Letter: I Agree Guildford MP’s Question Is Gesture Politics

Published on: 16 Jul, 2021
Updated on: 16 Jul, 2021

From: Brian Creese

Chair Guildford Labour

In response to: Guildford’s MP Asks PM for an A3 Tunnel – Boris Agrees to Look Into It

I read the exchange between our MP and the PM with increasing incredulity. I can only assume that Ms Richardson has learned from her mentor’s example of promulgating extraordinarily expensive infrastructure projects which have no chance of actually being realised (Boris Island and the Garden Bridge in London leap to mind).

The money required would be mind-boggling, the timescale considerable, the blight while it was being built unimaginable, and all for a world which should be zero carbon by the time it is completed.

How does this sort of spending on roads fit with the government’s avowed ambitions to cut carbon emissions? Does our MP see a future built on ever greater road infrastructures?

Such investment could surely be used to improve the capacity to run electric trains into London – and indeed Heathrow.

I have to agree with Lib Dem spokesperson Zoe Franklin, that this is purely gestured politics; Angela Richardson trying to show she is “doing something” even if that something is entirely unrealistic.

Responses to Letter: I Agree Guildford MP’s Question Is Gesture Politics

Jim Allen Reply

July 17, 2021 at 11:03 am

And when do politics become anything but gestures in the eyes of those with different coloured eyes?

Surely it is time we put aside our political differences, dealt with the hard facts and sorted out our communities pressing problems such as: schools, hospitals, sewage capacity, rail and road routes and capacities, and water and power supply.

There is infrastructure fatigue. When are those politically responsible, I include all parties, going to realize Lithium is at starvation level, the hospital is at pandemic level, the roads are constipated, and our housing numbers calculations are still in kindergarten.

In summary, from an engineering, practical, and mathematic sense, all political commentary is dysfunctional and unfit for purpose.