Say what you like, Blair deserves at least one gold star, he taught us that at face value, you can believe nothing that comes out of Westminster, irrespective of the colour, be it red or blue. Most of it is so patently absurd, so thoughtless, an eleven-year-old could see it as tripe. Take the latest nonsense about driving cars at a constant speed, to save the environment. It’s electionitis – open your mouth say what first comes into your mind, irrespective if it makes sense or not, as long as it sounds that you care. One thing I am certain of is that this new policy will in fact, if implemented, save nothing, how could it? In this country, unlike America, we don’t have vast stretches of road with little traffic, here we have clogged motorways; you need to drive at night to get a free run, without logjams due to roadworks, or traffic in excess of what the roads were designed for.
As I understand it, the spokesman, I think he was Conservative, said we should drive cars at a steady speed which reduces CO2 emissions, and thus save the environment. He also suggested that traffic lights should be repositioned to permit steadier flow patterns. I always thought traffic lights were there to aid the flow, in all directions, to allow pedestrians to cross the road, aid changing direction, and so maintain the flow. Perhaps it’s because he’s now got a ministry car, sits at the back, dozes, reads the newspaper, and isn’t really aware of the traffic anyway. Where has he been? Hasn’t he heard of the mummy run, when the whole system grinds to a steady five MPH? That saves the environment? When I see pictures of the M25 at rush hour, or the bank holiday rush, with cars nose to tail all the way to the coast, crawling at a steady 10 miles an hour, and then listen to this rubbish, with theory replacing reason, I fear for the future, if people like that will be running the country. Just think of the cost of redesigning road junctions so that there is at least one lane that can travel at a steady speed of, say, 55 MPH. Every time politicians mention the environment, it seems to me it inevitably will cost us more in taxation. Perhaps that s the ploy.