Tory MP Warns Of 15-Minute City Threat
By Paul Homewood.
The Tory Red Wall MP, Nick Fletcher, has been stirring the wasps’ nest with his recent speech on 15-minute cities, which are increasingly being floated by local councils:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1623699476366991360
It is instructive to see how the liberal media immediately and dutifully rallied to the defence of the socialist planners, and in similar terms as well. For instance, yahoo news called it a bizarre conspiracy theory:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/what-are-15-minute-cities-and-where-will-they-be-in-the-uk-155341486.html
And ITV also referred to “right wing conspiracy theorists. (Strangely they did not use the term “left wing” to label the proponents of 15-minute cities):
https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-20/what-is-a-15-minute-city-and-why-is-the-idea-so-controversial
Both yahoo and ITV, along with pretty much most of the media, it would seem, defended the concept as being eminently sensible and all for our own good. Who would object to having all these local services on our doorsteps?
But none of them have asked the question of how they would be enforced. It is one thing providing shops and amenities at a local level, but what if people still prefer to go into town or to the shopping mall?
We have already seen how ULEZ zones are being used to restrict car travel, not to mention Oxford’s installation of traffic gates. And one thing is certain; once EVs fill the roads, they too will be subject to the same congestion and ULEZ charges that they are currently exempt from. As many proponents of 15-minute cities are now beginning to admit publicly, the real objective is to get us out of our cars and onto public transport, bicycles and our feet.
Nick Fletcher is right to raise this issue. As is so often the case, there appears to be little or no democratic mandate for any of these local council policies.
In any event, the whole concept is absurd. Most local suburbs already have shops, schools, doctors etc within a mile or so. But the market is simply not big enough to support the bigger shops and supermarkets that people still need, not to mention restaurants, cinemas and so on.
It is also suggested that workplaces should also be zoned in 15-minute cities. So they are going to relocate a factory from an out of town site and plonk it in the middle of a housing estate? And then tell everybody to get a job there?
This would be a return to the 1950s and 60s, before mass car ownership took off. In those days, kids leaving school either went to work in the local factory or caught the bus to work in the town. Often they stayed with the same employer all their life. This was precisely what happened in the small steel town where I live.
Car ownership gave us all the opportunity to find jobs elsewhere, expand our skills, meet new people and develop new careers.
Moreover it enabled companies to relocate away from town centres to out of town industrial and trading estates. This hugely improved the environment in towns as well as business efficiency.
According to ITV:
The idea is that everything a person needs should be within a 15-minute walk or cycle from any point in the city.
This includes work, shopping, education, healthcare, leisure and any other amenities a person may need in their regular life.
The idea has been promoted by leading academics and urban planners in recent years who promote a world where walking would once again become our most common mode of transport.
But again I ask, what “needs” will be fulfilled which are not already provided for? Most of that list already exists in most neighbourhoods.
The whole thing is really just an attempt to take us out of our cars, lock us into our own little neighbourhoods and take away our freedom to go where we want, when we want.
Conspiracy theory? No, we have already been there with COVID lockdowns, something which environmentalists loved. Don’t bet that climate lockdowns won’t follow.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
As ever, the Agenda creeps forward.
& the more the usual suspects deny anything untoward, the more you can be sure its going to be implemented
See also : “Conspiracy Theories”
Another example of social conditioning. Yet more people will be forced into already overcrowded cities. To get in or out will become ever more difficult. Nor will the authorities rely on vehicle registration plates as cars will become a thing of the past.
All except for law enforcement and high ranking party members from the one governing global cabal.
To bring this into operation, useless artificial meat eaters will be issued with, and forced to carry digital identification.
Welcome to the Forth Industrial Revolution and The Great Reset.
Blair and Hague’s ‘digital ID’ scheme will leave us all vulnerable | The Independent” https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/digital-id-cards-tony-blair-william-hague-b2287166.html?amp
I wonder what plans the socialists have for those of us who live in the countryside, more than 15 minutes from a town or city or railway station and for whom there is zero public transport. I’ll have to read ‘1984’ again to find out.
In the unlikely event of being within 15 minutes walk of public transport, that only runs when it feels like it, i.e. not 24/7, there are still the multiple changes to deal with and all that wasted time between the changes.
Rural populations will eventually be subject to a countryside clearance, first encouraged, then forced to moved to the cities.
