Dispatches

Tonight's Channel 4 Dispatches programme was all about "Bottleneck Britain", and how the government see road pricing or pay as you drive, as the way to beat the congestion on our roads.

One funny moment in the prog was a man dancing through the lights in central London to show that all the Traffic lights were on red and the vehicles couldn't move at all.

What they all seemed to miss, especially the Economics expert who stated that road pricing must be taken up. Is the simple fact we already pay twice for our roads. We pay road fund licence and we pay per mile through the tax on fuel. That the government sees fit not to spend these monies on the roads is not the motorists fault, and why should the motorists be held responsible.

We have according to the prog, 26 million vehicles on the road in the UK. Now by my maths that makes a massive contribution to government coffers. If all the vehicle were cars that raises 3,900,000,000, but they are not all cars and light goods vehicles, they are HGV's which pay upto £2,000 road tax which increases the governments take even more.

The reporter came across as a government stooge, trying to prove the case for, rather than ask where was the money going, and no-one actually asked would there be a cancellation of road tax or a drop in fuel tax.

It was good to see Neil Herron in a two minute segment about parking charges, with a great bit of advertising for his blog on his car.