Ruth Kelly - "good riddance to bad rubbish" or "bring on James Purnell"

You may have noticed that contributions to this blog have wained of late, which is for a number of good reasons, and most bloggers will know that a dearth of new posts means a decline in visitors. So when I checked the sitemeter this afternoon and saw that we had so far had 35 visitors, I knew something was up. A quick flit through the results brought up lots of people searching for one name - Ruth Kelly.

Yes, Ruth Kelly decided to resign today, and since we have mentioned her once or twice as well as photoshopped her fizzog, we attracted some attention. It seems that whilst it's quite likely that she engaged in corporeal mortification, the sheer torture of life in the Cabinet was more than she could take. Either that or she wants to spend more time with her family. We'll leave the debate to the political anoraks.

As far as we're concerned, look at her record: supporting a third runway for Heathrow & doing nothing to re-nationalise privatised Rail network seem the most stand out failures. But locally, she has presided over the utter farce that is the Longdendale Bypass Public Inquiry and done fuck all about National Grid's Plans for the Woodhead Tunnel, effectively pulling the pud of the Save the Woodhead Tunnel group (whom, it has to be said, seem content to have their pud pulled). Disastrous.

Wouldn't it be ironic - and completely delicious - if Gordon Brown were to choose to fill Kelly's place that yuppie drip James Purnell in his pending Cabinet reshuffle. Then battle would well and truly be joined. Bring it on Gordon.

Pre-emptive war

The full implications of the Government's response to the WAIT e-petition are now becoming apparent. As ever, John Hall is leading the charge, and he has asked us to publish his email to Public Inquiry Inspector, John Watson:

"It appears that the Public Inquiry which you are overseeing has definitely been pre-judged by the Prime Minister as shown in his latest news release on the No. 10 Internet site.

The Press are also compounding the situation by now referring to Gordon Brown`s statement as "PM refuses to give way over need for a Bypass".

I believe this declared decision has completely usurped the Public Inquiry and your requirement to deliberate on the findings which would result from a properly conducted Inquiry,which as yet has not occurred.

No cross examinations of the proposers of the Road scheme have taken place, and no evidence produced by those objectors has been introduced into the Inquiry Public forum, therefore it is my belief that not only have the Highways Agency and Tameside MBC failed to produce credible suitable evidence in support of their proposals, but a close examination and scrutiny of what they still intend to produce as evidence will now seemingly not be accepted as cause for the Bypass Inquiry disclosures to be considered by the Secretary of State or the Prime Minister.

It can only be concluded that a deliberate attempt to negate the Public Inquiry has been shown by the recent announcement,in which case this also now reflects on your own credibility to produce a report on your findings knowing the issue has been pre-judged already.

The declaration signed by the UK Government accepting the Aarhus Convention Protocols have now been breached and disregarded,and the following is but "one small component" of what has been usurped by Gordon Brown MP"

The press article mentioned is predictably the Glossop Chronicle which, as usual, slavishly regurgitates the government's drivel.

glossop.com are also carrying John Hall's line, and though we try to avoid repetition, their quote is good enough to merit inclusion here:

"In view of the intervention by Gordon Brown who has decided to usurp the process of the Mottram Bypass Public Inquiry and seriously undermine the Public Inquiry Inspector, he has also chosen to completely breach the Government ratified Aarhus Convention Agreement which clearly denotes the importance of total participation in a Public Inquiry with Supporters and Objectors involved in the decision making process.

This therefore has exposed the Prime Minister's intention to not comply with existing protocols in an existing Public Inquiry which will result in the European Justice Complaints Organisation in Geneva being made aware of this irrational and declared pre-judgement of an existing Public Inquiry, without the objectors having been given an opportunity to openly disclose their evidence and scrutinise in depth the evidence again being produced in October 2008 by the Highways Agency which this time it's hoped is not seriously flawed and unsuitable evidence before a Public Inquiry.

The Public Inquiry Inspector has been informed of the announcement by Gordon Brown which has completely destroyed even the credibility of his observations and opinions which should have been considered by the Secretary of State when the Public Inquiry is concluded"

Article 6 of the Aarhus Convention deals with public participation in decisions on specific activities listed in Annex I which would include proposals for nationally significant infrastructure projects such as the provision of energy, water, wastewater and transport systems. It obliges the Government to inform the public in a timely and effective manner about a proposal and the procedure for dealing with it. Public participation should be early, when all options are open and when public participation can be effective. Procedures must allow the public to submit any comments, information, analyses or opinions that it considers relevant to the proposed activity at a public hearing or inquiry. Due account must be taken of the outcome of the public participation.

Does Ruth Kelly wear a hair shirt?

Perhaps more than any other in recent times, this government's attempts to resolve the inherent contradictions of capitalism through spin - if not concrete reality - are becoming less and less credible. Last week* saw the release of a discussion paper by the Department for Transport that is a perfect illustration of a new and what will prove to be intractable conundrum - how to expand road, rail and air networks whilst seeking to curb CO2 emissions.

The paper signals a disdain for the rail alternatives and sees a future where 'decarbonised' automobiles will need to be accommodated on an ever widening and expanding motorway and road network. Furthermore, they are seeking to fund this expansion through private investment - a logical conclusion to the 'Design Build Finance Operate' initiatives of the 1990s. It's perhaps not so coincidental that two of the largest private road building firms have been courting each other in recent weeks and now look like they will merge shortly: Carillion (contractors for the Longdendale Bypass) & McAlpine (whose 'Green' claim-to-fame is that they built the Eden Project).

Let's be clear: even if all motor vehicles became carbon neutral first thing tomorrow, we'd still be against the expansion of the road network. The motor industry has been a key staple of capitalism since the end of World War 2. Automobiles are the pre-eminent product in this economic system, and the motor industry itself is a key locus for the expansion of capital and the accumulation of surplus value (the primary preoccupation of capitalism). Nothing can stand in it's way, whether it is carbon emitting or carbon neutral, and it could quite conceivably be the latter within the foreseeable future.

The freedom that the car offers is an individual freedom only, and one that can only exist without taking away the freedoms of everyone else. In this way, the State makes a bargain that in return for the ability to go anywhere at any time you choose, unspoilt communal spaces will be increasingly tarmacked over. But now it seems the bargain is going to be even more bizarre than that - the State will guarantee both the freedom to travel and the freedom from anxiety that one will not be polluting the environment. As long as one closes one's eyes to the fact that the landscape around us is being destroyed, it will be possible to have a clean conscience about levels of CO2.

In this case, the empress who has no clothes is Ruth Kelly. In the recent past, she has had the gall to say she receives 'spiritual support' from an organisation that provided both spiritual & political support for the formerly Fascist governments of Spain and Chile. This presumably makes her well qualified to promote the cause of irrationality in the style of the Cosa Nostra, a hallmark of this government's authoritarian approach to almost any issue.

After all, if she has a pang of conscience, she'll no doubt just pull the cilice ever tighter.

*on no more a conspicuous date than All Hallows Eve!

Big Brother is watching you

Well, we've hit the big time. This afternoon, we had a visit from Tone's office. I bet our good friend Cllr McKeown's jealous - we're not even in the Labour Party and the government's looking at us!

We must be doing something right. Whilst we're on the subject, we've also had visits from Tarmac Plc, but strangely yet to hear from TMBC. Shit rolls downhill I guess...