Abandoned Brits

I've got to be honest and say that I don't have a lot of sympathy for the estimated 150,000 British people stranded in various parts of the world by the flight ban.

People who take holidays at Easter in places such as Florida, Lanzarote, Thailand and Australia tend to be fairly well to do people - what we would have called the upper middle class twenty years ago or so. They have credit cards with which they can pay for hotels, ferries, train tickets, buses, hire cars and food and in most cases they will have insurance through which they can recoup most if not all of those costs.

Consequently, I'm a bit fed up hearing about these "abandoned" Brits abroad. Nobody forced them to fly to far off places and everyone who does that does it knowing full well that it only take a French or Spanish air traffic controller strike to leave them stranded in some foreign airport for days.

I'm more concerned about the abandoned Brits in council estates plagued by feral youth, crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour.

I'm more concerned about the abandoned Brits jettisoned from their jobs because of unfair foreign competition, cheap immigrant workers or because the foreign owner of their factory has decided close it down and move production to Malaysia.

I'm more concerned about the abandoned Brits whose children struggle to get any sort of education in schools without discipline, where bullying is rife and where a small clique of disruptive pupils hold sway over the majority who just want to learn.

I'm more concerned about the abandoned Brits in hospital corridors and cupboards left to die in squalor and indignity - unfed, unwashed and unwanted - while hospital chief executives enjoy bumper pay rises and protected pensions.

There are millions of abandoned Brits up and down this country who are far more deserving of attention, help and consideration and are left to struggle through no fault of their own than a relatively small number of affluent jet setters who wouldn't know real hardship if it bit them on the backside. The real abandoned Brits are left to fend for themselves with little hope of rescue from the problems that blight their lives - crime, drugs, unemployment, immigration, rubbish schools, lousy hospitals and so on and so forth.

They are the abandoned Brits we ought to worry about.

The motorist to get it in the neck ...... again!

I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home as often as I like, but I frequently go in to the office anyway - partly for the social aspect and partly to get out from under Mrs Stan's feet during the day.

I live just ten miles from my office and, thanks to my flexible working hours, I'm able to drive in early or late and avoid the rush hour so the journey only lasts around 20 minutes. Sometimes I cycle - though not that often anymore - and it takes around 45 minutes. Only once in the last 10 years have I tried to use public transport to get home - about four years ago - and it took almost two and a half hours.

Despite being just ten miles and living close to bus stops and railway stations there is no direct public transport link between where I live and where I work so I either have to use a combination of trains and buses to get to the office - a minimum of three changes - or take various buses where, in some cases, they actually go in the opposite direction to where I want to go!

It wasn't always this way. When I was a young lad we would often go to the town where I now work to visit an aged great aunt who lived there. We had no car back then so we relied on buses and they were plentiful and reliable. There was one change at Slough Bus Station and the whole journey took no more than 45-50 minutes.

So, given the time the journey takes public transport just isn't a viable option for me unless I want to give up five hours of my day to travelling to and from the office - which is why I am opposed to schemes like this.

The reason cited is that it is a bid to cut congestion - but that is rubbish. The reason is to raise money - nothing else. If they charge us for parking at work we are still going to drive to the office so it will not make the slightest difference to congestion. If they were serious about cutting congestion then they might consider having decent public transport systems that were a viable alternative to using cars.

If they really want to cut congestion then they would open more schools so that local children can walk to local schools without having to get mum or dad to drive them there every day - surely they must have noticed how congestion drops when the schools are on holiday? Everybody else does.

And if they want to raise money they should start getting the likes of ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury's to levy a charge for people using their massive car parks - rather than those going to work.

Classic car leasing

Mark Wadsworth brings up an interesting point regarding the car scrappage scheme.

The £2,000 incentive under the Government's "cash for bangers" car-scrappage scheme will be wiped out in just 88 days due to depreciation, it has been revealed.

It's also worth pointing out that few dealers - if any - are prepared to offer the usual discounts that could be negotiated if your taking part in the car scrappage scheme. That alone could wipe out any perceived benefit for the buyer.

Whilst on the subject of cars, I wonder how many people are aware of the benefits of choosing a classic car instead of a new model for their company car? If you're the sort who qualifies for a company car, but doesn't do an awful lot of company miles then you can save a fortune in tax by choosing a car over 15 years old with a current market value more than the original list price.

Hmmm - is there a market to be exploited there? Classic car leasing? What was the list price of a '78 Triumph Stag or a '64 Zephyr 6?

'Scuse me - I've got a business plan to write.

Main line misery

As you know, I don't buy into the anthropogenic global warming fantasy and I particularly disagree with the idea that we need to virtually disable our economy to deal with it. One of the most idiotic moves in my opinion is the idea that we should use electrically powered trains on our railways.

First of all, there is the obvious matter of the fact that the electricity used to power these trains has to come from somewhere, but my other criticism of it - which I have made previously - is that, although it might just about be acceptable in urban areas, once outside of the cities electrified railways are incredibly hard to maintain - particularly overhead power cables which are susceptible to all sorts of damage and, consequently, failure. And this has been demonstrated this week.

The travel chaos was particularly harsh for Virgin passengers on the West Coast Main Line, who have been hit by a series of incidents over the last few days. The line was closed after a light plane crashed near the tracks near Stafford on Friday in an accident which claimed three lives.

Then overhead cable problems at Watford in Hertfordshire led to delays and cancellations on Sunday and Monday this week.

Just as the Watford incident was fixed, West Coast passengers had to put up with more delays yesterday following two overhead wire problems - one north of Rugby in the West Midlands, the other at Bletchley in Buckinghamshire.

Get used to it - because this will be increasingly common. Because of the nature of the repairs, it doesn't only affect electric powered trains either - self-powered trains are also affected by the ongoing repairs needed to the overhead power lines causing delays and cancellations.

This is just the latest debacle in what has become a pantomime farce of an industry - even before Beeching wiped a third of our network off the map with a stroke of his pen. There have been vast sums of public money spent on the railways since then and the service is no better now - and in many ways far worse - than it was in 1955.

I tend to think of the railways as something of a euphemism for Britain itself. Something that was once functional, successful, inspirational and aesthetically pleasing has been turned into a decrepit, broken and ugly shadow of its former self - and all in the name of "progress". The irony being that there has been no progress made whatsoever.