Well they have been doing that with ULEZ legislation throughout the world. It is having a positive effect.
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Is the exhaust being piped in through a window into an enclosed space filled with 100âs of people?
Cigarette smoke on its own is actually far more polluting than car exhaust - by a magnitude of 10.
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Honestly, Iâd rather we actually build decent public transport systems than wade into the whole debate about cars. I donât believe there are that many people in this country who would stick with cars if they had better options. Youâll still have the car lovers, but I doubt they form any more than a small minority of the population.
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Unfortunately youâll have countries like USA and Australia where they will never move away from ICE cars in the necessary quantity. It doesnât help that these places have very poor public transport networks.
Here in South East Qld theyâve recently started offering 50c public transport fares. Itâs an election bribe from the current government, but it would cost me 50c to take the 120km train journey into Brissy. Sadly that would also take 3hr 20min one way, which really highlights how poor the rail network is here.
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I was referencing the UK specifically. In the USA and Australia, while you can reduce the use of cars, I think itâs likely to be as you said, impossible to eradicate simply because of the way everything is built and the vast scale of the places.
And the reluctance to spend any money on decent cycle infrastructure. Totally different world (and mindset) when you visit cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam
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This is really sad.
Have they considered Rwanda?
And guess what, their roads are great for driving too (or so Iâve heard, never experienced them personally).
Itâs what happens when you give people many good viable alternatives, they migrate to these alternatives, leaving the roads freer for those who enjoy their cars, like a good Audi S6 as I seem to remember someone on these forums having.
Presumably too costly and unsafe?
Estonia is on the edge of a war zone so Rwanda probably much saferâŚ
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SE Queensland highlights an issue with public transport across Australia. It is either really good and convenient or it is utter bollocks.
Take your case, and switch from Sunny Coast, to Gold Coast. 1hr from Helensvale to Brisbane with regular trains, and to connect you have the G-link, but that only runs along the coast to Broadbeach. Anywhere south of Broadbeach or heading slightly inland and you are back to relying on buses. They canât even get Coolangatta airport linked to either the train or G-Link - which is a similar issue in Melbourne.
Flying into Melbourne, you either are getting picked up by someone, or getting a bus into central to then get a train or tram. And in Melbourne, if you tell people that youâll catch a train, they look at you like you have a deathwish. When I was in Melbourne over NY, one day I went into the city, and my bro was going to give me a lift but I said I was ok getting the train and he was absolutely horrified. S-i-L was even worse when she found out and was constantly checking in on me to make sure I got into the city ok
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Yes, but itâs not the same as Rwanda or any sort of third world options, which those who are obsessed with saving money and worse, harsh conditions in prisons, are favouring. I am pretty sure Estonian prisons are no worse than English ones. England has a reputation of having overcrowded prisons with very little focus on rehabilitation (and has a logical high recidivism rate as a consequence). If I had to serve time, I would probably prefer an Estonian prison, where I could possibly actually improve my life. They are certainly not overcrowded.
Of course, the only long term solution is to build up British prisons (and improve socioeconomic conditions in society, but that ought to go without saying tbh, as well as taking probably even longer time than building out prison space and possible prison reform).
Anyway, I think the Estonian temporary solution is rather good. Prison conditions there are good. Better than in England. So if the choice is between (only short term of course) chucking people into overcrowded prisons with the myriad problems that leads to and utilising Estonian prisons as a back up for a shorter time period, I think it is a fine solution, albeit embarrasing for the UK. But prisoners serving in decent conditions and having a higher chance at getting rehabilitated is far more important than mere national prideâŚ
I was referring to the myriad of things that led up to this, most of which can really be traced to the utter incompetence and ideological idiocy by preceding governments.
I would agree, and I think the Prisons Minister was appointed precisely with that remit in mind, the focus on reducing recidivism. Heâs also been quite activist on rehabilitation.
Not to a significant number of people in the population unfortunately, many of whom also seem to think that punishment is more important than actually reducing crime.
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And cows
Fixed
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Ashamed to say, that this âcreatureâ, was born and raised in LiverpoolâŚ
Leaked Whatsapp messages reveal Nadine Dorries saying she was âpicking offâ families whose relatives had died as a way to ensure a âfull public inquiryâ into âsuspiciousâ deaths was not launched
A health minister attempted to block a full public inquiry into suspicious deaths in mental health hospitals, The Telegraph can reveal.
Leaked WhatsApp messages reveal that Nadine Dorries, who was a Conservative health minister under Boris Johnson, sent a message to Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, saying that she was âpicking offâ families whose relatives had died as a way to ensure a âfull public inquiryâ into âsuspiciousâ deaths was not launched.
Ms Dorries told Mr Hancock that the mother of a young man who was found dead at a mental health unit in Essex was âcalling for a full public inquiryâ but âwe arenât going thereâ.
