23 September (Part 1) - London Mayor declares knife car free day
The plan was to write this short bog yesterday evening but I didn’t get home
in time and that was because I had a car free day.
At
the end of last week I was given a complimentary ticket for the Duxford Battle
of Britain Air Show, the intended recipient refused to go when he discovered
that all the car parking spaces were already taken up. I was happy to go by
train, nothing to do with the virtue signalling incompetent Mayor’s Car Free
Day, I simply fancied being different.
The quickest route was Abbey Wood to Blackfriars, the Cambridge train to Royston
and then a bus. Thanks to the Freedom Pass it was quite cheap, £10.20 return, but not
as cheap as by car which would be around £3.20 for electricity at my standard 12
pence per kilowatt hour rate.
For reasons unknown the Blackfriars train didn’t run but the diversion via
Cannon Street was easy. I took a route I had not been on since childhood and
three hours and thirty five minutes after leaving home I alighted from the bus at Duxford.
I’ve been there before but by car. It takes about an hour and a half, call it
two hours by the time you have parked.
The return journey took ten minutes longer than the outward. It was slightly confusing that the
train display board said it would call at London Bridge while the platform
indicators said it wouldn’t. It’s just as well that years of train travel have
taught me to never trust any train related information. (At one time the outward
train announced we had stopped at Brighton!)
So going by train cost me around four hours and I didn’t really care, but what
if I was on a business trip? These eco-warriors want
us to give up our cars. Have they any idea of the cost to the economy? The
loons led yesterday by Sadiq Khan would have us all hunting hairy mammoths in
loin cloths if they could.
Thank goodness that Bexley Council appears not have had anything to do with this lunacy.
A few years ago David Cameron’s government proposed an 80 m.p.h. speed limit on
motorways. The unstated reason was because it would provide a big boost to the
economy - I know who was involved in the research. That too was shouted down by ignorant campaigners.
Buy your loin cloth now before there is a run on them.