We all need roads. Many need to drive to work, drive to take children to school, drive for the weekly food shop and drive to leisure and social events. In most U.K. communities car use is required by the geography and the transport system.Only in large cities are there mass transit systems with frequent services.
Those who claim to be greener because they have found safe cycle routes for school or work, or do have good trains or are close enough to work and shops to walk there still need roads like the rest of us. They need the diesel lorries to restock the shops, they need the on line delivery driver, the plumber and the builder to get to their homes by van . They would need an emergency vehicle to arrive if bad fortune struck them. The environmentalists that go by bus need good bus sized roads to have their way.
All but our main motorways and trunk roads are local Council monopolies, provided free to all users on the back of national and local taxation, supplemented in some places by user and environmental levies. Local elections are a good time to engage with Councillors and candidates about what they are going to do to make the roads safer and easier to use, and to bust congestion and delay which disfigures many of them.
As I travel around the country I come across many Councils that are out to get the vehicles off their local roads. They spend all too much money on narrowing usable roadspace, worsening flows at junctions and crowding too many different instructions and restrictions into too little road. In future pieces I will look at how Councils could help make our journeys easier and safer, and how they could back more use of alternatives without worsening vehicle use of their roads.
April 22, 2022
I think that someone should ask about….question the notion, that petrol, coal, gas are intrinsically BAD!
What is wrong with CO2?
We know the supposed experts just aren’t!
And our lives are being turned upside down….WE ONLY GET ONE LIFE!
Idiots in the past handed over too much power ( mainly through laziness).
And that weakness in being used for a political power and wealth grab.
April 22, 2022
Councils take far too much upon themselves.
Zealots out to change and destroy our towns and villages and follow any crackpot left-wing scheme going.
Like government…they could not make things worse if they tried.
And now in areas like planning the idiots have lost a great deal of their power and are often obliged by govt. edict, to carpet the countryside with concrete.
And what about the EU funded bike lanes?? And utterly ghastly, horrible statues.
April 22, 2022
E,
All the “congestion charges” wrongly labelled, it should be fleecing tax on motorists, popping up in every major town and city, more tax, more tax and no proper service.
But the govt allows idiots to glue themselves to roads, cause economic harm to main cities as it is part of their looney tune green agenda. Peaceful Anti lockdown protests get arrested in a heavy handed manner while Criminal Johnson and his missus have near weekly piss up at No. 10! Move on, nothing to see hear! Sir Charles Walker MP asking police not be heavy handed with a pensioner as they threw her the van, that is okay while the weekly drinks party at No.10 Carrie’s on. Nothing to see hear.
April 22, 2022
+ Agree 100%
They probably don’t want us to travel…full stop.
We will all be stuck indoors.
All crammed in our ticky tacky boxes, listening to each other’s heartbeats.
The future is very dark, cold and hungry.
April 24, 2022
Indeed; as young graduate many years ago I worked for the local borough council and was required to learn about the associated law. One principle I remember was that of “ulta vires”, i.e the requirement for councils not to involve themselves in anything other than the right and proper business of a council.
Of course that principle was binned many years ago and councils stick their proverbial noses into all sorts of matters that should not concern them.
We need a return to that principle and the huge sum of taxpayers’ money that would be saved.
April 22, 2022
I understand that the Rwanda solution was not all it seemed.
It involved us taking ( back?) some of Rwanda’s “most vulnerable” refugees.
Just a swap then, maybe?
April 22, 2022
Most likely we will get the ‘vulnerable’ from Rwanda but none of the immigrants here will go, so no, I don’t think a swap, just that we will end up with more than we started with. The lawyers and courts will simply not allow this scheme and it seems beyond Priti Useless to put through laws to enable it and stymie the naysayers. If they rely on current law the government will lose. Perhaps that’s what they really want.
April 22, 2022
+ many
Very hard to think what they do really want.
Even more inflated house prices maybe?
April 24, 2022
”Inflated house prices”? That won’t matter one bit eventually, as we are told we shall ”own nothing and be grateful” – sorry, ”happy”, wasn’t it? So it won’t matter about roads either, except for the fortunate few who will be allowed to own vehicles and travel.
April 22, 2022
Can’t we do that with the French !
April 22, 2022
+1
We could but I think that the idea is what NLA has put.
Why though?
Why are they shuffling people around like this?
Oh…to scupper the concept of nationality maybe.
Except in Ukraine of course …where they have borders…..
April 22, 2022
Worse. Some known nut-job machete merchants that Rwanda can’t even handle.
You cannot trust a Tory.
April 22, 2022
+ Absolutely!
April 22, 2022
The problem is that the Green religion has silenced any opposition. As with many taboo subjects we aren’t allowed to debate it any more. The whole thing is very sinister and our Government is complicit in this agenda to make us all poorer. They should hang their heads in shame over the way they are destroying our country.
April 22, 2022
The socialist govt allowed the green mob to dig up grass, climb buildings, lock down roads while the police watched. Anti lockdown thrown in jail! Okicococi Carrie’s on in number 10, no one told Johnson what a party is, he did not know he was at one!
April 22, 2022
The government policy of net-zero via a green revolution has been branded to scare, ie buy an EV to save the planet, reduce your carbon foot-print to ensure a future for your grandchildren…….it doesn’t really work when you say; buy an EV and reduce your carbon foot-print to potentially slow or stop any likely increase in the sea level during the next 100 years
April 22, 2022
CO2 is harmless plant, tree, crop and seaweed food and the source of all the oxygen we breath. There is no reason to think there is any climate emergency. Even if there were the solutions proposed of exporting jobs and energy intensive industries, EVs, wind, solar, batteries, heat pumps, hydrogen… will not save significant (or even any) net CO2. Furthermore without cooperation from India, Russia, China… such a UK policy is totally irrelevant in world terms… the whole policy is totally insane for the above three reasons.
All three reasons are surely true and any one of them alone is sufficient (of itself) to make the net zero policy pointless. In fact it is idiotic, hugely net harmful, vastly expensive & counterproductive, economic, scientific and political suicide too Boris. So why has Boris moved to accept this insane agenda – is it just Theatre Studies dope Carrie? Or does he really see political advantage in the net zero expensive energy lunacy? Time to get real – try fighting a war on batteries, wind and solar!
April 22, 2022
Matt Ridley today (Mail)
“Madness of our worship of wind: They despoil our glorious countryside, add £6 billion a year to our household bills and are arguably the most inefficient solution to our energy crisis. So why is the Government planning to make it even easier to build them?”
The Boris refusal to abolish the vast “green” (no actually remotely green) energy levy is surely political & economic suicide.
April 22, 2022
If only.
