I recently used the M6 Toll road again. Free flowing, good services area, no potholes. What a contrast with some of the nationalised motorways. In the last one a half years a government that hates motorists has starved them of maintenance so we now have the potholes we are used to on lesser Council roads on our most used and biggest highways. Hitting a pothole at 70 mph can do more damage than on a slower road. Motorists have to keep lane disciple to avoid other vehicles so they usually cannot swerve to avoid.
All my life our roads have been inadequate. Always too little capacity and under some governments and Councils badly maintained. In recent years the highways authorities have done their best to reduce capacity for cars and to make it mire difficult to drive anywhere.
We beed to put in more capacity to cope with the huge increase of population and to accommodate all the long haul trucks for imports necessitated by the government’s huge industrial plant and factory closure programme.
The obvious way to do it is to allow new toll roads or toll lanes adding to existing roads. The driver paying the toll for less congestion and a better road wins, but so does every other road user as the public roads paid out of taxes also become less congested.
The large number of prolonged road closures reflects dreadful public sector management. Toll roads stay open as much as possible as their owners and builders beed the revenue to lay the bills.
March 8, 2026
Indeed just why are motorists so hugely overtaxed (vat, road tax, car tax, fuel tax, insurance tax, mugging taxes… ) and yet trains are not really taxes at all and about 50% subsidised. This make no sense on a level playing field the demand for road would be far higher and for trains far less, Even with this hugely rigged market talking 5 people by car can be less than 1/20 of the cost of going by train plus you go door to door without the end connections.
With pot holes a stitch in time pays off handsomely. A small pot hole rapidly becomes a large one as each tyre crunches in to it also they fill with water and the expansion freezing & thawing process too. Plus you avoid all the pointless vehicle damage. Not even that expensive to fix and far cheaper than not fixing them.
Reply Good to have some positive and informative contributions from you after so much repetitious abuse about the past.
March 8, 2026
With self driving cars and taxis on the way road will be even more important as taxis will become far cheaper and car available to children and people who cannot drive.
Government like to justify the huge train and bus subsidies and over taxation of road vehicles by claiming (quite wrongly) that they save CO2. But with average occupancy, staff, track maintenance, ticketing costs, end connections often two double drop of and pick up journeys they do not in general at all. Not that a bit more gas of life and tree food is a real problem anyway.
March 8, 2026
They do this by pretending trains and buses are fairly full. They may be for parts of the journey in rush hour but on average over the whole day depot to depot occupancy can be lower than 10% on many routes. Passengers impressions of occupancy are wrong as a full bus or train is seen by far more than a nearly empty one. A sampling error. Get the driver to record occupancy you get the real far lower figures. This sampling error enable government to con voters into thinking trains and buses are far more efficient than they actually are. BUS and train trips also often take rambling indirect routes, need end connections and start/stop every few hundred yards. Useless if you have tools, much luggage or material to carry too.
March 8, 2026
Massive problem where I live.. thanls to long time Conservative controlled West Sussex. Made no effort at all this Winter until Reform won the court cass mandating council elections. Now they are having a half hearted attempt to do something.
Monopoly institutions – councils – are extremely poor value for money, are not tested against any benchmark and repeatedly put up council tax by at least 4.9% every year. Going to get even worse with Labour’s unitary mandates.. smaller local accountabiliy is the answer.
March 8, 2026
A good article in one Conservative website yesterday how in areas of a certain demographic where the majority are in benefits, the roads are kept in pristine condition. I tested this theory yesterday and it would appear to have some merit.
We must not lose the fact that the previous governments was giving out grants for LTNs and other disruptive schemes to shaft the motorist.
Another chink of common sense, Fiat have scrapped the EV500 and fitted a petrol engine.
BTW. Yesterday we were Importing 21% of our flat the inflated price of £145 per mwh probably to conserve gas as it’s in short spooky. I wonder why as wind was only supplying 4gw.
