Tory MP uses conspiracy theory against 15-minute city concept in UK parliament

In Parliament today, Conservative MP Nick Fletcher used a conspiracy theory against the concept of the 15-Minute City. This principle urges that it should be easy to walk from the house to shops, cafes, schools and other amenities.

He told MPs that 15-minute cities were an “international socialist concept” and that they would “cost our individual liberties.”

As I reported yesterday, there is a bizarre but growing backlash against living close to stores.

Fletcher represents the Don Valley constituency in South Yorkshire. He called for a parliamentary debate on the “international socialist concept of the so-called 15-minute cities”.

“Sheffield is already on this journey,” he complained, “and I don’t want Doncaster to do the same.”

As a glance at the city map will show, most people in Doncaster live close to shops.

“15-minute cities will cost us our individual liberties,” Fletcher claimed to a background of laughter, “and that can’t be right.”

more than forbes15-Minute-City Conspiracy Theories Are Insane, Says 15-Minute-City CreatorBy Carlton Reed

Instead of dismissing their complaint about people’s proximity to shops, the Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, responded that it was “right that people raise concerns about this particular type of policy.”

Acknowledging that people do not like living near shops, Ms Mordaunt said: “I think the hard working people of this country, their lives are very complicated.

“We want to see that where such policies are being put forward, local communities are properly consulted.”

And these policies include the installation of traffic filters to create so-called low traffic neighborhoods, LTNs. A number of Conservative councils have established LTNs and the concept is supported by the Conservative government.

Late last year, a conspiracy theory website went viral after claiming that “mad politicians in power” in Oxfordshire, England, had ordered residents to “save the planet” from global warming in one of six areas. had voted to lock … residents out of their own neighborhoods. It was “communism,” said the climate change denial website. (The website—which I will not link to—also claims that vaccines kill Brexit is still a great idea, and Trump and Putin are geniuses worth listening to.)

In fact, there is no lockdown. Instead, Oxford proposed installing six traffic filters as part of a health-promoting scheme to encourage people to use their cars less.

Panthéon-Sorbonne professor Carlos Moreno was the originator of the 15-Minute City concept and he has been on the receiving end of a lot of hate on social media.

,[The haters] Insult me, call me human garbage, neo-fascist or rotten Latino,” she told me. She has critics from left and right, but she’s climate denial, downplay of Covid harms and anti-vaxxer in all the typical Venn diagram of tinfoilhatedness. share beliefs.

“Their lies are huge,” he says.

“You will be closed in your neighborhood; Cameras will indicate who can go out; If your mother lives in another locality, you will have to ask permission to meet her, and so on.”

He says in disgust, they “sometimes post pictures of concentration camps.”

But GB Newsa relatively new British free-to-air television and radio news channel, broadcaster and historian Neil Oliver recently complained about 15-Minute Cities, saying that “we will be expected to walk or cycle. What You see the scam yet? They advertise the world of electric cars but what we will buy is walking life within fifteen minutes of our homes.

In a recent show Oliver discussed what he called a “silent war” waged by generations of politicians to take “total control of the people” and implement a “one-world government”.

Guardian Reportedly, echoes of Oliver’s conspiracy theories had attracted the attention of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. A statement from the organization said: “It is deeply worrying that GB News continues to air a show that embraces all manner of conspiracy theories. Somewhat inevitably, the invitees to the show Some of those fired represent organizations that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. If the channel won’t act, we expect Ofcom will.”

Moreno told me: “The conspirators see a larger global conspiracy.”

“As have UN-Habitat, the World Economic Forum, the C40 Global Cities Climate Network, and the Federation of United Local Governments, among others, have supported [15-minute-city] concept, it feeds their fantasies that I am involved in the ‘invisible leadership’ of the world.

So it is worth noting that a British MP is claiming a plan idea, some say a communist plot, is an “international socialist concept”.