Top Tory legitimises made-up '15-minute cities' conspiracy from conference stage

02 October 2023 , 15:47

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Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he was going to crack down on the thing that isn't happening (Image: Getty Images)

The Tory Transport Secretary announced a new policy to crack down on a made-up conspiracy theory claiming people’s access to shops will be rationed.

The entirely invented scare story is based on ’15-minute cities’, a relatively uncontroversial urban planning concept that aims to build communities where most essential services are within walking distance.

This has been the case for many British towns and cities for decades anyway.

But a particularly unhinged group of online cranks and Q-Anon supporters have used it as the basis for a weird fairy-tale, where the World Economic Forum and United Nations are trying to limit people’s ability to travel, trapping them in dystopian ghettoes.

Still, top Tory Mark Harper decided to devote some of his speech not only to legitimising this work of bad-faith fiction, but to announce government policy to crack down on it.

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Mr Harper said: "I'm calling time on the misuse of so-called 15-minute cities.

"There's nothing wrong with making sure people can walk or cycle to the shops or school, that's traditional town planning.”

Mr Harper won't let the New World Order ration how long you can spend in the shops (Getty Images)

He added: “But what is different, what is sinister and what we shouldn't tolerate is the idea that local councils can decide how often you go to the shops, and that they ration who uses the road and when, and they police it all with CCTV.”

None of this is actually happening.

He went on: "So today, I am announcing that the Government will investigate what options we have in our toolbox to restrict overzealous use of traffic management measures including cutting off councils from the DVLA database if they don't follow the rules."

The Department for Transport's (DfT) Plan For Drivers document stated that it would "stop local authorities using so-called 15-minute cities to police people's lives".

It added that a consultation would be held on removing local authorities' access to DVLA data if they sought to "enforce such schemes by camera".

There is no indication local authorities have ever used DVLA data to do the bidding of the New World Order.

Mikey Smith