Well

only one in 10 council planning departments are fully staffed, with 13% operating with fewer than three-quarters of posts filled

with

80% [of local authorities] reporting they did not have enough officers to carry out their workload

because

long-term cuts to funding have had a visible impact on planning departments’ ability to retain staff... there has been a 43% fall in resources to the planning system from local authorities since 2009-10.

https://www.lgcplus.com/services/regeneration-and-planning/planning-people-go-from-council-to-council-chasing-the-money-17-05-2023/

I guess the shift would have been around the time he began

promoting an energetic blend of conspiracy theories, COVID denial, and the liberal use of capital letters, with videos like “The TRUTH About Pfizer” and “The CDC Are SPYING On You,"

promoting ivermectin for viral infections, and hanging out with Tucker Carlson.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34zd9/russell-brand-ivermectin https://deadline.com/2023/07/tucker-carlson-fox-firing-reaction-russell-brand-interview-1235431938/

This is a thoughtful reply. I will just say that the UK also has public toilets all over the place, and a desire for people to not screw & get high in the cubicles. Ditto many other countries. But I've never been anywhere else with this door gap problem, where no-one gets privacy.

I did once use a UK bathroom in a supermarket where the lighting was all blue, which makes it hard to find a vein to inject. But the doors still closed properly.

Sticker price isn't the price you pay at the till. Why? Why do you do that.

Massive gaps between the walls and doors of public lavatory cubicles. This is not some mystical, advanced technology. Get it together.

For non-UK readers: UK councils have limited revenue-raising powers compared to local government in other countries, and rely on 3 sources of income:

• Central government grants
• Council tax (on residential properties)
• Business rates (on commercial properties)

This amounts to c. 7% of the total UK tax base, versus c. 32% collected locally in Germany or 50% collected locally in Canada.

Central government grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 09/10 and 19/20 from £46.5bn to £28.0bn.

Council tax has gone up 30% over the same period, but it can't go up more than 2% annually without passing a referendum (unlikely). Some councils in dire straits have recently been allowed to raise it 5%.

Local authorities have been underfunded for over a decade. Other UK councils which have already declared bankruptcy, either through running out of money, or through losing vast amounts of money in risky schemes attempting to replace missing central funding:

• Northamptonshire
• Hackney
• Slough
• Thurrock
• Croydon
• Woking

How is a law ending the stealth conversion of residentially zoned areas into commercial a net negative for housing?

I won't miss seeing those cannisters littered around.

It was eventually removed from the woman’s abdomen in 2021, approximately 18 months after the initial procedure and a number of visits to her GP. On one occasion, her pain was so severe that she visited the emergency department at Auckland city hospital.

I wish this was surprising.

From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors

‘I was told to live with it’: women tell of doctors dismissing their pain

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/16/painkillers-women-tell-of-doctors-dismissing-their-pain

Also by this author:

• Planet Normal: Ulez expansion feels like lockdown all over again
• First it was Covid – now we’re being scared into submission over the weather
• The NHS is on life support – it’s time to switch it off and start again
• The BBC’s liberal bubble has finally burst
• I’m sick of people with an ounce of common sense being labelled ‘far-Right’
• Britain is becoming too woke to defend itself
• Over-50s are being driven out of work by wokery

"When looking at the use of face masks and mask mandates, studies consistently reported the measures were an effective approach to reduce infection. The evidence further indicates higher-quality respirator masks (such as N95 masks) were more effective than surgical-type masks."

The content of the full text of this article is frankly appalling.

Inflation rates are quoted as rolling annual percentages.

Since 2019, the cost of goods and services has gone up 21.94%.

You can find out more about much the value of your money has decreased over time using the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator