Recent content by takno

The public vote may have been slightly impacted by a bunch of people who have no interest in the competition voting for Israel as a purely political statement. Since there were 25 competing songs to vote for it's relatively easy to stitch up the vote for a country, and much more difficult to...

I had Graham Norton in one ear and Norwegian radio in the other which was interesting. They were a bit gutted about coming last, particularly since the other Scandi countries didn't give them anything. Luckily the Swedish entry was also Norwegian they had a backup. Overall they weren't afraid...

The usual caveats apply that Sweden's legal system isn't like the UK's - the police shove pretty much everything at a prosecutor who decides if there's anything worth doing more investigation into. The Dutch broadcaster have put out a *very* strong defence of him, and frankly the timing of it...

IIRC They used to say "Reserved from x to y" until they arrived at x. As soon as they arrived they switched to just saying "Reserved to y". Sounds like that hasn't changed

The Tories were so desperate to message previously that it was only a "technical" recession, so it's only fair to point out that this is really only a "technical" recovery.

I think the point is that the UK's existing third rail lines are on average in much more populous areas than the UK's existing overhead lines. There will therefore be more people at risk, as you correctly note. This means that a direct numerical comparison of the number of incidents on third...

That's a rather moot question if the answer is zero, but it's also a completely unreasonably confrontational view of the topic. If electrification means that rail operations will emit less deadly pollutants and that more users can be brought out of their unsafe and polluting cars onto the...

Oh, I seem to remember the booklet from last time now. Admirably comprehensive including a page for every single nutcase contesting the mayoral race, and much more than I've ever seen for any other elections. Honestly I think they missed a trick by not selling sticker packs in all good...

As discussed in another thread, it's worth bearing in mind that this is usage of the paths which ORR has granted rights to. It doesn't relate to actual workable paths for trains. In particular rights on the East Coast were granted to LNER on the assumption that various engineering interventions...

It may be finally dawning on her that a huge proportion of the Green vote in Brighton was actually a personal vote for Caroline Lucas. Sian Berry has never had a fraction of the presence or general air of competence that Lucas has, so it's not really an option to breeze in and expect to just...

It took them a month to deliver my credit card statement the other month. I woudn't mind but my insurance had renewed on it, and the interest from the ensuing mess cost 40 quid. No way I'm chancing my vote on those jokers.

If anything he's got an even lower profile than Hall, and is really from the fringes of London. I doubt he could have run a worse campaign, but it's perhaps optimistic to assume he could have run a better one.

As the linked document notes, this is about use of a theoretical right, and one of the reasons for it not being used is that NR are unable to timetable it. I suspect that LNER's access rights include the hourly Edinburgh fast which they've been unable to timetable for several years. It's not...

The turnout figures are pretty reasonable for local elections. FWIW I don't believe any candidate from any of the major parties proposed either of those policies.

I suspect the totals are affected by the additional council as Magdalia noted. The Labour and Independent changes are probably affected by how the various Labour suspensions and defections were counted - Guardian may have counted them as "previously independent" and the BBC may have counted them...