Selling the family silver

October 12, 2009  

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced he is to sell off assets that could generate up to £16 billion for the public purse. Well, all the gold has gone, so when he's finished sticking his hand behind the sofa, shaking his child's piggy bank, and going through all the drawers in No.10, what is there left to sell?

The Dartford Crossing, for a start. The Dartford Crossing! Dear me, doesn't that just contradict a pledge the government gave to scrap tolls on this notorious money-spinning bottleneck when it announced the construction of the QE2 bridge? I can't imagine it being worth much if the tolls have gone.

I guess the writing was on the wall last week, when it was announced that the toll would be scrapped in one direction. By that stage, what chances did we have of doing away with a toll altogether, even though the bridge has been paid for? The money currently being collected is making someone - don't ask me who - very rich, and it's also angering a lot of businesses whose vehicles crawl through this hideous blockage and, to cap it all, have to pay for the privilege.

We've been conned over the Dartford Crossing, as we were for the Low Emission Zone, the Congestion Charge, the Empty Warehouse Tax... the list goes on.