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BAN THE CAR
Page 99
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COMMENTARY JANUS
SK the man-in-the-street a question with a microphone in your hand," said Maggie's brother Cromell, leaning forward to switch off the set, "and he will modestly say that he is no expert in such matters and prefers to leave them to the Government—or to the trade unions if he happens to be on the other side. Ask the same man the same question in a pub and you are in for an argument that will last until closing time. What we have just seen tells us nothing. No matter what you hear on television, everybody has strong views on the Common Market—even the hauliers."
"1 know my own opinion," said Maggie. "I cannot understand why there should be so much hesitation when we have everything to gain. Just imagine: all the latest fashions from Paris here the same day; exotic perfumes free of tax; Swiss watches. . . ."
"May keep excellent time, but you are a long way ahead," I interrupted. "You must keep to the original Six for the present."
"Let the girl have her dreams," said Cromwell. "Now that it seems we are sliding into membership, every section of the community in Britain is determinedl to look on the bright side—and this includes the farmers. There has to he something in this for all of us."
"With you the lone exception, I suppose," said Maggie. "I imagine there may be some advantages in it even for me, if I could only think of them," said Cromwell. "What fills my mind at the moment is the prospect of being expected to drink the kind of beer we found in that pub on the day trip to Calais."
cc It.7 OU should travel farther afield, like Mr. Marples," I said. "He has been to see for himself. His opinions, at any rate, should be interesting and I do not suppose he will keep quiet about them."
"He may find he has far too much to do to have time to talk," said Cromwell. "If all the forecasts about increased trade with the Continent are correct, we shall need a motorway a mile wide all the way down from Scotland to the South Coast. He will become the most important man in the Cabinet, or at least the man with the most money to spend."
"Your friend Bloggs should be pleased, if nobody else is," said Maggie. "He is always calling for bigger and better roads and for more of them."
"But not necessarily for more traffic," said Cromwell. "These days he prefers to take the statesmanlike view and is even thinking of joining the Road and Rail Association. They believe that traffic should be encouraged to flow towards the form of transport that is best suited to it."
"To some people," I said, "encouragement seems hardly to be distinguishable from compulsion; and the law of gravity promulgated by the Association always seems to involve a flow of traffic from road to rail, but never in the opposite direction."
"That policy has the complete agreement of Bloggs," said Cromwell. "As he points out, the form of transport that is best suited to goods traffic is the form of transport that the customer chooses. After all, the goods belong to the customer, so that they ought to know. This is not the case with passenger transport. No man belongs to another, so that here is a case where surely the gentleman in Whitehall knows best." "1 have given up trying to follow the argument," I said, "but at least it leads me to the conclusion that Bloggs does not operate any passenger service vehicles."
" True so far as it goes," said Cromwell, "but he is certainly not opposed to them, as you will see if you are patient enough. All he seeks to do is to ban the private car, and he believes that in this he will have the full support of the Road and Rail Association. After all, wherever you want to go there is a train or a bus to take you, or you can walk if it comes to that."
"If Bloggs is trying to make rail travel a patriotic duty he may get somewhere," I said. "There are any number of trains leaving our stations nearly empty, while the people who might be using them are selfishly indulging themselves with a car ride. The Association should take note. Surely this is traffic that, in the immortal phrase, 'belongs' to the railways."
"AND to the railways it must go, or Bloggs will know the reason why," said Cromwell. "Only by this means can the roads be left to perform their proper function, that is to say the carriage of goods."
I only hope I misunderstand what you are talking about," said Maggie. "Are you suggesting that the motorist should be abolished? What about the freedom of the Queen's Highway?"
"That has already vanished," said Cromwell, "with the motorway that bans the cyclist and the pedestrian, with the clearway that forbids you to stop, with the restriction on loading and unloading, with the parking meters and the one-way street. . . ."
"All right. I get the point," Maggie interrupted. " But what about Bloggs himself? Is he willing to give up his own car?"
"That is a different matter," said Cromwell. " It is essential for his business. He needs it."
"You would find in practice that this applied in every case," I said. "Every motorist has a need for his car, more or less. Otherwise he would get rid of it. Any attempt to ban the car would require so many exceptions that in the end it would make no difference."
"Exactly Bloggs' view," said Cromwell. "He does not believe that his campaign against the car would put a single one off the road. But at least it will divert attention from the goods vehicle, which is as much as he can hope for."
"But I thought you were going to tell us what Bloggs had in mind about the Common Market," said Maggie. "You told us the other day he was sending his lorries abroad, so that he ought to be pleased."
"He sees nothing but trouble ahead," said Cromwell. "As he points out, it is a very complicated task to get traffic across to the Continent in road vehicles. There are forms to be filled in, language difficulties, Customs problems, to say nothing of the variations in licensing procedure. Most of the time, he cannot make head or tail of what is happening."
"Once the trade barriers are down, things should be much easier," I said.
"Not for Bloggs," said Cromwell. "He may be able at last to understand what is going on, but so will the authorities. They may no longer be willing to take on trust his disarming apparent lack of knowledge of anylanguage except Gaelic. Simplify the procedure and you make things twice as difficult."