Environmental planning rules make it harder to build upwards, even though it’s the most climate-friendly way to add new homes. Take Dublin. It has limited space available to accommodate everyone that works in the city. So people move further out to commuter towns in Kildare, Meath, and Wicklow. They travel long distances to get to work, or see family and friends.

The elites of Victorian Britain got up late, drank ceaselessly, worked short hours, partied through the night, and knew nothing about science, technology or engineering. And yet, by their own lights, they were hugely effective. worksinprogress.co/issue/the… The Victorians are often held up as a model against the supposedly soft, feckless, humanities-educated elites of today. But I argue that the genius of their system may have been its drastic weighting towards soft skills, team-building and intra-elite networking: - A Victorian’s gentleman’s office hours typically began about 11am and finished about 5pm, including a multi-course lunch with wine. - Upper-class Victorians drank ceaselessly. Conduct guides recommended four or five glasses of wine at dinner *for married women*. Port was often served in pints. - Party culture was intense and nocturnal. Balls started at about 10pm, peaked after 1am, and continued till dawn. During the social season, bankers, judges and politicians might go to several balls per week. - Elite Victorians learnt almost no STEM at school or university. At least half of class time was given over to ancient languages, often as much as 80 percent. One leading educationalist remarked that it was not worth teaching science to gentlemen because it does not involve ‘continued reasoning’. - Sports and character formation were valued far above transmitting facts. A top headmaster described his school’s priorities as ‘First – character, second – physique, third – intelligence, fourth – manners, fifth – information’. This cannot have made elite Victorians more productive individually, but maybe the dense social and emotional network it created helped them to work as a sort of extended team. Perhaps we should think again about what makes groups of people effective.

Four ways Ireland could build more homes and rail with €0 additional spending, from Progress Ireland’s submission to Budget 2027. 1/

The New York TImes: What’s one issue in politics that you’ve changed your mind about? Zohran Mamdani: The role of the private market in housing construction.

Irish transport cost-benefit analyses assume a project won't change how nearby land gets used. This discriminates against the most transformative projects, since hanging the city is the entire point of a metro.

Today's SI/IT poll shows usual pattern regarding voter concerns.