Latest Bright Ideas
Free
transport for Olympic spectators and dedicated
road lanes for athletes are among plans being
considered to help London win its 2012 Games bid.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said
transport was a key hurdle to London's chances.
But bid chairman Seb Coe promised "the best
planned and operated transport system" in
the history of the Olympics.
He said, "That is my promise to every
athlete who will compete here in London. And for
spectators, transport within London will be free.
Every spectator carrying a valid ticket to any
event within London will be able to travel to and
from their event for free." The bid team
says there will be 240 trains an hour over 10
rail lines into the East London Olympic Park in
Stratford.
A network of road lanes will be reserved for
athletes in cars, buses and coaches. And the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link, opening in 2007, will
provide a seven-minute shuttle service from St
Pancras to Stratford, the team says. It is
estimated that a successful Olympic bid would
bring an extra 500,000 visitors to London, as
well as 16,000 athletes, coaches and staff,
20,000 journalists and 135,000 workers.
Transport strategist Paul Willoughby will tell
the conference that London is well advanced in
its plans. He said, "The authorities have
the experience and resources to create a special
Olympic transport service at the same time as
delivering London's non-Olympic transport
requirements."
The
government has long been encouraging individuals
to take out private medical care insurance. Now,
the gullible ones who heeded that advice, are
about to be kicked in the teeth. Health Secretary
John Reid is ready to buy all Britain's 220
private hospitals and turn them into NHS ones.
The deal would cost £5 BILLION but would allow
an extra 250,000 patients a year to be treated.
Private medicine could be killed off by genetic
advances that will predict the diseases we are
likely to get. Those at risk wouldn't get
insurance cover and with drastically fewer
patients, private hospitals would shut. Dr Reid
said, "If that's the case, I'll buy them
out. We'll take resources which have been the
monopoly of the rich and use them for the benefit
of all." The health service has already
bought hospitals in London and Clydebank from the
private sector.
The
Government could be prepared to nationalise the
National Lottery, according to Culture Secretary
Tessa Jowell. Ms Jowell said that she was
"seriously considering" bringing the
lottery under state control. "I am very
interested in exploring that possibility. We are
seriously considering it," she said. Her
comments, which come against a background of
falling sales and a fall in revenues for the good
causes, will alarm Camelot, which currently has
the lottery franchise. However Ms Jowell stressed
that the Government's priority was to secure the
"public good" and minimise the sums
being "creamed off" by the operator.
"What matters about the lottery is that it
works for the public good, that it represents
good value for money and that the minimum amount
of money is being creamed off to meet
costs." So, the government could soon be
running the National Lottery as efficiently as it
runs the NHS!
Drivers
could face a range of new charges in a concerted
drive to cut congestion on Britain's roads,
Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has
signalled. Mr Darling suggested that satellite
tracking technology could be used to clock
journeys, with drivers subsequently billed for
their travel. Commuters, school-run parents and
motorway users would bear the brunt of a variable
system, where charges would be highest for
rush-hour travel and for using the most congested
roads. The Government COULD reduce car or petrol
tax as a compensatory measure.
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