I can't get my head around how the people specifying/commissioning/installing the lights gets there. Is it just inertia/unthinkingness or deliberate conscious decisions?

As a genuine question, do the installers give councils a choice of delays and timings? Do they phrase it as varying degrees of "priority to cars, pedestrians be damned"?

Got confused at first glance by “PM, Zack Polanski”!

What a shambles. The sooner they’re put out of their misery the better

One of my old bosses, I’m a surgeon, used to say “Dermot, you are not good enough to think up news ways to f*** up”. This lot are proving him wrong

Tl;dr - if Labour want to combat racism, they should say racism is wrong, over and over, and act on that belief (e.g. by leaving certain social media sites owned by racists). That would do more to promote anti-racist norms, and protect the interests of Britain's minorities than immigration controls.

May give a try. Nephews/nieces like a bottle of sloe gin at Christmas so this might be a welcome variation. We have made medlar jelly before. Nice but a faff. Have to wonder who first thought to leave them to blet?!

We have a very, very laden Medlar tree this year. Looks odd as all leaves have dropped leaving slightly decomposing fruit. Might have to try this next year