Manchester has spoken- now Government should listen

By Steve Orme on Dec 15, 08 11:17 AM

I hold no brief for the city of Manchester. Over the years I have made it clear that I am with Mark Twain on this one, the only advantage of living in Manchester is that the transition between Manchester and death would be unnoticeable.
Today, however, I toast rather than roast the good people of Anthony Wilsonburg for they have very possibly struck the first blow in the victory over transport communism.

Presented with the choice of paying £1,200 a year to drive their cars on roads they have already paid for, or using a Hans Anderson fantasy public transport network, with all the delights of random violence that go with it, they voted for good sense with a resounding Northern 'booger off'.
No, just possibly and with the help in London of Boris, we may see the nonsense of totalitarian traffic 'initiatives' come unstitched.
Speed cameras, traffic calming, road charging and empty bus lanes have done nothing to improve air quality or save Johnny Polar bear.Congestion has not been charged out of existence.
Now, with a large part of the population faced with the prospect of eating its own shoes we could really do with an all out effort to save the human being. Or at least its jobs. Let's see the money put to stimulating local business, not the quango economies of the Guardian classes. Make it easier to park in our cities, it just may lure people back to the shops, get the population truly mobile not held hostage to train companies, some which seem to think that then, not your boss, decide daily starting times.
For me the Manchester question was best summed up by a logo someone had commissioned which showed three transport cogs meshed - but meshed in such a way that the machinery would be locked solid.
Plant pots.