March 8, 2026
Pretty soon all the Persians will be going home.
We need to repatriate millions of illegal migrants who create demand but no productivity. They abuse our people and our laws and they are all criminals as the Home Office now admits, calling them ‘illegal migrants’ rather than ‘asylum seekers’.
Our population is about to drop to around 55 million.
We don’t need more roads, private roads or any deviation from our previous modus operandi.
We need a new political class who understands that they serve the people of this country.
March 8, 2026
Lynn we also need a government that understands energy requirements. Today due to a shortage of gas and no wind, we are Importing 29% of our electricity. That’s what you get when you shut down the North Sea production.
March 8, 2026
Oh yes, they are our servants and must secure our assets for us to exploit in the private sector. As JR has pointed out, we are sitting on an Oil and Gas bonanza. We should be pumping 24/7 and selling at HUGE profit to our ‘friends and neighbours’ on the continent.
March 8, 2026
@Ian Wragg
Complete rubbish. There are NO economicaly extractable fossil fuel reserves left in the N Sea. Zilch, Zero
Fortunately we had the common sense to build the interconnectors. In the 2023/24 winter heating season, power generated by wind, hydro and solar reached 55TWh, 10TWh more than the 45TWh’s generated by gas power stations across the UK. 55TWh is an absolutely phenomenal amount of juice. This saved us from having to import at least 25 tanker loads of extremely expensive LNG
We are exporting as much electricity to the EU as we import. Check it out in the middle of the night, when UK renewable electricity and battery storage is charging up French and German EV’s and earning income for the Treasury.
Reply We buy when it is dear and sell when cheap. Plenty of UK oil and gas but bans and taxes through the roof prevent more production.
March 8, 2026
I wonder what Norway is pumping out of the North Sea?
Interconnectors?
March 8, 2026
SG:
I suggest you read:
David Turver
Net Zero is the Road to Serfdom
Futile virtue signalling is pushing up energy costs and destroying the economy
https://davidturver.substack.com/p/net-zero-is-the-road-to-serfdom
March 9, 2026
Norway is having no trouble finding economically viable reserves to extract in the North Sea.
March 8, 2026
If there was North Sea production, the price would be barely different, with the money going to the energy giants just the same. Good for Scottish jobs though.
Importing 29% of our electricity is what you get when you don’t build nuclear power stations in good time.
March 8, 2026
But the taxes would be going to the UK and not the Norwegians Dave…
March 8, 2026
Prices are controlled by availability. If we had our own supply to hand, we could drop all the ludicrous taxes.
The actual spot price of oil is some 40% of the price we pay, even with the Middle East at war.
We know we don’t pay the ‘world price’ because Britain has the HIGHEST prices on earth!
March 8, 2026
@Lynn. Don’t count your chickens. If Iran falls apart, the “persians” will be heading this way. There are 92m of them (verses approx 80m in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria combined, pre-refugee outflows).
March 8, 2026
The Persians will be going home and those defeated, the radical Iranian Islamists will be claiming asylum, probably in the U.K.
March 8, 2026
I think you are being a little optimistic if you think all the Persians will be going home.
March 8, 2026
The Persians will go and the Islamists will come.
People do prefer to live in their own countries with their own people, unless there is a vicious regime that cannot survived.
March 8, 2026
I think she and some others would be well advised to wait a while for the outcome of this harebrained military adventure.
The financial markets are taking a less bullish view, I see.
March 8, 2026
Maybe the financial markets are getting their information from the BBC?
All the info out of Iran, from the people is incredibly positive. They are exultant. Israel is exultant.
Trump will go down as one of the greatest. He will achieve peace in the Middle East.
March 8, 2026
@Lynn Atkinson
What a lot of codswallop – 60,000 people (including illegal migrants) have been removed or deported from the UK since July 2024
In the year ending September 2025, there were 10,958 asylum-related returns, a 26% increase compared to the previous year
Since July 2024, 5,100 foreign national offenders have been deported
Source :- BBC News
I’m perfectly happy with my Asian dentist, who was born here after his parents were deported from Uganda by Idi Amin. He qualified in dentistry at Liverpool Uni and probably pays more in tax and NI contributions than most. Scrounging scumbags like him should definitely be deported
March 8, 2026
SG
Unfortunately not many dentists now working for the NHS as the rewards are not deemed good enough.
Our University student Granddaughter had an infected abscess under a wisdom tooth last month, and was in severe pain, rang 26 Dentists to try and find an NHS Dentist for an urgent appointment, only private ones would see her, result private prescription for antibiotics first to kill the infection, and wisdom tooth removal after infection cured, cost over £1,000.
Government saving money (Dentists returning unused taxpayer funding) but the expense now all on the patient.
March 8, 2026
The Persians have been here 47 years.
They will be going home as soon as they can.
They will also leave the USA.
You don’t know much about the Middle East either do you?
My cousin Ron was President of P&G Middle East and Asia when the Shah fell. He was living in Teheran. Everyone who could, left. But under duress.
March 8, 2026
Our population is probably about 77m. Persians numbering about 2m at best.
What makes you sure they would give up the comfort and tolerance in the UK?
If our population was to drop to 55m we’d all be celebrating every day of the week.
March 8, 2026
The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) reports a £16.8 billion-£17 billion, one-off cost needed to fix the backlog of road repairs in England and Wales. What a bargain as it cost far more not to do this in damage to vehicles, pot holes getting larger and larger and even in deaths for some cyclists and motor cyclists.
UK road users pay over £35 billion annually in direct taxes, primarily through fuel duty (~£24.8–£28 billion) and Vehicle Excise Duty (VED/car tax, ~£7–£7.8 billion).
But recent government, politicians and LEAs far prefer blocking and constricting the roads with bus lanes, bike lanes, endless anti-car traffic lights, islands, low traffic neighbourhoods (which make people drive further) causing huge congestion, motorist mugging devices. What a great cash cow plan! Does wonders at making the country even less competitive and wasting people’s time.
March 8, 2026
Speed humps and other such measure are often a major cause of potholes just after the hump as the vehicles crunche down. Also the breaking just before the hump and accelerating after can cause sig. more road wear. This made worse by EV vehicles which are sig. heavier due to their heavy, expensive, low range, short lived, hard to recycle, and very energy consuming to manufacture batteries. But you buy one if you want too!
March 8, 2026
They cause more pollution and wasted fuel too.
March 8, 2026
Speed humps cause the walls of typers to wear, they are thin and not constructed for friction. I believe that wear causes many blowouts.
March 8, 2026
Lynn
Caused where the tarmac on speed humps crumble on the side shoulders, it rips the inside of the tyre wall.
It’s the reason for so many MOT Failures, had to purchase two new tyres in the last year for this reason, the tyres were less than half worn on tread depth !
Daughter had to have suspension check, new wheel, and tyre last year due to a pothole (unseen in the rain)
Yet another unnecessary expense due to road maintenance failure !
Another hidden cost of
March 9, 2026
Yes, all wasted money and wasted effort.
Only those with no concept of solvency can’t see the problem.
March 8, 2026
Agree very much with you Sir John our roads are terrible, but the only true hole is one big enough to swallow the liebour party then fill it in never to be seen again for a very very long time
March 8, 2026
My Lord,
We should also spare a thought for motorcyclists in relation to potholes.
March 8, 2026
Indeed and cyclists who can so easily hit them or swerve round them, fall off and then get run over!
March 8, 2026
Often potholes rather invisible too when full of water and raining.
March 8, 2026
Much talk on the radio about restoring the death penalty following the death of Ian Huntley. I am not in favour – but I suppose we would at least then finally get an appeal for Lucy Letby’s obviously unsafe (to say the least) 15 convictions. An appeal that has twice been refused by 2 x 3 deluded appeal court judges. Where do they get such unsuitable judges from? Are they trained into stupidity or born like that?
March 8, 2026
I did a pothole query on AI yesterday. £1bn would be enough to repair all Britain’s potholes, fourteen times over. We throw away billions with gay abandon. For example our kind host often refers to unnecessary BoE losses, yet the public accept billions being wasted with a shrug of the shoulders.
I think that illustrating the opportunity costs of government expenditure by reference to things that affect everyday life is powerful. Be it potholes repaired or nhs dentists provided, or bobbies on the beat, there are creative ways to show how spending priorities are so wrong.
March 8, 2026
Two things Sir JR;
Potholes area a huge problem. But sending gangs around to tamp in a bit of Tarmac is both a waste of time and money. Within a few months it’s a pothole again. There are thousands of miles of road where this happens, when really the whole road should be properly re-surfaced. It costs more initially, but weighed against repetative botched repairs and the inconvenience caused. It really is the better solution.
As for toll roads !! Don’t you think car drivers and businesses that rely on goods going by road, are already paying over the odds for the privelage. Don’t put ideas into government (any government) heads. Screwing motorists is their favourite cash raising target.
March 8, 2026
We have a cundy under our small side street. It’s about 8 ft below ground, stone sides and top for drainage on the ancient farmland, set about 20 ft apart they run parallel at an angle done the hill. Installed 8n the 1400s. Actually amazing engineering feat.
The large trees on this modern, 1880 s residential estate are causing the cundies to collapse and as a result the water backs up, and lifts the tar on the road, causing huge long potholes.
I have explained this a 1000 times, the Council need to put a drain a long the side of the road diverting the backed up cundie water to its own modern drain, then the tarmacadam will not be forced up and breakup, especially when the water freezes.
But no. Thousands wasted each year resurfacing the stretch of road.
March 8, 2026
The answer to our poorly maintained and much reduced capacity on on our roads is not solved by building more toll roads. That would simply be a convenient out for the councils and state mandated policy of reducing road capacity to force people out of their cars.
The situation is becoming impossible. It is now a lottery whether you can make a journey successfully because of the dire state of our roads. This can not carry on because the damage to cars and the cost to the economy is unsustainable.
A change of policy towards the motorist is needed . We have to stop the war against motoring and reembrace the benefits of efficient roads plus the economic uplift more people getting out and about efficiently would bring to the economy.
The amount of tax paid by motorists is essential for the public services, without that massive contribution the public sector would have to be reduced, along with the excessive pay rates and overgenerous pension privileges the public sector take for granted these days.
If the motorists decide to flex their tax generating muscle the government would have to change its persecution policy to drivers.
March 8, 2026
Bloomberg, the Washington Post and other news outlets have reported this weekend that the war criminal Putin has instructed Russia to provide Iran with intel and targeting information on American force dispositions in the Middle East
This enabled the IRGC to hit the key US radar in Saudi Arabia yesterday, disabling much of the gulf states air defences
Since the war began on February 28, Russia has passed Iran the location of US military assets, including warships and aircraft, three officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Washington Post
The Russian ambassador to the Court of St James, Andrei Kelin, told Sky News last night ‘ Russia is sympathetic to Iran and that his country is ‘not neutral’ in the ongoing conflict’ between the Israel, the U.S. and Iran
Questioned about this report overnight by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy at a press conference, the Donald replied ‘you are a dreadful reporter, this is clearly fake news’
March 8, 2026
@SG. Are we neutral in Ukraine? Or Iran? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
March 8, 2026
Time perhaps for a ring fenced or hypothicated tax system ?
Fact of the matter is most of our potholes are not being repaired correctly, we no longer dig out the rubble and remove, in many cases we shove tarmac into a wet hole, and we no longer seal the edges with hot tar to prevent water ingress and frost damage, no inspections of the quality of work, and few guarantees if any at all, just Cowboy type repairs, that are failing on a regular basis.
March 8, 2026
Bureaucracy, and in particular the EU imposed environmental regulations which we are still required to implement, will make the construction of toll lanes and toll motorways almost impossible, just as they make it almost impossible it for state-funded ones.
One of the original justifications for the not-so-Smart motorways was the difficulty of using more land to widen existing motorways, even where there was scope to do so. Wherever possible construction takes place within the existing highway boundaries.
Dorset Highways have been doing quite a lot of resurfacing recently in my area and rather than just filling (numerous) potholes they have been resurfacing the whole road for several hundred yards. The contractors seem to be doing a pretty good job of it. Dorset is now a LibDem Council, previously CONservative, so I must admit I’m pleasantly surprised by this development.
March 8, 2026
You are a card Lord John. The M6 is expensive and hardly used at £10 for cars and much more for lorries. The very excellent Google AI tells you why and also points to the funding model where Parliament gave it away cheap, hence an Australian firm makes a good profit. So all sensible people avoid it, unless someone else is paying.
Locally we had dirt cart tracks until 1937. Chucked a bit of macadam on top, local road map hardly changed from medieval times. 40 tonne trucks still go over the medieval stone bridges, Council gave up prosecuting them. Parliament was bought off. Hardly surprising that old macadam breaks up every winter.
A trip to France gives you very good smooth well maintained toll roads at much more modest cost with quick Beep-n-Go payment. The French avoid them if they can. The ordinary roads are just like ours – but not quite so neglected.
Another week in Parliament, time wasted, nothing achieved. The usual yah-boo-sucks debates. Our navy very sensibly dragging its feet sending an expensive white elephant to a war zone where a £35k drone could send it to the bottom. Our friend Donald is already bored with Iran and looking for a trip to South America for another bang-n-go experience.
March 8, 2026
The M6 toll does have a problem though a “free” other taxpayers paid for alternative that is actually a bit shorter too. This in the same way trains are unfairly subsidised competition for cars, the NHS is unfair for private healthcare, state schools are unfair for private schools (even worse now with VAT) we need to stop all these rigged markets also in energy, types of boilers, car and EVs, the BBC in broadcasting, universities and their soft loans and back door immigration profits, many areas of banking…
March 8, 2026
In many cases the substrate has also gone/collapsed given repairs have taken so long, thus a much more expensive and time consuming repair is needed, but often not completed.
Many roads now are just a huge patchwork of different types of tarmac, at differing levels, which scrub the life out of tyres and give an uncomfortable ride.
Given the state of some of our roads there is no need to lower speed limits, as the surface is self speed restricting, so perhaps this is the plan, although that does not excuse the same for paths which are in an equally bad shape.
March 8, 2026
We pay to use the French ‘Toll’ routes and a Vignette on entering Switzerland. Overseas visitors to UK (most especially heavy trucks) pay nothing to drive over here. In fact many EU trucks have extra fuel tanks, so don’t fill up (or pay fuel duty) here.
In the meantime, we are moving towards pay-per mile but already have expensive VED/LCT on ICE vehicles that goes up each year. The £40k LCT threshold is of course frozen by fiscal drag. Since April 2017 new cars have become a lot more expensive (faster than inflation) and that £40k should now be at least £54.6k if inflation adjusted. I paid £620 VED this year and this will increase in April. As I’ve just ‘refreshed’ my ICE vehicle, I have (another) 5 years of this daylight robbery. I am a low mileage driver but what really galls is that this money isn’t even spent on the roads. It’s just pee’d up against the wall by these idiots, like so much of our taxes.
March 8, 2026
Oh the good old jealousy VED tax 😭
March 9, 2026
I made sure my current car was below the £40K VED when I ordered it in January 2022 but the manufacturer increased the list price quite a bit in April 2022. When the car was finally delivered (and registered) in June, the list had therefore gone over the £40k mark. The VED rate is set at the point of registration, not the point of order.
