With apologies for the clichéd title, here are three stories encapsulating the way things are going.
Into a hole. For every £2.50 UK councils spent on repairing potholes, last year, they paid out another £1 in compensation for damaged wheels and tyres. Infrastructure gets thrown under the bus because the energy cost of keeping the industrial show on the road exceeds affordable inputs. Story is PR for the Asphalt Association but they do have a point.
Freedom of choice. Food labelling ain’t necessarily helpful, (joke: “I don’t eat beef … as I recently found out”) but in Mississippi they’re actively trying to ban it. Presumably in the name of freedom. Assuming that freedom is a synonym for encouraging wilful ignorance.
Pope Poor the First. As the world’s biggest religion gears up for the first-ever 72-seater Popemobile, it’s good to have a leader who’s down with his flock rather than tucked up with the rich folk on the hill. And with bus travel creeping steadily up on the (formerly) middle classes, Francis 1 is an example to us all.
QuadRanting 