THE FASTER LANE / TYLER BRÛLÉ
A vote for Common Sense
It’s a sunny, warm Wednesday evening in Stockholm and there’s a certain buzz about the city as holidays are wrapping up and locals have returned from Gotland, summerhouses in the archipelago and Swedish enclaves on the Med. Östermalm cafés are packed with super-tanned and plucked visitors from the suburbs; matte BMWs and Mercedes growl along boulevards; and dogs and their owners are out for evening strolls. Stockholm could be at its absolute best if it weren’t for the fact that there’s an unnecessary level of clutter and chaos about the place in the form of e-scooters. If you thought Paris had it bad, Stockholm could be the benchmark for what happens when there are no controls on this form of transport and chaos reigns.
“Isn’t it strange how we put so much emphasis on health and safety, and creating environments that are accessible to the physically impaired and yet somehow it’s OK to have a form of transport that blocks pavements and shows no regard for the blind, for example,” says a friend. She might add that the Stockholm approach – many other cities can include themselves in this list – also shows no regard for rule of law, human decency and environmental aesthetics, not to mention physical fitness. This evening at one of the city’s busier intersections, at Birger Jarlsgatan, there are more than 200 scooters scattered about. Some are tipped into traffic lanes; many more have fallen over in front of shop entrances and pretty much all of the others are just left in the middle of the pavement, creating a maze-like effect that runs completely counter to maintaining an urban environment that is accessible and easy for everyone to navigate.
As I’m waiting for some drinks to arrive at the table where I’ve decided to perch, I do a quick survey of e-scooter ridership and while we’re told that we shouldn’t generalise, I say, “Why not?” Most users are between 14 and 30; many are travelling in groups; 60 per cent are male; there’s a lot of high-waisted washed denim, braids (real or fake), platform trainers and pastel sweatshirts (this goes for the boys and the girls); and it’s clear that e-scooters are used by people without any common sense. I could add that they’re also permitted by politicians who lack common sense but let’s come back to that in a moment.
As you’re a civic-minded reader of this column, I’m quite sure that you’ve had one of those moments where you’ve watched, stunned and slack-jawed, as someone pulls up in front of a house, shop or restaurant on an e-scooter and just leaves it right in the middle of the pavement, as though some magical elfin valet was then going to scurry out from behind the shrubbery and park it neatly alongside a host of other scooters. Unfortunately, no such elves exist and every time I witness such an event, I’m further convinced that personal and public responsibility and common sense are disappearing faster than lakes in Central Asia or packs of spaghetti during a pandemic.
It’s for this reason and many, many more that I’ve decided it’s time to launch a new political party, which will seek to bring issues back to the centre, cut-through all the distractions that divert discussion away from the core and focus on pragmatism, level-headedness and restoring a sense of proportion to a narrative that is completely out of whack. Perhaps most importantly, this party will seek to bring conversations and discussions out of the shadows and from behind closed doors (I believe it’s called the “silent majority”) and re-establish proper debate, rational thinking and optimism as pillars for moving forward.
With dialogue stifled in too many nations, this party will establish itself in countries that can still demonstrate global leadership, boast economic and soft-power clout, and have the confidence to stand up to the likes of China while not blindly embracing American liberal values as a tonic for all. In the spirit of keeping things straightforward and simple, the party will be called the CSP (Common Sense Party). And yes, I know there’s an American political party that uses the words “common” and “sense” but they also use purple as a key part of their identity. That’s a no-go for a variety of reasons: it’s a colour for people who can’t decide on blue or red and it’s not embraced by people when they have to make big decisions, such as buying cars, boats, houses or aircraft, or casting votes.
Germany has elections in a little over a month; France and Sweden next year. In all of these countries you see an opportunity for a party that is neither left nor right, dove nor hawk. Instead, it is pragmatic and to the point, and tunes in to the things not being said in public; it builds a campaign that puts common sense and self-responsibility back at the core of society. And yes, removing useless modes of transport that pollute our streets and will eventually end up in landfill will be part of the manifesto.
