Leo Murray @[email protected]
@crisortunity
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twitter is šµā ļøšŖ¦ find me here https://t.co/PAcXC50B2H
Joined March 2015
The stench of fascism on this platform is becoming unbearable so please come find me over here where itās easier to breathe š
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Iāve just been out on the canoe for only the second time this year and LOOK WHAT WE FOUND in the Thames at *Brentford* š¤ÆāØ
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Gather round, climate twitter, I want to tell you a story about Ed Miliband.1/14.
My statement on being announced as the Shadow Business and Energy Secretary:
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Bikes are fine for some trips but what if you need to transport a [checks notes] peacock? š¦š²
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Itās that time of year in North Norfolk when huge flocks of migratory Range Rovers arrive from their overwintering grounds in London. At some key nesting sites like Burnham Market they occupy every inch of space, like kittiwakes on a cliff side. Truly a majestic site to behold.
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I am genuinely puzzled why the government hates solar SO much. TL:DR?. They want to whack the full 20% VAT on solar panels (and battery storage!). Some context:. You pay 5% VAT on a sack of coal .You pay 0% VAT on a plane ticket. #ClimateEmergency
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Anyway - thatās the whole story. Itās just a nice story about why Ed Miliband is one of the good kinds of politician, and why I am very happy that he has been given the big climate job in the new shadow cabinet. PS also Polly and I are good friends now.Ends/.
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The single most effective thing we could do to reduce demand for gas would be to fully retrofit and insulate as many UK homes as possible over the summer before the next bout of cold weather.
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We have asked the Mayor to let us fly him over Parliament when Trump visits Britain on 13th July. But officials at City Hall have told us that #TrumpBaby is ānot a protestā. Apparently, he is āartā. Here he is, all 6m of him:.2/n
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Today, Boris Johnson & Liz Truss visit the queen in Balmoral. If they had taken the train, it would have been 56kgCO2e. If theyād at least shared a plane, it would have been 4 tonnes of CO2e. They've taken a private jet EACH. That's 8t of CO2e. A bleak start to Truss premiership.
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Oh nothing, just a now routine and completely unremarkable sight of an ambulance on an emergency call out using the King St cycle lane to bypass queues of cars yesterday. š 999 š¤ C9 š²
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Letās stop pretending that the environmental problem with air travel is annual family holidays and kids taking gap years: this is deflection & a convenient pretext for putting aviation in the ātoo hardā box. The problem is v frequent leisure flights by a wealthy elite minority.
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1. Onshore wind is now the cheapest form of new electricity generation in the UK, bar none.2. Tories have banned it b/c ERG donāt like the way wind turbines look.3. Local community ownership & control is the solution to securing public support to triple it
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Picturesque Burnham Market, with its charming and characterful flint cottages, is often regarded as one of the prettiest villages in Norfolk
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Donāt get me wrong, Iām in favour of roads for cars where they make sense - Iām a Keen Motorist myself - but this one is barely being used, and it is taking up a ridiculous amount of space. Sign my petition calling on the council to rethink this failed experiment
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Itās fair to say my secure on street cycle storage presentation to our residents association this evening got a mixed reaction but I think we are making progress from saying that bike hangars are out of keeping with the character of the conservation area .
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Hello twitter friends, please allow me to offer a weekend thread on how the WAR ON MOTORISTS works in the mainstream media. Remember this story from back in May? It got VERY wide coverage across a range of media outlets: LTNs help violent criminals escape the police .1/n
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āThe amount of tax income lost every year as a result of cuts to fuel duty is more than the total passenger income of the rail & bus industries combined. In other words, for the same money, public transport could have been made free.ā - @TomHainesDoran
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āHow is it that a boy from Baghdad who came to these shores fleeing persecution and unable to speak a word of English, was able to do as much as I have?ā .Clearly an important part of the answer is that you werenāt immediately shipped off to Rwanda.
