There’s an international socialist conspiracy afoot, and it wants to make it easier to walk to the shops. Fringe forces of the far left are plotting to take away our freedom to be stuck in traffic jams, to crawl along clogged ring roads and trawl the streets in search of a parking spot. The liberty of the rush-hour commute, the sanctity of the out-of-town shopping centre and the righteousness of the suburban food desert is under threat as never before. The name of this chilling global movement? The “15-minute city”.
Thing is, it is an international socialist conspiracy.
Simply put, the 15-minute city principle suggests you should have your daily needs – work, food, healthcare, education, culture and leisure – within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from where you live. It sounds pleasant enough, but in the minds of libertarian fanatics and the bedroom commentators of TikTok, it represents an unprecedented assault on personal freedoms.
It’s the “should” there. Should by who says? If it’s the aggregate outcome of the free choices of the population then that’s great. As Jane Jacobs liked to point out, livable cities are those that develop as folk develop them freely. If it’s something imposed by some tosser in an office, with zones and no movements of cars across zones, and licences and permissions required, then it’s the imposition of a plan upon the populace. A conspiracy.
Never before has a mundane theory of urbanism
It’s not mundane in the slightest. It’s at the heart of the definition of the good society. Is that good society what we do or is it where we’re told what we must do? And the answer to the second is Fuck Off, Matey.
It’s like suggesting that public parks are part of a sinister plant-worshipping plot to demolish our homes and replace them with grass.
One of those earlier “mundane” theories of urbanism did just that. Decided that the British desire for a des res with front and back garden wasn’t to be allowed. In favour of stack a prole worker flats surrounded by common and communal space and grass. Then everyone wonders why urban crime is up when there is no defensible space.
Or that public transport is the work of a satanic bus cult.
It’s not entirely uncommon for people to note that at least some proponents of “a truly integrated public transport system” are driven by those with a hatred of the freedom and mobility the car gives the average chelovek.
There are lots of good reasons to interrogate the cute logic of the 15-minute city – could it actually lead to further social segregation? Would wealthy residents, and their money, remain in the prosperous enclaves? Who is providing the services and where do they live?
Who gives a toss? Who the fuck are you to decide upon such things? We, we peeps, we get to decide these things. The society that results being the aggregation of our own freely made choices.
but the threat of our rights being curtailed by travel permits isn’t one of them.
Snigger. 90% of the left insists that no one should be barred from entry to the country by lack of a permit or passport but that we should be required to live within 15 minutes of home? Listen to yourself.
The ideas had been around since the 1920s,
Indeed, this sort of shit has. The very same movement that has had the British locked up into urban flats instead of the des res. To where we now build the smallest new properties in Europe. Actually, the new average is smaller than the old two up two downs – largely because they don’t have the back yard to put the shitter in.
One of the most notable points about this movement being that absolutely none of the people who do the planning – nor the writing about it – actually live, with their families, in the 76 m2 those new builds contain.
There are times when I really do hate the cunts in the British professional classes – especially in architecture and planning.
“You should have your daily needs”
Mine, as part of the intellectually and morally superior enlightened ruling class, are up to me and peasants will not question.
Now do what you are told and be grateful that I have deigned to instruct you.
As someone forced to give up her beloved diesel LandRover for a little Hyundai tomorrow thanks to the upcoming ULEZ expansion, may I say ‘Fuck you, Oliver, and your whole bloody tribe of authoritarian whack jobs and nanny staters’…
I dunno, it hinges on how you read that ‘should’.
For example, “all children should grow up healthy” might just be a motherhood and apple pie statement that we can all agree is A Good Thing. Or it could be something more menacing: an expression of all the terrible things the state is going to do to make it so.
I read “you should have your daily needs within a 15-minute walk” as the former. There’s plenty that’s total dogshit about living in cities, caused largely by our surrender of so much street space to car owners and our ongoing capitulation to nimbys, so having a view of cities that might be better has to be a good thing, no?
《The society that results being the aggregation of our own freely made choices.》
Why have crapitalists completely abandoned the Lockean Proviso, without which property rights have no moral justification other than “might makes right”?
There’s nine million of us non conformists who live outside towns and cities in the UK. We’re the ones who are not going to walk on roads without pavements or cycle six miles to the nearest supermarket on roads with no illumination at night and dangerous as hell during the day. We’re the ones the anti-car brigade never ever consider.
