Cameron on road to nowhere
We have been here before. Lots of times. The idea of trying to turn the roads into some form of cash cow for the government, ostensibly as a way of attracting private investment, has been the subject of government announcements and ‘leaks’ with almost the same regularity that traffic jams form on the M25.
I remember in 1993 going on a special press trip in a little 20 seater plane with ...
Parking scam is real war on motorist
When the Conservatives talk about the War on the Motorist which they are keen to end, they tend to focus on speed cameras, fuel taxes and plans for a congestion charge. There is, though, a much more obvious area of concern for motorists who are literally being cheated out of millions of pounds annually by private parking companies and where action could be taken quite easily to remedy the situation.
The ...
Boris airport plan will not get off the ground
They were talking about Boris Island on Radio 5 the other day. We’ve already got Boris bikes, the tortuously alliterative alternative to Barclays Bikes, which presumably the sponsor had hoped would be common parlance, and even Boris buses, the replacement for Routemasters that will supposedly bring back conductors, but Boris Island? That really does seem a little over the top. After all, it is, in fact a plan for an ...
Cycle deaths becoming political issue
The issue of cycling deaths has soared up the political agenda in recent months, especially in London where every fatality is covered extensively on regional TV news, the Evening Standard and local papers. No longer are these deaths simply accepted as an inevitable consequence of the imbalance between motor vehicles weighing several tons and the unprotected bodies of unlucky cyclists.
Instead, cycling accidents are now understood to be a direct consequence ...
Shaky basis for the 80mph limit
The ‘war on the motorist’ is still raging among the Tory faithful. Or rather, the war against the war on the motorist is the dominant theme of Tory transport policy. Ending the war was the first announcement Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, made when he started the job last May and to the last, right up to his enforced move to Defence, he seemed still to be working hard to ...