April 22, 2022
+1
April 22, 2022
So while in India Boris has defended the vast green levies on UK energy bills and insists that ‘green technology, green, sustainable electricity can help to reduce bills’. I think by “sustainable” he actually means unreliable, very expensive, intermittent and not even saving any CO2! Help by putting them up hugely I assume?
So is he lying? It is very difficult to believe that even a classics graduate is so totally ignorant of energy engineering and economics and/or totally misinformed by the “experts” & vested interests in the renewables industry.
He surely must know this total B/S.
April 22, 2022
L/L. All too true but unfortunately we have an idiot government in power and one waiting in the wings. Oh, I’m so excited.
April 24, 2022
+1
April 22, 2022
Indeed, without CO2 life on earth as we know it wouldn’t exist. Human life is carbon based and yet that element has been demonised. Some people are becoming very rich at the expense of the majority who are being subjected to unnecessary costs and lifestyle challenges. Are there any MPs prepared to challenge the fact that the Emperor has no clothes?
April 22, 2022
Without water life would not exist either.
However, tsunamis are a bit of a head scratcher for those whom they impact.
April 22, 2022
Bit of a strawman there NHL
April 22, 2022
Brian. I wish a few more people would wake up.
April 23, 2022
It’s a question of balance.
Natural systems are complex.
The human body crucially needs a small amount of potassium in the blood for instance, but slightly too much will stop your heart. The same is true of many substances.
The planet’s system is analogous.
April 23, 2022
But humans and the planet manage and rework those imbalances every day to keep things healthy and in balance.
April 23, 2022
See what happens when someone shoves 1000mg of potassium chloride into your bloodstream that you weren’t expecting.
April 24, 2022
Silly comment of extremist ridiculous nonsense.
April 22, 2022
Tax tax tax from jr party. Fuel duty tax,vat tax,vehicle excise tax, parking on road tax, council tax. Toll roads tax. All for roads! No this is govt again taxing us out of existence without providing a proper service. Squarely a Tory party and govt failing.12 years of historic high taxes and failing public services, although JR claims a renewed interest from his party to provide value for money then talks about the failure of roads !
April 22, 2022
Plus the over regulation of everything back door taxes. Then they have a cheek to complain about low productivity.
April 22, 2022
Don’t forget the congestion charge, toll bridges and clean air zones…..and the added insurance premium tax
April 22, 2022
What is wrong with CO2?
Many scientists think that higher levels cause global warming and possibly catastrophic climate change. What if they are right?
April 22, 2022
They should inflict their stupid policies on the world’s major polluting countries. Thought not.
April 23, 2022
The thing is, that in terms of CO2 production *per head*, the worst countries by far are such as Canada and the US.
That point is not wasted on those nations with large populations, and who produce the goods that the former buy, producing CO2 in the process.
You can claim that it is “irrelevant”, but the billions who live in those countries might just disagree.
April 23, 2022
It is totally irrelevant NHL because the UN is interested in global total amounts of CO2
Per head is an interesting statistic which achieves nothing.
April 23, 2022
🙄
April 22, 2022
Whether they are right or wrong (I personally believe wrong), will the result of reducing CO2 leave us with a planet able to support billions of humans. I think not! Not with current science and technology.
April 22, 2022
They aren’t!
Anyway…why not just wait and see?
Rather than preemptively destroying our lives.
April 22, 2022
Wait and see, save the vast expense and adapt as needed as the weather changes if it does. Be this colder/hotter, wetter/dryer, windier/calmer! There is no imminent, runaway, climate, emergency! The solutions they puss are BS anyway. When they ban first class flight and private government jets for Truss to Australia and back I might take another look!
April 22, 2022
+many
Exactly!!
April 23, 2022
This country tried “wait and see” with covid19 and has deaths-per-million hundreds of times higher than the countries which acted promptly as a result.
April 22, 2022
Mike Wilson :
There is no global warming crisis and I would recommend you and everyone to actually search for the data for themselves rather than simply take the crisis propaganda from activists such as XR and the BBC.
Also ask yourself :
– Why did the planet warm after the last ice age which had its maximum 22,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago?
-What is the “correct” temperature for the planet?
– Why would you expect the temperature to remain constant today when it has risen and fallen for billions of years, including several times since the last ice age?
– Would you prefer we were heading for another ice age as the BBC were predicting back in the 1970s?
April 22, 2022
and we’re doing net-zero to stop the ocean sea levels rising…..and nothing has changed
April 22, 2022
++++++
Yay!
April 23, 2022
Mike Wilson, I’m glad you inserted the word ‘possible’ in your assertion.
April 24, 2022
Many other scientists have completely dismissed the flawed theory. If it were sound why do they have to manipulate the data to justify their arguments?
April 22, 2022
Spot On
April 22, 2022
In the local case of Wokingham Borough, the Council has done a remarkable job in applying this quick, smooth, durable surfacing material to many roads. Then the reworked white lining is much easier and safer to see. There are still many roads with a horrendously bad surface, not least Langborough Rd and Finchampstead Road near the railway bridges. The weekly email news update however is very useful so we know where traffic lights and roadworks are going to be.
I await the Southern Distributor Rd with interest as I tried out the newly opened section through Montague Park and it’s a rat-run already, with parked cars, unhelpful blind bends, a bridge on a bend and the inevitable slew of roundabouts, just a ridiculous design for a road to become a sort of ‘ring road’, you’d have thought throughput would have mattered given congestion in the town. The residents are paying upwards of £300-£350k for a 2-bed apartment to be on that, eventually carrying vans, trucks and buses and rush hour traffic?
There has been no progress on restoring the lanes at the A329(M)/M4 junction where we’ve paid for two lane slip roads but one lane has long been hatched off – I thought you’d challenged this wasteful habit? The Coppid Beech roundabout had peak hour only lights once upon a time but now they’re a permanent nuisance.
Overall I’d score the Council 6 out of 10 for our roads.
April 22, 2022
Co2 is part of natural respiration ; the connection between plants and animals, but with so much deforestation , city building , and modern waste of natural resources , the balance has gone haywire. The way humans have treated earth is gross. Without the green stuff in profusion to absorb Co2 there is a dangerous abundance of the stuff and oxygen output is less. One only needs to work in medicine/ nursing / physiological measurements to see and understand the problems caused by impaired gaseous exchange . To say we are in the world and at the same time out of the world of natural gasses is the height of foolishness.
April 22, 2022
Our local council has been lowering kerbs, removing refuges which they installed about 4 years ago and widening pavements.
This work is taking about 4 months when the real scandal is the main road needs resurfacing.
I asked a contractor and he said it wasn’t on the schedule.
The work they are doing is a complete waste of taxpayers money.
No doubt they will be extremely pleased with themselves.
April 22, 2022
They widened pavements in my local market town so that the road was reduced from effectively 3 lanes wide to 2, whereupon ever since when a delivery vehicle stops at the shops or a bus stops, jams behind occur. They think they are saving the planet. If only the council had a brain cell between them.
