Yet of the £36bn raised in road taxation this year less than £6bn will be spent

Yet of the £36bn raised in road taxation this year, less than £6bn will be spent on our roads, buses, cycleways, traffic control and transport interchanges.We got in this mess because a dozen transport secretaries have revolved through Department of Transport doors in the last quarter century. None stayed long enough or had the political weight to sustain a case for rational investment in transport. By last year, spending was half what it was 25 years ago.The investment package to be announced next month by Lord MacDonald, the Transport minister, is likely to be in line with other EU countries. A major investment programme was unveiled in Holland last week consisting of substantial investment in light rail, hi-tech traffic control, local road improvements, motorway widening, and experiments with pricing. “Single club” policies of road improvements, or public transport improvement, or tax changes in isolation make little sense.The AA, CBI, Freight Transport Association and Confederation of Passenger Transport joined forces last week to propose a 10-year package for Brit- ain It is strikingly similar to Holland’s. But we first need billions spent on basic repairs to roads, bridges, rail and Underground. We need to overhaul, too, how we manage roads day to day, to reduce the impact of roadworks, incidents, mindless parking etc.Excluding walking and cycling, 95 per cent of passenger travel in Britain is by road.

Any package must include road improvements of all types if congestion and casualties are to be reduced, and environmental improvement made. For example, roads must be laid out to modern, safer standards. Unsuitable traffic must be taken off unsuitable roads.The Government is unlikely to propose significant new roads. But where it does propose widening schemes and realignments at bottlenecks, there must be no more building on the cheap. They must be built to normal European standards with tunnels and underpasses where needed.. I make no apology for stating that too many doors still remain closed in Britain to people with the right talents but the wrong background.

And that this Labour government is committed to opening more of those doors for the benefit of the majority. I make no apology for stating that too many doors still remain closed in Britain to people with the right talents but the wrong background. And that this Labour government is committed to opening more of those doors for the benefit of the majority.
I have not heard anyone except Tory spokesmen deny that more can and should be done to widen educational opportunity for the 93 per cent of our children who go to state schools. The intake of universities across the country varies enormously. The universities themselves agree that more can be done and many are making praiseworthy efforts to broaden their intake. David Blunkett has pointed to what schools themselves can do to help, and Gordon Brown has promised more assistance for universities Some progress is being made.