Great article. Glad I’m not the only one who sees an overarching agenda to restrict our civil liberties underway, and a concerted attempt to label anyone who dares object to losing these hard-won civil liberties as far right or a conspiracy theorist. I read a lot about WWII, and the parallels between modern Britain and the Vichy Regime get more chilling by the week. Everyone is living in fear of saying or doing ‘the wrong thing’ and we all know deep-down that our councillors and politicians no longer answer to us, but to some ‘higher power’. On a completely different note, I do hope the MPs skiing trip to Davos I read about this morning goes well, and that all the UK politicians attending the WEF meeting next week have a great time and come back full of new and productive ideas to coerce us into!
Indeed. Which new war will we wage this week? For a human alternative to Davos, I recommend Simon Miln's account on Twitter. He and a team are there, sleeping outside to make a point about homelessness.
"What are 15-minutecities and why are anti-vaxxers so angry about them?’" - ROTFLMAO! Seriously, that's had me LOLing for a good two minutes! I expect I'll wake up in the night, remember it, and start off all over again. Better warn my husband!
It's interesting that these terrible people aren't also labelled anti-Semites, isn't it. That would muddy the political waters and blow the labellers' cover...
Three things 15 minute cities and the London ULEZ scheme have in common: Increased surveillance, increased limitation in free movement, and increased costs to people. Two different tools for increased control and demoralisation of the population.
Oxford 2023, some WordPress food for thought from an ex-local who attended the College of Further Education in the Oxpens back in the mid-1980's (though not the University or Poly, as it then was).
Interesting piece with lots of detail and familiar names!
Obviously, I don't support LTNs at all as I don't believe they're traffic management schemes but measures of a different nature altogether, with the authorities exploiting good intentions and the interests of certain groups as a cover. Exemptions don't cut it for me at all, since in this context they become part of a system of permits which gives local authorities the right to decide who can move around in what way. Does my disability 'qualify' in the eyes of the bureaucrat in the town hall? And what happens if I break my ankle or am temporarily too unwell to walk or cycle? Life is too changing and complicated to give the state, with all its vested interests, that much power.
I agree that there is a dishonest agenda behind this, with 'climate change' being used as a cover and a similar issue has recently kicked off in Coventry, which historically has an even higher economic dependence on the motor industry:
However, I think an equally important issue to address is the ascendancy of car-culture at an urban level from the 1930's onwards and at a national level from the 1960's onwards (Beeching rail cuts, construction of motorway network etc). Together these have disempowered people who can't afford a car or for whatever reason never learned to drive. At an urban level the priority given to motorised transport has restricted freedom of movement for pedestrians. I recognise all this and I am a motorist myself.
As far as surveillance is concerned I am far more concerned about the installation of facial recognition CCTV cameras in town/city centres and parks. These will be used to enforce restrictions on freedom of movement, including that of 'social distancing' during the next supposed 'pandemic'.
Broadly agree. But then the question is HOW do we reduce car use? By stopping people moving around or by creating much better public transport so that there are real alternatives?
There's the giveaway - there's no attempt in these schemes to do that and no interest in doing on the part of authorites.
I think that the answer is with difficulty, as for most adults a car is an essential symbol of independence and mobility, even though it requires dependence on fuel, regular servicing (and of course paying for an annual MOT and Vehicle Excise Duty). Car-dependent American lifestyles have become so ingrained in our congested country that it is difficult to see any change unless there is a sharp rise in the cost of motoring, equivalent to the 'Oil Shock' of five decades ago, when the price of a barrel quadrupled in the wake of the Arab countries' oil embargo on the USA. As far as the Oxford is concerned (and the same applies to Coventry and Birmingham), there already is good provision of public transport serving the areas concerned.
What a muddle and a fuss over a new traffic regulation. It may be mistaken (I think it is too complicated), but it is just an attempt by Oxford County Council (a democratically elected body) to deal with traffic congestion. We already have bus lanes, resident's parking permits, one way streets etc. and no one thought they were part of some sinister political movement.
Also they have almost nothing to do with 15 minute cities which is an urban planning principle - what do you build, where - supported by Oxford City Council (i.e. not Oxford County Council).
