Severe delays on the Mildmay Line because of flawed economics at Westminster

Rather than fuming my way through another Mildmay Line delay, I did some back of the envelope calculations. Here’s what I found:

  • Roughly £100M of well-targeted annual maintenance and renewal spending by TFL pays for itself through preserved London GVA alone if it reduces Underground Lost Customer Hours (LCH) by somewhere between 5% and 6%.
  • A £500M capital intervention that reduces LCH by 10% for 10 years returns over £3 of preserved GVA for every £1 invested.

TFL’s current annual capital expenditure is £1.9 billion.

I am using LCH for the Underground only. My calculations ignore passenger well-being and recovered free time, and the developmental, productive, and job-creating effects of an improved public transport network.

It’s time for Raï - a genre I love because it is a music that emerges from real life. It’s one of the few remaining working class musical traditions. Give “Nabghik Liya Wahdi” by Cheba Sabah a listen today

Nabghik Liya Wahdi - Cheba Sabah. More: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…

There are songs that you answer “yes” to. This is one.

Ever Fallen in Love (with Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) - Buzzcocks. More: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…

The medieval town of Pisciotta above its olive groves as the sun is setting.

A cluster of sunlit buildings is perched atop a hill covered with the dense green foliage of olive trees under a clear sky.

A decorative tile in southern Italy. The text means, “sit down and tell me all about it”.

A ceramic tile on a wall features a cartoonish man in a green jacket and tie sitting and holding a pipe, accompanied by the text ASSETTATI E CUNTAMI U FATTU.

In my experience if you want to make a ferment, wash every utensil first in soap and water, and rinse well with very hot water. Don’t use a tea towel to dry: let it air dry. Where the recipe says use salt, use sea salt, like Maldon, not iodised table salt. If you see a mould forming, chuck it away.

Here is where we are.

We will imminently acquire unprecedented tools for organising, summarising and mobilising existing knowledge.

At the same time, we are entering an era when genuine discovery, institutional resilience, and the capacity to deal with “surprises” become existential.

I hate the way AI glibs over everything and turns it into Challenger disaster bullet points.

Itunes just coughed up Judie Tzuke’s “Stay with me till dawn”.

I had totally forgotten about this song. I wonder now if it inspired Nyssa’s death scene in Blade II.

Stay With Me Till Dawn (Live) - Judie Tzuke. More: www.crucialtracks.org/profile/m…

I found Abba’s dark album in my iTunes library. Can I share it? Can I fuck!

I wonder which is the stub universe. The one where Abba recorded their dark album, or the one where you think I’m a nutter.