I’d quite welcome a conspiracy running the place if it were competent. As it is, getting around is regularly buggered up by the unfixed pot holes, the collapsing sewers, the burst water/gas mains, and road works where they put out cones and temporary traffic lights and then nothing happens for days on end. Oh, and the occasional XR twattery.
Does this mean that everyone should have an Ikea within 15 minutes of home? Given it takes 15 minutes to walk from one side to another that’s going to be tricky.
“property rights have no moral justification other than “might makes right”?”
You’ll feel different as soon as you own something. Which if you save all your pocket money, you might do one day.
One thing I like about Tokyo is how walkable it is; house, flats, bars, restaurants, shops all within a fairly easy walk. Mind you, having your city bombed flat by the Americans probably helps – as does having a Government that doesn’t actually hate you, that plus a lack of diversity means that Japan is pretty nice on the whole.
Just needs more Japanese kids
Nothing wrong with having daily needs available nearby.
However, we all know this is an attempt to impose 15 minute gulags. Which is why those attempting to impose it should all receive the Ceausescu retirement package, like the deserving socialists they are.
My neighbourhood has shops, a gym, barbers, doctors, physios, dentists and any number of other services a short walk from my front door. It’s tremendously convenient and I wouldn’t trade it. However, it’s my choice to live in a suburb like that and also to ride my bike to work.
I wouldn’t want any of that forced on people who didn’t want it, even though I personally love it. That’s what liberty and freedom of choice is supposed to be about, not to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design (sorry Freddie).
I owe Owen Jones an apology. I thought it wasn’t possible to be a bigger c@&t but step forward Mr. wainwright – this chap needs to be on a plan to Northern Nigeria pretty sharpish. He can explain to Boko Haram the ‘15 minute city’ concept,
“public transport is the work of a satanic bus cult.”
Actually that’s a pretty reasonable hypothesis if you are a single woman or elderly travelling after dark.
Decided that the British desire for a des res with front and back garden wasn’t to be allowed. In favour of stack a prole worker flats surrounded by common and communal space and grass. Then everyone wonders why urban crime is up when there is no defensible space.
I’d certainly question that assertion. Living in a country where high rise urban’s the default, front & back gardens rare & far less crime than the UK suburbs. I’d question it in the UK. The mansion blocks are always in the most desirable areas to live.
It’s ownership. The creation of that communitarianism I spoke of in another comment section. Either Brits aren’t good at doing it or they’re not given the opportunity to. One possible factor. How often do you see high rise in the UK built over the top of commercial? No the services are always somewhere else. So of course the residents don’t feel they “own” the space around their residence. It’s just something they pass through. So yes, there is something to this “localism” idea. But certainly not the way they’re proposing doing it. You fucked up in the way you built your cities, that’s all. Knock ’em down & have another try.
I hope I’m not being reactionary, but cities were a mistake and the Golden Horde had the right idea.
WWGD? (What Would Genghis Do?)
You want to know how what you’ve got came about? The people who planned your cities. The usual clueless middle classes. The same people who are doing the planning now.
What are my daily needs? Who the fuck is this cunt and his mates to decide? I can barely decide from one day to the next. And what will my daily needs be in 10 years time?
What about my daily wants and aspirations?
And why 15 minutes? Has wainwright been fucked by everyone off grinder within 10 minutes so needs to expand the range? Why not 20 minutes.
I’ve lived this 15 minute life in central london, and had everything I could need or want within 15 minutes. Loved it. It was my choice, not enforced on my by these two but cunts.
The utter stupidity in the thinking of these wankers is a given, but the dictatorship from on high about what’s best for the peasants gets scarier.
“The people who planned your cities”
Spot on
We had all this shit in the 1960s, when clever people tried to rebuild after the War or engaged in “slum clearence”. Result: instantaneous urban decay.*
Also all this 15 minute bollox was likewise a 1960s fad and gave us Bracknell, Swindon and other deathly dull New Towns, where all the “local” shops are boarded up and where one has to drive to a pub.
And as others have pointed out, it is a matter of choosing to live, shop and work in one’s own neighbourhood or go elsewhere. It is the prevention of choice that is the International Socialist Conspiracy you fucking smug twat.
* I shall leave the reader to consider for themselves the impact of immigration.
