Webcasting Nasturtiums

Qu: In the exchange on Newsnight with the Sun's 'representative', there was an argument about matters of fact on comments made once the petition became a hot political issue. Who was accurate in their statements?

Times - Nations unite to join a boycott of congestion charge - Well, at least something has brought 'em together at last.

Times - Without road pricing we face gridlock, says Blair

Right message. Wrong person and team to try and sell the solution.

If you can't, or won't, answer key questions with anything other than
defensiveness, denial, hype, spin and 'looking at it' nonsense waffle,
you will not get past the necessary trust levels to allow it to get where
it needs to go.

I await with interest the webcast Thursday pm with Dr.
'Ladymano a 1.8M manos' to see how this little exchange gets carried
out sensibly and then reported.

I'm still trying to figure out who you charge fairly and accurately
without tracking individual vehicle movements as they progress, by
the '2 to 3 ways' alluded to.

Times - Oh, unhappy me. I’m a car owner

Times - Pedal Power

'Road proceeds should be invested in repopularising the bicycle'

I couldn't agree more. However I rather fear as, say with unhiring 750,000 extra civil servants (quoted in these pages I think yesterday), the theory is good but the practice may prove less so.

I'd also like to ensure we are talking here of congestion charge proceeds in London, and not national road proceeds. You see there is a difference.

You may wish to cycle to avoid the smell and overcrowding and performance of an urban transport network that involves minute by minute buses and tubes. Plus the option of heavily subsidised (never understood why such a private enterprise is exempt from charges to carry just one person (ex: driver) in a not very clean diesel emitting all day and night long - maybe it's because the non-car brigade in power still need to get about without the hassle and hoi polloi?).

However, when it's freezing, heaving down, you have a large load and/or two kids, or an urgent appointment well, the trusty Raleigh is the very thing. Especially if the nearest anything is 15 miles away up hill and down dale as the tractor chugs.

And as statistics are a favoured tool of persuasion, may I simply ask (as I don't know) how far affordable housing is from the main urban places of work in the European examples cited? And ignoring the admittedly woeful current support to encourage it in London, what are the geographical challenges. Last time I looked, Amsterdam was pretty flat. I used to live in Wandsworth and there were a couple of hills there alone that would have done for me.

Or is this advocacy solely for young, single, non-parent, fit types?

Guardian - E-petitions: Marketing, or e-democracy?

While I appreciated the opportunity to make my case in London while not having to suffer the irony of drive there to do so (note that one, placard wavers), I'd have to say that what came back was not marketing.

As I do not think any alternative views will gain access to this valuable database, I'd say it falls more under propaganda.

Josef would have been proud.

Guardian - That email