There's a street near me which was, until quite recently, something of a bugbear amongst the easily irritated types who inhabit local community facebook forums. The road in question had, at the start of the pandemic, been blocked off half way along with planters, ostensibly to help with social distancing. I was unsure about the rationale, but pretty happy with the result.
As a sort of mini low-traffic neighbourhood, the road suddenly became much more pleasant to walk down, and, as it was on my way to the shops, it's de facto pedestrianisation improved my quality of life to a degree. It had been something of a rat run to a Lidl, now it wasn't. All to the good.
My view, it is reasonable to say, was not the only one. And while I'm aware that one shouldn't look to Facebook to be an arena for calm and reasoned debate, the level of bile directed at these few humble planters was little short of astonishing. I quietly resigned myself to their being removed amid such vocal local opposition (and, to be fair, when there was a public consultation, opinion broke 60-40 towards getting rid of them, I am aware that I am in the minority). When local councillors announced their removal, the level of celebration was as amusingly hyperbolic as the opposition had been. Lots of usage of that drudge of a construction "Common sense", promises to drive down there straight away for some reason and jokes about cyclists. The usual. The prevailing view was that the road closure had led to an increase in traffic. I had once pointed out that the increase in traffic might have had something to do with the building of two whacking great estates and an extra couple of thousand people living on a nearby road. I was disagreed with, I shrugged and got on with my life.
I thought about them again recently, when the nation was convulsed with one of its semi-regular conniption fits about the price of petrol. The recent energy crisis, exacerbated as it now is by the situation in the Ukraine, is certainly one of the more pressing issues at the moment, and the knock-on impact on the cost of living is undoubtedly a driver on inflation which is now starting to reach levels which children of the seventies might describe as nostalgic. I do not doubt that these are issues which are present, real, and must be swiftly addressed.
The reason I was reminded of the planters, and the debate around it, was that it was being framed in similar terms: that is to say, things must continue as they did before. The planters on Yew tree road were, at worst, a minor inconvenience, and the howls of outrage surrounding them were out of all proportion to their presence. But they seemed to me to signify was a disruption to the usual state of affairs, which is to say, people's inalienable right to drive hither and yon to their heart's content, and fuck everything else.
Likewise, the energy crisis, while it is rightly considered alarming, is being responded to in the same tired old framework. More fossil fuels, more stuff to consume. It's staggeringly unimaginative. There is no attempt to frame the debate in any terms other than the status quo. this, it seems to me, is a missed opportunity.
As I see it, it's a failure of imagination. Ormskirk is not a big town. There is no journey which takes more than half an hour on foot. But when one road was blocked, it was the end of the world, not a moment for reflection. Not a moment to think, you know what, maybe I don't need to drive everywhere. The entire tenor of the discussion was predicated on getting back to being able to do what they'd done before.
Likewise, the energy crisis is seen as a supply issue which must be solve. And in part it must be, yes. But less-discussed is a simpler, easier and quicker way to eat least partially solve it: consume less. Yes, I know that this isn't practical for everyone, but in wider society as a whole, simply turning the thermostat down by one degree wipes £14 billion off our energy costs. 30% of homes in the UK with lofts don't have them insulated. Homes are still being built that are energy inefficient.
We saw at the start of pandemic that Government, when it has to, can move very quickly indeed. Which is why it's curious that they're dragging their feet over this. Mass roll-out of solar panels. Loosening the regs for onshore wind (which has been effectively bound up in red tape and nimbyism since the first experiments in the late nineties). INSULATING THE FUCKING HOUSES. These are all quicker, easier and cheaper than trying to drill for more North Sea Gas.
It was grimly amusing to note, during the last confected fuel crisis, people queuing for petrol, idling their engines, burning the very fuel they were so desperate for. people leave the car running on the school run, then complain about the price of fuel. In much the same way, it is bewildering to see that we have some of the solutions to out immediate energy problems right in front of us. We just don't appear to wish to take them.
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