Is anyone listening?

Right a few things to get off my chest tonight, mostly based around the fact that this Government has created an atmosphere of governance where no-one listens to public opinion. Obviously the big issue around this is the massive furore over the road pricing thing. So like a million and a half ill-informed selfish pricks knee jerked they're way onto the Downing Street website and clicked to show their disapproval at driving costing them a bit more...maybe...if they drive during rush hour...in a city. Now I don't really have an opinion just yet about the scheme, obviously my knee-jerk says its a good thing but I admit I am uncomfortable about the monitoring aspect of it, but thats neither here nor there. What is interesting about this is the amount of excitement that Tony Blair/Downing Street (I doubt he actually wrote that email) responded to public concern and then that he went ahead and ignored it.

Isn't it sad that power is now so concentrated around the little No.10 bubble that it comes as a great shock when Blair realises that not everyone is willing to go along blindly with his schemes. That upsets me as does the going along and doing it anyway. I mean in this case it makes sense, I mean after all, all that is happening is a review and trial. I may be biased because I happen to agree that drivers need more sticks (and carrots) to give up the little tin box addiction but the arrogance of not really paying attention to public concern is fucking irritating. I mean they didn't even pretend that they were going to pay attention to the concerns people were having, just that they were going to explain why they were going to go ahead and do it anyway. It reminds me of the futility we all felt while marching against the Iraq war. That morning, as similar amounts of us converged on London to show our displeasure, Blair made a similarly patronising statement about him being glad that we lived in a country where people could express their disagreement with those in government and that he would seek to answer our concerns. At no point did he say "and if enough of you show up and are articulate in your reasoning then I may accept that I've lost track of the people who elected me and think again" but there ya go. Piss off Tony, we're bored of you now.

Here's the full text of his email. I haven't read it but I'm sure it's delightful, and i'm sure the comments are equally amusing!

On a similar note, something I blogged about last year has come to an inevitable conclusion today. East Sussex County Council voted to allow the building of a waste incinerator in Newhaven (Residents angry as incinerator plan approved) . I won't bother telling you again why its a terrible idea because I already have, but please read around it and make sure this kind of thing stops happening. This is particularly odd because I'm currently temping for East Sussex County Council and I heard someone mention something about TV cameras today and didn't really think anything of it. I've been keeping up to speed on this issue and I work at the building where the decision was made but I had no idea it was happening until I got home and read email, way to go with the consultation ESCC!

Finally as an update, the Nisshin Maru is still drifting (read an update here), and teh Japanese are still refusing help. Greenpeace now have an email form, which is way better than the one I did, that will go to the Japanese government so fill it out. Oh and while you're there check out the webcam on the Greenpeace boat - cool almost live pics of the Antarctic seas!

Three blogs about governments of varying levels from around the world not listening to their constituents. Isn't democracy great?