@Ottokring
A lot of that “slum” housing got cleared were the old back-to-backs. People actually liked living in those. Enjoying that common area. The private front & back garden is middle-class territorial wanker thinking. Even rural villages were never built like that.
“Even rural villages were never built like that.”
Hmmm.
Anyway – assume that a decision is made to make Birmingham a 15 minute city. How many extra shops, schools, surgeries, offices and theatres do you need to fulfil the promise? What gets knocked down, re-built, converted? At what cost? Cheaper to nuke the place, surely?
“principle suggests you should have your daily needs – work, food, healthcare, education, culture and leisure – within a 15-minute walk”
Fifteen minutes ain’t getting you very far. And who gets to decide what constitutes “daily need”? Which is merely a rhetorical question.
“Jonathan
…. a lack of diversity means that Japan is pretty nice on the whole.”
Japan does have something of a reputation for a lack of ethnic diversity coupled with a sprinkling of xenophobia and misogyny.
The Japanese also live linger on average than we do in the UK.
Using my “The Spirit Level” deductive reasoning powers, I can only conclude that if we in the UK were more xenophobic and misogynist and had less ethnic diversity, we’d all live longer. I think that’s how it works.
I’m looking forwards to all of the leisure centres being built soon – even on a bike 15 mins allows a max of 5 miles (in good conditions, on the flat) so every small town, village and hamlet now gets a full leisure complex – Swimming pools, gyms, sports halls, running track, cinema, ice rink, diving pool, snooker hall, games arcade etc…
That’s going to cost a lot to run and staff… infact, after staffing will there be anyone to use it? at least we’ll have full employment, if you want it or not.
or do they mean a small green field to walk around in you’ll bloody well like it or we’ll whip you again…
Ah careful BiS
Many villages existed to serve the local mine/factory/iron foundry. The terraced cottages were built by the owner to house workers. Here we get “choice” rearing its ugly head again.
I live by the seaside and there were many rows of cottages in what was in the 19thC a fishing vilage. These were built by various institutions: Customs, Coast Guard, Big Fish. In Edwardian times it became a popular resort and cottages were then built to house workers for the numerous hotels and “rest homes” . Most of these were really shoddily built and were eventually blown away by storms.
“Even rural villages were never built like that.”
Hmmm.
Go look at your common UK rural village. Mostly the front door is straight onto the street. Where there isn’t built on land, it was working land. Either grew food or supported a trade. There were never gardens. Unknown. No-one wasted space to look at flowers.
@Ottokring
I’ve long been saying that nothing is ever built with a design life of more than 40 years. Building’s generally for utility. And of course choice. A roof over their heads & employment. What they made of that was up to them.
Utility has been replaced with “planning”. Which also includes how people should live their lives. And you’re just getting yet another round of it authored by the usual idiots.
I’ve noticed quite a few of these ‘nothing to see here’ and ‘only a nazi/fascist/Tory’ would oppose 15min towns, and anyway you don’t understand what they are, articles in the press and social media. Clearly they know how shit they are for the general population and that no one will want them when they realise what it really means. They’re lying to us, and they know it.
O/T but Murphy is now begging for someone to buy him a coffee! Perhaps investing in 1% bonds isn’t such a good idea after all.
@Bloke In Wales:
Couldn’t agree more. We should use that terminology every time this bollocks comes up. Not just Oxford where they’re eyeing it up.
Fundamentally this will restrict people’s freedom in ways that cannot easily be expressed and are illegitimate (if not actually illegal), in that no-one would be foolish enough to hand any bureaucrat this sort of power, so how can they wield what has never been devolved.
Lions are too good for these bastards. Tied up with a small number of piranha’s so that they can feel the nibbling.
Sam Jones
This post did make me chuckle:
I stress that I hope that this blog will always be free to read. But when I am doing major work on it, as I am at present with the glossary due to go live very soon, then contributions do help defray costs are appreciated, but I never intend to make them a condition of reading.
The movie of his life ‘Low Fens Grifter’ continues apace….
Culture within 15 minutes of your front-door? Not many people my age cycle any more. No-one can justify a theatre/cinema/museum every mile (I presume that we should get mobile public libraries visiting 2 hours per week – during working hours, of course, so workerscannot actully visit them).
Wainwright is either clueless or deliberately lying.
