England is becoming an increasingly hostile car nation
Mike Rutherford wonders why the Government is being needlessly hostile towards motorists
Ever had an unpredictable, life-long pal who potentially has it all, but often goes and spoils everything by pressing the self-destruct button? Sadly, I’m currently lumbered with such a self-harming old friend. It goes by the name of England.
This is an increasingly hostile car nation, and worse still, because I’m a car and van bloke, not a train, bus or bike nut, I’m pretty much displaced from its capital city, where I was born. As far as many of London’s ruling politicians are concerned, people like me are on the ‘most-hated’ list, because we drive ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong, England and its Greater London capital still have a lot going for them. It’s just that over the past 15 years, Con-Lib coalition, then Conservative and now Labour Governments have all done their best to ruin the country and city by being needlessly hostile to motorists. Also putting the boot in are a few scarily powerful local councils, such as the motorist-bullying Labour regime in Greater London.
But as if to prove that things aren’t all bad, last month saw the brilliant Silverstone Formula One weekend, Goodwood’s Festival of Speed (the planet’s greatest car festival) and the London E-Prix all go ahead, proving that cars and car culture ain’t dead yet.
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However, the road and train networks, electricity grid and other important bits of our major infrastructure are all deeply wounded – and misery inducing. The quality time I spent admiring the F1 action was overshadowed by pitifully slow driving times that would have totalled around 24 hours had I driven to the GP meeting on all three days. Almost as infuriating were the countless road closures that frustrated Festival of Speed goers. Visitors to the E-Prix endured 20mph speed limits and accompanying licence-threatening cameras, plus the just-introduced rip-off tolls at the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels.
I tried alternatives to the car several times throughout July. But trains were cancelled or late, or turfed me off early onto the dreaded rail replacement bus. All that was painful enough, but on a day when temperatures were 30C-plus, I almost suffocated in a stuck train carriage with sealed windows, tightly locked doors and a busted air-con system.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I received “do not travel” notifications as I tried but failed to use Waterloo station, which had 14 platforms out of action. July also gave me power cuts at home, in a posh business building in London and elsewhere.
Enough’s enough. I attempted to get away from it all via LeShuttle from Folkestone, and opted to travel off-peak on a quiet Monday. Yet I was still forced to queue for almost three hours, simply in order to show my passport to UK and French officials. When and how did we (the voters) give permission to them (the chauffeur-driven politicians) to make day-to-day life so difficult for us humble motorists?
Since the writing of this piece about England's now legendary infrastructure failings, unfit-for-purpose road and public transport networks plus its infuriating border control issues, the UK's air traffic control system went into meltdown during the final days of July. Countless planes were grounded, resulting in travel mayhem for thousands of stranded airline passengers over several days and nights. Makes you proud to be British, right?
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