April 22, 2022
+1. In London they even build bus stops out into the road. This so a one man bus held up all the cars behind at every stop! Great way to increase congestion, pollution, fuel consumption, blood pressures and journey times!
April 22, 2022
Do not forget speed enforcement by councils is about income generation not prevent accidents as should be the case. Police and councils share accident information and you will find that most of the speed operations are not targeted at accident black spots but where most money can be generated. Compare your councils accident figures to speed site locations.
April 23, 2022
+1
April 22, 2022
My council has been constructing cycle lanes where no one cycles and erecting road fencing where there has never been accidents…..but they wont repair a 5 year old pot hole !
April 23, 2022
glen
As a cyclist my council has constructed cycle lanes so bloody dangerous that I will not use them and have to drive out into the road. Fortuantly I wear a helmet and high-viz and try to let traffic pass whenever possible. I sometimes wonder where they get their ideas from.
April 22, 2022
Sorry..I keep replying to myself when I didn’t mean to!
April 22, 2022
Good morning.
It is not just the condition of the roads, which as a cyclist I find appauling, it is also parking. Cars have become much cheaper to own since their invention and have resulted in great social change. But with this has come many other problems such as maintenance and parking, with the latter being used by councils as a way of raising revenue. Revenue that is spent on other things than roads. We also have government Road Tax. A tax that, once again, goes elsewhere except on roads. Perhaps if these monies / taxes were ring fenced as suggested in another piece by our kind host we might both get better taxes and roads, not to mention public services.
I believe it is time to change the tax model of this country and to start asking people to make some small contribution to their services. There is too much FREE STUFF that others are subsidising judging both by the tax take and the poor constantly under funded public services on offer.
April 22, 2022
Mark,
Like all those that pay their council tax pay at a higher rate to make up for those who get subsidised or do not pay at all, like economic illegal migrants in four star hotels! Come ye, come ye all the illegal immigrants the socialist Tory govt wants you.
April 22, 2022
Indeed. The government and councils have been constricting the roads, causing congestion and reducing road space for at least thirty years. It is an insane policy the congestion caused reduces productivity hugely, increases pollution and costs the country a fortune. This plus the endless use of motorists at cash cows with their motorist mugging policies.
So who do the Conservatives want to replace Boris by? All the likely alternative seem even worse to me. We will end up with another Theresa May, election disaster, net zero fool & remainer type or Starmer/SNP/Libdim/Plaid.
April 22, 2022
LL,
As soon as it becomes clear that Bunter is a lost cause/liability then the candidates will present themselves. I think there still remains sufficient talent in the PCP for a TRUE Brexiteer to come forward and make the most from leaving the EU. Bunter is, only now and under duress, getting going with the opportunities of reform, EU exit, etc. having clearly had no plan for the country after 2019.
I’m embarrassed for our country seeing him playing the clown in India; its wearing thin.
April 22, 2022
Any replacement will be even worse I predict. The party is still pro-remain, socialist and full of green crap. We will get another dire May type! Who does Baker and David Davis want as PM?
April 22, 2022
in reply – anyone but the incumbent?
April 22, 2022
LL,
Planning legislation was changed under Tory Boles to force councils to build. Colloquially it became known as the “boles bung”.
Do not forget every new build house attracts a levy to local councils for NHB, new home bonus, and CIL, community infrastructure levy. These are meant to give councils more money for infrastructure! Councils waste the money, do not provide extra schools, hospitals or roads! So each house has about £30,000 added, each local council sets it rate and approved by govt. More hidden Tory tax that JR just seems to forget about when he writes his blogs of late.
JR, is the CIL money meant to provide infrastructure ie roads and if so is the community secretary checking it is being spent on such infrastructure or is the inspectorate body allowed to turn a blind eye and councils waste it on whatever it wishes? My council does.
April 22, 2022
Down here in Dorset, for a brief period the Conservative Council was in the national news for creating a cycle lane on roads near Wimborne which is wider than the remaining road left available for motorised traffic. There was no consultation beforehand: they were following the Government’s policy of “encouraging” cycling and inconveniencing and therefore discouraging motorists.
The two remaining lanes for motorised traffic, which have to accommodate HGVs, buses and (down here) tractors, are narrow and congested. The Councillor who delivered the scheme admitted that they hadn’t explained what they were doing to local residents and he’d received a shed load of complaints.
Sir John says write to your council about roads. Why? The Councils don’t take any notice of local people. The project was funded by the Government’s £79 million “Transforming Cities” project and the Council did what the Government wanted, not what the local community wanted.
Transport Policy is set by the Government and Dept of Transport. Councils simply implement it. Writing to them is pointless. Everything the Government does is intended to discourage motorised traffic.
April 22, 2022
Donna,
You might recall the govt giving extra taxpayers money to councils for roads, did anyone from govt check to make sure it was used for the purpose intended?
Same for cil, NHB or the billions given away last year for covid while council workers remained at home and still do!
April 22, 2022
Good words but surely this is just a drop down from central governments hatred of the car/seeing them as golden geese to lay as much tax as possible and censoring/ignoring any alternative views.
And wise words on Twitter about civil servants, if only they were true. We saw just a sample of their treachery from Guido publishing comments from the HO about Rwanda and Ian Gill, from a position of authority explained the real world.
And has there been any push back on the 9 -5 culture that let down the people of Kabul? Of course not.
Government has lost control.
April 22, 2022
Ask Tory central government about why councils no longer have the cash to fix the roads and to do much else that they once did.
April 22, 2022
They have cash for the totally useless ways they spend it, but none for the jobs needed!
April 22, 2022
No, ask the council leaders on £500k a year and all the staff on their lovely pensions.
April 22, 2022
I know from personal experience they have more money than they know what to do with. At year end they spend the budget on nonsense rather than moving it to departments that need it. The £500k a year leaders should be stopping this waste.
April 22, 2022
I agree that CEO salaries are preposterous throughout UK entities.
However, that is because – for apparently doctrinaire reasons – it is asserted that even the public sector must follow American corporate convention on a quasi-privatised basis.
April 22, 2022
I am not sure that the majority of the people here knows that the central government since 2010 has been cutting the money it used to provide the local authorities, and that it affects roads but practically everything else.
As an example for the pre-covid period, see sticerd.lse.ac.uk, Feb.2021
‘The Conservative Governments’ Record on Social Policy from May 2015 to pre-Covid 2020: Policies, Spending and Outcomes’, 340 pp.
A much shorter (but still 36 pp) is available accessible from poverty.ac.uk 26/02/2021.
Figs 2, 4 and 5 of this summary are really interesting, and I am sure as interesting as the state of our local roads.
(As an aside: how long has Wokingham District/Constituency had a Conservative majority/MP?)