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Hi @EalingCouncil itās good youāre supporting residents to switch from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. But please donāt put car stuff on the pavement, car things belong in car space not pedestrian space. Thank you!
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Good morning! .To everyone except Range Rover drivers
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I have volunteered myself to be a lightning rod for reactionary fury by appearing on camera on BBC London this evening to sympathise with the mischievous scamps who let down all those SUV tyres last night. Key message: theyāve got a point though donāt they . Pray for me.
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I wrote a thing about the conception and birth of @TrumpBabyUK and why being rude to visiting fascists is not some sort of faux pas but a vital civic duty.
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āIām certain that in 100 years, when weāve all been melted in our beds by climate change, we will realise that, far from being a status symbol, driving an SUV is an unconscionable act of ignorance.ā
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Rather than have police shout at Londoners in parks over a tannoy to ākeep moving!ā, maybe it would be better to just temporarily close lots of residential streets to motor traffic so we can exercise safely outside our homes.
NEW: Portions of several #Denver streets will close to vehicles Saturday to allow for pedestrians & bikes. Densely populated neighborhoods & those without immediate park or trail access will receive priority. #coronavirus #PhysicalDistancing #COVID19
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Right, halt the #ULEZexpansion immediately, this injustice is simply too monstrous to be ignored any longer #JusticeForSue
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Hello twitter friends! Now, hear me out. Iāve got this blimp. Of Donald Trump. As a baby. With tiny hands. 1/n
I am a giant orange baby with tiny hands. I just want to fly above Parliament on July 13th when little Donald visit Britain. But @MayorofLondon says I canāt. Sad!. Tell @SadiqKhan to let #TrumpBaby fly! .
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This wonāt make any difference at all to Labourās electoral prospects. But it will mean a generation of children continue to breathe toxic air that stunts the growth of their lungs. Spineless, clueless, heartless and just unspeakably demoralising š©
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OK Iām now home from my walk and will stop this silliness; thanks for indulging me, it meant that instead of feeling annoyed and disheartened by the literally *HUNDREDS* of Range Rovers I saw today, I got to laugh at my own stupid jokes ššššššššššššššššššššš.
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Itās easy to get sucked in to the vitriol & toxicity of debates over reallocation of road space away from private cars. But I had literal CHILLS riding in Chiswick High Edās new protected lane with my daughter this morning, even though itās unfinished. Pure magic āØš²
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Treasury says we CANāT afford rail electrification or the Tube, but we CAN afford their Ā£28bn road building programme. We CANāT afford to keep rail fare rises below inflation, but we CAN afford to freeze fuel duty for the umpteenth year in a row. I think I may be seeing a pattern.
The 3.8% rail fare rise (just announced) is far from fair. It risks driving people off rail and onto roads instead - bad news for the environment. Rail fares should have been frozen to match the fuel duty freeze for car drivers.
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Iām seeing this pattern so much. Frequent flyers are the archetype. But we looked at travel demand survey data for London which found that half the car trips in London are taken by 10% of residents; Iām just going through car mileage by band in England & it looks similar
Beef guzzlers: 12% of Americans eat half of the country's cow meat Changing the habits of this small group could go a long way toward cutting the country's planet-warming emissions.
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Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic for over 4 yrs & despite what many people still believe, traffic is down almost everywhere in the region around it. Reopening it to cars would cost Ā£230m+ & break climate promises. See the alternative!
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@rabithapa We agonised over this until we found someone who does biodegradable balloons š.
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Car bores on here often wang on as if I have somehow unfairly impugned the humble SUV driver, & what business is it of mine what car they drive anyway etc. Our new report, Tractor Attack, may help to explain why I talk about this so much, and also: What Is To Be Done About It.1/
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Energy capped at Ā£2,500 for two years. The countdown is on. We've got 2yrs to flood the grid with renewables and insulate millions of homes. If we waste this window of opportunity, we'll be back where we are now in 2024. If we get it right, we'll bring down bills for good.
