Link from above link -
"
The State contributed just over €2 million last year to a privately operated tolled motorway that earned almost €20 million in operating profits in 2014, it has emerged.
"
So it's not just UKGov!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Do we need an EU referendum thread? (Brexit thread)
(3978 posts)-
Posted 7 years ago #
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At least the Irish have had the good sense to toll (some of) their motorways.
The UK should sell off all the motorways and trunk roads and make them pay for themselves through private ownership.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Interesting that the first sweetheart deal to be cut is for motor car production in an area that voted strongly to Leave.
The first sweet heart deal was Treasury to guarantee post-Brexit funding for EU-backed projects including science grants and agricultural subsidies this happened with in days of brexit
Posted 7 years ago # -
The UK should sell off all the motorways and trunk roads and make them pay for themselves through private ownership.
And cycle tracks. And pavements.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"The UK should sell off all the motorways and trunk roads and make them pay for themselves through private ownership."
Cue lots of skinflint hauliers, coach companies, white van owners etc. pummelling moor and B roads with their heavy vehicles in order to avoid paying tolls...
That'll make cycling fun!
Posted 7 years ago # -
Cue lots of skinflint hauliers, coach companies, white van owners etc. pummelling moor and B roads with their heavy vehicles in order to avoid paying tolls...
That'll make cycling fun!
That doesn't happen in France (or other civilised countries), where there are lots of toll roads.
Reason: Journeys on toll roads are fast, on a beautifully well-maintained surface and congestion free. Journeys on local roads are slow due to local traffic and local speed limits. Skinflints soon learn to pay up (or modify their lifestyles).
When is the UK going to get over this stupid idea that free roads are a good thing?
Posted 7 years ago # -
I've done a fair few congestion-free kilometres on French toll roads but I've always wondered how it fits into the esprit républicain as richer citizens have more access than poorer ones to a common good.
If it was up to me I'd ration access for private citizens in a non-tradeable system. Buses go free, lorries pay tolls. Wouldn't that be fairer?
Posted 7 years ago # -
I've always wondered how it fits into the esprit républicain as richer citizens have more access than poorer ones to a common good.
This is the case for everything else in life (under a capitalist system), why should roads be any different? Is it fair that the rich have more access to helicopters for example?
I'd ration access for private citizens in a non-tradeable system. Buses go free, lorries pay tolls. Wouldn't that be fairer?
Yes, but what you are describing is a communist system, which we don't have in this country. Communist systems are well known for their rationing and queuing,
Posted 7 years ago # -
Buses go free, lorries pay tolls. Wouldn't that be fairer?
The poor would still pay more, cheap food delivered on long distance trucks vs good quality food from small retailers and farm shops for example.
Yes, but what you are describing is a communist system, which we don't have in this country.
Nah the commies would have everyone queueing up to use a small single track road whilst the elite would have a motorway to themselves. I'd say its more heavy socialism which we're not too afraid of here.(well we weren't)
Posted 7 years ago # -
Is it fair that the rich have more access to helicopters for example?
If the helicopters are a common good then no. Otherwise possibly yes. Some helicopters are more equal than others.
Shared goods like the NHS and roads draw us together and increase solidarity. People who wish to reduce solidarity argue for individual charging. Or at least that's what I thought the poll tax was intended to do and private healthcare is intended to do.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Things are getting mystical in Old London Town;
If we persist, our role in the world will emerge, almost inadvertently.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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The full judgement in Her Maj vs Secretary of State for Exiting the EU is actually quite readable and even enjoyable. Paragraph 86 will make some readers proud to be British.
Looks like the three-way Crown/parliament/people tussle is being narrowed down to parlaiment(s) and people.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Posted 7 years ago #
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"Unpleasant" is perhaps an understatement.
It would be nice to think that Government and Opposition parties would act together to point out that 'the system' is run by Parliament(s) within a legal framework NOT by newspapers (and their individual owners) that shout the loudest.
If only.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I don't understand why the government is getting so worked up about this.
If you can't negotiate with your own parliament - where you have a majority - how are you going to negotiate with 27 other countries?
Time to grow a pair, raise your game, and just get on with it.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"Take back control!", "Return our sovereignty!", "The people have spoken!"
But obviously, not too much control, the wrong sort of sovereignty or those kind of people.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Clearly, until TMay honours the pledge on the side of that bus she has no mandate to do anything.
Posted 7 years ago # -
"
I am prepared to take the economic hit"
"
Says former minister Gove.
Or
"
What he means is that he's prepared to let YOU take the economic hit.
"
Someone on Twitter
Posted 7 years ago # -
I'd be prepared to pay to see former minister Michael Gove take a hit. Ideally to the face. Repeatedly.
We could crowdfund that to provide financial relief to disenfranchised communities. Likely to be a nice little earner.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I'd be prepared to pay to see former minister Michael Gove take a hit. Ideally to the face.
Mr Gove used to drink in the same pub as me, a long, long time ago. It wasn't the kind of pub where oddball, loudmouth Hayek enthusiasts would go unremarked.
One night he and his friend were followed when they left and set upon. The friend was badly assaulted but Mr Gove it seems ran away and was not hit in the face or otherwise. I don't know if the friend is still a friend.
Posted 7 years ago # -
I imagine Mr Gove considers friends to be people he hasn't stabbed in the back...yet.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Interesting essay referenced in George Monbiot's latest Guardian article;
https://paularbair.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/brexit-the-populist-surge-and-the-crisis-of-complexity/
the author is an EU citizen, so possibly a bad person.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Aren't we all (still) EU citizens??
Posted 7 years ago # -
@chdot
Yes, and potentially bad people.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Why only "potentially"?...
Posted 7 years ago # -
Well, not everyone digs the original sin thing. I do, obviously. The human condition is a lukewarm bath of iniquity in my experience. The self-respecting regret nearly everything they do, do they not?
Posted 7 years ago # -
Pass.
Posted 7 years ago # -
Is the link you posted worth a read? It's been overtaken by a lot of events.
Also this put me off -
"
Prime Minister David Cameron, who seemed to have won a convincing re-election just over a year ago, stepped down and announced that he would leave it to his or her successor
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Posted 7 years ago #
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