Reclaim the Road: Long live the Re-VELO-tion!

Yesterday I took to the streets with the London Cycling Campaign for an International Women’s Day ride around south London. The 15k ride took in some major landmarks of women’s history in the capital: the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, the London Eye (a great bit of women’s architecture and structural engineering), my old house off the Walworth Road (OK, true, but not strictly a landmark ).  Lovely though it was to ride around south London on a sunny winter’s day there were some really serious points to be made too.

More recession please! Squaring the sustainability circle, or making the case for 'degrowth'

I meant no harm.
I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.

I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons.
I biggered the loads of the Theends I shipped out.
I was shipping them forth to the South! To the East!
To the West! To the North!
I went right on biggering…selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.

From The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (1971)

Last week the UK officially came out of 18 months of recession. The news was received in the media with near universal relief, and indeed for those looking for work and businesses struggling to keep afloat this can only be good news, although the level of the figures kept celebrations muted. But nevertheless, officially, growth is back. It’ll be Thneeds all round (well, perhaps not quite all) again before we know it.

For growth, we learn early on, is good. For growth means more revenue: more universities, more schools, more hospitals, more in the pot to pay my salary. What’s not to like?

Ushering in the new (and blocking out draughts)

10/01/10 or 01/10/10 for our North American friends: an auspicious day for a first slightly belated 2010 10:10 post.

One reason why I’ve been a bit quiet is that over the Christmas break I was enjoying spending some time away from a computer screen getting on and doing things. Like repainting our hallway with half a tub of paint recovered from the street a few months ago and waiting to be put to good use (very satisfying). And in keeping with this year’s low carbon fun-for-free ethos spending plenty of time outside, despite the snow and ice (cycling to work has I  confess fared less well over the last few days…).