As car parks go, this one is pretty grand. From the air it looks like a racing car circuit; Ring roads and roads, bus shelters and walkways and acres of neatly painted lines waiting for cars. What will they do but wait. For a very long time. Because this £51 million car park, a 19-acre, 850-space scheme in Eynsham, near Oxford, is not and is not connected to a main road.
A program of improvements to the A40 dual carriageway, as it courses through Oxfordshire, has been partially scaled back due to planning problems and cost issues. which means The car park remains an island of car parking paradise but has no access to the main road Which is literally meters away.
And it will remain so until at least 2027 when further funding and planning are likely to ease the log jam. Nice big idea, but it’s on hold while the council tinkers around the edges, shuffling papers around, calling meetings and looking around for people to blame.
Sound familiar? Well of course, it’s all the rage didn’t you know? That’s how things get (or rather don’t get) these days.
Bluster, recriminations and tinkering are the modus operandi and if you need to do something, a real policy to make progress, then soak the rich or perceived rich, who are mostly already a persistently oppressed middle class.
The new Labor government is fast becoming a master of this art of shallow interference and turning a blind eye to socialist ideology.
With breath-taking meaningfulness, They withdrew the winter fuel payment for the elderly Citing as the phantom cause of A £22 billion financial black hole legacy. Realizing how unpopular and foolish this is, they are now scrambling to say that there are around 800,000 pensioners who are eligible for pension credit but are not claiming it.
So, the argument goes, they should log in on their smartphone or laptop, enter the appropriate code into the government website, along with their username, password, National Insurance Number, date of birth and current gender, their bank details, Verification should be entered. A code that was sent to their mobile phone, and by clicking on the square that showed the motorbike, but not the bits of the man on the motorbike, to prove they were human.
And if they slip on any of the above components, they can call the number and join the queue.
Funny how 800,000 old people can’t, won’t or will do when they’re in the grave rather than go through all this malarkey. That’s why sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to do away with your puritanical political ideology and just give blanket payments to sections of society. And anyway, why can’t HMRC – who surely know the financial situation of most of us non-criminals – simply link up with the DWP and automatically issue the correct payments. But then if we can’t build a 20-metre slip road from the car park to the dual carriageway, it’s no wonder we can’t fit a cable between the computers of two government departments.
So goes the tinkering: putting out stories about Ban on smoking in public placesFor example. Which is literally none of the government’s business and, in my experience, is more about relaxation and flirting than inhaling tobacco. I don’t smoke so I’ve often been deserted at restaurant tables while rowdies take a break from my merry chit-chat and go outside to puff, vape and chat with other tables. If a pub wants to smoke in the garden, that’s up to them. Like their choice of ale and the number of pork chops they want to eat. But the government wants to snap its fingers and grab the vape and kick out the fag. But will they have the courage to look at the bigger picture, to stop the relentless growth of trying to reform our food manufacturing industry? Ultra processed foods In our diet? Of course not, that’s too big to ask.
So it’s back to tinkering, now in light of the Oasis fiasco, with concert ticket prices. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, is appalled at what she calls, “massively inflated prices that deprive ordinary fans of the opportunity to enjoy their favorite bands live.”
It is a serious suggestion by rock bands and ticketing operators to intervene in ticket prices. The free market is none of its business. “With more demand (capitalism) things become more expensive”. “No it is not, we will set prices at the level we consider acceptable (socialism)”.
Then they tinker with Israel’s weapons, little by little, mind you. Some flim-flam on 30 export licenses citing violations of humanitarian law. “Our hands are tied, it is the law,” they cry. And nothing of the kind; Just a weak nod to his pro-Gaza party and wing of supporters.
Angela Rayner is back from her Ibiza holiday (and more power to her elbows for that, Lefty also deserves a good break and a nice rave) and back wrapping today The program “accelerates healing,” said DJ Ray (Stormzy will be impressed). But there has been no outcry from his government about the casualties at the Notting Hill Carnival. And all the while quibbling on small boats.
After the Tories’ shambolic last few years and their huge election victories, Labor has earned the right to govern. But tinker and they’ll just tear up, missing their chance to think big and act. Like that car park: nice loos, shiny tarmac and charging points – but not an actual car in sight.
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