Paul Maslin

Former Lewisham Councillor, Gallery Owner, Londoner, Hoping For One More Marathon, Shocking Tenor Voice.

[John Stewart @JohnJohnStewart]

In a follow-up to his earlier piece @nicholascecil reveals the London boroughs seeing the biggest rise in cycling accidents. Quote from Conservative London Assembly member Thomas Turrell gets to the heart of the matter: "Londoners will have serious questions about the objectivity and reliability of the data the Mayor and TfL presents them now that we understand how they present it. It strikes at the heart of transparency in government when authorities seek to paint a false image - that cycling in the capital is getting safer - when the opposite is true.”
https://t.co/hy1tUNOvjM

[London TravelWatch @LonTravelWatch]

We’re disappointed to see that average bus speeds have fallen again and are now at their slowest since modern records began

@TfL has a programme of measures to improve speeds safely. We need to see these making a difference for the millions of Londoners who depend on buses #Bus

[NFBUK @NFBUK]

@christopherhope Wondering if anyone will ask @AndyBurnhamGM where do blind people and their access needs fit in to catch a bus in all of his electioneering efforts? As bus stops like these are not fit for purpose at all.

[Moving Home with Charlie @moving_charlie]

Actual transaction prices of all home types in SW11. Land Registry completion prices.

£768,000 a year ago.
£575,000 now.

Almost £200,000 down.

That's a steep slide. Almost crashy wouldn't you say? Link to source below.

These are actual, unmanipulated numbers.

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

Good on us for not smoking so much anymore!

[Vincent Stops @VincentStops]

If you thought London’s bus services couldn’t get any slower, you were wrong. Another all time low. The reason - no one in London government cares enough and all the lobbying is done by cyclists. @LonTravelWatch

[Eric Basmajian @EPBResearch]

Less than 20% of GDP drives 100% of recessions.

Three components: Residential investment. Durable goods consumption. Business equipment investment.

Today, only residential is contracting.

One of three. Not enough to break the cycle.

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Before Brexit, there were about 300K net migrants a year, mostly from the EU.

After Brexit, immigration shot up to 900K, and EU migration was negative.

It’s amazing how stupid Brexit was from every possible perspective.

Populism is a low IQ movement.

[NFBUK @NFBUK]

.@AndyBurnhamGM why have blind people been left behind in your changes to bus stops in Greater Manchester and do you believe blind people’s access needs to board & alight the bus should be sidelined when cycle lanes are built running through bus stops?

[John Stewart @JohnJohnStewart]

This makes me so angry. I don't want to hear excuses 'but cars' or 'there are few fatalities'. The situation is unacceptable and I want it sorted out.

We investigated 'London's most dangerous cycleway' and saw dozens of near-misses
https://t.co/hfvUAlavSr via @MetroUK

[Prof. Steve Keen @ProfSteveKeen]

This is important. People think the Nobel Prize in Economics is politically impartial. In fact it isn’t, and it isn’t even a Nobel Prize. It was invented by the Swedish Central Bank when it was fighting social democratic economic policies in Sweden.

Critics of neoclassical economics are equally excluded. It’s a tribal award.

[Vincent Stops @VincentStops]

On Wednesday @TfL told its board members there had been a 20% increase in fatal and serious cyclist injuries in 2025 compared to 2024. This is a colossal failure of policy. They are still hiding the enormity of this by comparing to 2010/2014 and publishing a new plan!

[Moving Home with Charlie @moving_charlie]

It is exactly this that has driven the housing affordability problem more than anything else.

A borrower with a 6.5x salary mortgage can offer twice their salary more than a 4.5x buyer.

So without having saved a penny extra, they’ve got c£80k more to offer.

See how it hurts?

[Jack Prandelli @jackprandelli]

Norway and the UK drilled the same North Sea.

🇳🇴Norway got $2 trillion.
🇬🇧The UK got tax cuts.

Same basin,Same era.... Completely different outcomes.

Norway captured $30 per barrel in government revenue. The UK captured $11.

That gap, compounded over 50 years of production, is the entire difference.

Norway's model was simple: tax heavily (78% marginal rate), take direct equity stakes in fields via the SDFI, own part of Equinor, and put everything surplus into a fund invested abroad.

The Government Pension Fund Global now holds over $2 trillion in assets.
That's $390,000 per Norwegian citizen about 1.5% of all listed equities on earth.

The fiscal rule: only spend the 3% annual real return. Never touch the principal.

The UK started producing earlier, at lower prices, with a lower tax rate (40%) and no saving mechanism.

North Sea revenues flowed straight into the general budget.

Economists estimate the UK missed out on roughly £400 billion compared to a Norwegian style regime.

The windfall largely financed tax cuts in the 1980s rather than a fund.

Where things stand in 2026?

Norway's petroleum sector will generate $63 bn in net cash flow this year alone feeding a fund already large enough to cover 10-15% of the national budget from returns alone.

The UK is a net energy importer.
Since 2021 it has paid countries like Norway more than £100 billion for gas.

One country treated oil as a finite resource to convert into permanent financial wealth.

The other treated it as income.

image source:eia

[Vincent Stops @VincentStops]

The City of London’s own equality assessment of these schemes say blind people can’t use them, but they have just approved more, saying its not “unlawful discrimination”!

[Luis Garicano 🇪🇺🇺🇦 @lugaricano]

No smoking gun, but the preponderance of evidence points to smartphones, not economics, as the culprit for the global drop in fertility:
• In the US and UK, births fell first and fastest in areas that got 4G earliest
• Birth rates were stable in the US, UK and Australia until 2007; in France and Poland until 2009; in Mexico and Indonesia until 2012; in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal until 2013-15
Each of these inflection points matches local smartphone adoption (see picture).
• The younger the age group, the sharper the drop.
• in-person socialising among young adults is dropping. In SK, by 50% in 20 years
• Sexual dysfunction is higher among heavy social media user
• Effect is largest in culturally traditional societies — Middle East, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa
• Decline holds across countries hit hard by GFC 2008 and those not hit, fast-growing and not growing.
Excellent again @jburnmurdoch.
https://t.co/RYEMXD2bRM

[John Stewart @JohnJohnStewart]

Life has just got a whole lot more difficult for a pedestrians, bus users and disabled people.

Work on a new cycleway between Aldgate and Blackfriars is to go ahead after it was paused due to concerns about floating bus stops.
https://t.co/eaE4Ijg93n

[Vincent Stops @VincentStops]

London is having a road safety crisis, but no one is watching. All fatal and serious injuries well above target. Fatal and serious cyclist injuries at its highest ever level, 1172, by a long way!

Keep up the treatment until the patient dies

[Paul Maslin @PaulJMas]

@chris_barnham Quite. It seems like Streeting had a plan to resign, then circumstances changed, but he decided to resign anyway although he forgot what the point of doing so was.

[NFBUK @NFBUK]

This…