What's pleasing me today

I presumed this was an article. A book ! Ha. Zero chance that's happening.

I decided to ask Gemini similar questions ...

I do like the No.10 North thing. Even if I was still in London I'd be for it, but even more so now. It's a bit of a gimmick, but it might help people relate a bit more to national politics and not feel like it's all concentrated in London (even though it undoubtedly still will be). I think he missed a trick putting it somewhere else rather than Manchester though. They already love him and feel "developed". He could have given somewhere like Huddersfield or Bradford or even Nottingham or Sheffield a real boost by putting it there instead.

It's anything but a gimmick. It brings capability and resources that surround the function into play in the location and to some degree disrupts the status quo inherent in a turgid system that has largely just done it "that way". See also the BBC. It makes sense for this element to be Manchester because it is familiar, it is successful, has infrastructure and that leads to a greater chance of being deliverable. This however does not preclude other regions benefiting from devolution, rather it should inspire them by the art of the possible. Consider Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, Newcastle all having greater input into the nation while at the same time being able to act with fewer constraints to grow their regional economies. Manchesterism is great Comms because it has a central truth to it.

This sort of post is probably why I'll never be an MD at work. Most of it just seems to be buzz words and platitudes rather than actually explaining what you mean in plain English.

This in particular has really lost me. What the hell does it mean?

Familiar to who? You're saying it makes sense for the new No.10 North office to be in Manchester, as the people that will work in this new office, will be from Manchester, and so they already know the region/politics/how the funding works in that region? What benefit does that have to say Sunderland? Or Cornwall?

Jim's giving off strong repressed-Andy-Burnham-feelings vibes.

On a slight tangent Little Miss Shady did a theatre show yesterday, at a theatre opened by Burnham in 2008.

You can lead a Shady to water....
I'll leave you to the delights of Google.

It's interesting that one of the comments was he made Manchester transport more like London.

Cos I think TfL is fucking shit.

Ha. Surely you realise it's absolutely brilliant compared to the rest of the UK? Or are you comparing to something abroad?

Had to get to the other side of Sheffield yesterday. Took an hour and a half, on two buses at a cost of £5.20 ( 2 x £2.70 ). It's only 10KM away and 20 minutes drive.

In London, a similar journey might be Kennington to Hampstead, which would be £3 (?) on the tube and take 25 minutes.

Yes yes, I could have cycled, but Little Miss Shady was with me and had various bits of theatre costume too. We get taxis alot in Sheffield I never did before, as once I've added up 3 of us on a bus it's almost always similar or cheaper in a taxi (nevermind more convenient).

Every time I go to London I think tfl is amazingly good. I guess you have to live it?

I guess, I've lived in London for 35 years so no real comparison elsewhere.

Current example. TfL spent millions on improvements to the junction of Putney Bridge and Putney High Street.

It has caused total gridlock in morning and evening peaks. Can take an hour to get from top of the High Street to north side of the bridge (about 3/4 mile).

Guess what, they used traffic data from a census done in April/May 2020, the peak of lockdown...

If I was in charge I would be banning cars from crossing the bridge between 8-10am or somesuch.