My new car (albeit an updated model) didn’t cost £40K when it was first introduced in 2017 – although it does now. So long delivery lead times, price inflation and fiscal drag all conspire to hit you in the wallet.
March 8, 2026
Why invest in good roads when they will be smashed up by the next utility road works? The patch comes away from the rest and potholes appear.
What is needed is the utilities to have their own route around towns, but there’s no space for that, or the finances to replace the existing pipes and wires.
It would help if the money collected from fuel duty and vehicle excise duty was actually spent on the roads, and not wasted by government on their priorities. Collect vehicle excise duty locally and use it to maintain local roads. Collect fuel duty nationally and use it to maintain motorways and trunk roads.
So potholes it is then.
March 8, 2026
If we may accept that the core functions of government are external defence, internal law & order, and a functioning court system, few would disagree that the next set of important functions will include enabling the average citizen to get from A to B quickly and efficiently. The key word is “enabling”. It means getting potholes fixed and not carrying out or condoning measures or neglect that will prevent the average citizen from doing so. We may reasonably suspect that much of this is driven by the perceived need to meet Net Zero statutory targets, but none of us voted for regression to the pre-Industrial Revolution era.
March 8, 2026
Utility companies are legally required to reinstate the road surface to a specific standard. They rarely seem to do so and local authorities, which have the power to enforce compliance if a poor utility repair fails, seldom seem to do so.
Rather than patching, utilities should be required to do a whole road resurface for the section they dig up … but that would require the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways to be significantly revised, and obviously it would increase their costs.
March 8, 2026
The decline of our roads started in 1997, when the Blair government decreed that they wouldn’t be wasting money on roads – God know which black hole the money disappeared into, likely it was all spent on destroying our education system.
Toll roads may suit some, but I find them objectionable when we’ve already paid excessively for our road network.
We badly need more road capacity, but the liberal minds who worry about the countryside being overrun with tarmac oppose any extra but have no idea how to make things better. WHAT about making the many miles of country road wide enough for general use?
Is innovation totally dead – we badly need the influence of Victorian engineers to create a better transport system, but all we get from HMG is apathy then they admittance that we are broke.
Just like the whine that goes out when liberals decry the fact that the population is too large and we will all starve because we cannot keep on producing more food, those that have no solutions would fall back on protecting Mother Earth. Now that is pathetic. We could go up and down, there is no rule that says we have to put everything on the ground.
When this awful current government has buried itself in dismay and are but a bad memory we should kick-start innovation with a few competitions to see how our lives could be improved with a little bit of creative thought and enterprising engineering.
March 8, 2026
This issue is a National crisis. HGV’s and heavy trucks are allowed to operate on minor A and B roads inflicting huge damage to road surface especially in braking areas, bends and roundabouts. The increase in EV’s with their additional mass, and quite dangerous acceleration further damages poorly maintained roads. Our roads are the worst in Europe; Police Traffic Departments have been withdrawn and with it a substantial increase in selfish aggressive driving. Road signs are dirty or obscured by tree or shrub greenery, gutters and verges are untidy with drains blocked. Motorists think nothing of throwing their litter or other detritus onto roadside verges. The country is one massive eyesore an indication of terminal decline. No one cares.
March 8, 2026
We are complying with EU Law on the permitted size of HGVs. The local highway authority can ban them from using a road but must have a justification for doing it … ie a weak/low bridge and there needs to be a viable alternative route.
It’s a problem down here in rural Dorset because many of the “A” class roads are little more than lanes which connect villages and the very old town centres weren’t constructed to accommodate HGVs.
March 8, 2026
Michael, you are so wrong. The political class do not care, but we, THE PEOPLE, do care. When will they listen and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALL?
March 8, 2026
Never. We have to replace them with people who will listen.
