Traffic Report

The daughter, bless her, is much taken by her boyfriend’s Tom Tom. Indeed many members of the family have looked enviously at this miracle of Dutch technology. It will no doubt guide them successfully to the sister’s wedding on Friday – alerting them to speed cameras, traffic jams and all that stuff as they wend their way from Portsmouth to the wilds of East Sussex guided all the way by stern voice of the Tom Tom lady.

At around 17.5 euros per share on the Dutch exchange I reckon that Tom Tom offers great value following Alastair Darling’s announcement of the new UK road charging scheme. Not only will the next generation Tom Tom continue to point out the radar traps and give accurate directions, but it will undoubtedly be able to suggest deviations to save money and to cost the “road charge” elements of your journey before you set off.

This road charge thing has already got me fretting about the most economical routes hither and thither. Normally the sister’s wedding would merit about 50 miles of the A272 at around 35p per mile, but because the cat has to go to kennels at West Byfleet, that means the M25 and an additional £20-£30 in charges. Oh heck! For once I hope that I am well and truly grounded before this particular piece of triumphant social engineering achieves technological sustainability.

Talking of our government’s wily ways of achieving extra taxation I was surprised to get a text message this morning from Mayor Ken. He advises me that from July 4th the congestion charge for Central London rises to £8 per day. The extremely efficient way that number plates are scanned in the congestion zone is impressive, but the scheme succeeds in losing lots of money. One has no doubt that Mr Darling’s road charge will similarly confound its proponents and become another legendary financial disaster. He has no doubt (like Mayor Ken before him) done some very optimistic forecasting how the revenues from drivers (at £1.35 per mile on busy motorways, egad) will fund the project. What he will not have allowed for is that most sensible Britons will have emigrated before road charging comes into force and that he’ll have to raise the charges even more to fund the interest on the installation cost, and no doubt, reintroduce tax discs and raise the levy on fuel rather than reduce it.