• 168 Posts
  • 903 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 13th, 2023

help-circle











  • This would be great news. Imho, council run buses are a great public good.
    When you have a large town/city, it’s really important to have a way to get around that’s not expensive.
    You only have to visit somewhere with a properly run network to see the difference.

    Reading for example:

    As a municipally owned bus service, the council says Reading Buses can invest an additional £3m a year in the bus network, around 12-15% of its annual turnover, because it does not pay out dividends to private shareholders.

    Money from commuter services also subsidises smaller less well-used routes.

    Edit: Another place it helps councils: Old people bus passes.

    In June 2023 the LGA said there was a £452 million gap in the funding councils receive from government compared to the actual number of ENCTS journeys made in 2022. This meant that councils were having to plug the financial gap from their “own stretched budgets”, which was “completely unsustainable

    So a LA owned bus company with lower fares means the council doesn’t end up making up the shortfall between what the government pays for free journeys and what the bus company decides to charge.





  • It’s worth noting that most places without a “signature” style just use espresso as the base nowadays. Because espresso is a much easier way to start (as it’s a small amount of coffee syrup, without the water).
    And outside of speciality (pour-over/cold-brew), it’s the preferred extraction method.



  • ML summary:

    Jas Athwal, the Labour Party MP for Ilford South, is a landlord with properties that tenants say have poor living conditions.
    In the selection process for the Ilford South seat, Athwal won a higher percentage of votes from the party’s online “Anonyvoter” system compared to in-person votes, despite his opponent Sam Tarry winning more of the in-person votes.
    There are concerns about a lack of transparency and potential for fraud in the Anonyvoter system, which has also been used in other Labour candidate selection processes with similar results favoring more centrist candidates.
    Former Labour MPs Sam Tarry and Beth Winter have raised legal concerns about the use of Anonyvoter, and several Labour-affiliated unions have expressed doubts about the system.