Parking restrictions and charges lifted in England

[Xaccers]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12105869

Two measures to "make life easier" for motorists in England have been announced by the government.

It is lifting a restriction, introduced in 2001, on the number of parking spaces allowed in developments of new homes.

And it will no longer instruct councils to set high parking charges to encourage the use of other transport.

Ministers said they were "ending the war on the motorist" and that the rules "unfairly penalised drivers".

The Department of Communities and Local Government said the new measures would mean councils and communities would be free to set parking policies that are "right for their areas".

This will include "proportionate parking enforcement", taking into account the effect of parking charges on the "vitality of their local economy and local shops".

The government now believes councils should be free to set charges to attract shoppers to town centres, without interference from Whitehall.

I can also see the next planned fuel duty increase being called off.

[andmcit]

Unfortunately, I think the pips squeaked a long time ago.

[Xaccers]

Alas yes, but better they aren't squeeked any further.
I'd imagine if I'm right about the duty increase being postponed it was always planned that way, won't reduce the treasury's income by much but gets the coalition brownie points, and doesn't hit people's pockets.

[Toby_HDi]

It sounds cynical and defeatist but I've given up on keeping track of these kinds of things.

As with this news, they may give with one hand - but with the other they'll come up with another way of taking it away. Whatever colour they wear, they are all as bad as each other. As Xac has said, it makes them look good, that is the only reason for doing it.

Mind you, its not just the politicians. Its the general population too.

I truly despair and have grave concerns for the state of this country in 10, 20 or 50 years time. Probably not as long as that. I despair at its state now.

[andmcit]

I can't recall the last time I read Made in Great Britain. Probably deemed
xenophobic these days in our 'nice' multi cultural society...

Didn't we drop the 'great' bit in 'Great Britain' sometime in the 70's?

[Xaccers]

I can't recall the last time I read Made in Great Britain. Probably deemed
xenophobic these days in our 'nice' multi cultural society...

Didn't we drop the 'great' bit in 'Great Britain' sometime in the 70's?

Nah the Great was dropped in the last decade under Bliar, replaced with UKOK.

If memory serves, manufacturing income has actually increased over the years, but that's from manufacturing which doesn't rely on a large workforce, which therefore doesn't benefit the nation's economy as much.

The current lot have seemed to be racing around the planet actually helping our manufacturing/exports.
The lucrative Rolls Royce contract with China springs to mind.

[DickieG]

Charges for driving reduced? dream on

[Xaccers]

Charges for driving reduced? dream on

A reasonable chunk of the CC area now won't get charged anything.

[f00lzz]

If memory serves, manufacturing income has actually increased over the years, but that's from manufacturing which doesn't rely on a large workforce, which therefore doesn't benefit the nation's economy as much.

You may be right.. but the fact is our manufacturing capability has been significantly reduced... I understand that back in the 70's it was a lot of hassle because of strikes etc and therefore easier to get 'stuff' made abroad but now we are paying the penalty... we used to make cars in this country.. now we (mainly) just assemble them.

[Xaccers]

If memory serves, manufacturing income has actually increased over the years, but that's from manufacturing which doesn't rely on a large workforce, which therefore doesn't benefit the nation's economy as much.

You may be right.. but the fact is our manufacturing capability has been significantly reduced... I understand that back in the 70's it was a lot of hassle because of strikes etc and therefore easier to get 'stuff' made abroad but now we are paying the penalty... we used to make cars in this country.. now we (mainly) just assemble them.

I seem to recall the government giving Toyota/Nissan/some car manufacturer huge tax breaks to come to Britain in the 80s, yet in the past 10 years we've had a government that was looking into the future, where those responsible for industry seeing themselves in cushy European parliment jobs so washed their hands when factories moved to cheaper countries.

[HDI]

The London CC is a total scam, Ken Livingstone had the traffic light system deliberately reconfigured to CAUSE congestion so that it seemed justifiable to impose the CC !!!
This country should have a mass revolt at all the cr4p that government continues to pile on us !!! VAT increased, train fares increased, fuel increased, sneaky DVLA tactics, etc, etc !! And all because of a problem WE didn't cause in the first place. The banks should be made to pay all the deficit off themselves, why should we have to pay for their scams ??!!

[Xaccers]

The London CC is a total scam, Ken Livingstone had the traffic light system deliberately reconfigured to CAUSE congestion so that it seemed justifiable to impose the CC !!!
This country should have a mass revolt at all the cr4p that government continues to pile on us !!! VAT increased, train fares increased, fuel increased, sneaky DVLA tactics, etc, etc !! And all because of a problem WE didn't cause in the first place. The banks should be made to pay all the deficit off themselves, why should we have to pay for their scams ??!!

I thought he had! I remember seeing something about the "green wave" with traffic lights so that as long as you stuck to the speed limit you'd either hit none or one set of red lights, a brilliant idea which I've never experienced, as it would seem Ken broke the wave.

The banks didn't cause the financial mess we're in, the over spending and over generous predictions of future growth (always incorrect but it justified their borrowing) has put us into financial stook, the old saying "socialists have run out of other people's money" has come true again.
The banking problem has just made the recovery harder, it would have been bloody hard and painful anyway.
Many of the cuts for instance are just returning to 2009 spending figures, which even with inflation, show just how much extra was being spent when it shouldn't have been.
Many of us have worked for the government in one way or another and are therefore well aware of the culture of waste within.
Billions thrown willy nilly at the NHS with very little in return for instance, MoD precurement projects which are either unneeded, unsuitable, and nearly always way over budget (helicopters which can only fly in clear daylight, air refuling planes which can't operate in warzones, air craft carrier not needed)

[MikeT]

This country should have a mass revolt at all the cr4p that government continues to pile on us !!!

I wholeheartedly agree, civil disobedience is required to stop this rot*.

Unfortunately, they saw that coming and nipped it in the bud by *enlarging the public sector employment enough (among other strategies) to keep us divided.

The consequence of this is the private sector being smaller, is providing less money for them to squander over a larger public sector.

*Their solution is to increase taxation which has, in fact, reduced private sector investment further, again reducing their income , the opposite effect to what they predicted. But they haven't understood this yet and so it goes on with invention of yet more stealth taxes to supposedly cover their losses.

I can't see it lasting (despite their ever increased borrowing) but the longer it goes on, the more the public will suffer, including future generations. The national debt is some 160 billion and increasing because the deficit is totally out of control.

[f00lzz]

We are no longer able to 'manufacture' our way out of a debt situation.. the only way they have to generate money is to Tax people. We need to start manufacturing 'stuff' again... buy what we make and try to establish ourselves as a manufacturing nation again so we can sell to other countries.

[HDI]

The national debt is some 160 billion and increasing because the deficit is totally out of control.

It's a bit more than that !!!

Read this and weep !!!

http://www.debtbombshell.com/