April 22, 2022
Wokingham Borough Council has has a Conservative majority since it because a unitary authority in 1998 apart from 2000-2002 where it was No Overall Control.
Wokingham parliamentary constituency has never returned anything other than a Conservative MP in its entire history. It’s one of those constituencies that the parties write off as a done deal before campaigning even starts thanks to the FPTP voting system.
April 22, 2022
Hef,
I do not think that is quite correct. The govt grants to councils were reduced in 2010 as part of the Tory planning reform. The councils could then set their NHB and CIL rates (approved by govt.) for each new build or derelict property turned back into living accommodation. Also levy for new commercial buildings. It was intended to force/create incentives for councils to grant planning applications. The presumption to grant was also included to force councils hand.
However, the councils went to the press/media claiming grants were cut etc. but forgot to say how the shortfall could/should be made up. The govt.’s urban villages created huge income for some councils where in excess of 22,000 houses were built raked it in, councils spent as it wished and still griped over grant cuts!
All these expensive director of services still need very expensive consultants. I wonder why if they are as good as claimed and have their salaries boosted to reflect their worth in the private sector.
I do agree with the sentiment this is another govt. policy failure where another hidden tax is created for new build houses. Again, it seems to escape JR’s blog today.
April 22, 2022
Hef, I know of one council where it’s own infrastructure development plan for an urban village was clear it was not going to spend the money it generated for infrastructure but on other projects, some would claim councillor vanity projects. Where was and is the govt. inspectorate body to ruthlessly make sure councils provide value for money? Or is this another example to JR’s over NHS where the govt gives our taxes away without knowing or caring how it is spent. Apparently we should be pleased there is a renewed value for money drive from JRs party. After 12 years in office I reached another of JRs claims, we do not believe you.
April 22, 2022
PP, Hope, thanks for the precisions.
April 22, 2022
Or ask the Labour Reading council why they put width restrictors and speed bumps on the main ambulance route to the Royal Berkshire Hospital?
April 22, 2022
When you travel round do you notice the difference in quality of road surfaces and road repairs? It would be good if best practice was adopted everywhere, with road repairers obliged to do quality control checks 6 months on, especially when mending potholes. Our council seems devoted to one company whose repairs rarely last more than a few months. When challenged the council says there is no money to do more.
April 23, 2022
Where is the incentive for the only-for-profit lads to do jobs so that they do not need re-doing after a short time?
It is the same for those fixing potholes as it is for the Japanese knotweed sprayers and for many others.
April 23, 2022
Simple the Council should define their requirements and closely manage the quality.
April 23, 2022
It would cost more for an inspector to stand over each knotweed sprayer and to make sure that he does not miss any than the sprayer himself cost, and several times more than doing it in house.
April 24, 2022
More ridiculous petty comments of nonsense examples NHL
Your misunderstanding of quality management and process control is plain for all to see.
Inspectors are very 1970s
April 22, 2022
Every year we walk in La Taha, a poor and mountainous (well, foothillous) part of Spain. There are more potholes in Coney Weston than there are in the whole enchanted valley of the river Trevelez.
I mentioned this to a neighbour. His comment ‘you don’t need to go to Spain to see good roads, just nip across the border into Norfolk.’
Has Suffolk taken to using global warming tarmac, stuff that is more brittle than the proper northern variety? Whatever the cause, our roads are a disgrace.
JF
April 22, 2022
I agree about Norfolk roads – we cycled round there for a fortnight last year and didn’t see any potholes or cracks in the roads, even in country lanes. What a difference to where we live!
April 22, 2022
We are getting lots of new roads where I live which are eating up acres of good farmland. They are labelled as by-passes but they don’t bypass anything of significance. Their purpose is to open up vast areas for even more house building. Out of control immigration continues unabated. Brexit hasn’t stopped it as it’s higher than ever. Because the wage cap is so low we will see a massive rise in foreign workers undercutting British workers in middle income jobs. Be afraid if you work in jobs like IT or engineering. Wages will be driven down to basic income levels. This is what our politicians want for us and our children. What EU immigration did for the unskilled jobs this immigration points system will do to better paid jobs.
April 22, 2022
Christine,
It stops the farmers from farming, daft as it might seem I think this is govt policy to stop food production in the UK.
April 22, 2022
Hope: I suspect that what lies behind the attack on farmers is the green claim that ploughing, harrowing etc cause the soil to leach CO2 into the atmosphere, where it has been captured and stored for aeons. So this, too, is all decided by the water melon fraternity – green on the outside, red inside..
April 23, 2022
Martin, JR has failed to explain why red diesel was got rid of if advantages of leaving the EU and boost domestic production of food. It simply does not make sense unless it is a nutty green agenda drive that will cause economic harm and prevent food security.
April 23, 2022
exactly – forced to consider rejoining the Club in years to come.
April 22, 2022
The EU is discussing having all new cars fitted with monitors that would allow them to track vehicle speeds and whereabouts. All in the name of road safety. But it will doubtless also be used for road pricing tied to CO2 virtue-signalling. And where the EU goes, Britain unfortunately follows.
I can see a need to get a good result in the May elections (what is “good” in this context?). But as for car use, in the medium term it is going to be put beyond the reach of most ordinary people by central government, not by local councils.
To prevent this we need a political party that rejects net zero to get a majority and form a government. Now, that would be “good”!
April 22, 2022
I see Boris is refusing to cancel the green levy saying there is prejudice against renewables. Typically smearing people who do not agree with him rather than dealing with the facts they base their views on.
When will his MPs stand up against him and for us?
Cameron adopted the same approach calling people who wanted to leave the EU, swivel eyed loons.
April 22, 2022
The problem with roads in many cases is simply lack of proper systematical maintenance, and over complication with excessive signage.
Speed humps/cushions are a prime example, put in to slow traffic down, they are actually a safety hazard in themselves, many are higher than the legal 75mm in height, with too steeper approach angle, which could damage steering geometry and suspension parts, then when poorly maintained cushions with crumbling shoulders will rip the inside wall of your tyre to shreds, without you knowing.
Indeed in the last 4 years I have had to purchase 3 new tyres simply because of inside side tyre wall damage.
Thus a waste of an expensive product as it is scrapped before its true life cycle, hardly good for the pocket, and hardly good for the environment, with constant gear changes and engine speed when slowing and speeding up time after time.
April 22, 2022
If we are going down the road of ULEZ and congestion charging by various councils, then remove road tax nationally.
It is unfair that people are double (or treble) taxed to use roads that they have already paid for.
April 22, 2022
And it is even more unfair that the wealthy electric car owners pay nothing in road tax or fuel taxes.
April 23, 2022
Graham
But that will be down to the government not the people.
April 23, 2022
Until the next GE.
