The Guardian has, once again, published propaganda masquerading as journalism. With "Why do traffic reduction schemes attract so many conspiracy theories?" the Guardian deliberately misleads its readers. Why is the Guardian so useless?
I love you Iain, as you well know. However, I have to say that I think you are a masochist. I need to save you from your weaknesses and CLEARLY you have a weakness for crapola.
I last read a Guardian article during the earliest anti-fracking campaign - summer 2013. They told such OTT lies about us that I vowed to give them the big middle finger forever more.... you must remember (yeah, I know it was a decade ago!) but the Guardian was the rag which let Assange take all the flak and metaphorically washed their hands of him, even though they were up to their necks involved in the scandals at the time.
After that, I noticed that they could not be any more subservient to the Nobs if they had publicly licked arses in the streets of the City of London!
Then that weirdo Moonbot became their poster boy and he is not right in the head. He is an extremist tree hugger. Yeah, I have met a few of those during my long career as an activist. One wanted to marry a tree but I said that I could not attend the wedding because the groom had no say in the matter.
Look, Iain, stop torturing yourself by reading the Guardian nonsense. It is not worth the blood pressure, man. I tell you, a bit of cold turkey withdrawals and you will be fine. Just say no...... OK? xx
I'm old enough to remember when the Graun did actual journalism (or maybe I was just more innocent in those days). Now it has been well and truly *captured* (see Corporate Capture). These days I only look at it as a reference, to get an idea of the kind of propaganda being pushed on us.
Iain, you are completely right, although "useless" seems too tame a description.
Jan 12, 2023·edited Jan 12, 2023Liked by Iain Davis
City traffic planners carve up roads to install dedicated bike lanes and narrowing the roads significantly causing safety issues and traffic delays in cities with inclement weather where even an avid bike rider like myself will rarely ever ride in poor weather conditions. Tension and aggression between auto drivers and bike riders reduces the safety conditions even more. Traffic lights set to maximize wait and commute times is another thing to be aware of. Everyone can see this is an agenda to get people out of their automobiles.
Great stuff as usual and very pertinent. The veil has to be shrunk in order for all to focus on the real agenda from a very nefarious cabal intent on promoting insanity.
Well penned, Iain; however, looked at the other way, the Guardian is very useful for the government propaganda mill. I think you know them, but the Off-Guardian is truly useful to help guard our liberty https://off-guardian.org/ . Stay safe and free.
Jan 12, 2023·edited Jan 12, 2023Liked by Iain Davis
Hi Iain
I think you did a good one with this piece, thank you.
Jordan P has recently become aware of much non-science in Global Warming etc.
His linking of that narrative to unjustified social impositions is just simple reality based logic.
I'm glad he's speaking his mind and making obvious connections.
We all have knowledge and need to share it so we can all increase in objective awareness. Following are some points that anyone can follow up on and think about as they will.
1. Western Society is based on a 'Plan in Plato' to create the Hebrew bible which founds the Christian and Islamic religions. 4.4 Billion are statistically Christian or Moslem, this is about 54% of the planet. This is a powerful piece of planning!
Point: Such philosophical social technology is an extremely powerful, long and deep maker and shaper of society. A foundational resource to learn more of this is, 'Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible' by Russell Gmirkin. YouTube videos such as one with Mr Russell Gmirkin and a Dr Ma'at, give some of the key points simply in about an hour. I'll paste some transcript from it as an appendix.
.
2. The original religious genre, 'Plan in Plato', was limited by the mythological nature of the scriptural narratives. But, the 'Religious Sense' has been forcibly removed from such initial limitations and upgraded in many ways and transplanted into the present state of mental culture. (Source: Fichte, Lecture 17, 'Characteristics of the Present Age' ... It's a difficult source but it contains some very important details of the transition from the old, to the new non-religious upgrade philosophically creating and managing western society.)
Point: The Philosophical planning and influence that founded western society and still influences 4.4 billion religious believers to varying degrees, has never stopped, it has undergone transition and become more powerful. The old 'Plan in Plato' worked. It is still very effective. The old plan has been improved, upgraded. It is still working and the 4.4 billion 54%, where half of them are not that strong or serious about their belief, shows us the powerful reality of what will eventuate without the necessary interventions, ... in the new upgraded genre and it's implementation has a much higher % of belief with the majority not even knowing they are in a philosophical system of belief that is an upgrade using the same principles in the 'Plan in Plato' that founded western society.
