public debate, yea right
Full and informed public debate,
Is that the same sort of debate we have over the EU superstate treaty where the public debate and the government ignores them.
Government denies road charging 'blackmail'
The government has rejected suggestions by MPs on the Transport Committee that it is "blackmailing" local authorities into introducing congestion charging schemes. It said that it will not support charging unless there is a robust investigation to show that it will be beneficial. The comments are made in the government's …
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Thursday 18th October 2007 11:18 GMT Ash
I pay my road and fuel tax; i'm not paying again!
If they bring in road charging, i'm stealing someone elses number plate: hopefully an MP's. GPS tracking? I'm adapting my WiFi signal generator to spam the GPS signal frequency.
Further, where to motorcycles fit in? They are non-congesting! Excluding the Ride for Rights 2007 where they will PURPOSEFULLY congest Whitehall from Wembley... Sounds counter productive to me, which is why i'm not going.
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Thursday 18th October 2007 18:19 GMT John A Blackley
Wrong focus
Ah yes, the old "full and informed public debate" ploy.
What is needed (in Britain and here in the US) is a "full and informed public debate" on how to make our elected representatives actually.............er, represent us.
In the UK, I don't recall ever voting for someone who pledged to tax me until working for a living became an unattractive option. I don't recall voting for someone who pledged to take determination of my country's future out of my hands and place it in the tender care of a Eurocrat. I also don't recall voting for someone who pledged not to follow our own country's interests but to squander those to curry favour with the United States.
In my mind, a system for more accountable representatives would involve holding the representative's family hostage, public stocks, large and angry unemployed men and repeated canings to the soles of the feet - or the absence of all of those, in the unlikely event that my 'representative' didn't morph into a pocket Pinochet as soon as he/she got on the train for London or Edinburgh.
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Friday 19th October 2007 09:09 GMT The Sceptic
Boot them out
These type of blackmail tactics were the single reason the Labour government was thrown out of office in Scotland - it now looks like it going to spread nation wide as they have already put back their elections as the public were in support of other parties.
The whole issue in Scotland was they were prepared to charge for road use which we are supposed to be paying for anyway. They seem to forget that most journeys are through necessity - not for the sake of it. By effectively taxing one route they force the traffic through small villages and minor roads - increasing the likely hood of accidents.
I now work beside a primary motorway route and was shock to learn my carbon dioxide level in the blood have doubled since starting working hear after attending a chemist for a check after reading an article.
There have been options available to spread the load of peak times for years but the government changed the way roads are paid for so now the councils just ignore the fact.
Catalytic converters in the exhaust systems do address the problem to a degree but the vehicle must average a minimum of 2000RPM to maintain the heat required for the process - needless to say in peak traffic the levels are shocking.
I would be really interested to see a study on the variance of CO2 through out the working day.
I wonder if they will start to listen when they start getting sued for inaction as in a court of law apparently doing nothing is almost the same actually committing the crime!
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
