An observation from Blackpool

Here in the South West when I get on a bus, I pay the driver then sit (or stand) where I like even if that's sprawled halfway up the stairs, Metro gripped between the teeth, wondering when the high speed corners are going to end. The bus takes the quickest route that includes all the requisite stops (the precise path depending on the traffic). We rattle through mostly LibDem constituencies.

In Blackpool, when I got on the tram the conductor usually told me where to sit (and not to stand). The tram would then trundle off down its centrally planned rails and, in due course, the conductor would come along and make sure to collect money from me. In New Labour country.

I wonder if there's a cause and effect thing going on here. Perhaps sometime before the next general election a LibDem action force should mount a midnight raid on the trams' engine sheds and sling on some tyres and steering wheels. You never know.

Fuel protesters, back again?

After reading the BBC's story about the possible return of the fuel protestors, I described them as "self interested fools with regard only for their own pockets. Thugs, bullies and racketeers". Then somebody asked me why...

The fuel protestors, despite their claims to be representing "motorists" are largely made up of commercial hauliers. Their complaint is not about the price of fuel as an absolute amount but about (a) how much, or little, of it they're able to pass on to their customers, and (b) competition from European operators who are paying less tax on fuel before entering the country. In both cases their motivation is commercially, not ethically, based.

They are thugs and bullies because they are using the size of their vehicles and their presence on the roads to disproportionally influence public opinion and the government at the expense of everybody else. They are racketeers because they rattle on about how lower fuel prices would benefit everybody without pointing out that such a lowering would need to be made up elsewhere, else spending would have to be cut. Who would benefit most from a rebalancing of the tax burdan away from fuel and towards (for example) VAT? The hauliers! That's the scam - presenting a tax reduction for them as a tax reduction for everybody.

It doesn't help that so little of the money raised from fuel tax has been spent on making the hauliers unnecessary, but that's not an excuse.

Ruth is responsible

According to Ruth Kelly on the radio earlier this week, her department is "responsible for parenting". Oddly though, I took my son out on a train-trip to Cheltennam yesterday and most of the parents we saw were busy being responsible themselves. Even in Ruth's absence.