UK Epstein fallout. UK Ambassador to US sacked.
Lots of emails just came out about Mandelson’s chummy relationship with Epstein, and he really does not look good given his previous denials.
Me too. I’ve ridden transit in all of these cities except for the ones in Asia and Australia. I have also ridden transit in many major European cities, and it’s generally far superior to systems in the US. Only a handful of US cities have an extensive and reliable transit system.
I have been to Sydney, and my first thought was that they don’t have transit. Like I said, my experience in Australia isn’t real recent. That made me google. Their system started in 2019, so it’s basically a sparkling new one line system. I’m sure it is clean and nice compared to the extensive and old systems in places like NY and London.
I haven’t been in Australia since 2016…
Sounds like I was thinking about their commuter rail system.
I have as well. One feature of all of these systems, except NYC, is that they are fairly pleasant to ride. NYC subway system is not.
I also love that Paris and Montreal use rubber tires which largely eliminates the shrill sound of metal on metal.
Their new Metro system is incredible. By 2030, the project will have more tunnel in it than the London to Paris train line. We caught it several times when we there last month. It maintains speeds of 60 mph through the heart of the city, is quiet and there is a train every 3-5 minutes.
We were staying near the newly completed Victoria Cross stadium, which feels like a cathedral inside and is the same length on its side as the height of the San Francisco Transamerica pyramid building.
This is built in addition to the already built extensive above ground rail network (169 stations and 230 miles in length), a decently sized lightrail network, a ferry network and a dedicated lane bus network -
One day Labour will learn not to give Mandelson any jobs, the sacking is inevitable.
Huh, I wonder where THEY came from?
I did take that out to the Blue Mountains one day
I’m confused. You took the train out to Blue Mountains but you thought they don’t have transit?
An urban rail transit system. The only way to get around Sydney when I went was buses. I knew they had trains in Australia, as I rode one.
Strange thing to say. The coverage by trains has been extensive since the 1930s. Here’s a map from 1939 showing how extensive it was even back then (they’ve added stations since) -
It may be that the tourist destinations (apart from the Blue Mountains), especially beachside suburbs were only accessible by bus. In the case of Manly or the harbourside suburbs, ferry was another option. The train network is mainly aimed at connecting residential areas with downtown or town centres.
If you’re only referring to light rail, that is true - for decades after ripping up the tram system (as many cities did) Sydney didn’t have one. I’m guessing that’s when you visited. Melbourne never ripped up theirs and they have one of the most extensive light rail systems in the world.
Sydney reintroduced light rail 28 years ago and has been slowly expanding since then - now having 58 stops with 22 miles of track. However, light rail is slow and if you want to travel faster, the new (starting in 2019) underground metro (perhaps also an urban transit system) is a much better way to get to anywhere outside the urban core.
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I stand corrected then. I definitely remember needing to take buses in Sydney to get where we wanted to go, and as tourists we definitely weren’t looking to get to outlying bedroom communities.
I agree it used to be terrible for visitors. I think it’s much better suited to tourists nowadays, probably since they started preparing for the 2000 Olympics.
Seems that NZ is desperate for immigrants as they are experiencing a bit of a brain drain.
There was a glimmer of hope in the article.
I detected that a bit as well but am not sure its warranted.
When you look at the long-term liabilities that the UK has (pensions, healthcare, social care), and you factor in the damage done to the young over the last 20Y by succesive governments (they cut investment for the young in favour of more transfers to the old), I just do not see how productivity growth recovers given that the lack of investment has compounded (you see this all around the UK now in the form of a deteriorating capital infrastructure).
Only way around this would be a massive increase in productive investment by cutting spending on welfare (given to the old and unproductive), and boosting spending for childcare and education for the young.
And without productivity growth (which is a product of infrastructure, education, health, investment) in a country that is services-driven, there is no real possibility of paying for those mushrooming long-term liabilities. Its just more debt, higher bond yields, and debt service payments which make the entire situation worse due to demographic decline.
Also, the more they keep trying to go down this path from a political and economic standpoint, the worse things will get as the UK has gone beyond the optimal tax rate for the productive slice of the population.
This all feeds into a narrative that Labour isn’t working which helps Reform (and these guys are absolutely incompetent).
Just not much space for optimism given Labour’s choices of more welfare and limited investment. These choices just perpetuate the sense of managed decline that the UK is experiencing so people turn to Reform.
I have been seeing the young making these sort of political choices and I find this to be a serious problem, as the UK looks to be heading towards electing a Trump-like candidate in 2029.
Then its just going to be chaos. Like Trump is doing to the US.
Interesting study by the Guardian on how facebook is being used to amplify right-wing views in the UK
I saw something recently where Poilievre was paying Canada Proud to amplify his message on Facebook.
“Obvious results” thread.
Happens in every country.
Because Facebook is a toilet.