Friday 15th October 2010

Commission For (Dis)Integrated Transport

Axe falls on quango promoting nightmares for motorists

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We do love a good leaving party...

The Commission for Integrated Transport is getting the axe as part of the government quango cull, and while we're not ones to celebrate other folks' misfortune (usually), in this case we're delighted to make an exception.

The Commission has been responsible for many unfriendly suggestions over the years, supporting calls for speed-limiters in cars, promoting road pricing technology trials and pressing for use of the Vehicle Excise Duty programme to punish those of us who feel our cars might just be making a smaller 'dent' on the global environment than a network of new coal-fired power stations in China, airline travel and all those stinky container ships.

"The Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) was established in 1999 to provide independent advice to Government on integrated transport policy in England via evidence-based research. However the department has concluded that the emphasis should now be on high-level strategic advice rather than detailed research. This can be achieved more cost effectively by the Department for Transport engaging directly with experts through a new informal strategic transport advisory group, rather than an arms length body," says the official announcement. "Hooray!" says us.

Also disappearing from the DFT roster of supported quangos are Cycling England, the Renewable Fuels Agency (anyone know we had one?) and the Railway Heritage Committee.

[Walton]

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

[Chris-R]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

I don't think the CIT visit PH much...

[JulianHJ]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

I might ordinarily agree, but in the case of CfIT I'll make an exception. Fk 'em. Fk 'em in the ear.

Edited by JulianHJ on Friday 15th October 11:11

[torque torque]

Chris-R said:

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

I don't think the CIT visit PH much...

more's the pity...

[carinaman]

Are they responsible for this 'shared space' codswallop where we all make eye contact with each other and we'll all get along fine and nobody will get run over?

So replace subways and underpasses with road level pedestrian crossings and we can share the space those lovely pedestrians of all shapes, sizes and ages that think they can wander into the road even though the little red man is clearly illuminated red?

[Frimley111R]

'...the emphasis should now be on high-level strategic advice rather than detailed research.' Sounds like a recipe for success!

[carinaman]

We need a new quango responsible for sowing kerb side cycle lanes with weight sensitive land mines so all those scooter and motorcycle riders intent on passing cars on the NS even though there are driveways on the left that the car they're about to pass on the NS may turn into get a little warning explosion to delay their inevitable accident.

Perhaps the charges could be doubled on the approach to Zebra crossings?

Passing cars, vans and trucks on the NS approaching and over a Zebra crossing isn't the smartest of moves is it?

You'd have thought someone would have created the Gatso 2010 to cover such infractions wouldn't you?

[mrclav]

JulianHJ said:

Fk 'em in the ear.

[Fury1630]

I'm starting to quite like this coalition (so far).

[Digga]

Frimley111R said:

'...the emphasis should now be on high-level strategic advice rather than detailed research.' Sounds like a recipe for success!

[Tsippy]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

Agree, you should add fireworks too

[threespires]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

Or is the champagne to celebrate 11 years being very in a very well paid job with a seemingly bottomless pit of taxpayers money to squander.

Many quangos were supplying information and recommendations to a government that often took no notice.

Edited by threespires on Friday 15th October 12:34

[vetteheadracer]

threespires said:

Many quangos were supplying information and recommendations to a government that often took no notice.

especially if the recommendations didn't make life worse for the ordinary people......


.....which is why I for one am exceptionally pleased that these morons have been dropped from the Gov't payroll......'cept they are now probably applying to work for the DoT as I type.

[havoc]

threespires said:

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Or is the champagne to celebrate 11 years being very in a very well paid job with a seemingly bottomless pit of taxpayers money to squander.

Many quangos were supplying information and recommendations to a government that often took no notice.

I'm with the "f*** 'em sideways 'til they bleed" crowd on this one - the last regime wasted untold billions of taxpayers money on irrelevant quangos, on jobs-for-the-boys, and on pet projects that never saw fruition. Most of those who've suckled on that diseased teat for the last 13 years do not deserve our pity.

Pity instead the hundreds of thousands (yes!) of construction industry workers who've been laid-off over the last 2 years, largely due to woeful under-regulation of the banks and even worse economic mis-management by Labour. Or the nurses and police who will now have to do even more for even less*. Or even the rest of us who'll have to try and sort this mess out (mainly through taxes and reduced public services).


* Anyone want to guess the average salary for a quangoist vs that of a nurse or policeman?

[Walton]

havoc said:

* Anyone want to guess the average salary for a quangoist vs that of a nurse or policeman?

I may be wrong, but I bet the vast majority of Quango employees arn't 'fat cats' but researchers and other dogsbodies on relatively low salaries.

[djt100]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Edited by Walton on Friday 15th October 11:02

I think you may be on the wrong website.

[Zumbruk]

Walton said:

Hardly think a photo of a champagne bottle is going to brighten up those who are being sacked today. Poor taste IMO.

Who cares? Good riddance to bad rubbish. The CIT was a lobby group for the Public Transport Operators, funded out of our taxes and I for one am delighted to see it gone.

[dvance]

Although I support celebrating the disintegration of some of those organization, I can hardly see why I should be happy when something like Cycling England is disbanded.

This article almost sounds like let's get that money back and give it to the banks which defaulted IMHO.

[ManOpener]

dvance said:

Although I support celebrating the disintegration of some of those organization, I can hardly see why I should be happy when something like Cycling England is disbanded.

This article almost sounds like let's get that money back and give it to the banks which defaulted IMHO.

At least the banks have contributed to society at some point. You may hate them for the 2008 crash, but most of the British economy is based on financial services. Most of the QUANGOs have just squandered money for literally nothing.

[TheOrangePeril]

carinaman said:

We need a new quango responsible for sowing kerb side cycle lanes with weight sensitive land mines so all those scooter and motorcycle riders intent on passing cars on the NS even though there are driveways on the left that the car they're about to pass on the NS may turn into get a little warning explosion to delay their inevitable accident.

I see your point and agree that it's not solely the motorist's responsibility to avoid a collision, but any driver with an ounce of sense or ability would signal left before turning into a driveway (especially with a cycle behind them)...