Transport - Road Chaos
By Trevor Kanavagh

Traffic is grinding to a standstill and thousands of Brits are thinking of emigrating. I thought of them — and my Australian passport — as I sat in traffic gridlock for four hours last week. I did not know then that among thousands of other seething, cursing motorists was someone who might just do something about it. Trapped in the lines of motionless traffic which brought the capital city to a halt was Home Secretary David Blunkett. As soon as he was released from his car, Mr Blunkett fired off a private note to Transport supremo Alistair Darling. It is always a good thing for a politician to see for themselves the impact of their own stupid decisions.

I am not blaming Mr Blunkett personally, but it was his Government which lumbered London with Ken Livingstone as Mayor. It was Ken Livingstone who declared war on motorists by paralysing London traffic. And it was this war that stranded Mr Blunkett and thousands of other innocent travellers for four hours in driving rain. Two days after receiving the letter, Mr Darling appointed a new Traffic Czar to clear broken-down lorries and stop people digging holes in the road. It will do no good, of course. The damage has been done.

Ken Livingstone is cutting London’s lifeblood. He is driving people — and business — away from the capital. Manchester is rubbing Londoners’ noses in it with a “Grim Down South” campaign to lure business north. Families are putting up with graffiti, street crime and the dearest property prices in the country. Now, in addition, they cannot drive on their own streets. Roadworks are everywhere, but not for improvements. Junctions are being altered to delay cars and roads are being narrowed. The Strand has suffered 162 different roadworks in the past year. Traffic lights have been altered so they stay red longer.

Some are now red for ten times longer than they are green. People cannot go by bus because the roads are deliberately clogged by Mayor Livingstone. The Tube is in chaos thanks to his meddling. Taxis are out of the question because Livingstone has wilfully raised fares to the point where even the cabbies are embarrassed to ask £10 for a two-mile journey. And to cap it all, anyone entering London by road next February will have to pay £5 a day for the privilege. It is literally highway robbery. We are all being punished by a man with an obsessive hatred of motor cars — a hypocrite who happily charged his London council tax payers £260 for his taxi ride home from Blackpool because he was too idle to catch a train.

What is more astonishing is the patience of his victims. While trapped in that gridlock along with Mr Blunkett, nobody uttered a word of apparent protest. Imagine that sort of forbearance in Paris. French drivers would be up in arms, causing havoc, blaring out the Marseillaise on their car horns. They would blockade the roads around Ken’s ugly new headquarters — dubbed the Glass Testicle. They would certainly boycott his outrageous road charging rip-off. And it would work. If everyone refuses to pay their traffic jam tax, his scheme will collapse in ruins, as did the poll tax 11 years ago after the Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay campaign — which Livingstone supported.

Police and traffic wardens would be swamped. The courts would raise their hands in surrender. It wouldn’t be civil disobedience. It would be a two-fingered victory over a power-crazed petty dictator who deserves to be booted out of office.

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