Downing Street Says » Road Pricing

Asked if he still thought that e-petitions were a good idea, and what numbers would have to be reached before Government put its hand up and retreated, the PMOS replied that it was always a good idea when there was a lively political debate. We had always recognised that there was a lively debate around transport as it was an issue that directly affected people’s lives. Therefore, the livelier the debate, the better. But the debate in itself would not produce a solution. The crucial point about this issue was that doing nothing was not an option. Congestion would get worse and worse if we did nothing. Therefore this was a debate that we needed to have. We had to be clear about the terms of the debate, as it was not about immediately stepping to a national pricing scheme. It was about setting up pilot schemes to find out the facts, and then to learn from these experiences, and then decide where we go. In that process we would not only educate ourselves in Government about how to deal with the issue of congestion, we would also hopefully educate the public as well. We recognised, and Douglas Alexander had recognised this from the start, that we needed to convince people with evidence, not just rhetoric. The way to find out the evidence was to have precisely the pilot schemes that we were having.

Put to him that we could not just ignore this petition if it got to 2 or 3 million names, the PMOS replied that it was not a matter of numbers. As had been said before, we needed to recognise and address these strong feelings and we needed to convince people. But that in itself did not equal a policy. We had to come up with a policy, and then convince people of the merits of that policy. The way to do that was to base our argument on facts and experiences, and the way to get those was to have pilot schemes.

Put to him that people might have thought that by setting up a system of e-petitioning on our website, it would be a matter of numbers, the PMOS replied that petitions had always been a part of how we operated in Downing Street. All we had done was change the format. This was not a new concept. Petitions were a way of measuring how strong people felt about an issue, but the onus was also on people to produce positive alternatives, and then to debate those alternatives. That was what political debate was about.

Asked if he agreed with a Department of Transport official, who said at a seminar last week that the important thing was that 50 million people had not signed the petition, the PMOS replied that this was of course factually correct, but he would not necessarily put his full weight behind that argument. The argument was how do you set out to try and establish the experience and facts with which you could then move forward. The pilot schemes were precisely the way of doing that.

152 Comments »

How much more do this government want from us just to use our cars? How are people ment to have a life if they cant go anywhere? Having a car is about personal need, not a luxury.This government cant wait to install a black box in every car and invade our privacy and then make us pay for the priviledge! They just use global warming as an excuse to make the motorist pay more, it’s a load of @!*@** ! What is it with this contry and ripping you off!
Comment by Lauren Dowery — 27 Jun 2007 on 11:54 pm | Link
How much more do this government want from us just to use our cars? How are people ment to have a life if they cant go anywhere? Having a car is about personal need, not a luxury.This government cant wait to install a black box in every car and invade our privacy and then make us pay for the priviledge! They just use global warming as an excuse to make the motorist pay more, it’s a load of @!*@** ! What is it with this contry and ripping you off!
Comment by Lauren Dowery — 27 Jun 2007 on 11:55 pm | Link

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» Monday, February 12, 2007

Road Pricing

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