BC GOVERNMENT
Saved by @Mollyycolllinss

So I bunged out this tweet last night because I had a feeling that the judgement on the Streetspace case brought against the Mayor and TfL would be interesting.

And indeed it is...

 Transport for London proposed during the first wave of the pandemic to adopt a 'Streetspace Plan' (though a lot of 'people called is Streetscape) and rough theory was "hang on pandemic means fewer people can be on public transport, can't let everyone move to cars, do something"
This was of course at the same time as the government changed the Network Management Duty, which was sold as a major change in guidance that would make a lot happen, very quickly.
As campaigners may well be aware, it didn't quite pan out that way on a national basis and a lot of stuff happened, and then unhappened. Quite a lot of things were done that wasn't that great. Some great stuff happened that got ripped out. And some great suff remains.
A big problem was what to do with Central London. So, the Mayor proposed a series of corridors to be made traffic free. As is usual with a Mayor it was promised to be world leading. https://t.co/vdlrd4xJ4H
In practice change was slow, but eventually a scheme was put forward for Bishopsgate on the A10 through the side of the City of London near Liverpool Street. This used a series of bus gates to create a road for buses and cycles with emergency vehicle access.
This is what the taxi trade wound up objecting to, combined with the Streetspace guidance itself. And there was a hearing last year.
Normally with a Judicial Review you don't get to see the submissions, but because TfL had their's argued against it is available in a separate judgement today along with strikethrough for the inadmissible bits. https://t.co/lwM3fK6cUk
Also published today is the main judgement itself, which lists the details on five grounds. It is lengthy, but as it is a judgement it is well written and relatively self explanatory. https://t.co/2FBv7qxUfd
Is the judgement right? Should TfL Appeal?
I think yes to both, which is contradictory but coherent in my head. Perhaps a bit like TfL's defence...

It is good to see challenges, even to things I support. We've seen back of someone today who was against courts challenging power!
The Mayor and TfL have a lot of contradictory guidance and plans. This is perhaps normal, but the essence of the judgement says to me TfL should:
- have a clear plan in Streetspace for taxis
- use equality impact assessments to help shape decisions
- document decisions better
What surprises me somewhat about this, is that TfL's weaknesses in the case are actually similar to those they had in defending CS11, when they couldn't pinpoint the decisions being made. Did they learn from this case? https://t.co/EmqWHoly2m
Anyway, it is totally coherent for me to want more walking and cycling, want more inclusive streets, and for TfL to work at improving their processes. They are as ever, imperfectly good. Most right ideas, but execution needs improving. Over to you, Mr Mayor...
...because I'm going to slump in front of a film to ignore lockdown three. (apologies for rushed thread, without much to say, the brain is only so good at the moment).

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The Telegraph
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🔷 Rev. Raphael Warnock has become the first Democrat to win a Georgia Senate race in 20 years

The politician spoke to voters via MSNBC this morning

https://t.co/T9oJN2fjmo


Warnock is a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where civil rights leader Martin Luther King once preached.

He will become Georgia's first Black senator


This blue victory gives the Democrats the chance to regain control of the Senate for at least the first two years of the Biden presidency


"With Biden proposing to reverse President Donald Trump's tax cut, increase the minimum wage, and strengthen oversight on various industries, some might argue that his agenda is not particularly market-friendly," says Vasu Menon, investment strategy director at OCBC Bank
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Adam Klasfeld
Adam Klasfeld
@KlasfeldReports
Spotted at the U.S. Capitol insurrection with his mother and hopping around the Senate while holding tactical restraints, so-called “zip tie guy” Eric Gavelek Munchel's bail hearing is about to begin.

Live-tweet ahead, for @LawCrimeNews.



A preview for today's detention proceedings is linked at the top of the thread.

Please read it for background for what's up ahead.

A 5-year-veteran FBI special agent is testifying now.

The FBI agent says that he participated in the surveillance and search of Munchel's house in Nashville.

Court papers show what authorities said they found.

Left: Tactical vest with a “Punisher” comic book and Tennessee “thin blue line” patches.

Center: Five pairs of white plastic handcuffs.

Right: A baseball cap depicting a rifle and a flag
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Seth Abramson
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@SethAbramson
(1 of 2) Paul Manafort—a longtime associate of Howard Liebengood Sr.—is an exec at Event Strategies, which planned the 1/6 rally that ended with a breach of security at the Capitol, where Howard Liebengood Jr. worked security (USCP). 2 days later Liebengood Jr. committed suicide.

(2 of 2) I believe this is a coincidence. That said, because I don't think Manafort aiding and abetting a rally that ended in insurrection is coincidence, I have to assume that—out of an abundance of caution—law enforcement will investigate any possible Manafort-Liebengood link.

(PS) It is vital that no one presume connections where there may be none. My point is that as a criminal investigative matter, Manafort will be investigated for any role he had in the Save America March, and Liebengood's suicide would naturally be investigated due to its context.

