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How councils are using Covid as an excuse to drive cars off the road https://mol.im/a/8654475
The government and (mostly but not exclusively Labour-dominated) councils have been lobbied by the usual suspects via green blob front organisations that that have no public support like @UK100_ and @BuildBckBetter -- they tap into existing movements to overwhelm criticism.
E.g. by creating a "network" -- i.e, making a tsunami of cash available -- the green blob can mobilise what **appears to be** public support for drastic, draconian measures like closing the roads. They get greens, lib dems, and cycling nazis to write letters, and so on.
This organised voice dominates any superficial "consultation" exercise. But local government is entirely opaque to the uninitiated, and hostile too, to people that want to challenge its plans.
There are precious few representative organisations read to offer a counter-view.
There are precious few representative organisations read to offer a counter-view.
This is happening because the green blob discovered that its emphasis on national governments at global meetings had reached an impasse. The global tendency is towards more democracy, and scepticism of global politics. E.g. Trump and Brexit.
So they refocused their efforts on local and regional government, to hook the two most dysfunctional, least democratic levels of governance up directly, bypassing national democracies.
So you now get mayors of big cities at global meetings, playing superheroes.
So you now get mayors of big cities at global meetings, playing superheroes.
The point is that local elections have extremely low turnouts. In some, they barely get into double digits.
The green blob is an opportunistic infection. It realises it can buy off local officials and "representatives", which are in any case extremely corruptible and degenerate.
The green blob is an opportunistic infection. It realises it can buy off local officials and "representatives", which are in any case extremely corruptible and degenerate.
And it can play the part of the public by aligning and mobilising supporters of existing organisations.
It has also well and truly been absorbed into the @UKLabour Party and its supporting organisations: trades unions, think tanks and NGOs.
It has also well and truly been absorbed into the @UKLabour Party and its supporting organisations: trades unions, think tanks and NGOs.
It's now happening to the @Conservatives, too. Their own support is weakening, but the same organisations that fund Labour-affiliated organisations now funds "conservative" think tanks, and MPs *adore* them.
But there are stirrings of some kind of reply.
The green agenda has *always* been an attempt to turn governments at all levels, from local to global, against the public, to transform the relationship between people and governments. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/22/exclusive-councils-forced-humiliating-u-turn-grant-shapps-disastrous/
The green agenda has *always* been an attempt to turn governments at all levels, from local to global, against the public, to transform the relationship between people and governments. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/22/exclusive-councils-forced-humiliating-u-turn-grant-shapps-disastrous/
But this is going to be tricky. Local government can be *MASSIVELY* pig-headed in the face of opposition. And they have long sought for a new settlement. Most of them have eyes on Westminster or beyond, and don't really like serving the public on matters as trivial as bins.
A good example is refuse collection.
The EU directive against landfill, was lobbied for by the blob, and local authorities took on the challenge with glee. "We've got to save the planet", they said, as they degraded local services.
The EU directive against landfill, was lobbied for by the blob, and local authorities took on the challenge with glee. "We've got to save the planet", they said, as they degraded local services.
This is why we have multicoloured bins, and why waste is left to rot in them for a fortnight before collection, and why fines had to be extracted from disobedient residents.
It's a transformation of the relationship between people and local authorities.
It's a transformation of the relationship between people and local authorities.
The message from LAs to residents was "you are only permitted this volume of waste per household per month, and you must behave in this way, no matter what your circumstances".
Previously, the idea was that the council offered services to local people for the greater good.
Previously, the idea was that the council offered services to local people for the greater good.
This transformation of the role of local government now means there's an explosion of fly-tipping.
The greater good has not been served. The environment has not been protected. The level of service has been reduced. And the servant now thinks it is master.
The greater good has not been served. The environment has not been protected. The level of service has been reduced. And the servant now thinks it is master.
And did you notice how, despite these changes, the green blob STILL managed to then claim that we were killing bird and sea life with our profligate use of plastic?
BAN! BAN! BAN!
Nothing is ever enough for them.
BAN! BAN! BAN!
Nothing is ever enough for them.
Back to cars.
Local governments have been encouraged to believe that it is withing their competence and right to decide what level of material freedom you should be allowed.
They think it is their place to decide your lifestyle.
That's a huge transformation.
Local governments have been encouraged to believe that it is withing their competence and right to decide what level of material freedom you should be allowed.
They think it is their place to decide your lifestyle.
That's a huge transformation.
This is what environmentalism *is*.
At face value, it looks like a response to genuine problems.
But what it is in reality is an ideology that believes it is governments' role to design and impose lifestyle on you, and that you are not competent to make political decisions.
At face value, it looks like a response to genuine problems.
But what it is in reality is an ideology that believes it is governments' role to design and impose lifestyle on you, and that you are not competent to make political decisions.
This cannot be understated.
Environmentalism is as ideological as any twentieth century ideological movement.
It's not about the environment.
Environmentalism is as ideological as any twentieth century ideological movement.
It's not about the environment.
You can compare it to those ideologies, to say it is a continuation of them, if you like. But the fact of them is much more insidious than that.
They occupy the space left by the atrophy of old political movements, left to right, to establish them in legacy public institutions.
They occupy the space left by the atrophy of old political movements, left to right, to establish them in legacy public institutions.
( correction: "to establish themSELVES in legacy public institutions.")
If all that sounds dramatic, consider the facts.
Local governments have decided that they must design and enforce your lifestyle.
This is not done overtly. They don't say it in their manifestos. What they say is things like "we're going to create "safer streets".
Local governments have decided that they must design and enforce your lifestyle.
This is not done overtly. They don't say it in their manifestos. What they say is things like "we're going to create "safer streets".
"Yay! Safer Streets!"
And motherhood and apple pie.
Abstract nouns and happy words disguise the reality of the agenda.
And motherhood and apple pie.
Abstract nouns and happy words disguise the reality of the agenda.
Does "safer streets" appear to people as an ambition to ultimately ban all car ownership from within a city/region, to impose a design for lifestyles and cities dreamt up by activist-academics and billionaire backed NGOs and advanced by degenerate political institutions?
No.
But that *is* the reality.
And even if local opposition is such that councils reverse their policies, the political momentum is still in their favour.
Cars are going to be banned unless there is a radical shift in politics. And they're going to be banned soon.
But that *is* the reality.
And even if local opposition is such that councils reverse their policies, the political momentum is still in their favour.
Cars are going to be banned unless there is a radical shift in politics. And they're going to be banned soon.
