Bus gate will not contribute to the farcical notion of city’s net zero

THANKFULLY mayor Marvin Rees will from May 2 no longer be in charge of Bristol City Council.

In my opinion he has turned out to be an autocratic public servant obsessed with what he sees as the delights of ‘net zero’ and reducing ‘global warning.’

Indeed, under his charge he has been funding these unobtainable illusions by literally turning Bristol into a vehicular version of ‘Room 101.’ Here discontents opposed to a totalitarian state (George Orwell’s novel 1984) were tortured until they agreed that 2+2=5!

Moreover, Mr Rees has been acting akin to Big Brother’s undercover agent O’Brien of the ‘Thought Police’ in making car journeys in the inner-city almost impossible.

His implements of torture have been identified in the Bristol Post’s article: ‘Bus gate: Council has issued £500k in penalty fines so far’ (March 22) and also by the BBC.

The hero of 1984 Winston Smith (no relation!) was tortured into compliance to the state by having rats in a cage around his neck which would be released if he gave the wrong answer.

One of Bristol City Council’s vehicular comparisons to the rats in Room 101 is I would suggest the ludicrous bus gate on Cumberland Road. This will in no way contribute to the farcical notion of ‘netzero’ so beloved of the departing mayor!

Has it never occurred to our civic Big Brother that alternative ‘ratruns’ to get to the same destination as driving through the ‘rat-trap’ to the end of Cumberland Road entail further distances? This, Mr Rees, would also ipso facto produce far more carbon emissions.

The current political climate suggests that Bristol’s car drivers will never escape BCC’s bus-gated Room 101 and for many 2+2 will sadly always equal 5.