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Yes, Granville Court. It's also very popular with Brookes students. But I take your broader point.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
It's the tendency for people to only get upset when it affects them - a common dynamic throughout politics (the 'Leopard Eating Faces Party' joke stems from this) but particularly potent when it comes to planning.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
It's clearly NIMBYism when the complainants are overwhelmingly localised. They aren't complaining about the events near me this summer in South Park.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Most of the complainants just don't want any festivals. The most frequent objection I've heard is the loss of park space. That's only remedied by cancellation.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Agree. This is an occasion where a council is going against the grain and pushing back against NIMBYism. Usually the power dynamic favour the NIMBYs. Lesson: council finances override the (very weak) democratic considerations.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Licensing is a thing.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Tell me how its density scales to meet London's housing needs.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
If Brockwell Park is 'living at density' then we're stuffed. Every housing development in London needs to be vastly denser than Brockwell Park's streets if we're ever to get enough housing space built.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The dysfunction of the planning system is creating erratic decisions that are make it impossible to get things done, whether that's running a music festival to building a train line. Why a music festival even comes under the remit of planning is deeply questionable.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
A last-minute technocratic planning ruling naturally created a huge backlash amongst the tens of thousands of ticketholders whose plans were threatened. It was obviously a fantastic YIMBY campaign opportunity.
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
"Distinct politics" how? What do YIMBYs lack? A clear identity and voting bloc? Or a broader philosophy?
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
You wouldn't know it from today's newspaper front pages screaming "betrayal", but new YouGov polling finds that 66% of British people now want the Government to deliver a closer relationship with the EU, compared to just 14% who don't
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Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦 @duncanstott.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
How long before the Tory defections start? Braverman will surely be a Reform MP before too long.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Bad housing is devastating for our mental health. New ONS data finds people with moderate to severe symptoms of depression are about 3x more likely to be worrying about their housing/living conditions than those with no or mild symptoms www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Paul Smith @pmsmith.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Since 2014, the average time to determine an outline application for more than 10 homes has tripled from around 250 days to about 750. Over the same period, the number of applications submitted has declined sharply.
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Reposted by Duncan Stott 🏗️🇺🇦
Elle @centristmum.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Can't disagree with a word of this
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