Re: Re: Welcome to Ireland’s ugly urban sprawl

Just as a by the way. Here’s an extract from the biography of Mark Lynas (http://www.marklynas.org), the guy who wrote the article: ‘He was also active in the flourishing environmental direct action scene during the late 1990s, joining road protests and helping mount “decontamination” exercises against genetically-modified crops, as well as participating in Reclaim the Streets protests in London and Oxford.’
And a few select points from this campaigner’s – not journalist’s – so-called report: ‘A rising star in the Irish cabinet, [Martin] Cullen seemed to delight in his defeat of the conservationists.’ – shows a fairly basic lack of knowledge of matters as diverse as e-voting and Monica Leech Public Relations.
He writes: ‘The government’s solution is to add an extra lane to the M50 orbital motorway and upgrade its junctions to remove traffic lights. The famous Red Cow roundabout will become a mass of concrete flyovers.’ – implies that the Red Cow roundabout is famous for a good reason and that a flyover will somehow be damaging to the environment.
He writes: ‘Ireland is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. Irish motorists drive on average 24,000km a year, far above the UK’s average of 16,000 and even topping the US’s 19,000.’ He uses this little-used statistic because car ownership rates are still low by international standards and it doesn’t suit his argument.
He writes: ‘The numbers of people commuting by car to Dublin in the morning rush hour increased by 149% between 1991 and 2001.’ But since then – the numbers of cars entering the inner ring has actually fallen.
He writes: ‘Ian Lumley, knows he is losing the battle over Ireland’s future. “You have to look at this as an American country,” – What does that even mean?
He writes: ‘Giving Dublin the classic US-style “doughnut” shape’ – this has already been sufficiently debunked.
He writes: ‘A huge McMansion there with big Georgian pillars, huge flying buttresses and greenhouses.’ – Has anybody ever seen a house in Ireland with flying buttresses because I haven’t.
He writes: ‘A Tesco is opening next door, “bringing better quality shopping and more jobs to your area”. On the far side of the road an Aldi superstore is nearly complete, and a Toyota showroom is doing its bit to inflate the car economy.’ – This is just contemptible nonsense.
As Ian Lumley puts it: “The Irish mentality is inherently antiregulation and anti-officialdom. One of the theories is that this goes back to British occupation, to dodging the constabulary, dodging the revenue, getting away from the landlord, hiding pigs under the bed, hiding chickens in the roof and so on.” – this is just hackneyed embarrassing shite.
He writes: ‘Having recently visited Stonehenge, Clancy says she was “appalled” by how close the road runs to it.’ – the road at Stonehenge runs within fifty metres of the monument. The new M3 and I’m not defending it is 2400 metres away.
He writes: ‘[Martin] Cullen left his job at arts, heritage and environment not to spend more time with his family, but to spend more time with his beloved roads – as minister for transport.’ – shows more astonishing understanding of the Irish political system and ministerial appointments.