The UK’s decline is becoming increasingly visible in its infrastructure.
As ministers continue to devote money and attention to what remains of the HS2 farce, the basics are neglected, while anti-car ideologues wreak havoc across the country’s road network. Consider what happened on the rail route to Heathrow on Saturday.
The airport is one of the biggest in the world, an engine of growth and a large employer itself. But no trains were able to reach it from central London after flooding caused by a “leaky pipe” resulted in the suspension of important parts of the network.
Hundreds of services were cancelled, with passengers missing flights as a consequence. What must tourists think? Perhaps it would matter less if such incidents were rare or if other ways of reaching the airport were encouraged.
But under net zero plans, driving a friend or family member to Heathrow is penalised via heavy drop-off charges. The state of Britain’s roads is, if anything, worse than the rail network.
The UK is now the pothole capital of Europe. The situation has become so bad that a recent report found that the cost of fixing every pothole could come to £18.6bn. But instead of focusing their energies (and taxpayers’ money) on fixing problems that would make life easier for drivers, the authorities seem intent on creating new ones.
The UK is now the pothole capital of Europe – Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Low-traffic neighbourhoods were once largely an urban phenomenon. Councils exploited the lockdown period to shut off roads and impose speed restrictions, disadvantaging drivers with an often negligible impact on the numbers cycling or walking.
Now a version is creeping into the countryside, to places where it is even less likely people will be able to swap their car for a bicycle. Hundreds of country roads have been designated “quiet roads”, to the benefit of cyclists and walkers.
But campaigners are warning that the original intent of a scheme that started in the 1990s is being distorted to slash speed limits on some roads to 20mph, with other streets blocked off entirely. There is nothing necessarily wrong with promoting cycling, but it should not come at the expense of other road-users.
Britain needs more and better roads, not fewer of them. It needs transport policies that reflect the fact that, for most people living outside big cities, a car is not a luxury but a necessity.
It also needs the Government to recognise that any reputation the UK ever had for being a well-run, functioning country is disappearing thanks in part to its rickety infrastructure. It is fast becoming a national embarrassment.