[lbo-talk] EDF suing climate activists for ?5 million - protesters face losing homes

[Bill Bartlett]

Not necessarily to "punish" the poor. I think it is more designed to 
keep them out, or if they are already in to drive them out, of the 
semi-rural areas favoured by those who like to live there. That is, 
those who can afford to buy the nice houses that already exist in 
these areas, they favour planning policies which ensure that their 
view is not cluttered up by other people building houses nearby.

In my area it is difficult to get planning approval to build on land 
zoned rural. You need a very large block size. Subdivision is often 
refused permission. Farmers even have difficulty getting approval to 
build a new house for themselves on their farm. They are subject to 
conditions like being required to tear down the old house (Whereas 
before this regime they would tend to rent out the old house.)

This is here done in the name of "protection of agricultural land", 
though this protection is selective. There is no problem buying up 
cheap agricultural land and planting monoculture eucalypt 
plantations, its only a problem if you want to build dwellings.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas

At 9:14 PM +0000 21/2/13, James Heartfield wrote:


>Wojtek - I chose my words. I said I had no sympathy with them, and I 
>don't. I am not in favour of collective liability for protestors. 
>But what these people wanted to happen was to reduce electricity 
>generation, not as a tactic, but as a social goal. Getting their way 
>means that pensioners will die this winter.
>
>
>On construction, you are wrong to counterpose 'suburban sprawl' to 
>houses. Suburban sprawl is houses, just the houses of the people 
>that you irrationally hate ('closet racist white fatheads' - though 
>how you know is hard to fathom, especially since most of US 
>population is counted as 'suburban').
>
>
>
>More specifically, we have had the experiment of 'smart growth' in 
>Britain for the last twenty years. The impact is, as almost everyone 
>now concedes, a spectacular social disaster the likes of which have 
>not been seen before.
>
>
>
>Now people have to live in garden sheds 
>http://www.heartfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/housing/GardenShedPlashetRd.jpg 
>http://www.heartfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/housing/Southall1.JPG
>
>http://www.heartfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/housing/Southall2.JPG
>
>or underground cellars in Britain 
>http://www.heartfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/housing/AndrewPanayiCaledonianRd13.jpg
>
>
>
>I know full well that liars call this smart growth. There is nothing 
>smart about it. It is a means to punish the poor.
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk