I used to have a rant about Gordon Brown doesn't drive and therefore is in a crap position over the past twelve years to preside over increases in fuel duty, the proliferation of speed cameras, road tax and car scrappage.
Whilst his advisers may have warned him of outcomes and complaints about various policies, there's no way his can appreciate them first hand.
When drivers fill up their cars at the pumps, and see the litre counter going up faster than the cost counter, or the rise in price for a full tank or less fuel for a tennern you get these little instant feedback loops about the cost.
When drivers are in a hurry and they know that they can go a little faster and get to their destination a little sooner, and evaluate the risk of getting flashed by a speed camera or not.
Driving full pelt and seeing the fuel gauge tick downwards and knowing that's going to cost you, but its worth it to get from A to B.
Whilst you can search online and book in advance for a cheap journey from London to Glasgow some point in the future by train or plane, if you want to travel right now, with no advance warning, hopping in your car will always be the cheapest and most efficient option.
Gordon Brown knows none of these things first hand.
Driving for him is someone else's problem. The price of fuel is not something he has to face. Deciding how fast to go is just a matter of ordering the driver.
Its not his problem.
I think last time I had this rant, it was in the company of anti-car people and didn't down well despite my reasoning.
Its like designers who design things that they themselves will never use, they never appreciate how annoying their wee design solution is.
Anyhoo, we now have revelations that nine members of the cabinet employ accountants at the taxpayer's expense to handle thair tax returns.
They have presided over a system that is so complicated and time-consuming that they are able to do it themselves, at the same time as expecting the rest of the population. To them tax returns are someone else's problem that they don't need to deal with first hand.
Same thing.
These people are in no position to govern us.
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it's a very interesting time to question the whole bicameral system we have. Surely a proper function of the "revising Chamber" should be to test out motoring-related legislation for just these points. Yet it has failed.
ReplyDeleteA true Second Chamber should act as a sense-check on the executive and challenge it to 'think again' where necessary. But how would it be formed? Whatever it becomes, it must be apolitical, independent and not like that shower in the 'Commons'.