(PS2) I'm sure there'll be those who say that a Donald Trump event giving tons of money to a company that enriches Paul Manafort at a time when Trump continues to need Manafort to stay quiet and Manafort is having money problems is a mere coincidence.

*That* I do not agree with.

(PS3) By the same token, as a federal criminal investigative matter, when you are about to have numerous investigations into whether security at a government building had been pre-compromised and someone who worked security at that building commits suicide, it gets investigated.
GOVERNMENT
Adam Briggs
Adam Briggs
@ADMBriggs
Most recent T&T data now out, covers 4th - 10th Feb

LFD use continues to rise but more slowly than last week and T&T performance remains consistent.

And as ever we don't know about who isn't tested and who struggles to isolate.

🧵

https://t.co/lffa72M9YJ


The number of people being tested each week remains high at around 3m, but this is due to increasing use of rapid lateral flow devices as PCR test use falls.


The number of LFDs used has increased five-fold since the start of Jan, and 35% in the past two weeks (although noticeable slowdown this most recent week).

By contrast, PCR test use for people with symptoms fallen week on week for the past month (PHE positivity data due later).


LFDs are generally used by people without symptoms to find cases that might otherwise unknowingly transmit disease. Current use focuses in places like schools, health and care, some workplaces, and community testing sites run by local gov for people who can't work from home.

There's definite variation in their use across the country (but note chart isn't pop adjusted) and as mentioned last week, will need to keep close eye on how use varies, particularly among more vulnerable and deprived groups.

Need to mitigate any unintended harm, esp around jobs
GOVERNMENT
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@afneil
Spectator thread: Among the Scottish parliament’s many crucial roles, there is none more important than its ability to scrutinise government and hold it to account. The same is true of a free press. Both are at their best when they hold power to account on behalf of the public.

But neither can do this essential duty when crucial documents are withheld during important inquiries. The Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish Gov’s handling of the Alex Salmond affair decided last week that it would not publish crucial submissions, including Mr Salmond’s ....

... apparently because it would contravene reporting restrictions rightly introduced to protect the identity of complainants.
We have published a duly redacted version of Alex Salmond’s account on our website.

We felt that an overly-cautious interpretation of the court order by the committee was frustrating the due process of parliamentary inquiry — and the freedom of the press to publish matters of public interest and importance.

We were aware that the court never intended to obstruct parliamentary or public scrutiny; but because of how the committee had interpreted the issue, we today sought clarification from the High Court in Edinburgh.
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Secrets of Ganapati (Author - Keshav Sitaram Thackeray)

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Buddha is Ashtavinayak and "Ganapati Bappa Morya" is "Chandragupta Morya".

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Some clever Brahmin manuvadis made the real Ganapati the imaginary Ganapati.

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UN Watch
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@UNWatch
The UN just voted to condemn Israel 9 times, and the rest of the world 0.

View the resolutions and voting results here:

The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.

Israel and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr


The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.

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The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.

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https://t.co/REumYgyRuF


The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
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Bartosz Ziembinski
Bartosz Ziembinski
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Still wondering about this 🤔


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1/ Something strange is happening with people’s sex lives. 20-somethings are having sex later and less frequently than previous generations. I spent several months digging into this for @theatlantic. https://t.co/5ehzmWY9wi


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3/ What’s happening isn’t exclusively American: Similar trends are being observed in other countries, including Japan, Australia, the U.K., Finland, and the Netherlands.


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5/ But I also found other explanations, each with profound implications. The first, unsurprisingly, has to do with internet enticements. Netflix and other online entertainment may be substituting for sex.
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Nicolas
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A brief analysis and comparison of the CSS for Twitter's PWA vs Twitter's legacy desktop website. The difference is dramatic and I'll touch on some reasons why.

Legacy site *downloads* ~630 KB CSS per theme and writing direction.

6,769 rules
9,252 selectors
16.7k declarations
3,370 unique declarations
44 media queries
36 unique colors
50 unique background colors
46 unique font sizes
39 unique z-indices

https://t.co/qyl4Bt1i5x


PWA *incrementally generates* ~30 KB CSS that handles all themes and writing directions.

735 rules
740 selectors
757 declarations
730 unique declarations
0 media queries
11 unique colors
32 unique background colors
15 unique font sizes
7 unique z-indices

https://t.co/w7oNG5KUkJ


The legacy site's CSS is what happens when hundreds of people directly write CSS over many years. Specificity wars, redundancy, a house of cards that can't be fixed. The result is extremely inefficient and error-prone styling that punishes users and developers.

The PWA's CSS is generated on-demand by a JS framework that manages styles and outputs "atomic CSS". The framework can enforce strict constraints and perform optimisations, which is why the CSS is so much smaller and safer. Style conflicts and unbounded CSS growth are avoided.
TECH