3. The new genre and overall narrative involves false stories and false views of reality, in a more natural genre. The false philosophical stories are often enacted for real in some sense e.g. 911 and false narrative attached to real planes and demolition of buildings, to justify globalist world view narrative of terrorism. (Wash rinse repeat in various ways for various other false narratives.)
Point: many many i.e. much more than the 4.4 billion statistically counted as believers in Christianity or Islam, yes many many are fundamentalist believers in the new upgraded philosophical super narrative.
4. The foundational problem, the root causes and how it is all done - THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS are not understood my most in 'the resistance'. Getting ourselves out of the grip of something without knowing how it has entangled us all, means much of the effort and desire to get free is not nearly as effective as it needs to be, because it doesn't know the core plan and how the fundamentals work. (The base of societal philosophical beliefs and conditioning, is in schools/education.)
5. Much in the original limited 'Plan in Plato', which was essentially a national education/indoctrination system, is being re-done. Constantine instituted reforms that laid the foundations for the feudal system and the 'dark ages'. Central in this was a form of permanent lockdown where serfs couldn't leave their LORD's land without a pass. It was extremely effective.
Point Iain: Well done! I suggest you don't let this issue go but journalism it to your deep and utter best.
Sincerely
david
Appendix
In Simplicity
Plato wrote details of a plan to make a society based on beliefs built around divine laws. Literary evidence in sources used to create the bible show Plato’s plan was used to create the Judaeo-Christian religions and beliefs foundational to Western Society.
Following are selected excerpts from a discussion between Mr Russell Gmirkin, author of
Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible and Dr Ma’at.
3:10 (The numbers indicate the YT video time)
At this point Dr Ma’at reads the biography at Routledge.
8:33
Dr Ma’at:
– OK beautiful beautiful. And so Mr Gmirkin, … How exactly was the Hebrew Bible, those documents, put together? Could you explain that process to us please.
9:00
Mr Gmirkin – Certainly. Well it used to be believed that the Hebrew Bible evolved over centuries and centuries of time from practically the time of Solomon down to the Hellenistic Era, which is the time after Alexander the Great conquered the east.
Well, under some of the latest research, including the research I’ve written, the whole bible was basically put together in the 270BC and later – very very late.
… drawing on all sorts of interesting Greek writers such as Homer and Plato and the Babylonian Priest Berossus and the Egyptian (or Kemetic) Priest Manetho and others.
10:15 Mr Gmirkin continued: – So they … wrote the 5 books of Moses, and then they immediately translated it into Greek. So you had the Greek and Hebrew editions both presented to the public at the same time …
– So after they wrote the books of Moses, and published them in Hebrew and Greek, … Then they started putting together a whole national literature that we know as the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament)
.
11:10 Mr Gmirkin continued:
– In doing that they were following a literary agenda laid out by the philosopher Plato. In his book ‘Plato’s Laws’, he said that the most important task was to create a set of laws for a new nation, and the lawmakers, whatever they did they had to convince the citizenry that those laws were:
.
- ancient
- and they were Divine
- and they had never been changed.
.
And that way, under superstition or belief, the citizens would always obey the laws and support them.
…
12:00 Mr Gmirkin continued: – And then Plato said beyond that you should create a whole national literature, of every genre. ... (and the YouTube vid goes on)
david again:
A central point of the 'Plan in Plato' was for the philosophical story to solidify in the mind as REAL and to justify laws and use of the force of law to believers. The same is going on in the narrative enactment and creation today. It's just all in an upgraded genre and society framework - and far more serious a problem.
Those that don't even realise we're dealing with an ancient but upgraded philosophical deception just can't fully objectively understand and GET A GRIP on what binds everyone so powerfully to pry it off and get really free and make a society on true to objective reality based principles.
and the video continues with some information that seems very important for an objective understanding of western/global society and plenty of less important details that frame and carry the key points. Research around the creation of the Old Testament from a philosophical plan is problematic because it was designed to deceive so obviously the stories about the bible were not telling the facts of it's fabrication by philosophers. The details in Plato that align with the bible and western society are the central facts for consideration. The supposed history and other details should be considered like official accounts of 911 and Covid i.e. full of disinformation and misdirection.