The countryside is then available for Rewilding and datchas for the great and the good
Socialists welcome. Dog food is expensive.
What happened to freedom of choice?
We used to drive miles for a drink or meal at a country pub or to the coast for fish and chips.
I am sure this won’t apply 5o the affluent or to any councillors who will get a free pass.
The problem with free choice is that we plebs make the “wrong” choices as the local politicians and planners see it. I would prefer it if the local politicians did what the people who elected them want rather than embark on these grand projects. But they would probably label that as “populism.”
These idiots should be nade to obey the stupid rules they make for six-months, including the penalties snd fines before they foist their planet saving ideas on others
But this is why it’s nonsense. Within 25 minutes walk I will have 30-40 restaurants? Because between the different cuisines, costs and ambience, that’s the minimum number I choose from each year. How about museums and art galleries? Sports stadia? Sports facilities – there’ll be tennis courts, rugby, cricket, football pitches and a swimming pool in every neighbourhood? Theatres and cinemas? And all the people who work in all these businesses will also live in the neighbourhood? And what happens when I change job? I have to move?
State Planning never works. And, of course, it doesn’t apply to the intelligentsia.
It is the height of arrogance to believe that ‘you’ have a better plan when history is redolent with examples if failure – and really big failures lead to serious unpleasantness.
This is bound to end in tears.
You can see the “nudge unit” at work here, the identical wording in the various news reporting sources, all blaming “right wing and conspiracy theories.” Goebbels would be impressed.
However on simple practical terms 15 minute cities are not realistic, it is equivalent to a mile walk or about 3 miles on a bike, for services such as hospitals, schools, railway stations you need a much bigger catchment area to justify the economy of scale in concentrating the expertise in one large building. I just cannot see buses being much use, they are struggling now and standing about in winter waiting for a bus to come along is not going to be popular.
There is total confusion about these schemes in the MSM. I posted a few weeks ago about the horror of trying to navigate by satnav (which chooses the shortest route) in the dark and rain from one of the main Oxford hospitals to the ring road. Reversing along double parked residential steets etc, sat nav just sending me in circles. But that was the already in place LTN (low traffic neighbourhood). The 15 minute city arrangement comes in later this year. Not only will it make travel and residential parking impossible but when these shemes are in place I dread to think what will happen to house prices. Why aren’t the motgage businesses getting involved? Its their money and they brought down Truss quickly enough. Its complete insanity – 1984 and worse.
It seems to me that the central flaw in the 15 min cities idea is that dividing up cities into these 15 min zones cannot magically provide all the services that everyone in that zone requires within that zone. People will thus be forced to travel to other zones and to do that without incurring fines, they’ll need to travel out of the city and back in again This will increase road traffic not decrease it.
We already have post code lotteries for many things such as schools, health care, council tax and government handouts.
This ghetto proposal will not be too bad if you process by enough credits in your central bank digital currency account.
Otherwise do you really believe this government care ?
Just look what they have done to our energy supply.
Main stream media refuse to hold anyone accountable for recent mismanagement and locklowns. Who is going to stop these ghettos being introduced ?
My city mayor has already brought in Clean Air Zone charging.
We are in the midst of a war against private car ownership.
The inevitability of increased traffic appears not to have been a consideration. At least certainly not by Oxford councillors.
Of course there will be more traffic. Of course the whole thing will be counter-productive. Of course it hasn’t be thought through or costed. The one thing that will (hopefully) kill it off is that at parish pump level there are still enough sensible people to stand for the local council and get elected to defeat this nonsense.
Always provided they have the tenacity to stand up to their officials, that is!
How many people and their family live within 15 minutes of home and school. I’ve never managed that trick. Not without a car.
Once this becomes mandated home long do you get to find a job within 15 minutes of home? How long for your partner also to find a job within the zone. Then your children, will they be exempt if there are no places at the nearest schools?
It ain’t about traffic or ‘pollution’.
You will own nothing and be happy.
The central flaw is that it misunderstands both how cities work and how people want to live. And all because the overriding point is not to help us out but to get us to walk.
This is Agenda 21 folks! Remember that it was decided (by the UN) to introduce AGENDA 21 at local government level not at national level so County Councils are responsible for implementing it. People will be moved to cities and banned from the countryside, they will travel by public transport (or shank’s pony)> It is coming home to roost!
