Tweak

Datacentres are indeed shooting up all over the place at an astonishing rate. I know, I'm involved in them. However I don't think they need such protection from the government - the companies building them already have enough money (and the datacentres themselves make a ton of money) that they don't really need handouts.

Unfortunately that's all anyone could really hope for from Starmer's Labour.

They are making the NHS worse, though. "Expansion of private contracts" is just privatisation with extra steps.

Car pollution fucks you up, too, probably more so. And before you say "people need cars to get places", nicotine (and caffeine) fuelled the industrial revolution - nicotine makes your brain work faster, which can make people more productive.

This makes me want to sing the Tetris theme.

Yeah, I mean apparently this is being driven by charities for the blind, but you can even see in the main image for the article that there is a defined crossing over the cycle lane with different texture pavement tiles. The blind are far from being ignored here.

NHS England said they were aware of an issue involving an incorrect death registration which was rectified by the patient's GP but they do not notify the DWP of a death.

Let me guess, NHS England uses a version of Horizon, and DWP have special secret backdoor access into health records...

Bastards getting free cocaine, no wonder it's so expensive now!!

The petition isn't over with this response, it'll run for 6 months and if it breaks 100,000 signatures it is required to be debated in Parliament.

You don't apply for a permit, you go to LinesearchbeforeUdig - lsbud.co.uk. This is a free service anyone can use, and you'll get emails from various asset owners with maps of what they have in the area you select. Some might try to charge for this, these ones are assholes.

As far as the law is concerned, it's up to you to make sure you do it right and the costs for doing it wrong will all fall on your shoulders.

The only permit you need AFAIK is planning permission - which won't be granted until you convince them you've done a sufficient line search. Aside from that, you need permission from the land owner, of course.

Exactly. The whole "privatise the profits, socialise the losses" needs to end.

Currently Network Rail owns and operates (nearly) all the railways, signals and ticket offices. Not sure about stations. Train companies rent rail stock, but they pay a high price for this and subsequently pass that onto the consumer, while maintaining that it's necessary to charge expensive fares because their costs are so high.

The government owns Network Rail. The government will take over the rail companies, and this will probably end up staggered as different companies have different contract dates. The rail stock itself will probably remain under the same ownership with more or less the same ridiculous rental charges.

So all in all this probably won't make that much difference.

Exactly. The rolling stock is where all the money goes, meanwhile the public-facing train companies you buy tickets from (who rent rolling stock) operate at or near a loss. This way the train companies can negotiate better contracts with local governments - "Look, we're barely making any money, we have to charge ludicrously high fares for piss poor service!"