Following a 7 hour stint with Daniel I thought I might kill myself, however I thought I might blog about one of the conversations we had. Has politics now become tame and short term?
Daniel suggested that we have lost the long sighted politics that created the NHS and other radical developments. I tended to agree. We can take Birmingham as an example. Under the leadership of Joseph Chamberlain the city under went a renaissance. This was the man who municipalised private industry to keep the profits for the council. With this money he built our magnificent Council House, he founded our university and over saw the creation of better health and education facilities. These were long term plans to improve Birmingham.
Our debate moved to architecture and civil engineering. On building Corporation Street- Birmingham’s own attempt at a continental boulevard- Chamberlain demolished a massive area to create a beautiful street. Today we seem unable to build major projects, take Cross rail as one example, and take our inability to develop New Street as another. With our ever growing population we need to not shy away from major projects especially regarding transport where we need huge structural investment to improve mobility whist reducing carbon. On a national level we can take the Severn Barrier Project which has been an on going plan for decades. It is time that politicians looked into the future and assess future needs. We need to start designing buildings streets and transport networks so they are able to cope with increasing congestion.
Britain has the potential to lead the world in the next Green Industrial revolution, but the question is can we find that enterprising drive that we once had. Can we find the excitement and enthusiasm for technology that the Victorians had. If our economy is to survive then we really need to.
Do you really think labour is the party of our future? No, we’re all visionaries, we can see the day when we come back to power and this country can get back on its economic feet.
31/10/2007 at 21:02 |
I think there is a lack of genuine investigation into the country’s problems, and a lack of political independence and committment to find the solutions and see them through. There is a feeling of malaise, and a feeling that the poltical system is not doing it’s job. I doubt, personally, that it’s the poltical system. I would guess that it is more the generation of politicians now at age.