That to which the right-wingers are objecting is not the provision of shops etc within 15 minutes of “home” but the denial of the opportunity to use facilities more than three-quarters of a mile (or, in my case one-and-a-quarter miles) from home.
And this made me chuckle.
but I never intend to make them a condition of reading.
If he doesn’t want a readership of zero. His readership is comprised entirely of uniformed troops of the Free Stuff Army.
The Oxford plan to divide the city into 15-minute areas also involves punishment for driving out into another area. Punishment if you do it too many times, at least. Presumably you must find your friends and your not-so-frequently used services within the fifteen minutes too.
Perish the thought that it’s a scheme to keep the salt-of-the-earth folk of Blackbird Leys out of Summertown or the High.
And, entirely separately from the immediate topic, who gave the council the right to curtail free movement? I’d love to see them prosecuted for even thinking about it.
The thing with transport is that it’s mostly a self-regulating thing. If there’s high density, roads become slower, but also buses get more passengers so can run more often. And there’s a role for local government to decide things like whether there’s a bus lane or a cycle path somewhere, because of where the demands are. Like Oxford has lots of students on bikes, so it makes sense to have more cycle lanes.
The problem with the government/planning types is that they’ll never acknowledge how much people generally like their cars. The whole assumption is that they only use them because there isn’t a train or a bus, and if they blow money on trains and buses, everyone will get out of their cars. And we recently ran that experiment with the Dartmoor line and Dr Beeching was right.
If only there was a word or phrase in English for a place you cannot leave …
You can fuck right off
Living within 15mins of facilities is incompatible with living within 15mins of work. Where I live in a small coastal town I do live within 15mins of the library, the bus station, the supermarket, the post office, the local shops. But it is my choice to live there, at the expense of there being no work within that 15mins unless I want to swap being an NHS IT Field Engineer for working a till in the Co-op. Where I work there are no houses within 15mins, the office is naturally in an light industrial area surrounded by other offices and light industry and retail.
So, what are they gonna do? Split up all employers with more than five workers into scattered suboffices? So, if you’re an MOT tester, who gets to keep the vehicle lift? Who gets the tyre compressor? Oh wait, no, every employment location will have its full complement of every piece of equipment. And if you don’t live within 15mins of where your employment is, you get fired. And when I retire from my IT work as the sole NHS IT Bod in my ghetto, my employer can only employ somebody from that 15min area, or shut it down and open up somewhere else. Or do the planners expect that each 15min area will have its own sole employer for its 15min population? I suppose all this extra expense would be a boost to GDP. Let’s smash some more windows.
What else might we need within fifteen minutes walk?
Every mile or so, a mosque, a premiership soccer club, a power station, a university, a hospital….
That should keep the planners busy.
“Go look at your common UK rural village.”
I’ll take the dog for a walk later, thanks – I’ll keep my eyes open.
“Mostly the front door is straight onto the street.”
There’s a strong claim. Unfortunately, it’s not true. Two things happened – shops got turned into dwellings. You can usually spot where this happened by carefully looking at the windows, or the brickwork surrounding. The other thing is the street got standardised – road was widened, pavements added. There are people, possibly still alive, where this still rankles as they lost their little patch out front when this happened during the ’60s and ’70s.
“it was working land. Either grew food or supported a trade.”
At what scale? The household level? As that happened quite regularly. Again, trade or commercial buildings got converted to dwellings.
There were never gardens. Unknown. No-one wasted space to look at flowers.”
Kitchen gardens never existed? My word. Merely a change of use. Veggies, chickens for flowers. Do ‘erbs count as flowers, by the way?
Surely the cameras required for the 15 minute gulags will be deactivated by the citizenry soon after being put up.
O/T but Murphy is now begging for someone to buy him a coffee! Perhaps investing in 1% bonds isn’t such a good idea after all.
Cnut just dropped £600+ on shiny new Apple gear, paid for by his readers, and he’s still got the begging bowl out? Who the fuck does he think he is – Amouranth?
Angle grinders are surprisingly cheap nowadays, but given that we’re more likely to be talking about a pole mounted camera a decent Dennis the Menace style slingshot and a decent eye would be needed.