âIâm picking off the other families and speaking to them one by one to get them onside to isolate her. But itâs incredibly sensitive and difficult as all of these young boys died in very suspicious circumstances,â she wrote.
Mr Hancock responded that he would âback your judgment on all these sorts of casesâ.
âMental health is so effinâ politicalâ
Two days later, Ms Dorries announced that there would be an independent inquiry into the Linden Centre, but fell short of granting extra powers requested by some families.
That night, Ms Dorries sent a Whatsapp message to the then health secretary saying she was going to announce the chairman and terms of reference for the inquiry, but that Labour were trying to get âsome controlâ.
In an apparent effort to avoid political pressure, Ms Dorries said âI want this on the road before reccess [sic]â so that the government kept âcontrolâ.
âMental health is so effinâ politicalâ.
Ms Dorries also wrote: âI want out of MH [understood to be mental health] ASAP. Itâs demoralising.â
Lampard inquiry to begin next week
In 2023, when Mr Hancock and Ms Dorries were no longer in post, Steve Barclay announced that the inquiry into the mental health units would be placed on a statutory footing, after the then inquiry chairman wrote an open letter saying she could not fulfil her brief without the extra powers.
The inquiry is due to begin next week and is now known as the Lampard inquiry, after Baroness Kate Lampard who was appointed as the chairman.
On Friday, the mother Ms Dorries said she was trying to âisolateâ said she felt like she had been âstabbedâ when she read the WhatsApp messages.
Melanie Leahy, whose son Matthew died at the Linden Centre in 2012, said: âMy heartâs racing at the moment, itâs like Iâve just been stabbedâŚIâm just grateful that you shared it with me.â
âI want answers, I want to know what happened to Matthew and I want that accountabilityâ, she told The Telegraph.
Two days after Ms Dorries made the comments about Ms Leahy, the minister said in Parliament that she âthank[ed]â Ms Leahy âfor her years of campaigningâ and had been âdeeply moved by her storyâ.
The WhatsApp messages emerged as part of the Lockdown Files â when The Telegraph obtained 100,000 exchanges between Mr Hancock and other government ministers, advisers and civil servants.
Matthew Leahy, 20, was admitted to the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, Essex, in November 2012. He had a diagnosis of delusional disorder. Eight days later, he was found unresponsive in his room.
In the years which followed, Ms Leahy fought for answers about what happened to her son.
In 2019, the health ombudsman found âsignificant failingsâ in care provided at the centre, which is run by the Essex Partnership University NHS Trust.
The ombudsman found 19 failures and an inquest into Matthewâs death found he was âsubjected to⌠multiple failings over a long periodâ.
Matthew had told his mother that he had been drugged and raped at the centre.
Traces of date-rape drug GBH were found in his blood â and four needle marks in his groin. The report by the health ombudsman said staff did ânot take adequate actionâ when Matthew reported being raped and that his care plan had been âfalsifiedâ.
Ms Leahy, along with other families, called for a statutory inquiry into the deaths. It has extra powers, which means it can compel witnesses to give evidence under oath and force documents to be handed over.
In 2023, families said that they would be seeking a judicial review of the decision not to grant the inquiry extra powers. Following this, it was announced that the inquiry would be placed on a statutory footing.
The terms of reference say that the purpose of the inquiry is to âinvestigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of mental health inpatients under the careâ of NHS Trusts in Essex between 2000 and 2023.
Ms Dorries said that it was ânot appropriate for former ministers to discuss private conversations but there were a range of opinions by the families of those affected and I listened to all of themâ.
âI approved the inquiry in the face of strong resistance from official bodies and ensured this happened before the summer recess so that the inquiry was in progress before a possible reshuffle in the September, which would have resulted in further delayâ, she said
âMental health is a highly politicised sectorâŚand that, on top of the often tragic cases me and my team were encountering, makes working in this area challenging. That I did so during Covid made it especially so. I am not ashamed to say that â if I hadnât found it challenging that would have meant I didnât care.â
A spokesman for Mr Hancock said: âAt the time, Matt was focused on fighting the pandemic, and preparing for the start of the vaccination programme, so understandably tasked the minister for mental health to lead on this issue, as is entirely normal in these sorts of circumstances.â
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Fucken hellâŚ
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i think you are over egging the ommelette here⌠whats the context? that its too crowded?, too violent?, too unreliable?
Melbourne hasnt got the greatest public transport, but its far far far from a âdeathwishâ, and id wager i could tell 100 people im catching the train to the footy and no one wuld tell me i have a âdeath wishâ
âŚeditâŚmaybe its more that your brother and SIL dont think YOU can navigate it âŚ(jest)
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Ricky Jones- Pleads not guilty and trial set for January.
No fast tracking here then?