Blog Archives
Building on the Green belt should be the very last resort!
Anyone who takes a walk in countryside surrounding peaceful Wiltshire market towns such as Marlborough, Devizes, or Westbury would find it a crying shame that such tranquility might be spoilt by the development of new housing estates, and the increase in noise and pollution they can bring. In fact it’s not just that more houses potentially means loosing more green spaces, or the fact that villages surrounding towns eventually get swallowed up. I used the afore-mentioned towns because I live in Wiltshire, but they could in fact be any middle-sized town where successive governments have failed to make sufficient infrastructure provisions. These towns get developments tacked on around the edge of them without much thought given to the inevitable extra vehicle movements these extra houses create. suddenly you get to the stage where a by-pass is needed, but no by-pass can be built because it’s either too expensive, or there’s something in the way, like a hill, or a new housing estate. In a recent interview for BBC Wiltshire, Devizes MP Claire Perry argued that plans at both a local and national level would try to ensure that this didn’t happen in the future. Read the rest of this entry
Housing, the welfare state and the new politics of virtue
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The 2011 Labour party conference may be best remembered as a turning point, when Ed Miliband began to assert his radical version of Britain’s future. Many commentators have already fixated on the phrase “not anti-business, anti business-as-usual.” In contrast, Miliband’s reiteration of Labour’s plans to marry eligibility for social housing to individuals’ contributions to society, has been overlooked as a smart tactical move, or misinterpreted as an attack on the working class. In truth, the essence of Miliband’s radical vision, and his support for working and middle class people, is rendered most vivid when analysing this particular policy. click here to keep reading
The London Mayoral Election: Stand Alone Campaign or Practical Opinion Polling?
Apr 30
Posted by harrysaunders92
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As we rapidly approach May 3rd, polling day for local elections up and down the country, the closely anticipated and much scrutinized London Mayoral Election begins to dominate more and more of the nation’s media coverage. Given its presence as the central focus of campaigning for all of the major parties, and also some of the minor ones, during this round of voting, the press has clamored to attach as much meaning and substance to it as possible, apparently bestowing upon it the status of unofficial comment on the success of the coalition government’s first term up to this point. But in such circumstances it is important to ask, how significant is this election with regards to public opinion on the government’s performance? Read the rest of this entry →
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Posted in Coalition Government, Comment, Conservative Party, General, Labour Party, Looking Forward, Party Politics
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Tags: Boris Johnson, george galloway, housing, ken livingstone, local elections, London, london mayoral election, polling, respect