Odds and Ends #44: The New Statesman still needs fixing

Plus Channel Tunnel news, a NIMBY assault on an excellent pub, and more!

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your regular mini-newsletter-within-a-newsletter rounding up the most interesting links I’ve seen this week, with some shorter takes thrown in for good measure.

In this edition I feature:

• An attempt to reheat my one-sided fight with a storied political magazine.

• Some good Channel Tunnel news… and some intensely frustrating Channel Tunnel news.

• The fundamental difference between the US and Europe.

• A new way to stick it to Putin for invading Ukraine.

• A great pub that is under threat by NIMBYs.

Now on with the links!

Rewind: How to fix the New Statesman

I’m guessing by the upmarket rebrand that the management basically said “Try and be more like The Atlantic” – which has been a digital success story in the United States. But then it turned out that scaling a primarily British publication, with a British-sized budget, that only has brand value in Britain, has proven more difficult than hoped⁵.

As I say, this is just wild speculation – but that’s an explanation that would explain the redundancies.

So if this is the case, perhaps then it is time to pivot again to another strategy. The NS needs another new direction if it wants to be successful. And the good news is that I think I’ve figured out what that direction should be.

Following the news that New Statesman Editor Jason Cowley is standing down after 16 years, a re-up of my piece from the end of last year on what strategy I’d pursue to revive the New Statesman. Consider it my job application!

‘Turning point’ reached for potential new Channel Tunnel train operators (Railway Gazette)

EUROPE: The rail industry has finally reached a ‘turning point’ which will facilitate the launch of new international passenger train operators competing with Eurostar on routes to the UK.

This is the view of Channel Tunnel concessionaire Getlink, and Virgin and Evolyn are both taking advantage by developing serious proposals for new services.

I thought “this sounds exciting” when I read that other rail operators might soon run services through the Channel Tunnel. That could mean more destinations, more travel opportunities, and more opportunities to switch from air to rail! Maybe it could even help get Ebbsfleet and Ashford’s international services back up and running?

But then I read this paragraph:

Secondly, he said it now easier to launch new international services. The complexities of obtaining track access rights have been reduced, while harmonisation of standards has simplified the rolling stock approvals process. As a result, the time from ‘if we decided tomorrow to launch a UK to Germany service’ to the start of operations has been reduced from an estimated 10 to five years.

From a decade to… half a decade… for the paperwork and bureaucracy to be completed? Holy shit. No wonder we’re living in an era of 0.1% growth. I’m sure making new routes happen is complicated for various reasons, but at the same time… this feels like something that should be faster. A lot faster. I could understand if the railway line had not yet been constructed but five years, let alone a decade is absurd, for getting new trains running on infrastructure that already exists.

Dijon-style trams could finally rid UK cities of the traffic jam (The Times)

Haigh is expected to say that her vision of transport “puts the needs of people first”. It will mean creating a “transport system that works together. It means buying one ticket, at the best price, across a range of options. Local transport will look and feel like one brand, with timetables that are aligned so your bus doesn’t leave five minutes before your train pulls in”.

Leeds is likely to be the first city to get a new tram network. Design work has begun on a £2.5 billion system that will connect the city centre with Bradford by the early 2030s. It could be expanded to a 40-mile network by the 2050s.

On Thursday the government is due to announce a new transport strategy, and if this is any indication it sounds like it could be pretty exciting (once we’ve lowered our HS2 expectations at least).

The focus on trams specifically is interesting, as it is something I’ve changed my mind on over years. I was originally persuaded that they don’t offer much utility, given that buses are significantly cheaper and can carry a similar number of passengers.

But having visited Prague and Vienna over the summer, both of which have incredible tram systems, I think there’s a lot to be said about the psychology of the physical rails signalling permanence and reliability – which is what people need to feel if they are ever to switch from their cars to public transport.

An unfortunate rocket tech juxtaposition

One of my favourite newsletters is Eric Berger’s Rocket Report. It’s a simple format, simply rounding up the latest space industry news. But something I want to highlight is two items at the end of the most recent edition, which sat next to each other.

First there was this one:

FAA gives SpaceX a green light for South Texas launches. A day after SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the sixth time, the company received good news from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding future launch operations from its Starbase facility in South Texas. In a draft version of what is known as an "Environmental Assessment," the FAA indicated that it will grant SpaceX permission to increase the number of Starship launches in South Texas to 25 per year from the current limit of five. Additionally, the company will likely be allowed to continue increasing the size and power of the Super Heavy booster stage and Starship upper stage, Ars reports.

Then it was immediately followed by this:

ESA wants a reusable super heavy lift rocket. The European Space Agency has announced that it will commission a study to detail the development of a reusable rocket capable of delivering 60 tons to low-Earth orbit, European Spaceflight reports. The space agency believes it is necessary to have a launch system of this kind to fulfill "critical European space exploration needs beyond LEO, while providing wider space exploitation potentials to answer the growing market opportunities (e.g. mega constellations)."

In other worlds, while America is actually building stuff, as we saw with the sixth fully stacked Starship test launch this week, all that Europe is doing is… commissioning a report.

I don’t have a fully worked out thesis on this yet, or a particularly developed opinion on the comparative regulatory regimes, but I do think there is a clear challenge for Europe (and us in Brexit Britain). The reality is that while we’re a rich continent, and the EU is a market of comparable size to the US, it’s in America where the most cutting-edge technology tends to be developed. We really need to figure out what we’re doing wrong.

Sanctions and Sun (Tim Leunig)

When Russia decided to invade Ukraine, the west sanctioned all Russian airlines. Anyone who services a Russian owned plane is guilty of sanctions busting. Even refuelling a Russian owned plane breaks the sanctions rules. And yet those planes are getting refuelled, and they are getting serviced. The sanctions are not working.

Furthermore, the sanctions have an obvious gap - companies like Emirates can and do continue to fly into and out of Russia. Emirates will not only take Russians for a week in the Dubai sun, they will also sell me a ticket from London to Moscow, connecting in Dubai.

Tim Leunig’s Substack is packed with interesting policy ideas and this is one that I found appealing: Another opportunity to turn the screws on Russian elites by completely screwing with their ability to fly anywhere. Tim proposes tightening sanction rules to make it functionally impossible for western aeroplanes from being used to fly to or from Russia.

I’m sure there’s a “it’s more complicated than that” critique on this somewhere. Perhaps it will just accelerate the development of the Chinese civil aviation industry (Comac seems to being growing fast), or perhaps it wouldn’t be worth the diplomatic trade-off of upsetting the UAE. But it definitely sounds like a sensible next step.

Save the Sekforde from the NIMBYs!

And finally, if you came along to the first Odds and Ends of History event where I spoke to Zion Lights, then you’ll know what an excellent pub The Sekforde is. The pub has a history of hosting tonnes of cool events from different organisations who like to talk about ideas. But it is under threat, as Islington Council wants to revise its licensing conditions to reduce the outdoor seating.

I think this is pretty crazy – pubs like this are important social infrastructure. So can I urge everyone reading to, as the image above says, drop a line to Islington Council and politely urge them to reconsider?