Just pay the local Yoofery £100 a month to keep taking the bloody things out. Best money well spent evah!
rhoda,
“The Oxford plan to divide the city into 15-minute areas also involves punishment for driving out into another area. Punishment if you do it too many times, at least. Presumably you must find your friends and your not-so-frequently used services within the fifteen minutes too.”
Or what people actually do, which is to drive out of Oxford, onto the ring road and then back in again. So that’s even more petrol being burned.
“And, entirely separately from the immediate topic, who gave the council the right to curtail free movement? I’d love to see them prosecuted for even thinking about it.”
The people of Oxford voted for a load of socialists and greens. They’re now getting that good and hard. No, I’m really not amused by this, not at all.
ISTR reading that a good way to really piss off the cunts that put up the speed cameras was to grind off the pole really close to the ground, so they’d have to dig a new hole rather than just reuse the pole for a new camera.
ChatGPT does Richard Murphy asking for the price of a cup of coffee.
Candidly, I must admit that I am in need of a pick-me-up. The pressures of living in a Neo-liberal world, where the Tories and the Bank of England prioritize the interests of the rich over the needs of ordinary people, can be overwhelming. And the trolls and fascist elements of our society seem to revel in our struggles.
But there is one simple pleasure that can help me to soldier on: a cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit. Unfortunately, my funds are stretched thin at the moment. I have bills to pay, including my mortgage, and every penny counts.
That’s why I’m reaching out to you, my dear supporters, for a small favor. If you’re able, would you consider supporting me with a small donation to cover the cost of a cup of coffee and a chocolate biscuit? It may seem like a small thing, but it would mean the world to me.
With a fresh cup of coffee and a tasty snack, I can take on the day with renewed energy and focus. I can continue to demand a better future for all of us, and to fight back against the forces of greed and oppression.
Thank you for your consideration, and for standing with me in the struggle for a more just and equitable world.
Rich Hardy Rump.
That’s more coherent and better punctuated than most of what Spud can produce. And a lot more polite, too.
The time is coming where AI is going to put a lot of the lowly paid “journalists” out of work. If an AI can successfully process a bunch of press releases in a few seconds for free, why “employ” some over-entitled, over-opinionated arts graduates to do the same.
There’s an AI now that can generate near perfect photo-realistic images of whatever key words you feed it, so artists and image rights holders are getting twitchy too. Next it will be music and long form text.
Just another area where we are creeping into Orwellian territory with his novel writing machines churning out pulp fiction for the proles.
aaa,
“Cnut just dropped £600+ on shiny new Apple gear, paid for by his readers, and he’s still got the begging bowl out? Who the fuck does he think he is – Amouranth?”
£600? He got an iPhone Pro and an iPad Pro. That’s a minimum of £2K.
“both chosen because they provide more opportunity to produce better quality material for this blog and for videos than any of the other options available.”
You’ve got to hand it to those guys at Apple. An ageing potato who sits in front of a bookshelf thinks he needs to spend £2K on some tech to make better videos.
“Simply put, the 15-minute city principle suggests you should have your daily needs – work, food, healthcare, education, culture and leisure – within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from where you live.”
Finish the sentence: “… and those who don’t comply will be punished.”
“Suggest” makes it sound all friendly and reasonable. But it is not a “suggestion”. Nor is it even a case of making sure that goods and services are always within 15 minutes’ walk from residential areas. (Bike rides? When did ableism become acceptable among the Left?) I’ve lived all my life within 15 minutes’ walk of everything I need. What I object to is being fined for leaving the ghetto on the rare occasions I need – or, goddamit, want – to.
Yeah, “want to”. Leftists have no concept of humanity. It’s always “need”: they’ll provide everything you “need”, and you don’t “need” that. They never talk about “desire”, never “aspire”, never “enjoy”. What a bunch of miserable busybodies.
“aaa
. There’s plenty that’s total dogshit about living in cities, caused largely by our surrender of so much street space to car owners and our ongoing capitulation to nimbys, so having a view of cities that might be better has to be a good thing, no?”
No. I’ve lived in ’15 minute cities’ before. Walk to three different stores every couple of days to hand carry enough food to get you through, shit selection, high prices, nothing to do except sit at the local cafe.
It’s something that is ok to do for a week on vacation, not a fun way to live.
Two hours on a bus to get to a concert or movie.
@bloke on M4
An ageing potato who sits in front of a bookshelf thinks he needs to spend £2K on some tech to make better videos….
