Cambridge to become Europe’s Silicon Valley with 250k extra homes

I don't claim that particular flavour of simple-minded populism wouldn't fly elsewhere (sadly: it does), but the way in which the whole thing was carried out in the UK was... quite unique. I had the feeling that the majority of politicians who implemented it privately knew this was a stupid idea and pushed through ("deliverrred") anyways with a very british bone-headedness. As if they accidentally queued for a face-slapping, when in fact they intended to queue for a free hug: After realising their mistake they were more afraid of the looks they would receive if they stepped out of the queue than with the consequences of getting slapped. Only this made them look even more ridiculous.

Also Switzerland and Norway have both been in huge diplomatic efforts to align as well with the EU as possible where it made sense for them. This non-membership certainly wasn't free — but those two nations could afford it. Not so sure about the UK here.

I have seen interviews with brits that were surprised that leaving Schengen also means they cannot travel freely within the EU. They basically wanted all the goodies without being part and the rest of the EU should accept it because it is them.

Maybe the only positive thing about Brexit is that the total dillusion caused by decades of UK politicians and media blaming everything on the EU might now show some cracks and reveal that it was really just a way to scam their own people all along.

Bikes, scooters are only fair weather modes of transport, but I guess when its raining we can just work remotely from these new homes... and when its too hot to work up a sweat on our bikes we can work remotely from these new homes... but then if we can work remotely why do we need to be in Cambridge or the UK? There's better places in the world to live.

Elon Musk's Starlink has made working remotely possible practically anywhere in the world now. So it doesnt matter of there is no 5G or fibre broadband if you want to live and work off grid.

On the ebike stuff, there is the speed restriction, despite being able to cycle faster. And there was a recent fire in Cambridge were a family died because an ebike or scooter caught fire when charging. The press were negative towards these, but I never saw once any mention of checking the smoke detectors over the two days it was covered in the news. Despite being called an ebike, I think it was actually a e-scooter which has much more negative press than ebikes, the main reason being e-scooters are seen more on the pavements and paths than bikes are, and favoured by school kids more, hence the very intellectual and subtle form of negative press.