March 8, 2026
In a ‘Nutshell’ there is as there doesn’t appear to be an infrastructure plan. From my understanding the last time there was any cohesive plan we had the ‘Romans’ in charge.
Local Councils neglect the roads as it is more important ‘to them’ personally to expand ‘diversity, equalities, inclusion’ so as to be down with the kids (or probably the chattering class). The need for 20mph limits, has nothing to do with road safety for the most part but income from fines. The perception that the majority of motorists are driving ‘to fast’ is to do with traffic density to many are forced down minor roads increasing volumes, because what should be the major traffic routes have been neglected.
March 8, 2026
The bulk of Local Councils income now appears to come from Central Government. A Central Government that imposes a one size fits all doctrine, that to make them personally look good off load their personal aspirations onto local councils – whether it is needed not.
Maybe, but a deeper subject, if Local Councils earned income via local economic activity and not these hand-outs there would be a more dynamic approach to ensuring an area thrives.
There is said to be dismay amongst some council’s that Parliaments new to be introduced so-called ‘mansion tax’ will feed central government coffers and not local communities.
The Tax system and the way we are governed is a mess inconsistent with the moderns world. Central Government, Parliament still sees itself as just a local council 40 years of EU control has drummed what it means to govern from their brains. The tax system is centrally dictated based on personal ideological terrorism and not what is needed to drive the nation forward. The tax system is dictated out of hate an spite on a one size fits all basis and then because the wrong people get caught is tiered and faceted with costly to administer get outs – meaning the system cost more to administer and is more complicated for very little gain
March 9, 2026
Roman roads were very bad. The little wooden ‘postcards’ found at Vindolanda had hauliers complaining that they were not sending freight until the road was mended as they could not afford more replacement wheels!
Nothing new under the sun!
March 8, 2026
It is a reflection on how the Nation has lost its way. There is no management that is on the back-burner. Personal egotist political terrorism – yes. Even then there is no other way of looking at it Parliament, its Government, the State has been infiltrated and dominated by ‘Muppets’.
As things stand the UK is seeking isolation, it doesn’t want to play and be a part of the World community.
Parliament, its Muppets are just having egotistical fun playing ‘god’ bit without a proper plan beyond turning the country into an isolated back-water for the personal pleasure of the ‘Muppets’. Not one will step up and work with the people and for the people
March 8, 2026
Good usable roads enhance personal freedom for the car and motorcycle driver, total anathema to the socialist rabble currently in place bur not in power. JCB have a very reasonably priced machine for swiftly dealing with potholes, but as socialist councils plead bankruptsy the machine will largely be made for export.
Our steel industry, making the right type of steel, could supply dedicated factory units for the manufacture of modular overhead 3 lane car motorways, supported from the centre divisions of existing motorways. Railways like canals are only good for leisure and commuting. Aircraft, much cheaper per capita mile, should work from much expanded airports. I question the habit of centralising offices in large cities run by socialists, who only see those who are forced to travel to London and the like as an income stream to be predated upon.
Potholes are symbolic of the third world country that incompetent self serving politicicians have driven us to become.
March 8, 2026
Another piece if socialist thinking, this time on second homes. Seen as a cash cow and charged at inflated rates . Apart from their owners bringing spending power to otherwise dormant areas, their owners have choices. Many areas of mediterranean europe are cheaper to get to, buy property in, and offer a cheaper and infinitely better quality of life. The more adventurous can go to Thailand which is the Med to the power of ten. Supperb retirement homes at around £1000 per month. Beachside appartments at £20 per night. Great healthy eating at £2 to £5 per meal. Socialism does nor understand the market place it lives in.
March 8, 2026
I see the British army has started a survey of its soldiers on whether male soldiers should be allowed to wear makeup or not. That will really scare Putin and Iran.
