streaming channel. “You don’t need to have a critical mass of MPs within the House of Commons who oppose the zero emissions agenda. All you need is a small cohort of actors who are very loquacious and skilled at getting press coverage. They will then dominate the news cycle and create the impression among the public that there is wider support for their position.
Professor Schwanen says that councils across the country rushed to take advantage of the funding available in 2020 and 2021 after a decade of Tory government cuts, and also that this funding was a waiver that has not solved the shortage. “There is hardly any money to do more than the bare minimum in terms of road maintenance and some basic transport interventions”, he says.
The reasoned complaints from shopkeepers have been mixed with misinformation about climate confinement, coming not only from distant campaigners but also from local deniers, such as Piers Corbyn, a 75-year-old meteorologist, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and organizer of protests against the pandemic and vaccine restrictions.
“This whole conspiracy theory to me clearly demonstrates that city councils have to change the way they communicate. When there is an emptiness of information, or people hear bits and pieces of things and don’t hear it all, or don’t understand it, that gives a lot of space for lies and conspiracy to grow. And once those lies and conspiracies are out there, it’s very difficult to undo them,” says Plummer.
The burning of poles has occurred in Cowley Road, a neighborhood heavily populated by student flats, a destination for immigrants in the last century, and home to Oxford’s largest mosque, which has complained that it has not been sufficiently consulted about plans that may affect its visitors.