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Glenthorne road in Hammersmith completely gridlocked again this morning but - and you wonāt believe this - thereās no cycle lane here, no LTNS and no school streets anywhere in sight. Itās utterly inexplicable, what could possibly be causing all this traffic
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Very brave, will be hated, probably making people I know and respect furious and exasperated, still not wrong. We are not changing anything like fast enough. We remain, globally, on a trajectory towards civilisation and ecosystem collapse. Anyone paying attention knows this.
Sam Johnson, 40, a construction worker from Essex, said:. āI took action today simply because we have run out of time. Weāve got to tackle this now. We have known for longer than Iāve been alive what would happen if we kept burning fossils fuels and now we are seeing this
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Every morning the King St cycle lane is full of kids now, and itās just the best thing. Really starts my day right āØš² #C9isHere
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In awkward news, @rbkcās Future High Streets project has learned that cycling is the second most popular way to visit High Street Kensington, after walking & just ahead of public transport. Turns out all those Range Rovers are mainly just passing through
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Good afternoon to everyone except Land Rover drivers
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An EPIC thread on my unintentionally detailed new report investigating the very real threat posed to pedestrian space, disabled mobility and walking and wheeling targets by the national tidal wave of public on-street EV chargers needed to reach net zero: Streetspace Invaders.1/n
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Good morning to everyone except Range Rover drivers
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First ever SUV ad ban for being irresponsible! āAdvertising for SUVs is pushing up demand for massive gas-guzzling, highly polluting cars in urban environments, just when we want streets that are safer & cleaner & an accessible low carbon transport systemā
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For main roads which ādonāt have enough spaceā for both a bus lane and a bike lane, the trick is to remove the car lane.
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Like it or not this is essentially accurate, and Iām sorry but all of you Corbyn-hating centrists in my climate followers know it. If the tories win this GE in any capacity there isnāt a hope in hell of staying under 1.5ĀŗC warming. These are our choices now. Choose life.
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Ā£250m on this one motorway junction on the outskirts of London is the same as the entire emergency active travel fund; or the cost of introducing an entire trolley bus scheme in Leeds, the only major city in Western Europe with no mass transit. Which government said no to
Roads | Shapps finally gives green light for Ā£250M M25/ A3 interchange upgrade. Full story: #planning #decision #junction #congestion
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Ed never did approve that coal fired power station at Kingsnorth - not exactly anyway. He cleverly called the industryās bluff, and made new coal conditional on featuring Carbon Capture & Storage from day one - which they couldnāt actually do ofc .13/14.
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Nearly every BBC interview I did today about #NetZero asked ābut is 2050 ambitious enough?ā That would never have happened without @ExtinctionR and @Strike4Youth speaking their truth, and opening out the space for continual ratcheting of ambition. Weāre all indebted to them.
"Every year that goes by before emissions get to zero increases the risk of triggering a catastrophic tipping point"
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The way Ed dealt with being confronted at the time on stage was perfectly fine; but after the fact and away from the cameras, it was genuinely admirable and quite unusual for a senior politician. Ed went up in my estimation then and has held onto my esteem ever since.12/14.
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If youāve ever wondered how itās done, I caught a rare glimpse of the cycle lane fairies working their magic in #C9 this morning šØāšØš²āØ
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I agreed to appear on GB News this week, standing up for clean air against people trying - farcically badly, I might add - to discredit the science around air pollutionās public health impacts. Ofc GB News shared a clip of the deniers, but not my bit! š.
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The entire remaining active travel budget for the whole of England is less than one tenth of the amount of public money being spent on a single road building project in Cambridgeshire.
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āRewilding such a large proportion of the UK did not have to involve an overall reduction in food production. There are 1.8m hectares of deer stalking estates and 1.3m hectares of grouse moor estatesā .š.End public subsidies for aristocratsā bloodsports
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āThe e-bicycle is a game-changer, much more significant than the overhyped, expensive & insufficiently green e-car: global sales of e-bikes will reach 40m next year, vs 9m for EVs. Globally, most trips are <10km, which e-bikes can cover within 1/2 an hourā
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We have been informed that āa protest is a gathering of people with banners and placardsā, which is quite the clarification. Anyway - so far we canāt find any legal basis for the refusal. So we are asking Sadiq to reconsider. 3/n.