Been reading the page by Tim Martin in the current Weatherspoon’s magazine. He analyses current UK energy policy, and the performance of Conservatives and Labour on this subject. His analysis is spot on, I would recommend all politicians take his feedback about the crazy policies the country is running, and the way they are made.
March 8, 2026
As it happens, I have been listening (mainly listening) to some people of a variety of ages (from the young to the elderly) I know reasonably well talk about politics in the last week.
They are broadly of the same opinion (and incidentally of the same opinion as most commenters on this site) in thinking three main things. all of which I would be personally inclined to strongly qualify. They think:
– the country is going to pot
– immigration is very damaging
-Reform (whom they now support) will sort this out and change things
With this undercurrent of strong support working in their favour at the next General Election Reform will probably win at least in the poorer non-ethnic parts of the country and there is little any politician can now do about it.
The fervency of the belief that the country is going to pot (even from the younger people I talked with) is perhaps the most pertinent and the least evaluated of those 3. Clearly they blame both Labour and Conservative politicians. I myself would say part of the problem is the long term shift of economic wealth from Western Europe to the East due to many factors. For the rest I blame not merely politicians but our whole governing class – civil service, judiciary, police chiefs and the rest of public sector management for now being unrealistic and useless at their jobs. I think the biggest root cause is the expansion of Universities so that at least half the people now going there would not have passed the 11+ (which under 25% of the population used to pass) in my day. With so many worthless degrees (they only help make people feel ‘entitled’) and many now getting degraded Firsts, we have an extremely dumbed down system and a near impossibility in separating out from it the relatively intelligent from the unintelligent for jobs. We would be far better off going back to 1961 when only 3% went to University and those without degrees could get to the top if they showed they were good enough.
March 8, 2026
Sorry, Lord Redwood, but that is a crazy idea. The Motorist is already vastly overtaxed, and the last thing we want is more toll roads. The Government and Councils should maintain roads to the highest standards. The patch-and-go repairs to potholes are a quick fix that does not work. Within months, they become bigger potholes. Repair it once, but repair it right, so it does not need another cheap fix a few months later.
This and the last Government waste so much money that there is money available to properly repair and maintain roads if they would just stop nonsense spending. A simple example is UKRI: its budget and spend in the 2024/5 tax year were £9.9 billion, a half-billion increase on the previous year. Study what it spends its money on, and you will see that it could be closed down immediately. That’s £9.9 billion to spend on potholes, and that is just one example!
March 8, 2026
Holes in the road holes in the head.No matter what topic you open for discussion the usual “bees in their bonnet”
disciples will drag their obsessions into the exchanges.A contributer(free from those just mentioned) asks why
our people are not told about things that should be known.Answer :forget mass media but your daily blog
DOES enlighten(usually).The same cannot be said for the major UK broadcasters.It saddens me that on
many viewings GBNews is included.
March 8, 2026
Tolls are not the answer. The reason the M6 Toll is in reasonable condition is because it gets only light usage compared to the old M6.
The answer is to force the authorities to do their jobs. That is, the job that most reasonable people expect, not the job they have been given.
The job they’ve been given is to make car travel as miserable and slow as by public transport. Perhaps if all the people employed with this belief were removed, and replaced by persons who desired to get Britain moving again, we would not have so many problems.
March 8, 2026
114 ‘illegal immigrants’ invaded the UK 7th March 2026 …
March 8, 2026
the UK has less than 2 days of gas in storage, and is struggling to buy it on world markets with the shortage the wars are causing. our glorious leaders have stopped us being self sufficient.
we are going to have to outbid everyone, on top of the crazy cross subsidisation the end customers pay for gas.
of course nobody could have predicted this would happen, except people on this site over many years, lol.
March 9, 2026
‘UK foreign aid is frequently used to fund road, bridge, and infrastructure projects in developing nations
, with significant investments including a £300 million Caribbean infrastructure fund and support for motorways in Pakistan’ google
But there’s no money to fix pot holes in the UK