I always try to remember when I find a lie, it especially tells the truth not just of the narrative, but about the all that was necessary to fabricate and pass on the lie.
The lies are especially true!
Yeah, I know, I know I'd better shut up before some think I'm long winded (oops!, too late. lol)
Jan 12, 2023·edited Jan 12, 2023Liked by Iain Davis
Another excellent essay, that I mostly concur with- However...
There is no such thing as GLOBALISM. There is no science to support such claims and the latest 'scientific' comprehension on these matters makes quite a bit of difference .
The imaginary GLOBE was revised into an 'oblate spheroid' many years ago, then that was updated to being PEAR SHAPED.
Therefore there is no GLOBAL ECCONOMY or GLOBAL AGENDAS, instead we have a PEAR SHAPED ECCONOMY and PEAR SHAPED AGENDAS, which of course is far more relevant and accurate terminology- according to the latest mainstream scientific propaganda.
Jordan Peterson is not very smart (what a mess compared to decent minds of only 20 years ago for example!) , the Guardian are even less equipped to think about the problems of these times as they are predominantly busy doing the hokey-cokey, blind mans buff, and constructing home made enema kits for recreation.
I hope that helps dispel any illusions and encourages the correct terminology in future.
Don't waste too.much time on rags like The Guardian. We are out of reach for their propaganda and their few readers are for the most parts reading their fluff to kill time at the coffee shop waiting to empty their cup of coffee. The."conversion level" from intelligent readers into a Guardian believer is probably close to zero. Same thing as a father trying to convert their Justin Bieber loving small kids into Judas Priest and Deep.Purple while they are strapped for a 3 hours on the back seat during a long family trip. I tried it and it did not work. My son hears one riff from.Maiden and he runs back to.the TV. It is like putting male donkeys in a cow herd with no bull hoping the male donkeys will get the job done and that as a result the farmer will create a new specie and become rich as a result. These two species simply won't mate together. Same with the audience.targeted by a Bill Gates subsidized disappearing rag lime the Guardian and the reader of more researched outfits like your blog.
This brings forth the question of just why the Mainstream Media and one's favourite media presenters have been coopted by the Intelligence Agencies, Defense and Government more generally, notably in The West.
The Western Leadership Class perceive a loss of confidence in their entirely self-serving leadership, their Western Faux Democracy and Faux Economy - read service based, serves the very few and the very privileged and the vast wealth disparities will destabilize the structures that support their privileged status.
That is, far fewer "buy the line". Western driven foreign wars no longer deliver outcomes consistent with stated intentions, to the extent that the narrative of intentions remain anything but consistent and The Political Class themselves appear entirely corrupt and duplicitous and well taken care of when they depart office.
What remains is a propagandized media to promote foreign threats and distort internal perceptions to keep what remains of their economies functioning. That is - you wake up, you go to work, you pay tax like millions of others and keep their Show Boat afloat. Economics 303.
The Gaurdian also claims > The Guardian also claims
Can this be corrected?
I also note the repeated omission of apostrophes in possessives – "The Guardians stated objective", for example. Yet this is not consistent: e.g. "The Guardian's article is not journalism" two paragraphs above.
I wear the label “Far Right Extremist” as a Badge of Honor. The world is now openly and explicitly divided between Nationalists and Globalists. Nationalists are proudly “Far Right Extremists.”
The “15-Minute City” is just another machination of the Globalist Fascist Oligarchy’s goal to move all of us peasants and serfs off of their land so we will quit wastefully using up their precious natural resources.
The Guardian, of course, is despicable, and ludicrous. But efforts to reduce private car use in city centres are plainly beneficial. Choosing between lower pollution, lower noise, and greater amenity for pedestrians, and the arrogant demands to be able to drive anywhere, any time, you desire, is easy. However, as with all these initiatives, the powers that be, as ever contemptuous of the rabble, prefer diktat or manipulation to persuasion and slow adjustments, thereby blackening the prospects for beneficial change.
Guardian = Opinion Gatekeepers on the pfake Left.
Look forward to reading this properly after work.
You and Whitney are the best journalists on the god's green spheroid! :-)
Bravo! Well said. We need more REAL journalists like you Iain.
I love you Iain, as you well know. However, I have to say that I think you are a masochist. I need to save you from your weaknesses and CLEARLY you have a weakness for crapola.
