Author Archives: London Liberal

Opinion: Why Grant Shapps must be evicted as Housing Minister

By London Liberal | Sat 9th June 2012 - 2:25 pm

Ask teachers what they think of Michael Gove and I suspect that most will reply with derision. Ask doctors and nurses what they think of Andrew Lansley and I would imagine that, similarly, most will spit with rage. Ask housing professionals what they think of Grant Shapps and you certainly get an equally dismissive response from the vast majority.

Does the lack of professional support for the Tory policies being pursued by Tory Ministers in these crucial public services mean that these sectors are hopelessly leftist, resistant to change, and are just keen to protect their status, or is the Government’s unpopularity with them proof that the Tories still are the ‘nasty’ party and are as contemptuous of public services as ever? Or is this tension simply what always exists between public sector industries and the politicians that seek to govern/meddle with them, be they Labour or Conservative (or Liberal Democrat)?

Opinion: The Lib Dems should back Lord Foster’s plans for a new Thames Airport

By London Liberal | Thu 19th January 2012 - 9:24 am

Imagine if the Lib Dems had been in power in the west of England in the 1830s during the construction of Brunel’s visionary Great West Rail line. 19th century equivalents of ‘Focus’ leaflets (which, on reflection, would probably have looked much the same and have been produced in much the same way) would have dropped through the letterboxes of local residents in affected towns and villages warning them of terrible noise and rural devastation from years of construction activity that would permanently scar their cherished landscape.

Or imagine Lib Dems in opposition in the 1930s, who would have campaigned against those unsightly …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged lord foster and thames airport | 43 Comments

Opinion: How to change everything forever in six months

By London Liberal | Thu 23rd June 2011 - 11:18 am

A little-noticed policy of the Coalition is that of throwing out the entire planning system and replacing it with about fifty pages of pro-development planning policies. This is called the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and is intended to be the entire amount of national planning policy governing development. When implemented it will change your community forever.

Given what it seeks to do, fifty pages is a tiny amount – by contrast, the current Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 1, which deals merely with Sustainable Development, is itself twenty-five pages long. And there are twenty-five of these PPS’s, reaching about …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged greg clark, housing, national planning policy framework and planning | 20 Comments