This is Agenda 21 folks!
oops sorry
Sorry Dung. Agenda 21 dies years ago. Its been Agenda 30 for a long time.
Vernon, do you EVER have anything sensible to say?
Dung: I don’t know but at least I keep with what’s going on.
Notice the speed with which these new “ideas” – it would seem tentatively introduced into the public arena only a few weeks ago – suddenly spread like mushrooms, not just across the entire country but simultaneously in all those other nations kowtowing to the WEF/UN screed. A “conspiracy”?? Don’t be ridiculous!
alexei, one world government is coming, it is on the way.
Here is the BBC sinister propaganda.
Most of the comments say it all.
It really is the sort of broadcast you would expect in some extreme dystopian nightmare of a film.
Well, she doesnt look like a socialist does she!
Quick aside lordelatte, UKPN are now telling me that the local voltage fluctuations are being caused by Grid Tie Solar inverters cutting in and out. In a nearby village (Bridge) they have recorded over 40 outages in the last 3 months.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/everyone-is-totally-cheesed-off-after-40-power-cuts-why-d-281583/
So what are they proposing to solve my problems caused by these issues…..erm they don’t know yet!
And I thought I had disruption at the other end of kent!
Still I imagine it will be all ok once all the land at Faversham has been covered with PV panels!
Here we have a very good example of social control by climate change.
Background on three of the participants in this comfy news report.
Jennie King is Head of Civic Action and Education, leading efforts to translate ISD’s digital research into frontline programming and response. She co-authored the current ‚Be Internet Citizens‘ curriculum, formally accredited for UK schools, and provides regular briefings for UK government departments and regulators, UNESCO and parallel European/US bodies on systemic approaches to media literacy.
Nick Fletcher MP owns an electrical company which provides the following services :-
Electrical Installation
Emergency Lighting Installation
Fire Alarm Installation
LED Lighting
Data Cabling Installation
Security Installation
Electric Vehicle Charging
Solar Panel Installation
Fletcher sits as a Vice Chair or Officer for several All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including:
on Electric Vehicles
and He is also chair of APPG on Issues Affecting Men and Boys
“Nick Fletcher calls for urgent Government explanation for huge numbers of unexpected male deaths since the start of the pandemic | Nick Fletcher” https://www.nickfletcher.org.uk/news/nick-fletcher-calls-urgent-government-explanation-huge-numbers-unexpected-male-deaths-start
Professor Sander Van Der Linden, Director of Psychology, University of Cambridge. Being a fellow of Churchill research affiliate of the Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication will know all about nudges.
‘He was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science[3] and is particularly known for his research on the psychology of social issues, such as fake news,[4] COVID-19,[5] and climate change.[6] He is recognized as an authority on understanding and dealing with misinformation.[7][8]’
Source: Wikipedia
Another unbiased news report from the British Bollox Corporation there then – NOT.
Here is what the Minister should have said:
I agree with my right honourable friend and I am immediately introducing legislation to ban any and all instances of the implementation of this pernicious policy that is such an afront to the freedoms of the citizens of this country.
Interesting that the I D Card has been pushed once again recently . Consider that , with an ID Card , you could be stopped and told to stick to your own neighbourhood and do not trespass elsewhere .
Don’t need a card. Its all done by total electronic surveillance cf China.
I seem to recall this has been tried in one city before. Undergraduates at Cambridge were at one point in 20th century, maybe still are, banned from owning and using a car in the City. Wealthy undergraduates merely rented garages for their cars on the edge of the suburbs so that they could drive home at the end of term.
“And ITV also referred to “right wing conspiracy theorists. (Strangely they did not use the term “left wing” to label the proponents of 15-minute cities)”
Of course the narrative and the propaganda demonize anyone “Far Right”. The BBC cannot stop themselves calling anyone who is not a lefty, Far Right. As you say strange they never use even left wing let alone Far Left but then they control the narrative and the lazy left goes into meltdown if it has even the slightest pretence of a challenge because it knows it has lost the ability to argue and debate. leftie pronouncements are just real hate filled clichés full of lazy labels (unlike their usage of the word “hate” which means “how dare you disagree with my received leftie wisdom and sound bites! Ever heard the BBC or the Grauniad denounce Antifa? It is said you are known by the friends you keep.