I last read a Guardian article during the earliest anti-fracking campaign - summer 2013. They told such OTT lies about us that I vowed to give them the big middle finger forever more.... you must remember (yeah, I know it was a decade ago!) but the Guardian was the rag which let Assange take all the flak and metaphorically washed their hands of him, even though they were up to their necks involved in the scandals at the time.
After that, I noticed that they could not be any more subservient to the Nobs if they had publicly licked arses in the streets of the City of London!
Then that weirdo Moonbot became their poster boy and he is not right in the head. He is an extremist tree hugger. Yeah, I have met a few of those during my long career as an activist. One wanted to marry a tree but I said that I could not attend the wedding because the groom had no say in the matter.
Look, Iain, stop torturing yourself by reading the Guardian nonsense. It is not worth the blood pressure, man. I tell you, a bit of cold turkey withdrawals and you will be fine. Just say no...... OK? xx
I'm old enough to remember when the Graun did actual journalism (or maybe I was just more innocent in those days). Now it has been well and truly *captured* (see Corporate Capture). These days I only look at it as a reference, to get an idea of the kind of propaganda being pushed on us.
Iain, you are completely right, although "useless" seems too tame a description.
Mainstream Media is now a propaganda system courtesy of inputs planned and prepared by the Intelligence Agencies and Defense.
Dealt with here . . . https://les7eb.substack.com/p/ukraine-notes-the-long-proxy-war-67b
And more generally . . . https://les7eb.substack.com/
City traffic planners carve up roads to install dedicated bike lanes and narrowing the roads significantly causing safety issues and traffic delays in cities with inclement weather where even an avid bike rider like myself will rarely ever ride in poor weather conditions. Tension and aggression between auto drivers and bike riders reduces the safety conditions even more. Traffic lights set to maximize wait and commute times is another thing to be aware of. Everyone can see this is an agenda to get people out of their automobiles.
Great stuff as usual and very pertinent. The veil has to be shrunk in order for all to focus on the real agenda from a very nefarious cabal intent on promoting insanity.
Well penned, Iain; however, looked at the other way, the Guardian is very useful for the government propaganda mill. I think you know them, but the Off-Guardian is truly useful to help guard our liberty https://off-guardian.org/ . Stay safe and free.
Hi Iain
I think you did a good one with this piece, thank you.
Jordan P has recently become aware of much non-science in Global Warming etc.
His linking of that narrative to unjustified social impositions is just simple reality based logic.
I'm glad he's speaking his mind and making obvious connections.
We all have knowledge and need to share it so we can all increase in objective awareness. Following are some points that anyone can follow up on and think about as they will.
1. Western Society is based on a 'Plan in Plato' to create the Hebrew bible which founds the Christian and Islamic religions. 4.4 Billion are statistically Christian or Moslem, this is about 54% of the planet. This is a powerful piece of planning!
Point: Such philosophical social technology is an extremely powerful, long and deep maker and shaper of society. A foundational resource to learn more of this is, 'Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible' by Russell Gmirkin. YouTube videos such as one with Mr Russell Gmirkin and a Dr Ma'at, give some of the key points simply in about an hour. I'll paste some transcript from it as an appendix.
.
2. The original religious genre, 'Plan in Plato', was limited by the mythological nature of the scriptural narratives. But, the 'Religious Sense' has been forcibly removed from such initial limitations and upgraded in many ways and transplanted into the present state of mental culture. (Source: Fichte, Lecture 17, 'Characteristics of the Present Age' ... It's a difficult source but it contains some very important details of the transition from the old, to the new non-religious upgrade philosophically creating and managing western society.)
Point: The Philosophical planning and influence that founded western society and still influences 4.4 billion religious believers to varying degrees, has never stopped, it has undergone transition and become more powerful. The old 'Plan in Plato' worked. It is still very effective. The old plan has been improved, upgraded. It is still working and the 4.4 billion 54%, where half of them are not that strong or serious about their belief, shows us the powerful reality of what will eventuate without the necessary interventions, ... in the new upgraded genre and it's implementation has a much higher % of belief with the majority not even knowing they are in a philosophical system of belief that is an upgrade using the same principles in the 'Plan in Plato' that founded western society.
