2 Big Stories

More 20mph zones on the way

As reported by the BBC, new advice to Councils will recommend 20mph zones around schools and in all residential areas, plus a reduction of the speed limit from 60mph to 50mph on rural main roads with a history of accidents.

The BBC have also produced a road traffic deaths map: find all the deaths in 2008 and see how many were near you (in my case, fewer than I’d expected).

One question local authorities may ask about having more 20mph zones is whether they need to have traffic calming measures too. Until now, the zones have normally involved speed humps, chicanes and similar but putting in hundreds more speed humps around our residential streets may be neither popular nor affordable.

Update: I’ve been told that, following a successful trial in Portsmouth, these new zones will not require traffic calming.

Battle commences for Christmas no. 1

As the Guardian tells us, the battle is hotting up for the Christmas number 1 single, with a Facebook campaign aiming to see X Factor’s Joe McElderry beaten by Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 hit Killing in the Name.

I suspect Simon Cowell is quietly thrilled that this campaign is boosting interest in the Christmas number one (remember those Blur/Oasis battles that boosted the sales of both). Slightly embarassingly, I’ve no idea who Joe McElderry is and I’ve never heard him sing anything, so I’ll be keeping my head down on this one.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

• Jonathan Calder welcomes two Labour and Conservative policies – nearly
• The Tories are losing by-elections hand over fist and guess what – they’re blaming immigrants.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.