"Why is transport so underrated by our politicians?"
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name the most important development of the past 50 years and the odds are that they will choose the explosive growth in communications. Ask any politician to name the most important ministries of state and the chances are that they will choose the Treasury or the Foreign Office—the high-profile glamour jobs they would like to have.
But give them a little time to reflect and most people will realise that the biggest changes in their lives have been brought about by advances in transport. Electronic communications may bring us television pictures from the other side of the world but it takes transport to bring us the produce of those countries; the seasonal foods our parents could never find, let alone afford.
The esoteric novelties of yesteryear have become the commonplace items on today's supermarket shelves, thanks largely to the modern truck and the wonders of mobile refrigeration. There is also a good deal of traffic going in the opposite direction—holidaymakers going to parts of the world the previous generation only saw if they were "in service" or if there was a war on.
Without the vast improvements in transport, our knowledge and understanding of other countries and their people would be limited to the flickering images on the television screen. They would have remained unreal fantasies: a virtual reality with no substance or soul.
So why is transport so underrated by our politicians? Why have we had 16 transport ministers in 11 years? And why couldn't we find a spokesperson from the Conservative Party willing to debate an integrated transport policy—the possibility of a system which takes account of all our needs and resources and addresses the growing congestion on our roads before it overwhelms us?
At this year's TUC in Blackpool the United Road Transport Union held a fringe meeting entitled The Debate that Never was: Transport and the Environment --the Future for on Integrated Policy. The Liberal Democrat spokesperson David Chidgey was there, as was Richard Diment from the British Road Federation and Roger Higman from Friends of the Earth. Graham Allen, formerly a Labour shadow minister, had accepted but he had changed jobs. In the event, MP Keith Bradley took his place. We tried without success to get a Government spokesperson to attend. They were, it seemed, all "too busy" to attend one of the most important venues of the year and to explain their party's policy to some of their constituents who are mostly directly involved. It seems that politicians, with one or two exceptions, will only take transport seriously when we Force them; when we get together, regardless of our political beliefs, to stand up for our industry. The politicians should ignore the media hype that so often refers to them as "our political masters" and start thinking in terms of public service and themselves as public servants. Otherwise we may decide to exercise the final sanction at the ballot box, even if it means voting for "none of the above".