Siege city?
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If the GLC wants to create a whole new black market economy, it is going the right way to achieve it. Penal access fees for lorries, " gated " roads to exclude certain sizes of vehicle, compulsory transhipment, designated routes and the like would not only increase costs to the consumer: they would create the shortages, delays and lack of choice in which a black market thrives. One gets the impression that the planners are being given their head to produce a host of restraints to disguise the fact that the things which really need to be done are unacceptable to London's political masters.
It is not only British manufacturing industry that is suffering from a creeping blight. As the FTA's president rammed home on Monday, some of the capital's principal services are a disgrace, its docks appear to have a death wish and its lack of proper bypass routes is an anachronism. If on top of this the GLC imposes heavy-handed controls in the name of environmental protection, it may wake up one day to find that it has few businesses and a declining population to savour the alleged improvements which are advanced to justify its negative approach to city management.