[Andy McDandy]

M40 helped Tory MPs get out of London and up to the south Midlands faster. HS2 doesn't directly benefit them.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I almost wonder if they should have stuck an HS2 station at Amersham to keep these goons quiet. Given that it's basically about capacity more than speed anyway.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

M40 helped Tory MPs get out of London and up to the south Midlands faster. HS2 doesn't directly benefit them.

According to Sir Humphrey it was to allow mandarins to attend college dinners more easily...

[Killer Whale]

In which Monbiot goes the full Littlejohn.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... based-name

But to the legislators of the EU, a sausage can now have only one meaning: a cylindrical object containing meat. Never mind that cylindrical objects containing no meat have been marketed under names such as “Glamorgan sausage” (selsig Morgannwg) for at least 150 years. Never mind that even Germans once felt the need to call animal sausages mettwurst, to distinguish them from other kinds. Never mind that almost everyone knows what “veggie sausage”, “vegan sausage” or “plant-based sausage” mean. A recent survey of 20,000 Dutch people found that 96% are not confused by such terms, which is probably a higher percentage than those who can readily distinguish left from right. The consumer must at all costs be protected from an imaginary threat.

He'll be doing bendy bananas next week.

[Boiler]

Probably still upset about not being able to call plant-based milk milk.

[davidjay]

I wonder if people complained about the M1/M6 in the same way. After all, it's still only getting from London to Birmingham/Leeds quicker.

[Andy McDandy]

I've a collection of newspaper columns by Stephen Fry ("Paperweight"), and at one point he says that most columnists have a few standby articles on file, in case there's nothing else to write about. "Here's some jargon and legalese and what it means in plain English" is a good example of one. Always current, flatters the reader ("Ha ha, aren't we smarter than all those self-important bureaucrats?"), and carries the message of how everything would be amazing if they just left opinionated journalists run everything.

[Youngian]

In which Monbiot goes the full Littlejohn.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... based-name

But to the legislators of the EU, a sausage can now have only one meaning: a cylindrical object containing meat. Never mind that cylindrical objects containing no meat have been marketed under names such as “Glamorgan sausage” (selsig Morgannwg) for at least 150 years. Never mind that even Germans once felt the need to call animal sausages mettwurst, to distinguish them from other kinds. Never mind that almost everyone knows what “veggie sausage”, “vegan sausage” or “plant-based sausage” mean. A recent survey of 20,000 Dutch people found that 96% are not confused by such terms, which is probably a higher percentage than those who can readily distinguish left from right. The consumer must at all costs be protected from an imaginary threat.

He'll be doing bendy bananas next week.

There's a serious point here that the EP is now filled with a gaggle of populists looking to roll back on environmental and animal welfare legislation. And they're able to form majorites with the votes of the established centre right parties.
What the meat industry fears is plant based protein alternatives to meat becoming increasingly popular as the products improve. As a large part of the public understand the mass cruelty and environmental destruction involved in producing their unhealthy cheap meat. From sentient mammals and birds that feel pain, love and happiness.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More than 75% of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters think PM should open talks on joining EU customs union – UK politics live

The attempt to pile pressure on Starmer with this bollocks goes way beyond serious reporting. Nobody who knows anything about the EU thinks the EU is interested.

To make this stuff worse, the figure routinely cited for the benefit of joining the CU (£25bn a year) isn't just the customs union. It's a very deep integration including of services which goes a long way beyond what people imagine as a cutoms union (ie free trade like we have now with less paperwork, and no freedom of movement). The EU isn't going to agree to that.

I'm not a fan of Zack, but he could steal a march here with "I'll concede freedom of movement tomorrow". That's a position more likely to bring bigger economic benefits than whatever Ed Davey is proposing.