Please help me keep my TD5 Defender on the road but this will be relevant to a lot of older cars!! ‼️IMPORTANT‼️ *Please Share.* So the government is going to try and effectively remove old vehicles from the road. They've created a sneaky consultation on this huge change with an end date of only the 6th of September. They want to have a yearly emissions check on every car and motorcycle on the road AS WELL as your mot. If you pass the mot but then go to your emissions check, if the vehicle doesn't emit exactly the same emissions as when it was built the car will be banned from any use on the road even if it passed its mot emissions. ‼️ This will effectively destroy cars for those of us who love older cars, as well as those who simply can’t afford a newer car. Also car tuning and modifications will be forced to stop you been able to drive your car.‼️ This is targeting all vehicle, cars, motorbikes, trikes, kit cars etc. So far they are just targeting cars after 2001 but they want to use it on every vehicle on the road targeting mot & tax exempt (historic) vehicles. They've purposely not given this consultation much time, so please go to the bottom of this page, click this link: smartsurvey.co.uk/s/x-QHYJB7… and click *DISAGREE* and tell them you do not want any of this from the government and share the consultation for others to do the same. Only way to stop this would be to get the results of this consultation to be a resounding NO (DISAGREE)! gov.uk/government/consultati…

Jodrell Bank is the most visible causality of UKRI’s short sighted ‘vision’ for science, but as you’ll see below, there are many other valuable UK facilities and collaborations at risk. We became aware of the problem in the autumn of last year. It is not a result of the overall funding settlement for science after the spending review, which was quite generous I would say in the circumstances. Neither as far as we can tell is it a direct decision by ministers (all of whom have now gone in any case). Rather the problems appears to have been caused by senior management at UKRI focusing on short term economic ‘impact’ (whatever that means) rather than doing their job as custodians of the foundations of science. What must happen now is that the new ministerial team make the time (and space ;-)) to review the upcoming catastrophe, and instruct UKRI to do their job and focus on making Britain the best place in the world to do science, now and in the future.

Observations from Sunday at Birkdale 1. Have always been a big Ryan Fox fan and it was fun to see others see what we have seen for a long time. A hard-working, laid back, engaging guy with a fast, aggressive and high-ceiling game. An amazing round culminating in the final hole of major golf this year being the best single hole played in a major this year. I thought the drive was the key shot and it was simply perfect. Been a while since I've heard a reaction like that at an Open. It was great. 2. I walked 11 holes with Cam Young. Saw his start and thought it could be a historic day. He was immense. The ball striking is elite, especially off the tee. I noticed he spent so much of the day walking alone, not even with his caddie. So I asked him after about it. "I was counting breaths", he said. A mental trick he's begun using to quieten his mind. Found that fascinating. 3. I thought the R&A did an amazing job with the set-up all week. Firm, fast, challenging and yet playable and scoreable greens. Pin positions were really clever all week and tested the world's best yet allowed there for three 62s, Fox's run and countless stretches by Tommy, Scottie etc where they got hot and hit the shots. 4. A perfect summary of the R&A and the tradition was when I asked them for help on a stat about Sam Burns. The R&A stats guy brought out a handwritten notebook that had every detail of every Open... dating back to 1860! We got the answer within minutes and I left both amazed and concerned that a stray cigarette could destroy some key records, haha. 5. I played Formby Ladies in the morning on Sunday. 5,500 hards and we got round in less than 2.5 hours as a three-ball. What a joy of a course and unlike any other course I've played in England. Highly recommend. 6. Each hole at Royal Birkdale was marshalled by nearby clubs. Their names displayed on the stakes that held the rope lines. The 14th was Formby and Formby Ladies. Had a good chat a female member there as I walked with Cam. 7. I was given some tickets to give away for Sunday and met Danny, his wife and daughter (neither of whom had been to a golf tournament before). They were lovely and had a blast, and made me think about how local and family-orientated The Open has become. Different from the US majors, and I think it's part of the reason the crowds are polite and educated on golf. These are golf fans and not simply sports fans or folks that want to attend events and take selfies. It shows in the feeling and ovations on-site. 8. The Claret Jug is such a great and unique prize in the sport. Watching Foxy walk into the press conference after the round, put down the jug and gaze at it was special. The story of how the trophy came to be is wild too, but it's a great part and symbol of The Open. 9. I think I, and many people, will leave with a much better understanding of Birkdale. Such an privilege to walk inside the ropes and watch the world's best golfers attack one of the world's best golf courses. A highly strategic, exceptionally well bunkered course weaves across and through an amazing dune scape. An iconic clubhouse, great closing stretch and yet another great Open.

It took me 3 months to put 10 years of research on curiosity into a 20min presentation... ...So when @GrahamDuncanNYC challenged me to compress it down to 5min for the @SohnConf yesterday, I obviously went insane. Here it is.

I'm asking John - and indeed all journalists - as a new year resolution to stop comparisons with a national economy and a household budget. How many years have to go by until we can have coherent conversations in the media about the economy? ippr.org/articles/economists…

Students will now be able to travel to the EU to study as part of the Erasmus scheme, after the Tories pulled the UK from the scheme as part of Brexit.