iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by @richardblyth.bsky.social

Tom Barrett @plannertomb.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Another planning term only used by local newspaper journalists: "thrown out" instead of refused.

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Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Just a quick reminder that we're spending a huge amount on housing; we're just not investing enough in building new housing. In 2024-25 we spent £36 billion on Housing Benefit and the housing element of Universal Credit and £2.84 billion on providing temporary accommodation for homeless families.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Can you just imagine what these figures will do for congestion on the roads?

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I didn't know 'Evening Star' had been reincarnated...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Looks like the councils should have clubbed together to create their own app. Classic example of the need for an entrepreneurial state.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Oddly, on the other hand officials in all ministries worked really enthusiastically to achieve Brexit. Hours and hours of time spent on it by the brightest and best, all to implement "the will of the people".

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

"Why do we have to go to Brussels to negotiate things? Can we get there and back in a day? Why can't the foreign ministry sort this out?"

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

That 'bottom of support' included swathes of the civil service (I was there). Officials couldn't understand why the EU was a domestic policy matter. 1/2

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Vague Pariah @vaguepariah.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

In 1926 Los Angeles has a zoned capacity of over 25 million and were planning on being the next NYC.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Er that's 1926. I think many Americans dreamed of suburbs even then e.g Leavittown.

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Bill Heywood @billheywood.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Renewables 87.8% of our electricity and we’re helping to power Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands & Norway

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Equally the political establishment is going to have to realise that copying US domestic policy has been a huge failure here since 1979 and we should give it up now.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Its so weird. People say we shouldn't have high-speed rail because it is "only for rich people". Seems to me that travel by air round the states is pretty much only for rich people these days. But in China ..

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Are we the only country with this numbering system which is in hock to the 1930s? "The A3(M) is so called because it is really the A3 but has motorway standards, and it can't be the M3 because, well, it isn't. And it can't have its own M number because then the A3 would have a gap in it."

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Question for me is why our motorways are so congested by comparison to other countries. It can't just be population density surely? We seem to have many more HGVs on our motorways, which seems like serious market failure.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Yeah rail seems to believe in a Victorian Sunday. Its OK to have superstores open on Sunday but the rail industry still thinks its 1930. (Despite the fact it is leisure travel which is its greatest growth area.)

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Spain: a lesson in why letting markets dictate housing policy is bonkers. In the 2000s Spain was building far too many homes, especially in holiday areas. Many were even left unfinished when the market tanked. Now it is building far too few.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Oxford has an Airport??? Why?? Sounds like a great solution to housing shortage. Nb Cambridge Airport (equally bizarre) is being built on now.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

180 miles and 2 hours. I make that 90 mph and thar includes at least 2 stops.

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Dan Mead @danmead.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

How can we revitalise post-industrial towns and fight the far right? A new academic paper from UC Berkley shows how the development of Luxembourg as a financial centre also boosted the economy and reduced the vote share for the National Rally in nearby ex-manufacturing towns in France.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Anyway who cares? Cars are not local so their owners dont care, and if homes are flooded noone takes any responsibility. Its just tough. Car brain just goes on hurting everyone.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

At least they try! The obsession with street parking here means that no attempt at all is made to move cars for the very occasional half hearted attempt to declog drains. Cars can even park permanently on top of drains.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"Olives didn't take; the wine wasn't as good as it was back home." Ah, so if only there had been a few Olives, our future in Europe might have been so different...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

What did the Romans ever do for us? Well, it appears they didn't instill much enthusiasm for Europe.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Because, unlike in Germany, English municipalities have strikingly little agency. They are mainly there to carry out central instructions and have little energy for other stuff. Plus they get little benefit from increased business.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

State and national governments can't resist this kind of interference. If a city wishes to have more homes it should be able to. Equally (and this is never heard on here) if it doesn't, it should have to.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Actually just checked and its not to bad north to Berlin and west to Frankfurt. But still hardly uses the whole station!

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Tom Copley @tomcopley.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Since January this year, @london.gov.uk has called in and approved more than 10,000 homes that had stalled or were rejected by boroughs. @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social meant it when he said City Hall would back the builders. www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/city-ha...

insidehousing.co.uk

City Hall approves 10,000 rejected or stalled homes through call-in powers

City Hall has approved 10,000 homes that were rejected by councils, through the London mayor’s call-in process.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

And sadly it doesn't have a particularly great train service anymore. Generally speaking rail hubs are becoming fewer and therefore more overcrowded e.g Paris Nord, London St Pancras, Brussels South, Frankfurt Main

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Yet another reason to abandon a meaningless national housing target. What matters is housing markets in city regions.

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Mariana Mazzucato @mazzucatom.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We can't do 'good' in the economy with an economic theory that only tells us how to fix markets if and when they fail. The common good is an objective, not a correction, where the how matters as much as the what. @Book_Fair | 10 October | 15:00-16:00 CEST ➡️ event.buchmesse.de/de/sessions/...

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Usual thing: let's build a planning system rather than actual houses.

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Joe Brown @joebrownlondon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

#OnThisDay 142 years ago the Circle Line was completed through the opening of Mansion House to Tower Hill, plus a branch from Aldgate to Whitechapel opened, the latter we see here: the Underground passing over the Overground... always amuses! Timara Easter buff.ly/dqEhDSO

2014 image taken from the southbound Overground platform at Whitechapel with a Class 378 departing the northbound while above an eastbound refurbished D78 District Line service departs for Upminster. This view is impossible now as the new concourse accessing the Elizabeth Line was built above, rafting over the Overground platforms (and of course the D78 stock are long gone too)

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

All these trips seem to be taking longer. I'm sure London Paris is longer than it was in 2007.

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Justin on eurostar @eurostarjustin.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

On this day 50 years ago, the revolutionary British Rail Inter-City 125 entered service. Fantastic to see a set restored into 1980s livery arrive at Manchester Piccadilly this afternoon. #TheJourneyShrinker

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Yes the train manager was almost proud of being 64 minutes late. Almost exultant.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I'm on it too. Seems very mean spirited and jobsworth not simply to offer it to everyone.

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Joe Brown @joebrownlondon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#OnThisDay 150 years ago Portsmouth Harbour was opened by the Portsmouth & Ryde Joint Railway (LSWR & LBSCR), built entirely over water like Ryde Pier Head across The Solent. Here's me with the pup on his first train journey last year (start 'em young)... he's a lot bigger now!

Joe stood with his puppy Zach on platform 5 at Portsmouth Harbour next to SWR unit 450072 they have just arrived on

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Huge investments were made in infrastructure in the 1950s and 1960s despite the CEGB being really passed off by the Planning Act.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"They rarely mention the role that state ownership played" "That privatisation killed off the British nuclear programme in the 1990s is also ignored."

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"An online alliance made up of groups with names such as ... YIMBYs and Abundantists has mounted a campaign in favour of building more nuclear power stations.... They often claim that Britain once led the world in nuclear innovation."

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And is correct: "It is in the interests of private companies to focus on stories of 'planning regulations gone mad'. These divert attention for the bigger question: how should Britain pay for a once in a generation infrastructure expansion?"

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Amazing to get 30 min time saving without even building a new line! How many transport projects could prove that?

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I was disappointed that in the new station you are mainly kept underground and just don't see the great train shed except in glimpses. Should have put the trains below and the people above. Compare the great experience at Frankfurt HBF.

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Justin on eurostar @eurostarjustin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Happy Birthday to St Pancras station! Opened on this day in 1868. #architecture

Black and white nighttime image of the platforms and roof

Midland Mainline train under the clock before the station closed for rebuilding.

A class 45 diesel on a special to mark the end of domestic services from what are now the international platforms.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Yet another reason to give back control to cities.

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richardblyth.bsky.social @richardblyth.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Yeah, especially when the GW trains tend to get held up a lot going into Paddington. Invariably the computer says "we are arriving"; those not in the know all stand up, and nothing then happens for 10 mins.

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