Instead of simmering in a stew of rage and resentment I began to wonder if that conferred invisibility could be harnessed. If I reframed it as a cloak of invisibility I could do all sorts of things âinappropriateâ for my age.
I refrained from robbing a bank (though fairly sure I could have got away with the loot), instead turning my attention to street art.
My first guerrilla paste-up a decade or so ago was in a lane in Ballarat, Victoria. I was quite nervous and slightly fearful of being at least fined so I donned a hi-vis vest and put out semi-official public work signs and had a friend spotting for me. I neednât have bothered â people went past me and simply did not see me.
Linkage
Things Katy is reading.
Society âdisappearsâ ageing women. So I harnessed that cloak of invisibility to do all sorts of âinappropriateâ things
in The GuardianLeaked email reveals Keir Starmer vetoed Thatcher criticism
in The IndependentAs the Labour leader faces a backlash for his praise of the former Tory prime minister, a leaked email shows he stopped Sam Tarry, then the partyâs shadow minister for transport, from attacking her failed policies in 2021.
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Left-winger Mr Tarry had wanted to criticise her 1985 Transport Act, saying it âfailed to deliver lower fares and better services across Greater Manchesterâ.
But when the comments were sent to Sir Keirâs office for approval, one of his top aides insisted the reference to Thatcher be taken out.
The leaked email said: âCan we take out the Thatcher stuff and instead criticise the current government?â
An adviser to Mr Tarry pushed back on the suggested edit and replied: âMr Burnhamâs happy with it and sheâs despised in the north, so it will play well with voters.â
But Sir Keirâs aide insisted the reference be removed to âfocus on the current set of elections and criticise the current set of Toriesâ.
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A source familiar with the exchange said it was indicative of Labourâs refusal to criticise Ms Thatcher under Sir Keirâs leadership, adding that recent praise for her was âless of a surprise and more of a confirmation of the Labour leaderâs admiration for the former prime ministerâ.
Voters have been betrayed on Brexit and immigration. I stand ready to deliver
in The Telegraph (UK)Every moment of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them. Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism. Tony Blair reimagined a stale, outdated Labour Party into one that could seize the optimism of the late 90s. A century ago, Clement Attlee wrote that Labour must be a party of duty and patriotism, not abstract theory. To build a âNew Jerusalemâ meant first casting off the mind-forged manacles. That lesson is as true today as it was then.
It is in this sense of public service that Labour has changed dramatically in the last three years. The course of shock therapy we gave our party had one purpose: to ensure that we were once again rooted in the priorities, the concerns and the dreams of ordinary British people. To put country before party.
None of that was easy but it was necessary. Often, it meant taking the path of most resistance. It meant not just listening to those who felt unable to vote for us but understanding them and acting. The public do not have outlandish or unreasonable expectations. They expect taxpayer money to be spent wisely, our security and our borders to be prioritised and a politics that serves them rather than itself. On each of these, we are now ready to deliver.
Cop28 president says there is âno scienceâ behind demands for phase-out of fossil fuels
in The GuardianAl Jaber spoke with [Mary] Robinson at a She Changes Climate event. Robinson said: âWeâre in an absolute crisis that is hurting women and children more than anyone ⊠and itâs because we have not yet committed to phasing out fossil fuel. That is the one decision that Cop28 can take and in many ways, because youâre head of Adnoc, you could actually take it with more credibility.â
Al Jaber said: âI accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. Iâm not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is whatâs going to achieve 1.5C.â
Robinson challenged him further, saying: âI read that your company is investing in a lot more fossil fuel in the future.â Al Jaber responded: âYouâre reading your own media, which is biased and wrong. I am telling you I am the man in charge.â
Al Jaber then said: âPlease help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.â
Everything You Need To Know About Israel and Palestine | Ash Meets Rashid Khalidi
in Novara MediaRashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and the author of several books focussing on the Middle East including 'The Hundred Years' War On Palestine'. He explains some of the basic facts of the struggle for Palestinian independence and the creation of the Zionist project of Israel.
Keir Starmer praises Margaret Thatcher for bringing âmeaningful changeâ to UK
in The GuardianWriting in the Sunday Telegraph, the Labour leader said Thatcher had âset loose our natural entrepreneurialismâ during her time as prime minister.
âAcross Britain, there are people who feel disillusioned, frustrated, angry, worried. Many of them have always voted Conservative but feel that their party has left them,â he said. âI understand that. I saw that with my own party and acted to fix it. But I also understand that many will still be uncertain about Labour. I ask them to take a look at us again.â
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Starmer said it was âin this sense of public serviceâ that he had overseen a dramatic change in the Labour party â cutting its ties with former leader Jeremy Corbyn and removing the whip.
