Roads To Ruin - Again - Brief Article

The Blair government, says Stephen Joseph of the research and campaign group Transport 2000, is about to break all its promises and embark on a major road-building programme.

Following the massive road protests of the 1990s, and the collapse of the former Tory government's 'Roads to Prosperity' national road-building programme, Labour came to power promising to cut traffic, protect the countryside and massively boost public transport. But pressure from right-wing newspapers, the roads lobby and dissatisfied car drivers has led to a series of retreats on all these commitments. We can now expect not only a renewed road-building programme, but possibly also privatisation of the government's construction responsibilities. The real irony is that the alternatives have barely been tried at all.

So much for New Labour's radicalism.

COPYRIGHT 2000 MIT Press Journals
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group