No he’s an ageing potato who wants to look like an important professor on the train to Scotland and thinks 2k of apple tech will do the trick.
Quite honestly, I think a short video of my arse recorded on a £20 burner would get more views than his rantings, and would likely be more insightful
Wish I hadn’t sold my rifle.
So bad ideas get better with age, got it.
“within a 15-minute walk or bike ride”
Most commenters are using a distance of 1 mile for the 15 minute distance. This is good if you’re in just ok shape. The disabled and elderly may have a slightly different distance in mind. If you can’t achieve a 4 mph walk, are you forbidden to live there?
@ ns
No, you’re not forbidden to live in Oxford if you walk<1 mile in 15 minutes. The City Council has allocated neighbourhoods to six zones (with an average size of 2.9 sq miles) on the basis of some plan so most people *must* be less than a mile from one edge of their neighbourhood and more than a mile from the furthest edge. So it's just a slogan to give them an excuse to ban cars crossing boundaries.
Mr Wainwright wishes to canonise the 1940s/50s Council Housing estates with their little shopping centre containing a Co-op and a Newsagent/Sweetshop/Tobacconist and, if you're lucky, a chippy – no nasty capitalist supermarkets or butchers. He has clearly never seen some of the big Council Housing estates, housing well over ten thousand people, that take more than 15 minutes to walk across …
” As someone forced to give up her beloved diesel LandRover … ”
I am genuinely sorry for your loss.
If this were to happen to me it is odds on I would be angry (well, another extra angry on top off the existing angry) about it for the rest of my life.
My father in law sold his old farm Land Rover in about 1985 and he still reminds me frequently that he regrets doing so.
I assume all these “15 minute” gulags are perfectly flat too
“Mostly the front door is straight onto the street.”
There’s a strong claim. Unfortunately, it’s not true. Two things happened – shops got turned into dwellings.
I don’t know you’re confusing villages with towns or what Mr Duck. Most villages go back hundreds of years. The plots if not the actual buildings. Villages didn’t have shops. Economics. They didn’t have the commerce to support them. You don’t have a shop for 2 or 3 customers a day. Separating what commerce there was from the household would have come much later. Unless it was situated straddling a highway, the village “high street” would have just been a common area between houses saw virtually no traffic. The average rate of progress was about 2mph. Even 10 miles was a vast distance. External commerce would have been conducted at the market place with visiting merchants, where inhabitants & locals might have set up their own temporary stalls. Or maybe in the street outside their dwellings. So conversions would have been from residential to shop, not the other way. And if you actually go look at the fabric of the buildings it’s obvious they were. If you can’t see it in the UK, try France or here. Maybe what you’re seeing is the conversions in the other direction as purpose built retail replaces them or they economically founder & they get repurposed again. That’s an ongoing process now, in many UK villages.
Local commerce: You bought flour at the miller or he delivered. A butcher requires a pen for the animals, a slaughter house & butchery, somewhere to process offal etc into sausages. It’s a complex, not a shop. Likewise the blacksmith with his forge & other trades.
Even towns weren’t much different until the industrial revolution & commerce expanded. Cities maybe, where you had the scale to support them.
As someone forced to give up her beloved diesel LandRover
Never thought of trading it in for an older one? AFAIK at 40 years plus they’re exempt as they are for VED & MOTs. Dirt cheap insurance. Series III or before. The stiffest middle finger to Fuhrer Kahn possible
“As someone forced to give up her beloved diesel LandRover for a little Hyundai…”
Listen pet, you might be pleasantly surprised at how motoring has improved since the 1940’s. Jesus!
Julia, as someone who’s too lazy to learn how to use a smart phone, I sympathise!!
Quick question:
I work in Southampton.
My wife works on the Isle of Wight.
Where should we live such that we can both walk to work within 15 minutes?
Have you ever actually driven in London, Tio de Calleo? With the state of the roads & the aggressiveness of the traffic, a Forward Control with the gun mounts wouldn’t be a bad choice.
So… rebuild all those cottage hospitals that were closed in favour of the economics of bigger hospitals. Rebuild all those small schools that were closed in favour of the economics of bigger schools. Rebuild all those corner shops that were unable to compete on prices. Reopen all those libraries and council offices that were ‘rationalised’.
Oh, and find space to put them and deter more complaints about killing the High Street.