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• Put your hand over your mouth, pinch your nose and try to breathe. Not easy is it? Now shift the analogy to Britain's roads. Fill them with vehicles, clog them up with roadworks and try to drive a truck from London to Manchester. That's not easy either. Last week Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson gave a broad hint to the kind of battle he was having with the Treasury over the cash for the Department of Transport's proposed road spending programme, declaring: "That programme will gain momentum, but I can't anticipate the outcome of my discussion with the Treasury . . we've made quite some progress."
There's progress. . . and there's progress. Judging by the latest reports from Parliament, the vital road expansion programme, first mooted by Paul Channon, is being carved up on the altar of counter-inflation. Parkinson's chances of getting all, or even most of the extra £12 billion he needs are pretty slim. Tory MPs are right to be alarmed that plans for widening the Ml, M6 and M25 will have to wait until after the next election: if they were to run for re-election on their record of tackling congestion, we wouldn't put our money on them.
So now we have the unedifying spectacle of Labour and Tory MPs haranguing each other across the chamber; each claiming to have done more for Britain's roads. The fact is that neither party has anything to shout about. The root cause is a Government mentality that, on the one hand, is happy to be raising over £15 billion a year in vehicle excise duty; but on the other, is only prepared to spend £4 billion of it on roads. The excess of taxation over expenditure is currently equivalent to road users funding 60% of the defence budget.
Could it be that the current Government's obsession with inflation is blinding them to a few other realities? What's the point of interest rates at 15% and freezing public spending if it stops operators from buying new vehicles to carry Britain's goods, and bogs industry down in endless traffic jams?
When the present Transport Secretary took over, we told him: "Get a grip, Cecil". May we suggest that he gets a grip on the Treasury, turns it upside down, and shakes it until its teeth rattle — and £12 billion falls out. There are times when you have to speculate to accumulate — and spending to the tune of £12 billion would help us all breathe more easily . .