I can't resist another quick 'I told you so'. Alistair Darling was a terrible Transport Secretary and I always thought that he did not have the brains or the nous to be Chancellor, a job for which he was always earmarked by Gordon Brown.
Sure, he kept the Department for Transport out of the headlines during his four year tenure in the job, having been put there for precisely that purposes after the fireworks caused by Stephen Byers. However, he didn't actually do anything or even want to do anything. When he was appointed, a friend of mine told me that Darling was a man no politics but plenty of ambition. And so it proved. He did not tackle the inherent problems in the rail industry, failed to push forward road charging and ensured that no progress was made on schemes like Crossrail. Since he was blessed with the luck of having no train accidents on his watch or any other similar disasters, transport simply slipped down the agenda and nothing much was heard from Darling who was only waiting for his elevation to No 11 as proved by a chance meeting I had with him.
It was early one morning at Edinburgh station soon after he moved to the Department for Trade & Industry, and I bearded him, even though he was very reluctant to acknowledge me. He asked me what I was doing in Scotland and I said that I was chairing a conference on developing the country's infrastructure: 'At least they are doing a lot of things up here' I said. 'Yes, with our money' he harrumphed and sped off on his way.
Now his lack of action and his intellectual weakenss have been shown up. He failed to intervene quickly enough in the Northern Rock crisis and now he admits that his job is on the line. I will not shed any tears should he lose it. It will be the downfall of a man for whom inaction was a watchword and he will deserve his fate.

Normally, I wince when people say 'you have to take the politics out' of a particular issue. Political debate and discourse is essential to sorting out most policies and there is no such thing as politics free governance.
However, it is clear that on climate change, our existing system of democratic politics is wholly inadequate. There are two main reasons. First, the time frame of four to five yearly elections is simply too short to allow politicians to take the measures necessary to bring about real change. Secondly, those changes are simply too radical to fit into any conventional manifesto.
Climate change, therefore, is like the attack on Europe by Hitler, simply too important and big to fit into our normal Parliamentary process. Gordon Brown is moving in other areas towards a more consensual approach to politics but on this issue his ministers are still playing narrow minded party games. Therefore, when in the past couple of weeks the Tories and the Libdems have publish interesting ideas about new approaches to the growth in aviation or congestion, their ideas were quickly slapped down by 'on message' ministers.
No wonder people do not trust the idea of Green taxes. In order to win them over, ministers and opposition politics have to sing from the same hymn sheet. They have to persuade people that the science is no longer a matter of debate and that the civilisation faces its biggest crisis. Therefore, ministers have to recognise that climate change requires a new approach to politics. So far, sadly, there is little sign that they realise that.

I have to travel to San Francisco for a family funeral. I am going for what is an extended weekend and I looked up flights on lastminute.com and there were literally dozens available for under £400. I chose the cheapest as it was also the most convenient timing, Air Canada – via Vancouver – from Heathrow and it came to the amazing price of just £330 half of which is made up of taxes.
That is truly extraordinary since I travelled to Chester from London the other day and it cost me £117 return. The mileage prices work out at something like 29p for the train compared with 2.75p for the plane, a factor of 10. Transport economics are irrational and prices bear no relation to the economic damage caused by particular modes. Of course fares are lowest at this time of year after the school holidays are over but before business has really got going.
And working out what to do about it is another matter. Rationalising the system in the context of global economics does not appear feasible, though governments could do a lot more to encourage and discourage different modes according to environmental damage. Higher fares would not have dissuaded me from going for a funeral, but they would presumably put off those stag parties to Riga.

It's been a month since I blogged, but what with the holidays and absolutely frantic work thereafter, I thought I would give it a break. But then the golden opportunity came to say something when I listened to Thought for the Day yesterday. Now don't get me wrong, it is not often that I listen to Thought for the Day - as it is at 5 40am - let alone agree with it but the speaker really hit a nerve when he talked about those voice recognition machines which are becoming universal.
I had just been forced to use one to book a Virgin train because, as ever, the Virgin website rejected me. I don't take it personally Richard, but I could start to do so. Then I had this ludicrous 'conversation' with this female machine to book the train service, full of mishearings and hesitations. She was not, how can I put it, very understanding and she did rather speak to me as if I were a five year old retard. Nobody, but nobody, would prefer to talk to a machine!
It got me thinking about a point of issue that I have with my partner. I tend to want to believe that the world is getting to be a better place and things are generally improving whereas she is far more sceptical of that view. And she scores heavily when mentioning things like these automatic voice recognition machines. There is no doubt that they are one of those things that makes life harder and not better. They are simply awful and inhuman, in both senses. Which is the point the speaker on Thought for the Day made, and then prayed for people who get frustrated with them. How touching to be prayed for at 5 40am.
Presumably these systems save money at the expense of jobs - though eventually I did speak to a fellow in India who provided me with the code number I needed to book the ticket. But since call centres are becoming the back up for the web, surely Virgin and the other train companies ought to think before installing them. If something has gone wrong, as happened with me a couple of months ago when Virgin sent out three sets of tickets for the same journey, charging me each time, then it would be so wonderful if a human being picked up the phone and said 'can I help you?' It would give the train companies an edge over the likes of Ryanair who not only charge £1 a minute to contact the call centre, but also make it virtually impossible to do so.