Politicians cause haulier concern
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• "As a man who cares for the environment, I am gravely concerned at the behaviour of our politicians during the debate on the heavy lorry. They were clearly giving way to the lowest common denominator of public opinion."
This was said by Mr John Silbermann (Brent Group of Companies), chairman of the RHA Metropolitan and South East area when he spoke at the Association's Chichester sub-area annual dinner last Friday.
It was the ideal setting for the demagogue, said Mr Silbermann. A vote against the heavy lorry was first "a vote against those damned foreigners"; secondly a bid for the admiration of the more unthinking sections of the press and other media, and finally an illusory gesture in favour of the sacred environment.
"For it is an illusion," Mr Silbermann reiterated. "Goods have to be carried somehow and whatever the means of transport it is bound to annoy somebody. The politicians are not going to help much by choosing to attack the target which seems to them at the moment the most unpopular."