âThe course of shock therapy we gave our party had one purpose: to ensure that we were once again rooted in the priorities, the concerns and the dreams of ordinary British people. To put country before party,â he said.
âChaos? This is natural living!â The genius of Shane MacGowan
in The GuardianIn 1988, in a motel room in Atlanta, Georgia, I sat down with Shane to do an interview on the last night of a week-long trip through the American south with the band. It was a Sunday evening as I recall, and Shane, who hated interviews, was for once in a sober and reflective mood. When I asked him about the mixture of tenderness and brutal realism that characterised his songs, he said: âPeople donât understand what it takes to write a truthful song, a song that is trying to be pure and honest.â Though I pressed him to elucidate, that was all he would say on the matter.
For a time, some would say too short a time, Shane MacGowan wrote pure and honest songs like no one else. Last week, when I chatted with his friend and fellow songwriter Nick Cave, at a public event in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, we began with a kind of impromptu tribute to Shane, who had died that morning. Nick spoke candidly about his âpure spiritâ, as well as how envious he had once felt about Shaneâs ability to cut to the heart of things in his songs, and the empathy he evinced for the outsiders and marginalised who inhabited them. He regarded Shane with obvious awe as âthe songwriter of his generationâ.
Though this is not the time to go into it too deeply, it would be remiss not to acknowledge that Shaneâs lifestyle of dogged excess â and the darkness that sometimes descended in its wake, at considerable cost to himself and those in his sway â diminished his extraordinary talent. âYou call it chaos,â he once admonished me, when I asked about his rapidly advancing state of dissolution. âI donât regard it as chaos. I regard it as natural living.â
Alexandria, VA, Says Goodbye to Exclusionary Zoning
for Strong TownsEliminating single-family zoning was part of a broader package of reforms deliberated by Alexandriaâs city council known as the Zoning for Housing/Housing for All initiative. While most council members welcomed the reforms, lawns across the city have been littered with âanti-zoningâ signs for months in anticipation of the vote. Some residents assumed that by eliminating the codes that restrict what can be built how and where, the city would lose its charm.
Others point out, however, that the pride of the city, Old Town, would not be able to exist within the restrictive zoning that has defined Alexandria for the last half-century. Originally laid out in 1749, Old Town follows a grid pattern and is beloved for its multi-story brick buildings housing a mixture of commercial uses as well as medium-, low-, and high-density residential opportunities. By contrast, the majority of Alexandria is zoned exclusively for low-density, single-family residential housing. In fact, itâd be illegal to replicate Old Town in most of Alexandria under the current zoning regime.
âA tsunami of traffic chaosâ: the new Sydney motorway prompting calls for a royal commission
in Sydney Morning Herald SMHThe bungled opening of the final stage of WestConnex, the Rozelle interchange, is bad enough that veteran transport experts such as Michelle Zeibots at the University of Technology Sydney say only a royal commission can open the lid on how such debacles can happen.
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âWe need to know who thought it up, who pushed for it, who in the private sector and public service designed, sanctioned and signed-off on its various stages and what the nature of the interaction was between government and private sector business interests.â
WestConnex now looks likely to compel a second harbour tunnel, the proposed Beaches motorway and another segment of the M6 tollway.
âItâs a cycle. It goes on and on and on, where they just build a new motorway,â Zeibots said. âYou get induced traffic growth, it creates a new bottleneck, a new set of traffic jams, they are bigger and they are more difficult to contend with than the previous one.â
âWhat a private toll-road company is motivated by is completely and utterly anathema to what a city needs in order to have a good and adequate transport network to support its economic and social exchange functions,â she said.
Want to cut your new home costs by 10% or more? Thatâs what building groups can do
in The ConversationIn 1990s Berlin, baugruppen (building groups) came to the fore in response to the German cityâs housing crisis. Building groups are DIY collectives of future resident-owners who come together to develop their new homes. Households become producers rather than consumers, so they save on the developerâs profit margin and have more control over building design and quality.
At its peak, about 17% of new homes in Berlin were baugruppen projects. By 2017 more than 600 projects had been completed. The current master plan for redeveloping Berlinâs former Tegel airport calls for baugruppen to produce 2,000 homes â 40% of the projectâs housing.
The success of baugruppen has inspired building groups in Australia. Data from one development and advisory service that assists building group members show members have on average saved around 10% on their new home building costs since 2010.
As well, they save on transfer taxes/stamp duties and mortgage interest payments. So in Victoria, for example, total savings could be as much as 16.5% on a A$1 million house.