3. The new genre and overall narrative involves false stories and false views of reality, in a more natural genre. The false philosophical stories are often enacted for real in some sense e.g. 911 and false narrative attached to real planes and demolition of buildings, to justify globalist world view narrative of terrorism. (Wash rinse repeat in various ways for various other false narratives.)
Point: many many i.e. much more than the 4.4 billion statistically counted as believers in Christianity or Islam, yes many many are fundamentalist believers in the new upgraded philosophical super narrative.
4. The foundational problem, the root causes and how it is all done - THE PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS are not understood my most in 'the resistance'. Getting ourselves out of the grip of something without knowing how it has entangled us all, means much of the effort and desire to get free is not nearly as effective as it needs to be, because it doesn't know the core plan and how the fundamentals work. (The base of societal philosophical beliefs and conditioning, is in schools/education.)
5. Much in the original limited 'Plan in Plato', which was essentially a national education/indoctrination system, is being re-done. Constantine instituted reforms that laid the foundations for the feudal system and the 'dark ages'. Central in this was a form of permanent lockdown where serfs couldn't leave their LORD's land without a pass. It was extremely effective.
Point Iain: Well done! I suggest you don't let this issue go but journalism it to your deep and utter best.
Sincerely
david
Appendix
In Simplicity
Plato wrote details of a plan to make a society based on beliefs built around divine laws. Literary evidence in sources used to create the bible show Plato’s plan was used to create the Judaeo-Christian religions and beliefs foundational to Western Society.
Following are selected excerpts from a discussion between Mr Russell Gmirkin, author of
Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible and Dr Ma’at.
3:10 (The numbers indicate the YT video time)
At this point Dr Ma’at reads the biography at Routledge.
8:33
Dr Ma’at:
– OK beautiful beautiful. And so Mr Gmirkin, … How exactly was the Hebrew Bible, those documents, put together? Could you explain that process to us please.
9:00
Mr Gmirkin – Certainly. Well it used to be believed that the Hebrew Bible evolved over centuries and centuries of time from practically the time of Solomon down to the Hellenistic Era, which is the time after Alexander the Great conquered the east.
Well, under some of the latest research, including the research I’ve written, the whole bible was basically put together in the 270BC and later – very very late.
… drawing on all sorts of interesting Greek writers such as Homer and Plato and the Babylonian Priest Berossus and the Egyptian (or Kemetic) Priest Manetho and others.
10:15 Mr Gmirkin continued: – So they … wrote the 5 books of Moses, and then they immediately translated it into Greek. So you had the Greek and Hebrew editions both presented to the public at the same time …
– So after they wrote the books of Moses, and published them in Hebrew and Greek, … Then they started putting together a whole national literature that we know as the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament)
.
11:10 Mr Gmirkin continued:
– In doing that they were following a literary agenda laid out by the philosopher Plato. In his book ‘Plato’s Laws’, he said that the most important task was to create a set of laws for a new nation, and the lawmakers, whatever they did they had to convince the citizenry that those laws were:
.
- ancient
- and they were Divine
- and they had never been changed.
.
And that way, under superstition or belief, the citizens would always obey the laws and support them.
…
12:00 Mr Gmirkin continued: – And then Plato said beyond that you should create a whole national literature, of every genre. ... (and the YouTube vid goes on)
david again:
A central point of the 'Plan in Plato' was for the philosophical story to solidify in the mind as REAL and to justify laws and use of the force of law to believers. The same is going on in the narrative enactment and creation today. It's just all in an upgraded genre and society framework - and far more serious a problem.
Those that don't even realise we're dealing with an ancient but upgraded philosophical deception just can't fully objectively understand and GET A GRIP on what binds everyone so powerfully to pry it off and get really free and make a society on true to objective reality based principles.
and the video continues with some information that seems very important for an objective understanding of western/global society and plenty of less important details that frame and carry the key points. Research around the creation of the Old Testament from a philosophical plan is problematic because it was designed to deceive so obviously the stories about the bible were not telling the facts of it's fabrication by philosophers. The details in Plato that align with the bible and western society are the central facts for consideration. The supposed history and other details should be considered like official accounts of 911 and Covid i.e. full of disinformation and misdirection.
I always try to remember when I find a lie, it especially tells the truth not just of the narrative, but about the all that was necessary to fabricate and pass on the lie.
The lies are especially true!
Yeah, I know, I know I'd better shut up before some think I'm long winded (oops!, too late. lol)
Another excellent essay, that I mostly concur with- However...
