Patrick Reynolds for a greater Auckland

Simeon Brown is not a serious person

A new report on the future of Auckland-Hamilton passenger rail rings a few bells. Back in 2017 (and again in 2024), @patrickreynolds.bsky.social offered a similar vision for keeping things rolling. Meet us in the archive for "we-told-you-so Wednesday"... 😉 www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/10/28/w...

Bang on there, @slanecartoon.bsky.social

Austerity 👏 does 👏 not 👏 work 👏 !! UK & Greece post-2008 anyone? #NZpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361...

"But the preferred option comes with a price tag of more than half a billion." Oh no! We couldn't possibly run hourly trains between two of the North Island's three biggest cities for a price tag as steep as *checks notes* 1/7th the cost of a motorway to save a few minutes on the drive to Northland

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

National has funnelled $2.4 billion of a total $3b increase to the private sector through its term - that's 80% of all its increased healthcare funding allocation. I've written at length on this topic and again today Privatisation kills - no more greater than in healthcare - reason NSW banned it

There have been over 2,500 shipwrecks in Aotearoa New Zealand since the 1790s. 100% of those were Captained by men. Why are men so bad at boats?

Twelve-year-old wins Australian slam competition prize with poem about ChatGPT: ‘It’s totally unnecessary’

JD is one sentence away from accidentally understanding the problem.

The first 2 minutes of this exceptional documentary are a very good indication of the high quality of this brilliant 1 and a half hour journey through fear and despair and arriving at hope.

Victory for Lula, who has already reduced Amazon deforestation by 70% since 2022, means there is now a chance of ending deforestation of the rainforest entirely I’m weeping with joy for Brazil, for the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, and for life on Earth 🇧🇷🌳🌎 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

After Hungary and Poland, Serbia becomes the third Central/Eastern European country in few years where massive youth mobilization has contributed to the electoral defeat of the ruling autocratic party.

How brave of the NZ Herald to publish this editorial the day after voter enrolment closed, when it can have literally zero impact. (And it's *still* not criticising the government for changing the law to make it harder to vote, it's just the usual "better civic education" pleasantries.)

A very good summary of the problem and the government’s own legal advice not to restrict the vote as it is unfair interference in a liberal democracy - by Lillian Hanley www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Oxford street is finally being pedestrianised 30 years after I first suggested it and 11 after Sadiq agreed with my suggestion at the mayoral hustings. Sometimes seemingly hopeless campaigns can be winners

Musk thinks that he can hide his own incentives by lying about other people’s incentives

I’m on a train. Been in Melbourne area for a few days now & just loving the trains. Have a side trip to Albury coming up. From Melbourne city to Albury return is $5.70 x 2. Absolutely amazing pricing for a journey of roughly 4hrs each way. Good public transport is what makes cities great. #PT

The fine should be the entire cost of the data centre. Then build a publicly owned one. Or not.

Investigative journalist Aaron Smale says the political posturing over photos with gangs is ignorant, hypocritical, and amounts to gangster chic for Instagram

LNG is a climate villain even absent malfunctions as are taking place at the Gorgon plant. Superchilling methane (natural gas) and turning it into a liquid for ocean transport requires cryogenics and a power plant’s worth of fossil fuel energy. It’s wildly stupid. news.cornell.edu/stories/2024...

“Natural“ Gas is not clean, and LNG is the filthiest version of this dirty fuel:

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Solar has become “the obvious choice” for consumers, said Nsitem. “As the US-Iran war pushed up global fuel prices, the cost of operating these generators has risen, making solar systems much more attractive overnight.” Gift link

307,991 eligible voters not enrolled as of Friday. Almost half (43%) are 18-24. The least enrolled age group; now even more so than 2023. This govt KNEW this would happen—and did it anyway, with no mitigation plan. Such disdain for democracy, and for young people. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/election-...

OG akl car-free street 👌🏼

I lived & worked in London when the Mayor's Vision for Cycling was published "London's cycling mode share is too low", said the naysayers. "Cycling won't work here." The profound shift in ambition for the bicycle has led to many more cycling trips. Build for the traffic that you want to see. 🚲🚴‍♂️🚵‍♂️

Another mRNA vaccine I would take if necessary.

Less compelling ask when made with slop:

Since 2016, London’s cycling network has grown fivefold, from 90 to 450 kilometres. The results? 1.5 million daily cycle journeys—a 43% increase since 2019—twice as many bikes as cars on City of London streets during the day, and motor traffic in steady decline—having fallen 25% in the same period.

Simeon’s values and are not New Zealanders’ values. He serves other groups entirely.

WE NEED TO STOP MEASURING "THE ECONOMY" BY HOW WELL RICH PEOPLE ARE DOING & stop pretending that the mood of the boardroom - opining of people exorbitantly paid & privileged - isn’t electioneering for the parties that will serve them & their bottom line #nzpol www.nzherald.co.nz/business/bus...

🚴 More incredible cycling news from Paris: 🟢 On 14 October, Paris presented a new cycling plan for the current municipal term, it includes 140 km of new cycle lanes, 220 km of contraflow cycling lanes and improvements to 420 intersections by 2032. buff.ly/meJI6Uo

I take it the media pushed back asking about the pedophile from the ACT Party that Seymour helped to shield from voters in the lead up to the last election, right? RIGHT?

www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3610... #nzpol

If only this was the focus of the media and commentariat right now. Adding billions to electricity bills to fund a fossil fuel set up the experts say we don't need 🤷🏻‍♀️

This plan is not only wrong, and getting worse everyday (as LNG prices surge, renewables drop), and backwards (so bad for environemnt + energy independence) but is also hella unpopular. Another misstep: www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Yay!

New plans for the proposed over-station development at KINGS CROSS released today, the Holiday Inn site. Replacing one of the Victoria St exits, creating a new northern exit from the existing underground concourse to one of two new lane-ways. A new public plaza behind the Kings Cross Hotel. (1/2)