I feel you have missed the point of the piece or perhaps not even read it properly. I'm trying to point out the conflation of two things that are entirely different - 15M cities and localism - and a new level of restrictions on vehicles. The former is being explicitly used to justify the latter in Oxford - quoted in this piece - and elsewhere, and that is the problem.
This is a brilliant article and I wish I had come across it when I was engaged in debate with Cycling UK who are promoting 15 minute cities as a no brainer and accusing anyone who protests at the concept as mad cap conspiracy theorists. I’ve been a member for years and took exception to being labelled as such having challenged mask wearing and lockdowns etc in my role as a health and social care professional. I’m a walker, cyclist and driver in that order and agree we need to drive less and walk more but not through coercion and the other reasons you state. You’ve unpicked and explained the situation so perfectly. I wish I could have written it myself. Thank you.
To hijack your article again, you may already be aware that the precursors to '15-Minute Cities' were 'Transition Towns', a concept developed a decade earlier by Totnes-based permaculturalist Rob Hopkins (@robintransition on X/Twitter):
I'm aware of quite a lot re town planning: I used to cover local government as a journalist and have written about many cities abroad. I know about Transition Towns and am quite in favour of such things as they used to be presented.
To repeat - 15-Minute Cities are different from the kinds of road restrictions that are causing so much upset. What is amazing to me - and this is perhaps the main point of my piece - is how well certain interests have succeeded in conflating the two and persuading people they are one and the same! To whit, the other point of the piece is the decline of reasoned thinking in public discourse. How is that so many educated people have been persuaded to support things that would have been unthinkable even ten years ago? But that brings us onto things that I've written about elsewhere in this Substack: manipulation, propaganda, mass formation etc.
Great article. Glad I’m not the only one who sees an overarching agenda to restrict our civil liberties underway, and a concerted attempt to label anyone who dares object to losing these hard-won civil liberties as far right or a conspiracy theorist. I read a lot about WWII, and the parallels between modern Britain and the Vichy Regime get more chilling by the week. Everyone is living in fear of saying or doing ‘the wrong thing’ and we all know deep-down that our councillors and politicians no longer answer to us, but to some ‘higher power’. On a completely different note, I do hope the MPs skiing trip to Davos I read about this morning goes well, and that all the UK politicians attending the WEF meeting next week have a great time and come back full of new and productive ideas to coerce us into!
Indeed. Which new war will we wage this week? For a human alternative to Davos, I recommend Simon Miln's account on Twitter. He and a team are there, sleeping outside to make a point about homelessness.
"What are 15-minutecities and why are anti-vaxxers so angry about them?’" - ROTFLMAO! Seriously, that's had me LOLing for a good two minutes! I expect I'll wake up in the night, remember it, and start off all over again. Better warn my husband!
It's interesting that these terrible people aren't also labelled anti-Semites, isn't it. That would muddy the political waters and blow the labellers' cover...
Three things 15 minute cities and the London ULEZ scheme have in common: Increased surveillance, increased limitation in free movement, and increased costs to people. Two different tools for increased control and demoralisation of the population.
Oxford 2023, some WordPress food for thought from an ex-local who attended the College of Further Education in the Oxpens back in the mid-1980's (though not the University or Poly, as it then was).
https://warwickvegan.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/green-routes/
Published eleven months ago, I shall update this in due course for Substack.
Interesting piece with lots of detail and familiar names!
Obviously, I don't support LTNs at all as I don't believe they're traffic management schemes but measures of a different nature altogether, with the authorities exploiting good intentions and the interests of certain groups as a cover. Exemptions don't cut it for me at all, since in this context they become part of a system of permits which gives local authorities the right to decide who can move around in what way. Does my disability 'qualify' in the eyes of the bureaucrat in the town hall? And what happens if I break my ankle or am temporarily too unwell to walk or cycle? Life is too changing and complicated to give the state, with all its vested interests, that much power.
I agree that there is a dishonest agenda behind this, with 'climate change' being used as a cover and a similar issue has recently kicked off in Coventry, which historically has an even higher economic dependence on the motor industry:
https://warwickvegan.substack.com/p/down-to-earth
However, I think an equally important issue to address is the ascendancy of car-culture at an urban level from the 1930's onwards and at a national level from the 1960's onwards (Beeching rail cuts, construction of motorway network etc). Together these have disempowered people who can't afford a car or for whatever reason never learned to drive. At an urban level the priority given to motorised transport has restricted freedom of movement for pedestrians. I recognise all this and I am a motorist myself.
