Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Honk! One really does try to be balanced . . .

. . . and not allow oneself to get caught in every political elephant trap and querulous carping of those not in office. But there are times when it is necessary to shine the spotlight on a really mean-spirited, disingenuous idea or statement about the important matters which bring us all here. This is one of those cases. We introduce you to a very short video in which Britain's new transport secretary talks very clearly about his investment priorities and intended policies. Very disturbing to World Streets.



Commented extracts from a speech given by Philip Hammond, UK transport secretary, to a Conservative party conference on 4th October 2010.







To avoid any possible ambiguity you wish to consult the entire text of the minister's talk, which you can do it you click here.

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Editor's note:

It is, as we have seen for years, very difficult to get new ideas into the heads of people who are, and who confidently view themselves, as clever and proud, yet that is exactly what we have to do to turn around these misdirected policies. And for that we need to be highly observant, very astute and tirelessly relentless. And we need to communicate well among ourselves, and well beyond. Here are two related bits that help to provide further context for this particular debate:

* "Taxi drivers complain over M4 bus lane axing" which you can view here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkRtU_NxYiA&feature=related.

* And http://www.cbrd.co.uk/indepth/m4buslane/ which explains why a well planned bus lane is actually a win-win. (Thanks to Anzir Boodoo for the heads-up.)

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1 comment:

  1. It says something positive about the British political dialogue that this speech is on the pro-car end of the spectrum, given that the substantive policy seems pretty much identical to President Obama's: support for high-speed rail and for more fuel-efficient cars.

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