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Feeling extremely lucky to be rolling out of Paris with my family on the top deck of a high speed train to Barcelona. First time doing a European train holiday with the kids! .You too could be holidaying without frying the planet if your work signs up to
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āPerhaps the time has come to cease calling it the 'environmentalist' view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.ā - E O Wilson. Rest in power š.
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My amazing mumās obituary has just gone up in the Guardian. Iām so proud to be her son
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Learned a lot from this pioneering old gent I met by the river yesterday! He decided to give up his car a year ago because āyou see all these stories where a pensioner has driven into a shop - I thought thatās gonna be meā .(Heās lost sensation in his feet) š§µ
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Very interesting to see so many Labour Party commentators dismissing the Green Party leaderās interview on solving the housing crisis today, while respected housing justice campaigners who live and breathe this issue every day are responding with clap emojis š¤š§.
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Swedenās top daily national newspaper will no longer accept adverts for fossil fuel brands or high carbon products like flights and ICE cars, in recognition of the fact that the goal of these adverts runs directly counter to their editorial policy of support for climate action!.
A leading European newspaper is showing how media can stop adverts fuelling the #ClimateEmergency - which title will be next to take the step?. National newspaper drops high-carbon adverts for fossil fuels, flights & cars.
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Jesus. āWhite House officials are said to be afraid the āTrump babyā protest at Westminster may prompt him to lash outā - this reads like an anxious mother pleading with the kids to be meek and compliant towards their abusive stepfather
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Look at these kids inconsiderately cycling to school through a bus stop bypass when they should be mixing with buses, SUVs, vans and HGVs in the general traffic. Or better yet, being driven to school as nature intended
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Itās this simple: UK cities can choose to rapidly change their road layouts to prioritise walking and cycling, or they can choose to bury their citizens under an avalanche of cars
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I see the money being announced today for new EV charging infra in England is FOUR TIMES the size of the entire post-cuts active travel budget for England. Reminder: modal shift AWAY from car use is *at least* as important in Net Zero pathways as EVs
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And thatās the end of the story! Iāve shared it here because this is just one small, hopefully insightful, vignette into the dominant paradigm around mainstream media reporting of measures to reduce motor traffic dominance. Countless other examples are churned out every day.Ends/.
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One good thing about this winterās lockdown is that my neighbours who used to have their āsmartā Range Rover Discovery turn itself on and idle its engine for 10-20m every day to warm up before they drove off in it arenāt doing that any more
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When car manufacturers blame consumer demand for the wholesale switch to SUVs, they forget to mention how hard they have worked to create this demand. The Ford Fiesta is the *most popular car ever*, but less profitable per unit than SUVs. So discontinued
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This Range Rover mother has captured a large number of bicycles in her specialised trailer and racks. She will now carry them back to her nest to feed to her young. A baby Range Rover can consume up to 15 bicycles per day before it fledges
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Good morning to everyone except Range Rover drivers
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airlines are horrified that their chocolate teapot offsetting scheme might actually have some effectš± because the baseline year - 2020 - they have to pay to offset any growth in carbon after is now going to see much lower emissions than they bargained for
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šš® .
Motorists were already being hammered by prices at the pump, and now millions canāt even access fuel. The government must immediately impose injunctions to put a stop to this disruption.
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Never been more proud of our Mayor than this past week. This kind of political courage and sticking power is going to be required of every political leader trying to steer us out of environmental crisis. Starmer urgently needs to reflect on his own recent conduct š.
Expanding the ULEZ was not an easy decision, but it will save lives. The easy decision would have been to kick the can down the road. But were we to do that, thousands more people would die prematurely. London deserves better than the dangerous, polluted air we have today.
