whats the current conservative policy on the devolution question? the english still going to be paying for free prescriptions in scotland and wales?

ha ha (sorry to ask the tough questions, but a modern mrs T would have answers to all of this worked out…)

Good point. There is data available to show that road works are not a major contributory factor to journey time (un)reliability. Most congestion is caused by too many vehicles and accidents. Traffic flow through road works (on motorways) tends to be extremely efficient as it is more highly controlled than in more free flow areas of the network.

The H&S ‘burden’ as you put it has, apart from keeping large numbers of people healthy, made significant savings for major construction firms as they reduce down-time due to accidents. The country benefits financially and socially from reduced serious and fatal injuries in the construction industry (the industry with the highest number of fatal injuries for the past 4/5 years).

None of this means JRs ideas (not exactly his if he’s honest) are bogus.

Quite simply, we’re sick and tired of all this.

The general reaction when anyone in government comes up with a new plan is on the lines of “Oh bollocks, here comes an idiot who’s going to try to raid our bank balances. Again.” The current government consists of a vast army of (inadequates-ed) led by a leadership team who’d lose a battle of wits with a sack of well-rotted manure (not to mention a vote, should it come to that). Good, intelligent leadership is so rare in the current bunch, and inefficient plodding mediocrity so common that nobody these days seriously believes that a politician is anything other than a venal, corrupt thief out to line his pockets at our expense.

Your job, sir, is not to sort out our roads but to restore our faith in our government. Putting our membership of the EU to a referendum would be a very effective way to start, if I might make so bold…

Reply: I do support a referendum on the terms of our membership of the EU and have done a lot to further that cause. The next government also needs to sort out the roads, which are hopelessly inadequate for our needs even in a recession.

My main criticism is this is fiddling with tactics, but where is the strategy?

We know from experience that as transport facilities improve they are used more. It seems we humans can find endless reasons to travel. And the more readily goods can reach wider markets the more incentive there is to to send more to more destinations. Although worthy, there is a cost in providing increasingly improved facilities for the increasing travel of people and goods, not just for the transport facilities themselves, but also a cost of the impact on the environment.

The situation is made worse by an increasing population because improvements have to hit a target moving upwards. You say nothing about the quality of the result you expect to see. Indeed, proposals of this type don’t really mean much unless you state the population size and timescale at which you are aiming.

The UK is a limited area, and the more of it that is used up for transport, and the consequences of transport, the less there is for other things.

I think any consideration of roads should also look at what can be done to reduce the number of journeys. For instance, modern communications technology has improved such that very good video conferencing is possible. But this is not available to all. If every home could conference with HD TV quality with easy to use facilities at a modest cost, then there would be a realistic alternative to a meaningful proportion of journeys.

A sound tactic, no matter how radical, can be an effective means of heading off in the wrong direction for lack of a good strategy.