Charging the facts
Page 8
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Comer John Prescott and he'll put his head down, and charge. That's exactly what he did at this week's Freight Transport Association annual dinner. And by golly, he pretty well got away with it.
Perhaps FTA members are too polite to start barracking a senior Cabinet minister when he starts to spout the party line—although the rising tide of "harnimphing" at the Hilton did indicate that they'd had more than enough of his speech—and of course they'd heard it all before.
Or maybe it was yet another promise 0144 tonnes that made them hold back. But then 44 tonnes has always appealed to PTA members_ If he'd tried the same speech at a Road Haulage Association annual dinner he'd have barely got out of the room alive.
Departing from a speech that ricocheted around the prepared text like a pinball, he declared: "It's about time we had figures we could agree on instead of slagging off each other's figures which are perhaps not justifiable."
Well fine, Deputy Prime Minister. We can start by ignoring all the recent "official reports" that British operators enjoy lower overall costs than their Continental counterparts.
The one sensible thing Prescott did say was: "Most goods are carried by road and that will continue to be the case. Even if we treble rail freight, still over 90% (it said 80% in his text) would be transported by road." Which begs the question: if the Government can accept a simple fact like that, why the hell does it have so much trouble with the rest of the industry's evidence?