April 22, 2022
With an 80 seat majority this government could today stop local/regional mayors and councils from creating green revolution ULEZ and congestion charging (tax)
April 22, 2022
There just isn’t the space to improve road systems, and on the contrary councils are degrading them by allowing new developments and new junctions in already over-stressed main roads.
Stopping at junctions is very wasteful in energy, and if we are to save the planet there needs to be a moratorium on new ones. If we can also brick up the junctions at the bottom of hills, that will be very good for saving energy. If you’re sweeping downhill, you want to retain the kinetic energy to get up the other side. If you have to stop at the bottom for traffic lights, all that energy goes to waste.
April 22, 2022
A plethora of traffic signs now seem the norm at Junctions or intersections, with various repeated warnings, all at different points, in different sizes and in different colours.
In Wokingham we now even have coloured sections of roads with red, blue, green, and beige, with powdered resin being sprayed on the tarmac at some Junction approaches, bends, cycle paths and pedestrian crossings.
This is sold as being an anti skid surface, but wears off within 18 months to two years, thus we end up looking like Toytown for a few months, before the colour eventually fades, it of course useless at night when it is raining, as the road surface does not show a colour at all due to light reflection, and in snow it is completely hidden, so thus in the worst conditions it is useless and pointless, and makes roads buy its very presence more expensive to maintain.
Thus too much confusing information is a distraction, when your eyes should be looking at the road !
The very same fault/problem with having computer screens and disco type ambient lighting now prevalent in many cars.
April 23, 2022
Having blocked the A329 with work on the ring road near Bulldog garage, we then had the queues for petrol in that garage. Now we have work nearer Wokingham….self fulfilling need for the ring road !
This will redirect traffic south on the A321 into Wokingham which has terrible road surface.
You couldn’t make it up.
April 23, 2022
MT
They had the opportunity to construct a proper ring road before all the housing estates were given planning permission.
Now what we have are new narrow housing estate roads, with lots of bends and small roundabouts, being described as a relief road, these roads are totally unfit for any sort of commercial lorry use, so commercial traffic will still go through the Town Centre.
Just because you call a new road a relief road, does not automatically mean it will act as one.
April 23, 2022
exactly – decades of what was/is called Planning.
April 22, 2022
There’s also the problem that local council officers are known to make unrealistically low assumptions about road use when recommending large-scale planning applications. Then the residents have to put up with greatly increased congestion and damaged road surfaces, which councils may or may not get round to repairing. You would not have to go far from Wokingham to find an example of how bad things can get.
April 22, 2022
Topical…Paul McCartney wrote: (about the break up of Beatles)
The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I’ve seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door.
Many times I’ve been alone
And many times I’ve cried
Anyway, you’ll never know
The many ways I’ve tried
And still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long, long time ago
Don’t leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door..
Today it is the MPs who need to confront the situation, and open that hitherto unassailable door to No 10.
April 22, 2022
But Boris is humming the Dave Edmunds song:
“I hear you knocking,but you can’t come in.”
(unless you bring a bottle!)
April 22, 2022
A very pertinent piece, and too true – The CC religion rules on all matters.
What is particularly annoying is how much priority and space is given to cyclists when much of the time that space goes unused.
They want us to make our journeys by bike, which just demonstrates the quality of the thinking behind all of this – Try balancing 3 plastic bags of heavy shopping on a bike when you struggle to keep the bike moving!
Aside from the way roads are made less of, the quality of roads has hit a new low. Surfaces are patched up rather than dug up and resurfaced properly – too many roads have potholes and ridges that can damage vehicles. Then there are the manhole covers that never seem to fit properly, so that you hear a loud clang when a car or lorry goes over it.
Time we had a national plan for roads that inhibited councils from making road travel almost impossible!
April 22, 2022
Off topic, but very important. The WHO’s attempt to seize control of global health policy is explained in this article. It will just take a majority vote, by the unaccountable and many highly compromised members, at the World Health Assembly in 2023 and all member nations will be bound by it. If passed, and we remain a member, that is the end of what passes for democracy here.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/world-health-organisation-treaty-an-undemocratic-farce/
Perhaps Sir John could ask the Government, and then tell us, what the Government’s policy on the proposed Treaty is. It’s rather more important than Councils’ road policies.
April 22, 2022
Many thanks to Donna for drawing attention to this very grave matter.
One can only hope that, if sufficient no-confidence letters are received in the coming days, the present fibrillating shambles may be replaced by a new government with the backbone to defend us from these abominations.
April 22, 2022
+1 Donna
How right you are Donna. W have been shockingly abused by treaties, Maastricht Treeaty, Lisbon Treaty, and this would be one of the worst abuses of all, for the UK to lose all control of health policy.
April 22, 2022
Yes, they are determined to enslave us and our children and the present oh so well-paid fibrillating shambles (thank you, boffin) could not care less.
April 22, 2022
“Local elections are a good time to engage with Councillors and candidates about what they are going to do to make the roads safer and easier to use”
That’s not a useful question because they’ll assume you mean “for non-car drivers” and they’ll trot out their list of cycle lanes, traffic calming measures, blanket 20mph speed limit, penal parking charges, hidden cameras at box junctions, congestions charging, emissions zones and so on.
April 22, 2022
In our area of Dorset Council ( formerly East Dorset DC ) and neighbouring Christchurch Bournemouth and Poole Council, we have two years of massive disruption and huge expenditure while the authorities have narrowed main thoroughfares to build cycle lanes that are demonstably hardly used.
To make matters worse, the cycle lanes have narrowed the roadway so much that emergency vehicles can no longer get through. The kerbs have been build using high and sharp curbstones which make it too risky to the tyres and wheels of cars to be driven onto to allow the passage of emergency vehicles.
This madness continues.
April 22, 2022
Likewise, we have had multi millions spent on a main through route with cycle lanes & pedestrian crossings added and with a narrowing of the road in places which is heavily trafficked including by buses. It is now considered dangerous in places by local people spoken to. Initial opposition was crushed & it went ahead. I’m not there at all times of the day or night but the observation locally is that a lot of the time there is hardly ever a cyclist in sight and two or three spots in particular have become a real hazard in my opinion.
April 22, 2022
+1 this is all over the place. Combined with anti-car traffic light, islands, “environmental” area obstructions… Car driver pay vas sums in taxes, congestion charges and the government just use it to block the roads!
April 22, 2022
Chriss, it’s a ‘Conservative’ council. What else would we expect, these days?
April 22, 2022
I asked my council why are all the roads becoming ‘20mph’ they told me that it was a national initiative …..a bit like the forthcoming speed limiters fitted to cars – just a little bit more social engineering, they chip away slowly so we wont notice that our freedoms are gone
April 22, 2022
one step nearer Shanks’s pony.
April 22, 2022
Build Back Green
April 23, 2022
There is no proposal to fit actual limiters in cars.