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My only real criticism of this very good explainer video is that we needed it at least five years ago.
This is why HS2 is vital - it unlocks space on the existing railway for commuter & freight trains by putting high-speed intercity trains on a segregated line. If the government doesn't build all of HS2, then the whole UK railway network will face gridlock.
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It was really clear to me then that this was a politician who had begun to grasp the enormity of the challenge ahead. He was coming to to terms with it in his own way & spending time with climate activists was a part of that. I felt camaraderie with this Secretary of State.11/14.
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Note to self: This is a huge personal victory for me and I must remember to take the time and space to really celebrate it! There is much Iām furious or freaking out about - the curse of the climate obsessive - but there is important stuff to be happy about too!.
š„³šš²š„Cycleway 9 on King Street has been made permanent! š„³šš²š„. Well done everyone at Hammersmith & Fulham Council (& @tfl colleagues) and massive thanks to the brilliant @lbhf cycling officer Richard Duffill.
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Picked up ~40 strategically scattered brass tacks from this cycling bottleneck alongside the A4 in Hammersmith after a warning from another local cycling parent @LBHF
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I see the stupidest and most embarrassing consultation Iāve ever seen from the DfT has opened.
Caught out by driving in bus lanes or yellow box junctions?. We want to hear from you on whether the current traffic enforcement measures are fair to drivers. Have your say by 11 May:
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āThe idea that solar power could interfere with the UKās food security is utterly detached from reality. Solar power generated over 8% of all our electricity this spring, but takes up less land than golf courses.ā . Iām so tired š„“.
New story from me: āDetached from realityā: anger as Rishi Sunak plans to restrict solar panels
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My sonās friendsā mum works for ITV and she says theyāve all just had mandatory climate change training, and it was really good āØ.
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Each Easter the national nature reserve here at Holkham plays host to what is believed to be one of the largest colonies of Range Rovers in the world
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Good morning to everyone except Range Rover drivers
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The 9% that come by car absolutely ruining Richmond Town Centre for the other 91% is a perfect microcosm of our entire transport system.
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Good evening to everyone except Range Rover drivers
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But rather than flounce off with his entourage, Ed came along to our after party with the crew. He chatted with me and fellow activists, about climate breakdown and activism. He did his dad dancing. He had a couple of drinks.10/14.
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The period finish of local flint gives the conservation area a distinctive character
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A report from #Hammersmith town centre, where @HFConsCllrs claim the new cycle lane āisnāt workingā & promise to remove it. The only trouble is - it hasnāt even finished being built yet š¤Ŗ.#C9isComing
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šØbuild more public transport as fast as possiblešØ.
British version of this dropped. The more people drive to work, the more that constituency votes Farage
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āWhy arenāt all bikes like this?ā .My son, upon trying out my wifeās new Dutch step through bike
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Right, Iāve stuck my neck out here and sketched out a credible #GreenNewDeal transport plan for ā¦@Cmmonwealthā© that is actually (horrors!) commensurate with the climate emergency: . making private car ownership obsolete in our cities within 10 years
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āAll the focus for subsidies has been electric cars, but this new report demonstrates the substantial benefits of electric bikes and how essential they are for rapidly decarbonising transport, improving our health and cleaning up the air at the same timeā
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good morning from the war on motorists
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Colonies are best viewed from a distance as Range Rovers can be highly aggressive towards people, as well as towards one another as they vie for the best nesting sites in the scarce space available. One of the few British species that is now rapidly increasing in numbers.
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It should be obvious by now to any local councillors that have actually tried to do anything about traffic domination of our streets that there is a faction of the public who will never be prepared to concede a single inch of the public realm from the dominion of the private car.
511 comments on NextDoor about a small bike rack placed on a road next to shop in Enfield. 511! Includes the usual WEF/climate lockdown right-wing conspiracy theorists. Itās just a simple bike rack, not some secret plan. Is this happening everywhere or just in London and Oxford?
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