Shock poll find - people are commuting into Bristol in their cars in very large numbers!! Is the glass half empty of half full?

Shock (NOT!) - a major poll reported on today has found that nearly half of all commuters to Bristol come by car!! Well that was something we didn't know already just by looking around us at the congestion, sniffing the excessive, unhealthy pollution in the air, and listening to the rumble of unwanted sound that can often drown out a conversation, wasn't it !!?

OK we need the data, apparently to be collected annually, to establish the current situation and then track changes over time (we should in fact have been doing this before now), but the basic transport situation in Bristol has been painfully obvious for many yrs.

The Big Commuters Count poll of 9000 people found that: about 47% travel by car (40.9% driving, 5.9% as passengers); 9.8% go by bus; 10.6% cycle; 20.4% walk; 5.1% travel by train; with less than 2% for park and ride, work from home, motorbike, moped/scooter, taxi/minicab and ferry.

One interesting aspect to this story is that the Bristol Evening Post angle on it is based on the idea that the figures show 'people were still firmly stuck to using their cars', whereas Bristol City Council's website says of the same results '...that many employees in Bristol are prepared to leave the car at home when they can, and use more sustainable ways of travel'. So, is the glass half empty or is it half full??

Labour Party = Tory Party !! Where are the real political differences?

I've previously made the point that there really is not that much difference between the three big political parties these days (see here and here). Doesn't the fact that the Labour Party steals Tory Party policies (and vice versa) strongly reinforce my view?? Of course it does!

I long ago came to the view that the real political differences are between those who are truly green (they dont necessarily have to be Green Party people or in fact political party members at all) and those who are not - the Greens vs what are sometimes called Greys (and I'm not referring to parties set up by pensioners etc here) .

It seems to me that the Labour, Lib Dem and Tory Parties offer voters pretty much the same unsustainable neo-liberal/consumer capitalist society and basically the same pretence at being green.