April 23, 2022
I find that traffic flows more smoothly in most large cities at 20mph.
People are far more generous in allowing others to join the stream from side roads, to turn across them, etc. than they were when it meant losing more speed.
April 23, 2022
have you crossed the Thames into S.London boroughs lately? Good luck with the courtesy, you might give it though.
April 23, 2022
I have done exactly that, Vauxhall to Camberwell on many occasions.
April 23, 2022
continued on through Southwark and Lewisham witnessing best of behaviour?
Lunchtime would be my guess – not peak or school run times?
South Circular back to Kew?
April 24, 2022
The S Circ has always been a joke.
April 22, 2022
I read (Frazer Nelson today) that “Polls show Labour is now seen as the more credible low-tax party”, this even before the manifesto ratting 2.5% extra NI cuts in to pay packets this month end.
Well done tax borrow and piss down the drain, manifesto ratters, socialists and net zero loons Sunak and Boris. Quite some achievement given just how appalling the Labour record has been for 50 years and they still are.
Plus it will be Labour/SNP/Libdim/Plaid/Green so surely far worse still.
April 22, 2022
The main problem with our roads is the congestion which becomes worse every year as the civil service/Government wish to continue with mass immigration.
Their solution is not net zero immigration but their Net Zero CO2 Strategy to restrict car use through expensive energy and expensive and sub-optimal evs.
Owning a car is outdated ’20th-century thinking’ and we must move to ‘shared mobility’ to cut carbon emissions, said a transport minister last year.
Although there will be fewer vehicles on the road as a result of the Net Zero policy potholes are more likely to be created as evs are much heavier than ices.
April 22, 2022
O Richard- their solution is not net zero immigration – but you see, “Bloo** borders” are ” just such a pain in the a*** ” – said the outgoing director general of Border Force last year. (As reported in various media at the time)
April 22, 2022
Local councils are infected with the Green Plague.
They see cars as an evil, life-destroying device.
Our local high street has been made Green by putting troughs of plants and small trees in all the parking bays. The multi storey car parks have been knocked down and high rise flats built. Think of all the lovely council tax!
This has bankrupted the few small shops that had survived, lost amongst a sea of estate agents and charity shops. The charity shops survive because of the rates subsidies and the estate agents make a year’s living wage by selling one posh house!
I’m looking forward to the day when a political party tries to implement net zero. Although the civil unrest will be frightening, it will be worth it to rid us of the Green Plague.
April 22, 2022
Looking forward to the day when a political party tries to implement net zero?
That day is here! No ICE engines after 2030. No gas boilers in new houses. Wind turbines instead of power stations. Welcome to Tory net zero. Even more incredibly expensive, rationed energy coming soon.
April 22, 2022
Not the future I voted for, and not the future I want
April 23, 2022
And of course, the biggest thing – it won’t make a ha’porth of difference to the planet whilst the big polluters go on polluting and laughing at us bankrupting ourselves. There has to be a plan somewhere for all these politicians to agree to this nonsense. Someone somewhere is getting a massive kickback.
April 22, 2022
Sorry Mr R off topic…
With regards to the Pandemic Treaty you said you are unaware of. Mark Sharman (former senior news executive with BSkyB and ITV) wrote this report.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/world-health-organisation-treaty-an-undemocratic-farce/
“THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a plan for a so-called Pandemic Treaty which would give it unprecedented, undemocratic jurisdiction over its 194 member nations, including the UK.
Under the treaty, the WHO could order mandatory vaccines, digital health IDs, lockdowns, isolation, testing regimes, no-jab-no-job rules, or anything else it decided as policy, irrespective of dissenting voices. If the UK signed up, the Government would lose any sovereign power to decide this country’s fate in the event of another pandemic, or other health issues.
A deadline for submissions for ‘consultation’ passed last week, but the invitation for video and written comments was launched only the previous weekend – and with barely a whisper. There was no worldwide public announcement.” Etc, etc
This is outrageous!
April 22, 2022
I will never vote for any party that supports this treaty
April 22, 2022
+++100
The final betrayal?
April 22, 2022
Sharon – Last November, the Health Secretary Sajid Javid put his name to a letter from various health ministers around the world which said: ‘We need fundamental reform. A legally binding treaty, convention, or agreement, under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has the potential to provide the world with an ambitious framework to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to future pandemics and epidemics…. The only way to do that is through … equipping and empowering WHO, once and for all, to fulfill its role as the pivotal player in global public health…. We must seize this historic opportunity to get global preparedness and response in order. We cannot wait for the next crisis before we act.’
So we can already see from this what the British government’s official position is. It’s OK with a ‘legally binding treaty’, with ’empowering WHO’, and with a ‘global response’. No room there for sovereign countries to make their own health policy decisions.
The ‘consultation’ was a farce. Even good old Wokingham Borough Council, in its Local Plan Update, did at least give the public the text they were being consulted on. With this proposed treaty, the draft text won’t be ready for another two months.
April 22, 2022
Deeply depressing. We need to tell as many voters as possible about this. We could easily end up with China-style lockdowns and a zero-Covid policy.
April 22, 2022
There is little point in engaging with your local councillors on roads; believe me, I’ve been there and got the Tee-Shirt. They have very little discretionary spending capacity on roads, the vast majority is dictated by Westminster legislation and regulation, along with “penny packet” formula funding down to the level of potholes and traffic lights.
The UK; is the most centrally planned and operated country in Europe; hence it needs tens of thousands of civil servants in Whitehall, remotely designing and implementing regulations which when they are sent down to local councils, simply don’t fit a situation and often conflict with previous missives. It’s the same across all twenty-odd department groupings.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations/highways-maintenance-funding-formula-allocations-2021-to-2022
April 23, 2022
+1
April 23, 2022
Yes, that all stems from the Thatcher governments’ determination to stamp out any attempt at collective endeavours at a local level, whatever the will of the local electorate.
It is vehemently supported by most commenters here too, including Mark I expect.
April 23, 2022
Hilarious that you bring everything back to Lady Thatcher.
Now it’s 2022 potholes !
April 23, 2022
you know its all her fault !
April 24, 2022
No, those who er, formulated her policies…
April 22, 2022
Would you also look at public rights of way (public footpaths, bridleways, restricted byways and byways open to all traffic), please? I would value yours and others thoughts on them.
Highway Authorities have the legislative duty to protect the rights of the public to the use and enjoyment of any highway for which they are the highway authority, and to prevent, as far as possible, the stopping up or obstruction (my summary of the Highways Act 1980, section 130).
