Rachael McKelvey

• A national parking app you say?
• No longer the worst post pandemic performers in the G7
• HSWhooooo
• Biggest tax-raising parliament since records began
• So long Google Podcasts

A national parking app you say?
While most of the Prime Ministers suggestions under tag line “I’m slamming the brakes on the war on motorists” are quite frankly insane. 20mph speed limits reduce child deaths, 15-minute-cities just sounds nice, the hours on bus lanes are fine & if anything I wish parking enforcement was a little more zealous for path mounted cars. All that being said, the one thing I am in wholehearted agreement with is a national parking app.

I live, love and work across three counties, I have a folder on my phone named “parking” and it contains FIVE PARKING APPs – PaybyPhone, RingGo, Saba, JustPark and Apcoa Connect and resolving this is definitely in my top five “When I’m in charge” manifesto ideas, maybe the current Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, was listening, he has been in the role long enough it’s a distinct possibility, happy year in role this month Mark.

Allegedly the announcement is due this week that people will be able to download just one app to pay for charges wherever they are in the country, but that’s the announcement, that’s it.  It’s hoped “The National Parking Platform” pilot will address payment problems with various apps. Can’t wait to see what they’re saving for Party Conference.

No longer the worst post pandemic performers in the G7
The new national accounts data from the Office for National Statistics landed this week, the full set of revisions now mean that we can say the economy rebounded from Covid faster than forecast with GDP now 1.8% above the pre-pandemic level and we are no longer the worst performers in the G7, now leaving us mid table a head of Germany and France.

But what the data revisions don’t do is change the view on our current stagnation and flatlining economy. Recovery is still significantly weaker than the pre-pandemic projections (5%) and miles behind the pre-financial crisis projections (22%) so we clearly have a long term stagnation problem that is nearly old enough to vote.

I think it was hoped that the revisions to the prior year comparative would make this year look a little better but if anything I think it’s quite the opposite, growth is still incredibly weak and just avoiding recession in recent quarters against strong domestic demands and significant business investment, up 4.1% in the 2^nd quarter of the year.  

HSWhooooo
I can barely drive anywhere without seeing ripped up countryside for HS2, which breaks my heart a little, I’ve friends whose forever homes were compulsory purchased so it’s been a long transition for me to believe if this is what we have to do that we should, when they axed Birmingham to Leeds I said nothing, which was a mistake because actually this was the bit that probably added the most value to the whole project…who wants to get form Manchester to London 15 minutes quicker really?

Then they removed the link between Manchester and the West Coast mainline and the section between Old Oak Common in London and Euston has been no work in progress for a while and who wants to land in Old Oak Common when you want to be in Central London and this morning the Prime Minister has failed to comment on the commitment of Birmingham to Manchester.

I think Tom Peck on X, formally but lets face it still known as Twitter, Tweeted “HS2 now feels very much at the point where Kevin McCloud reappears to find the wife gone” and he is not wrong, in the Grand Design analogies we all know that Government funded projects are always the equivalent of finding out the guys an accountant and project managing the entire build himself while insisting his pregnant wife is fine about living in a caravan with a children under 2 for the next 5 years.

The PM rightly believes the costs are out of control, they are. The original budget was for £32.7 billion, even with significantly truncated route this is now at £100 billion…with European high-speed rail projects costing £25m per km…we are already topping out at £200m per km, will it 7 times nicer per km for that money? No this is Britain.  

Biggest tax-raising parliament since records began
Tax revenue is due to rise to 37% of national income by the next election, which I think we can be pretty confident will definitely be next year, you can’t organise a general election in 3 months but who honestly knows, a level of tax that has not been seen in 75 years since 1948.

Households are facing paying £3,500, on average, more in tax that we did when Boris Johnson came into power in 2019 according to the Institute For Fiscal Studies. Making the current iteration of the Tory party the biggest tax-raising parliament since records began, so if you get a leaflet through the door claiming they’re the part of low tax you now know that’s not true.

Taxes are headed for an all time high and I don’t necessarily think that’s always a bad thing but all I hear is the “restore public finances” argument post pandemic, which while true seems counter to how we have dealt with the associated costs of any other similar shock to the public purse in the past, write them off over a longer period of time and invest in infrastructure, education, levelling up and just making life nicer. Don’t hold your breath, a spokesperson for the Treasury has said “Driving down inflation is the most effective tax cut we can deliver right now, which is why we are sticking to our plan to halve it, rather than making it worse by borrowing money to fund tax cuts.”

Ps: Lowering the rate of inflation does not lower the cost of living like a tax cut, just FYI.

So long Google Podcasts
This week I got an email from Google formally announcing that Google Podcasts will be discontinued from next year in the UK and will be moving over to YouTube Music, which was launched in 2015. Google had already announced that YouTube Music would support podcasts in the US and that it was due to expand globally before the year end.

Google also announced it was increasing its investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music wanting to capitalize on discovery, community and the ability to switch between audio and video, with Spotify also working on the same thing! Apparently the stats on Google Podcasts usage are surprisingly low…she says as a user only for those podcasts that have yet to make it to Pocket Casts…despite this Google Podcasts will be offering user a migration tool to help with the inevitable switch over so you won’t lose your subscriptions and will make the file available for users to move to any platform if they don’t want to use YouTube Music.

Google are looking to streamline their products to ensure YouTube music keeps up with Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music, in much the same way Google Play Music shutdown last year. “We know this transition will take time, but these efforts will allow us to build an amazing product and a single destination that rewards creators and artists and provides fans with the best Podcasts experience,”.

Current watch: Neighbours – Oh if the charm hasn’t always been it’s so bad it’s good what has it been? It’s back and we are expected to believe two years have gone by in the last 18 months since it disappeared from screens, it’s not Neighbours if it doesn’t start with a wedding and you won’t believe whose it was! Toadies kids seemed to have aged about 6 years in this time, Harold is back, Mischa Barton (Off of The OC…whoooo) has appeared, Guy Pearce is there but not there and Karl and Susan are having a big fight. It’s everything I’ve never wanted but somehow didn’t know I even needed.

Current read: Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects by Chad Orzel – Physics was never my strong suit (still isn’t btw) but that doesn’t mean I don’t find it interesting. You certainly need a grasp of how it works to find the enjoyment in this book, but Orzel uses everyday examples to bring you along the evolution of quantum physics. It’s in everything we do, from sunrise to sunset, which is how I still marvel at how little I understand it despite best efforts. I didn’t find this the easiest read, but I am glad I stuck with it. One for an inquisitive mind.

Most Impactful Listen: Today, Explained: Why the US is suing Amazon – The Federal Trade Commission has bought a landmark case against Amazon in the hopes of changing the way the US regulates monopolies and you don’t get much bigger than Amazon (even Google also have antitrust problems of their own). The antitrust charges leveraged at Amazon accuse the giant of wielding it’s “monopoly power” to inflate prices and degrade quality for consumers and squash competitors. The Verge’s Makena Kelly and former FTC director Bill Baer walk is through the complaint and why it matters.