It all sounds perfectly reasonable. Well, it’s written by Timmy, so yes, it does and yes, it makes sense.
Leave aside the innate stupidity of the plan for a moment and consider instead the ordering of it.
OK, actually, consider the stupidity of the plan first:
“Draconian” plans to divide Oxford residents into six climate zones have led to council chiefs calling in the police over “extreme abuse”.
In a UK first, the city will be carved into six districts from 2024 and car drivers must apply for a permit to travel between them for a maximum of 100 days a year.
The “traffic filters” come as Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council hope to become a “15-minute city”, with GPs, schools and shops in local clusters.
The entire point of cities is “agglomeration”. More folk packed into an area creates more interactions between folk. Interactions also have another name, the foundation of innovation and economic growth. We simply get richer when people move to the Big City and swarm all over each other in the Big City. Having the Big City without the interaction – the serendipity of the interaction – is insane.
The problem is that it is the wrong question as it concedes ground to the insane town clerks. Who gave consent for the power grab? The question isn’t the order in which things should be done or even the stupidity inherent in the scheme, rather, that they should not have the power to do it and how do we revoke that power?
Hang them. Hang them all.
The useful idiot reaction “it only applies to cars” depressingly is being wheeled out. There is no loss of freedom just the “freedom” to do something against strength through joy. Think of the body politic, of the volk, and their general health and wellbeing (and the myriad efficiencies that come from a hive collective). Don’t be a cancerous cell in that body or you may have to be excised.
The point is that a car is property and that particular property right is being removed. By all means ride a pushbike, but that property could also be removed/restricted as well.
There will be “public” transport of course but that is state (yes I know pedants, it can be privately owned) property and only goes where we want and when.
Oh, important people will need to travel, but only for your good, not theirs. We’ll give them special plates and perhaps reserved lanes as well.
What is wrong with you people? How can you be so selfish and short sighted not to see how much better this will make things.
I also noticed the idiot calling himself Devil’s Advocate wheeling out the tired fallacy requiring a detailed alternative plan. Tired, childish and trite.
Alternate plan?
Fucking leave things as they are, hate filled, sheet sniffing, curtain twitching, wannabe gauleiters.
JUST FUCK THE FUCK OFF!!!
There will come a point where people who believe in basic freedoms will start retaliating with violence, this could be it.
I’ve been thinking that for years but then it just goes quiet and they them move on to the next thing.
Soon though, soon. I’m ready and have been for some time.
Spot-on. Our local council have just introduced residential parking permits on my street. They tried about 15 years ago, and there was an uproar. So this time they didn’t even ask. Oh, there was a “consultation”… about how it was going to be done, not whether.
I can’t help recalling that 55 years ago, when my dad moved in here, it was a private road. The residents themselves decided who got to park on it. Who got to walk on it, if they felt like it. But the Corporation (as was) came along saying, “It must cost a fortune to maintain. If you let us take it over, we’ll maintain it out of your rates and it’ll be cheaper.” So now we have to pay for the right (not even the ability – that’s not guaranteed, especially with the dirty great bike sheds they’ve strewn about the place taking up valuable spaces – the right) to park at our own front doors.
And they’ve stopped lifting the bins round the back that we bought and built a shelter for, replacing them with skips in the street. (Which, of course, get filled up with fag packets and empty takeaways.) Again, without a by-your-leave: “We’re doing this now. Like it or lump it.”
Then they’ve the gall, the sheer unadulterated brass neck, to call this “democracy”. These people wouldn’t know democracy if it bit them on the arse. They think it has something to do with elections.
I will continue to show my support for these measures by not visiting any city that has them. Obviously they are trying to keep the air clean and traffic low. So I will help by not drive my truck there. (I don’t use public transport – too expensive and inconvenient).
I will purchase anything I need online, and have it shipped to my house, and if I want to meet up with friends, will do so in an out of town shopping centre or at their/my house.
Wonder how long til the town centres die off?
I don’t go into Bristol city centre these days for precisely that reason. It’s hostile to me, so I respond in kind.
“So I will help by not driving my truck there”
Since this crazy plan only applies to private cars (for the moment, at least) you could drive around Oxford in your truck. In fact, it would serve the council right if every resident sold their car and bought a van or small truck instead…
“As it concedes ground to the insane town clerks”
I’ve long been concerned about plans to devolve powers to “Local Government”. The justification is that this will improve democracy, and give communities real control over their own patch. But as we can see, nothing could be further from the truth. Much as I hate central government, the Common Purpose brainwashed “Town Hall Hitlers” are infinitely worse…
Sure, but you know where they live and they aren’t surrounded by men with guns. Feel free to dump uncollected trash on their lawns. That’ll soon solve the problems.
I find the phrase “Extreme Abuse” encouraging. Let’s hope that they get a lot more of it, they certainly deserve it.
The comments over ‘extreme abuse’ are genuinely hilarious.
Have the Libdems complaining not seen the activities of Steve Bray, for example?
Have the Greens complaining not seen the level of vitriol dished out by Extinction Rebellion or it’s various offshoots?
Have the Labour Party councillors forgotten John Mcdonnell’s urging that all Conservative MPs need to be confronted by ‘direct action’ or the vitriolic abuse seen at every Tory Party conference?
Their lack of self- awareness may surpass their stupidity. Hopefully the abuse extends to physical violence and even homicide in short order. A few of such people hanging from lampposts or trees might be an effective deterrent to future power grabs.