My highway authority, (a unitary borough council, which is also the surveying authority) and numerous others do not properly look after public rights of way. And in my opinion do not seem to care that they do not. Highway authorities may blame lack of resources (with some justification because Government doesn’t always provide the money when dishing out extra legislative duties). But authorities do not receive as much criticism as they should – probably because, among other things, the public are innocently ignorant of the legislative highway duties of their local authority. It seems to me that public rights of way are a national treasure and are usually lauded as such by local authorities. But councils’ fine words are not regularly matched with fine actions to keep our paths available and in good condition for the public.
April 22, 2022
Just an observation regarding public footpaths. They are usually signposted. I would like to use more but a problem is that many are directly off roadways and there is nowhere to park a vehicle anywhere near the access. Where there happens to be a wide enough grass verge it is often impossible to get a car on to it as the level is too high or has a rough uneven surface. If this could be given some thought and action there would be more use but that will not happen.
April 22, 2022
Good point Prangwizard.
Section 130 (1) which states “It is the duty of the highway authority to assert and protect the rights of the public to the use and enjoyment of any highway for which they are the highway authority,” goes on to say “including any roadside waste which forms part of it.”; ‘roadside waste’ being the legal term for the verge.
Highway authorities have a legal duty to erect and maintain a signpost at every point where a right of way leaves a hard surfaced road (section 27 of the Countryside Act 1968).
Worth drawing to the attention of or complaining about to the authority.
April 23, 2022
Agreed. I and others put in an application 14 months ago to have the local council adopt a footpath used by the public uninterruptedly for over 40 years, but closed off by a resident suddnely claiming it was on his land. The council has yet to act in the public interest and reopen the footpath.
April 23, 2022
I thought evidence of ‘footpaths’ being walked at least every year had to be taken to continue the facility?
I take it this is not a recognised footpath?
Some landowners allow access over their land without dedicating a right of way. These permissive paths are often indistinguishable from normal paths, but they are usually subject to restrictions. Such paths are often closed at least once a year, so that a permanent right of way cannot be established in law.
April 22, 2022
Oh sorry. But I have to try to share this!!
A letter from local surgery.
20 min LUNG CHECK …..OVER THE PHONE with a nurse!!!
Because of coronavirus.
What???
April 22, 2022
Local surgery making money
April 22, 2022
+1
April 23, 2022
it goes something like this:-
nurse -hello lets start the test.
take a deep breath and hold it as long as you can, then come back to me.
patient :- ok here goes…..
SILENCE.
nurse after 20 seconds Hello?
nurse after 30 seconds Hello?
audible loud thud.
nurse after 50 seconds Hello?
nurse after 1 min 10 seconds Hello?
nurse ‘you can stop now. ‘
Hello – are you there?
April 23, 2022
Good luck with blowing into the spirometer. I have not had a proper test for my asthma for nearly 3 years now, just a nurse doing her best on the phone and still no sign of face to face consultations.
April 22, 2022
I had a letter from the Conservative party inviting me to donate to the Critical Seats Fund for the the forthcoming local elections, is someone taking the proverbial?
I made the mistake of donating before the 2019 GE and look how that turned out
April 22, 2022
Labour controlled Norwich City Council have been anti-car for as long as I can remember (decades), but in more recent times Conservative controlled Norfolk County Council have joined the bandwagon. I do hope no one will jump in and say “If you don’t like it vote for someone else” – THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE. The two main parties have morphed into the Uniparty”, and the LimpDumbs just cosy up to whoever is likely to get them in a position of power. As for the Greens – don’t get me started on that shower…
April 22, 2022
JR says that all except motorways and trunk roads are the responsibility of local councils. Here’s a thing. Some bits of trunk road don’t seem to be anyone’s responsibility. Over the Easter weekend I drove to London to see my sister on an ‘A’ trunk road. All well for the first 20 miles, then a stretch just past one town, about 5 miles of potholed and broken road like driving on a ploughed field until the next town hove into view when all was well again. Been like it for years while the stretches either side re-surfaced. How does this happen? Who can we complain to? Politicians won’t reply, councillors don’t want to know, all blaming someone else unspecified, so nothing gets done. One day something serious will happen.
April 22, 2022
Which road is it?
April 22, 2022
A12
April 22, 2022
Has Johnson secretly agreed with the Chinese to buy 1m cycles, to one day install them in take or return bays in cities? Part of the get rid of cars.
April 22, 2022
Mickey Taking :
Probably.
Plus 28m heat pumps for when they cut off our gas supplies.
He’s pushing his Net Zero Strategy where :
Wind turbines : 85% – 95% of parts are Chinese made.
Solar panels : 100% Chinese made
Batteries : China currently controls the processing of nearly 60% of the world’s lithium, 35% of nickel, 65% of cobalt and more than 85% of rare-earth elements.
And the Government believes Net Zero will make us energy secure!
April 22, 2022
Is that why they’re building miles upon miles of cycle lanes that don’t go anywhere or that people want
April 22, 2022
Another interesting day in the gas market. Have a look at “Instantaneous – Physical Flows Within Day” at https://mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net/ 85% of the LNG regasification from Milford Haven and Isle of Grain, is being exported to the EU. A nice little earner me thinks.
April 23, 2022
Meanwhile some farmer could go bust because of high fertilizer prices. But don’t worry, they will just use the land to build more houses although I do not know what the people are going to do for food and fuel ?
April 22, 2022
The majority of people use roads for functional purposes. All they want to do is to get from one place to another as safely and efficiently/quickly as possible.
However, we now have a significant minority of leisure cyclists. They seem to have plenty of money and time on their hands and tend to block the roads. Their presence is also a safety hazard. They are a menace.
Surely there must be a way to encourage leisure cyclists off the roads into velodromes or other off-road locations.
There are still many people who have to physically go to work and the roads are still needed for deliveries and emergencies. Roads should not be playgrounds for those with excesses of time and money.
April 22, 2022
I now have to drive to my office using the St.Ives ring road.The road is too narrow with roundabouts and almost no view of vehicles coming from the right.
With local elections soon l emailed the candidates standing for election.
Their replies gave no indication that they understood the problems.
April 22, 2022
Surely, STOP OIL will have to turn their attention to roads and stop all road building and repair work to our roads in recognition of the fact that they are made and done using bitumen, or tar, another oil product!
April 22, 2022
My council has abandoned doing any maintenance on the roads with the result the leaf fall in Autumn turns to a slurry, and in Spring and Summer this becomes the base for weeds to colonise the roads. In this dystopian world the road out side my home was getting narrower as nature took back the territory. Fed up of the traffic using my bit of grass verge to drive over as they passed each other I cleared back this incursion, there was one metre of road I found under all the weeds.
April 22, 2022
People really should take the time to discover more about their local councillors and what they are promising to do, the leaflets are usually based on national policies and not what they are able to vote on, this is how they get away with all sorts, I vote for the person locally not the party.
