Date published: 2006/03/23
The BBC says:
British suburbs are being neglected and need to be nurtured, according Demos, a think tank which will later unveil suggestions to improve such areas.
Recommendations will include the creation of more communal spaces and the setting up of car-washing circles.
Demos said there was a need to combat "negative" stereotypes and protect the "unique qualities of suburbia".
...
Up to 86% of the UK population live in the suburbs, Demos said."Suburbia is the forgotten heart of Britain," said Ms Mean, who heads the think tank's Self-Build Cities programme.
"While politicians have focused on tackling the problems of inner cities and the countryside, the suburbs have been neglected by policy makers.
"At the same time, cultural stereotypes of the suburbs are overwhelmingly negative."
She went on: "We need to find ways to preserve the core values of suburbia, such as a strong community spirit, while opening up the suburbs to new ideas and new people."
Another pointless study from another pointless consultancy. If this is the best these people can do then they should be done with it and get a real job. The fact that they are willing to claim the overwhelming majority of the country lives in suburbs already tells you that they are taking a very broad definition of suburbs. So broad that the difference between much of that suburb and urban and rural areas becomes completely blurred. Cambridge is a perfectly good example of this. In the central core it is urban (by some definition). But a mile or so from the core you are already in suburbia and another mile or two out you are in rural areas. Are Demos really claiming that the various residents of these three parts of Cambridge are somehow different? Of course, making any statement about any group as large as this is going to be hopelessly simplistic. But that is what consultancies specialise in, simplistic generalisations dressed up as meaningful commentary. On a minor point, "car-washing circles" has to be one of the most idiotic recent suggestions made in the UK, considering we are in the midst of a water shortage. And being "neglected by policy makers" is a positive, not a negative, thing. The worst thing about Cambridge is that the control freaks spend all their time and effort control freaking over the central area. Although this has made Cambridge no better, it at least means these people have not had time to ruin the areas further out (although they have started doing that as well, since they have to justify their existence). You can bet your last pound that by "nurtured", Demos mean that they and the rest of the hopeless chattering classes who run Britain should control freak more over the suburbs. The suburbs do not need the urban elite running amok with their politically correct ideology.
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