As far as surveillance is concerned I am far more concerned about the installation of facial recognition CCTV cameras in town/city centres and parks. These will be used to enforce restrictions on freedom of movement, including that of 'social distancing' during the next supposed 'pandemic'.
Broadly agree. But then the question is HOW do we reduce car use? By stopping people moving around or by creating much better public transport so that there are real alternatives?
There's the giveaway - there's no attempt in these schemes to do that and no interest in doing on the part of authorites.
I think that the answer is with difficulty, as for most adults a car is an essential symbol of independence and mobility, even though it requires dependence on fuel, regular servicing (and of course paying for an annual MOT and Vehicle Excise Duty). Car-dependent American lifestyles have become so ingrained in our congested country that it is difficult to see any change unless there is a sharp rise in the cost of motoring, equivalent to the 'Oil Shock' of five decades ago, when the price of a barrel quadrupled in the wake of the Arab countries' oil embargo on the USA. As far as the Oxford is concerned (and the same applies to Coventry and Birmingham), there already is good provision of public transport serving the areas concerned.
What a muddle and a fuss over a new traffic regulation. It may be mistaken (I think it is too complicated), but it is just an attempt by Oxford County Council (a democratically elected body) to deal with traffic congestion. We already have bus lanes, resident's parking permits, one way streets etc. and no one thought they were part of some sinister political movement.
Also they have almost nothing to do with 15 minute cities which is an urban planning principle - what do you build, where - supported by Oxford City Council (i.e. not Oxford County Council).
I feel you have missed the point of the piece or perhaps not even read it properly. I'm trying to point out the conflation of two things that are entirely different - 15M cities and localism - and a new level of restrictions on vehicles. The former is being explicitly used to justify the latter in Oxford - quoted in this piece - and elsewhere, and that is the problem.
This is a brilliant article and I wish I had come across it when I was engaged in debate with Cycling UK who are promoting 15 minute cities as a no brainer and accusing anyone who protests at the concept as mad cap conspiracy theorists. I’ve been a member for years and took exception to being labelled as such having challenged mask wearing and lockdowns etc in my role as a health and social care professional. I’m a walker, cyclist and driver in that order and agree we need to drive less and walk more but not through coercion and the other reasons you state. You’ve unpicked and explained the situation so perfectly. I wish I could have written it myself. Thank you.
Here’s the Cycling UK article where they slightly amended the conspiracy theorist description https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/why-we-are-standing-15-minute-cities-and-20-minute-neighbourhoods
Thank you. It helped that I was abroad when I wrote it. Britain often seems like a madhouse these days!
To hijack your article again, you may already be aware that the precursors to '15-Minute Cities' were 'Transition Towns', a concept developed a decade earlier by Totnes-based permaculturalist Rob Hopkins (@robintransition on X/Twitter):
https://warwickvegan.substack.com/p/transitioning
I'm aware of quite a lot re town planning: I used to cover local government as a journalist and have written about many cities abroad. I know about Transition Towns and am quite in favour of such things as they used to be presented.
To repeat - 15-Minute Cities are different from the kinds of road restrictions that are causing so much upset. What is amazing to me - and this is perhaps the main point of my piece - is how well certain interests have succeeded in conflating the two and persuading people they are one and the same! To whit, the other point of the piece is the decline of reasoned thinking in public discourse. How is that so many educated people have been persuaded to support things that would have been unthinkable even ten years ago? But that brings us onto things that I've written about elsewhere in this Substack: manipulation, propaganda, mass formation etc.
Back to Oxford again, here's the extended edition of my WordPress blog post from a year ago, now on Substack:
https://warwickvegan.substack.com/p/green-routes
I still find it tragic that there are freedom activists apparently more concerned about traffic management issues than about bodily sovereignty.
Excellent article. Thank you.
Strange isn't it, that these days the solution to every supposed problem is always more authoritarianism, more restrictions and more control.