There is no such thing as GLOBALISM. There is no science to support such claims and the latest 'scientific' comprehension on these matters makes quite a bit of difference .
The imaginary GLOBE was revised into an 'oblate spheroid' many years ago, then that was updated to being PEAR SHAPED.
Therefore there is no GLOBAL ECCONOMY or GLOBAL AGENDAS, instead we have a PEAR SHAPED ECCONOMY and PEAR SHAPED AGENDAS, which of course is far more relevant and accurate terminology- according to the latest mainstream scientific propaganda.
Jordan Peterson is not very smart (what a mess compared to decent minds of only 20 years ago for example!) , the Guardian are even less equipped to think about the problems of these times as they are predominantly busy doing the hokey-cokey, blind mans buff, and constructing home made enema kits for recreation.
I hope that helps dispel any illusions and encourages the correct terminology in future.
Don't waste too.much time on rags like The Guardian. We are out of reach for their propaganda and their few readers are for the most parts reading their fluff to kill time at the coffee shop waiting to empty their cup of coffee. The."conversion level" from intelligent readers into a Guardian believer is probably close to zero. Same thing as a father trying to convert their Justin Bieber loving small kids into Judas Priest and Deep.Purple while they are strapped for a 3 hours on the back seat during a long family trip. I tried it and it did not work. My son hears one riff from.Maiden and he runs back to.the TV. It is like putting male donkeys in a cow herd with no bull hoping the male donkeys will get the job done and that as a result the farmer will create a new specie and become rich as a result. These two species simply won't mate together. Same with the audience.targeted by a Bill Gates subsidized disappearing rag lime the Guardian and the reader of more researched outfits like your blog.
👋👋👋
This brings forth the question of just why the Mainstream Media and one's favourite media presenters have been coopted by the Intelligence Agencies, Defense and Government more generally, notably in The West.
The Western Leadership Class perceive a loss of confidence in their entirely self-serving leadership, their Western Faux Democracy and Faux Economy - read service based, serves the very few and the very privileged and the vast wealth disparities will destabilize the structures that support their privileged status.
That is, far fewer "buy the line". Western driven foreign wars no longer deliver outcomes consistent with stated intentions, to the extent that the narrative of intentions remain anything but consistent and The Political Class themselves appear entirely corrupt and duplicitous and well taken care of when they depart office.
What remains is a propagandized media to promote foreign threats and distort internal perceptions to keep what remains of their economies functioning. That is - you wake up, you go to work, you pay tax like millions of others and keep their Show Boat afloat. Economics 303.
https://les7eb.substack.com/p/ukraine-long-proxy-war-vi-god-favours
The Gaurdian also claims > The Guardian also claims
Can this be corrected?
I also note the repeated omission of apostrophes in possessives – "The Guardians stated objective", for example. Yet this is not consistent: e.g. "The Guardian's article is not journalism" two paragraphs above.
I wear the label “Far Right Extremist” as a Badge of Honor. The world is now openly and explicitly divided between Nationalists and Globalists. Nationalists are proudly “Far Right Extremists.”
The “15-Minute City” is just another machination of the Globalist Fascist Oligarchy’s goal to move all of us peasants and serfs off of their land so we will quit wastefully using up their precious natural resources.
This is all part of the Wildlands Project:
http://www.narlo.org/Wildlands%20project_war.pdf
https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/files/Global_Governance_Why_How_When.htm
http://www.defendruralamerica.com/files/GlobalGovernanceHenryLamb.pdf
http://www.theeuroprobe.org/the-wildlands-project-to-control-all-humans-and-agenda-21/
https://youtu.be/9vW9ORaIR_w
https://youtu.be/TLdto7w7JuM
https://youtu.be/xF7EkT-qbG4
https://youtu.be/foZkg0Jeizo
https://youtu.be/F0PB0hmjC_4
The Guardian, of course, is despicable, and ludicrous. But efforts to reduce private car use in city centres are plainly beneficial. Choosing between lower pollution, lower noise, and greater amenity for pedestrians, and the arrogant demands to be able to drive anywhere, any time, you desire, is easy. However, as with all these initiatives, the powers that be, as ever contemptuous of the rabble, prefer diktat or manipulation to persuasion and slow adjustments, thereby blackening the prospects for beneficial change.