April 22, 2022
This week I received leaflets from the labour party councillor saying that climate change was there main priority, the liberal party saying they do better than labour, the green party saying they’ll adopt a carbon free zero and nothing yet from the tories….at my pub, shop and with my neighbours all we talk about is the litter, the police, the bins and pot holes
April 23, 2022
try a different pub?
April 23, 2022
good suggestion
April 23, 2022
on that basis Cameron, May and Johnson got to be PM. They must have passed the ‘vote for the person’ test ! I think that makes it pretty fallible.
April 22, 2022
Off topic , but something I have commented on here, the cost of the green levy and the need to remove it. I see on Conservative Woman they have a breakdown of this environmental tax, following the Government publishing the figures for December , and the windfall profits being made .
Renewable Obligation Certificates equate to a bung to the Renewable energy suppliers of £6.6 billon that comes out of OUR pockets.
The ROC average are worth about £75/MWh.
Historically the wholesale price of electricity has been around £50/MWh, but now wind farms earned an average of £213/MWh from sales last December, so offshore wind farms received a total income of £317/MWh, including the subsidy.
This means renewable generators received a windfall profit of £923million.
Why, WHY , are we being made to subsidise windfall profits in the renewable energy sector? I would do away with them, but even the Green fanatics in Government must realise we cannot be subsidising them when energy costs are sky high, at the very least these subsidies should be tailed off in response to rising energy prices.
April 22, 2022
Whilst agreeing strongly with many of the preceding comments, I would beg to add that not only are local government apparatchiks pursuing an agenda ”out to get the vehicles off their local roads” as you put it, Sir John, but they are also seeking to boost council revenues by issuing spurious financial penalties on any who still dare to drive on them.
(Case in point: I was aggrieved to receive a fixed penalty notice after being caught on camera, unwittingly infringing an improperly-marked ‘bus gate’ … but the penalty had been trebled, because the original notice which the apparatchiks claimed to have sent never arrived. Bad enough to generate fake penalties, but hey if you can treble those penalties by forgetting to post the original notice when the hapless driver has no viable route of appeal, what a nice little earner for the council!).
We have a very bad situation in which councils have powers dishonestly to rob motorists with impunity, a most perfidious form of local taxation.
April 22, 2022
May I quote the opening paragraph of a satirical novel by Jason Fforde, published in 2007 and called First Among Sequels, which is most apposite to this article:
“The dangerously high level of the Stupidity Surplus was once again the lead story in the [morning newspaper]. The reason for the crisis was that the Prime Minister and his Commonsense Party had been discharging their duties with a reckless degree of responsibility that bordered on inspired sagacity. Instead of drifting from one crisis to the next and appeasing the nation with a steady stream of knee-jerk legislation and headline-grabbing but arguable pointless initiatives, they had been resolutely building a raft of considered long-term plans that concentrated on unity, fairness and tolerance. It was a state of affairs deplored by the Leader of the opposition ‘Prevailing Wind’ party who wanted to lead the nation back on to the safer grounds of uninformed stupidity.”
April 22, 2022
My local council hires out bikes. I have never seen one of them ridden by someone with a crash helmet. Why are crash helmets not mandatory for the use of bikes on public roads and why is the offence of riding on a public footpath not enforced?
April 22, 2022
Sadly SJR local elections will be decided on what has been done or not done on a string of national issues plus a bit of “Partygate”. The appalling state of UK roads will not get a lookin.
It is inflation and the missmanaged supply of fuel in the form of gas oil and coal, leading to astronomic price hikes on the public and industry, that will lead to the demise of Boris, and the tories locally and nationally. Insistence on continued worship at the green altar will be your epitaph.
April 22, 2022
Yes agreed – and the astounding thing is that this was absolutely predictable, it’s just taken Ukraine to accelerate the process. Possibly Boris thought he would be long gone before this particular can hit the fan. The cost of energy and food is what will finish him, not Partygate.
One small problem of course – who will replace him? No one springs to mind as my favourite (apart from you of course Sir John – but I’m afraid you talk far too much common sense to be a viable candidate for the ‘modern’ CP!) 🙂
April 23, 2022
As Einstein said: “common sense is the range of prejudices which became established before the age of eighteen”
April 23, 2022
well he couldn’t get everything right, could he!
April 24, 2022
No, and nor could Hayek, but rather more so.
April 22, 2022
Forget the bloody roads, WOKE FASCISM IS DESTROYING OUR NATION and we except a Tory government to confront this Marxist cancer that is eating away at our core.
Repeal the deceitful and discriminatory Equality Act 2010. Repeal the Human Rights Act. These laws are designed to assert political control over public bodies by woke parasites
April 23, 2022
Ask the inhabitants of Mariupol whether they’d prefer to live under what you call “woke fascism”rather than the variety with which they are burdened, eh, Dom?
Your cheap use of silly, extreme exaggeration is a gross insult to add to their terrible suffering.
April 22, 2022
Denver-based shale gas producer Liberty Oilfield Services posted record revenues surpassing analysts’ expectations for the quarter https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-21/liberty-oilfield-posts-best-sales-in-years-on-fracking-boom?fbclid=IwAR1lLMQfXh5Of-FGMthnNWo6fcvt_9r6P3hGXIStRoMpgFC1a-2cFNsOaLw
This could be the UK – providing revenue for the government, security of supply and employment opportunities…..shale gas could fund new roads across the land at no expense to the taxpayer
April 22, 2022
The money that the UK sends to fund the European Large Hadron Collider (CERN), could fund the repair of all pot-holes in the country and increase the country’s efficiency…we contribute to too many international organisations to make politicians to look good; rather than providing basic services to the public
April 22, 2022
Happy St George’s day tomorrow. Proud to be English. Whoops. Are we allowed to say that anymore?
April 23, 2022
That probably offended half the Scots.
April 22, 2022
Yes it’s a no brainer
April 23, 2022
You said it!
April 24, 2022
Why is it that saving a few minutes on journey times is seen as an economic benefit in rail services, that can be calculated as a sum of money, but not for road travel?
Every impediment and intentional congestion-causing measure has an economic cost. Why is this never taken into account by councils? A simple change in the law forcing them to do this might work wonders.
April 24, 2022
I’ve often wondered exactly the same, KB.
There are many analogous situations too.
For instance, we were told the cost to the taxpayer of keeping open marginally-subsidised steel mills, shipyards, and mines, but that was never compared with the cost in benefits of throwing out of work all those employees and of the resulting social problems such as increased crime etc.
April 24, 2022
HS2 will save, what, 20 minutes off London-Birmingham?
Yet if the council puts in some traffic lights that cause congestion adding 20 minutes to the commute on that road, we just have to lump it.
In fact, the Highways Agency has actually admitted that the M40/A34 junction improvements have made things worse, also M6 J.23 (A580) also made things worse, by their own admission. But again we have to lump it.