Watch any drama which has a story line even touching on extremism or terrorism and as sure as eggs is eggs, the baddie or baddies will be right wing extremists. Not a leftie in site and certainly NEVER someone from the BBC’s favourite religion! How awful it must be to inhabit the neverland that are the arts local government, quangos and media all full of people as stupid and ignorant as you but you all trying to play one-upmanship and prove their woke ( lies) credentials. It is the Lord of the Flies and it is so pleasing to see them eat their own.
Douglas Murray summed it up brilliantly. “The demand on the Left for people on the “Far Right” far outweighs the supply yet to hear the “impartial” leftie media go on about them you would think there were tens of Fasands of em!
Two points.
Firstly, why does every town have huge shopping venues on the perimeter thus needing personal transport to get there.
Second, what is a ‘leading academic’? Evidence suggests its someone who has had the following career path….school, college/university, more university and thats it! No wonder we’re in deep ****!
One reason for out of town shopping centres is idiotic town and city councils removing parking. No business can survive without customers. Look at the number of small shops in those out of town shopping centres that used to be in “high streets”.
Straight out of Agenda 21.
Dung: I don’t know but at least I keep with what’s going on.
Oops – something to do with the delay in posts going up. Markl, I meant to say see above. Agenda 30 is far more wide embracing than Agenda 21 was.
“The idea has been promoted by leading academics and urban planners…”
Maybe but its still stupid and nobody wants it. Because its planning and what even leading (!) Academics think we all want isn’t actually what we want. These people really do think they are so superior and so clever they can plan – literally – every aspect of our lives.
This issurely a naive concept, an impractical utopia?
What about visitors, I recently had the misfortune to try and drive through Oxford. The satnav said a 15 minute journey which took an hour.
I would suggest it is far more than that. It is about removing freedoms we had previously taken for granted.
The insidious behaviour of these non elected bodies demonstrates they do not have an agenda that cares about whether people walk or not.
Their agenda is about control. To control what you eat, what you read, what you do and ultimately what you think.
It is controlled change using the earth’s climate to cojoule or create fear.
Some ghettos will not have parks, theatres, schools or doctor’s clinics. You may get these things if you pay but if you receive them at all it will be via the internet into your home.
I am suggesting that these fifteen minute ghettos are more akin to jail’s.
The central flaw is that it misunderstands both how cities work and how people want to live. And all because the overriding point is not to help us out but to get us to walk.
There is much in the media like this that espouse limiting personal freedoms through draconian measures. The time will come when the many words currently being used to criticise such in various blog sites, and a limited number in the MSM, will become redundant. The powers that be will march on with their socialist/communist plans, funded by all of us without any of our approvals. The colour of the elected party, at every level of governance, is immaterial; the power actually resides with the civil service and local authority officers with their own agendas.
It will take a brave soul to stand up to this, publicly. It will take many more to stand up and support that sole soul publicly. Even more will it take bravery to stand up to these unelected officials and say: “I refuse to obey your rules made up without public endorsement, so sue me. I refuse to submit!”
It will.
But it has been done before.
Meanwhile, it is snowing heavily in Greenland…so remind me again; what is the actual AIM of this war, for us poor collateral-damage sods?
http://polarportal.dk/en/greenland/surface-conditions/
Also it is snowing in Majorca and parts of Spain – not to mention the snow in Morocco that has hit supplies of tomatoes etc.
“The idea has been promoted by leading academics and urban planners…”
So were high rise council estates. That worked out well.
Cities have evolved the way they have because it is the best economic outcome for that society. These clowns want to turn cities back into villages except there won’t be a green space between one village and the next. Only dreamy impractical clowns (i.e., socialists) could ignore history and societal evolution and think they have better solutions to non-problems in that society. I am sick of idiots telling me how I should live my life based on the original irrational fear of anthropogenic climate change. Anyone urging me to change my ways to suit their preferences, which is what this boils down to, can expect a mouthful of bile directed at them. I suggest anyone else who is sick of this do the same thing. Push back, enough is enough.
Lots of interesting posts about these pernicious 15 minute cities especially the “own nothing be happy” theme. However I am the only one who has referred to the awful potential these working in tandem with the already-in-place in LTNs (Oxford in my case). Who is going to buy a property that has no vehicular access?