"we back this project all the way" "This will open business opportunities and encourage re location which can only be good for Glasgow". "This will see the creation of hundreds, perhaps thousands of jobs in the Strathclyde area" "It can only be good for the economy. "We need to compete. etc..etc... this road will produce the main artery in the west of Scotland's challenge to be a leader in service and tourism..
All over the land, in boardrooms, newsrooms, business meetings the same abstractions are being repeated by business men and women, who, what they know, or care about environmental cause and effect, could be written on the back of a postage stamp. On and on they whitter, about cost an efficiency. That is, the cost to us the public, and the effect on them, ie their bank account, if the idea goes through.
The same scenario is repeated when the business fraternity talk about roads, as when they talk about any thing. How much can I get it for, how much can I sell it for. Roads, cars. property, tax avoidance. Makes no difference. Everything that lies between the "How much can I get it for ", and "How much can I sell for" is meaningless to the average capitalist. He or she will be happy in a glass dome counting their money, while the rest of us rot in an atrophying atmosphere created by our sacrifice, for the benefit of their profit margins.
The writing has been on the wall for the last fifty years or so. The car is killing us and our environment. What have our leaders arrived at, given all the research papers, surveys, effects of global warming, greenhouse gasses, mountains of used tires smoldering under the ground, ill health, noise, traffic grinding to a halt? More motorways! We need more motorways.
"Ministers have said they are pushing ahead with the £500m plan against the recommendation of a public inquiry. " (M74)
If we value our environment - We need to start pushing back
M74 protesters in legal challenge
Agenda 21 Glasgow council claim to be in line with this agenda, on Sustainable DevelopmentEveryone signs the document and the agreement looks good on their shiny web site. But in terms of what is actually happening the words are meaningless.
Road campaign resource centre