Politics

This has got me shouting at my monitor in disbelief. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said: “This is a key step in ending the war on the motorist. For years politicians peddled the pessimistic, outdated attitude that they could only cut carbon emissions by forcing people out of their cars. “But this Government recognises that cars are...
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So there’s a whole lot of to and fro about this: Richard at Cyclelicio.us pointed out that the obvious answer that was missing was "because it’s fun", which seemed to get the Good People Of Copenhagen all vexed - to the point of wanting to get off the metaphorical bus: I got off the...
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Yep - the morning after the night before. Waking up wondering who’d thought the S&M club was a good idea; alarmed at the emptiness of your wallet; having a vague memory of absinthe depth-charges in the snakebite; and realising that last night’s "conquest" (currently snoring next to you) is a 15st tranny called...
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This month’s CTC mag includes an article about the politics of cycling, and what (at the time of going to print) the main parties’ positions are on cycling issues. Con. Green Labour Lib Dems Better quality cycling conditions & higher quality facilities Yes Yes Yes Yes Tackling bad driving & lowering speed limits to 20mph on most urban streets No Yes Yes, where appropriate Yes Cycle storage & cycle training at all schools Yes Yes Yes...
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Change is always difficult , especially when there’s a large vested interest determined to use its inertia to prevent movement. Yet if we want to move the UK’s towns & cities from being significantly car-dependent, we will have to deal with this problem. I’ve been thinking a lot about how this could be done...
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… or in other words, a snowball’s chance in hell. If we’d held out for a politically acceptable, affordable solution to problems in the past, we’d have probably decided that appeasement of the Third Reich was the way to win votes at home. Actually, it probably was the way to win votes at home, but...
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Almost a year ago, I want to see our local councilor with responsibility for transport to talk about cycling. In my dealings with the Cycling Projects Officer, I’d got the feeling that there was more going on than the council were being entirely open about. I thought that perhaps there was some sort of...
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Sometimes I dispair. I was working late in the office last week, when the only other guy left with me answered his phone: Hi. Yeah. I’m just leaving. I’ll call you from the car. Maybe I live in a particularly sheltered La-La Land, but I was actually shocked at this. So I asked if he was REALLY...
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I met my business partner for a quick lunch today in Jarrow - a place with an interesting history: In 1936, mass unemployment and extreme poverty in the north-east of England drove 200 men to march in protest from Jarrow to London. Their MP, Ellen Wilkinson was with them as they came south to petition...
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or the beginning of a tidal wave? Via Andy in Germany, Earth Hour 2009: 8:30pm on Saturday 28th March, wherever you are. Doing this sort of thing routinely (like, every day) is probably an indication of the scale of change that’s needed. Business as usual isn’t an option any more.
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