Cars make us unhappy, unhealthy, selfish, mean spirited

 and petty criminals, yet we’re addicted to them

I can hear you regressive libertarians who love our car dependent culture sputtering all kinds of protests already! But let’s just try to look at things unemotionally…..

Cars are expensive to buy, run and renew so they put a huge strain on household budgets unless, that is, you are comfortably well off. If public transport was at say the standard of many European cities or Greater London you may not even need to buy one but the deeper you live in commuter-land (outside of London) and particularly out in the countryside the more a car is all but a necessity in the UK due to our public transport being generally poor or even non-existent.

Cars make us insular and disconnected from our neighbours especially if we use them for even the shortest of journeys. That isolation from those around us can make us unhappy and even lonely. Why some of us even battle with our neighbours over scarce on-street parking spaces, literally driving a wedge between us and our neighbours.

Cars make us unwell because we don’t walk or cycle enough to keep us healthy thereby putting more strain on health services because we, in effect, we are making ourselves unwell. Pollution from petrol and diesel powered cars also makes us unwell, of course. Oddly, we kind of know we’re not getting enough exercise, due to excessive car use, as we go to gyms where we then pay to get the exercise we need. Indeed, we usually go to the gym in our cars, when often they are can be accessed via walking or cycling. However, our (at best) poor safe cycling networks often mitigate against cycle use and women in particular will be concerned about walking to a gym on dark winter evenings.

Cars make us selfish and mean spirited towards other road users whom some drivers see as getting in their way or slowing them down. Other road users doing the speed limit or less than it are a pain. Cyclists, horse riders and even pedestrians are often not seen as being vulnerable more important road users, which they are, but as a damn nuisances who should not be on or crossing our roads. When cycling I’ve been told to ‘get off the road and onto the pavement where I belong’ by enraged drivers thereby pressing me to cycle illegally.

Cars turn us into anti-social petty criminals because we break speed limits, drive without insurance/licenses, run red lights, some of us even steel cars. We also use them to show off and create danger for anyone around us. As an aside a chap I know seems to collect speeding tickets. On hearing he was to get his 2^nd current one and not wanting to lose his licence he said that I’ll now be late for everything’, meaning that he usually plans to break speed limits and only the threat of losing his licence stops him from doing that!

Cars play to our worst instincts such as one-upmanship, by us seeking a car that’s better than someone else's. We use them as status symbols to emphasise wealth and perceived/desired standing in our community/amongst our friends. We copy those who buy whatever is the present most fashionable make and model so to ‘fit in’ and make us look like those that have ‘made it’.

Cars need huge amounts of public money to be spent on roads, ever more complex highway safety measures (because we drive so poorly), the use of extensive police, fire & rescue and NHS resources because so many of us are killed and injured on our roads each day. Insurance companies and solicitors do make a good living from car drivers though!

We readily accept that our roads are dangerous, indeed we don’t really think about it. However, we want the roads we live on/use and those used by our children on their way to school (assuming we’re not trying to make the next generation unfit/unwell by taking them everywhere by car) to be safe. At the same time we’re shocked when there’s a rail accident where someone is injured/killed as our railways are meant to be safe. We know rail accidents are extremely rare and that our roads are many, many, many times more dangerous but still we ignore the risks and go by car.

We like to abandon our cars pretty much wherever we want. On zag-zag lines, on dangerous bends, on double yellow lines, on pavements, on grass verges, across driveways etc. etc. and if we get a fine it’s the damn council/police chasing the poor old motorist when they should, in our view, be doing something more important. A motorist I know was recently heard to say ‘that policemen must have been hiding in the bushes’ as though he genuinely thought they did this to catch speeders!

We decide to live many miles away from where we work and/or where our children go to school because we can use the car, whilst we grumble about anything that gets in our way on the roads as we try to get to work and/or do the school run.

We kind of like our car dependent culture and new housing estates with no alternative ways of getting around, we may even protest if there’s a suggestion that a bus route goes down our road. We don’t need nasty smelly buses, anyway they’d have trouble getting past all our parked cars and may bump into them, not to mention they’d bring poor people into our estate.

We look upon buses and suburban trains as being for those who can’t afford a car and we resent money being put into public transport/safe cycle routes as it should be spent building more roads, even though we know that more roads means more traffic/more congestion. We dislike buses in particular as they keep stopping to pick the poor up or drop them off. Why can’t they run on roads where they don’t slow me up in my car?

We can be made to feel a little guilty about our cars contributing to environmental problems and global warming but well it’s up to others to get rid of their gas guzzlers, not us. We might spend a small fortune on an electric car but probably more because they’re currently a status symbol rather more than them being less polluting. But are they less damaging to the environment? We don’t really want to look at what gets destroyed by mining for the stuff they put in batteries; that’s the next generation’s problem to address.

Our politicians know all of the above of course and the many unscrupulous ones amongst them try to exploit our love affair with the car. They play to our car-centric prejudices. Our tabloid press is always there too, going on about the poor motorist being done down and we think ‘yes that’s right, that’s what I think too’!

An old saying still holds good, ‘your car is a convenience to you and an inconvenience to everyone else’.

The author is a driver, cyclist and pedestrian, in case you’re wondering, who favours significant investment in an integrated public transport system. He also acknowledges that cars are a tremendous asset for people with disabilities who otherwise would not be able to get around well at all. As an aside he used to drool over a Triumph Dolomite Sprint and he does enjoy watching Bangers & Cash on TV.

 

A Broad Church or one stretched too far?

It seems that some progressive voters who backed Labour at the recent election thought the party leadership was just telling fibs when they came over, prior to the election, as effectively pro-Brexit.

We’re told that polling indicates that around 70% who voted Labour want the UK to at least join the Single Market but Labour is doing what they promised and they’re sticking, in effect, to Teresa May’s red lines.

Of course, Labour have placed themselves in this position to try to stop more of their right-wing, working-class voters defecting to Reform. They started to lose right and indeed even further right supporters back when Brexit was all the rage amongst right-wing voters generally. They then lost more to the Tories under Johnson and then again to the further right Reform Party at the 2024 GE.

Logically, Labour are not going to get them back and it’s doubtful whether trying to appease such voters will work at all. History tells us that appeasing the further and far right is never a good idea but that’s where Labour is. Ironically, in trying to hang on to their right-wing and further right supporters Labour’s leadership is, of course, alienating it’s progressive supporters who may well defect to progressive parties such as the Lib Dems, SNP and Greens.

And all this is because Labour has always seen itself as being the party of the working-class no matter what views those voters actually have. Labour has been a broad church with supporters ranging from the further right through to the far left and everything in-between and it’s why the party is riven with factional infighting.

The problem for Labour is that even via our warped first-past-the-post electoral system, which has helped keep Labour’s warring factions in the same tent for generations, things are changing and Reform and at one point the Tories have been taking Labour’s right-wing supporters. At the same time the Lib Dems, SNP and Greens have been nibbling away at the party’s progressive left of centre supporters. Remember, whilst our mad electoral system has given Labour a massive majority in the House of Commons only 34% of those who turned out to vote in 2024 actually voted Labour and clearly many of those did so just to be rid of the appalling Tories. So Labour’s support is weak at best.

Despite it being a broad church, Labour has usually positioned itself left of centre but now it’s outlook is centre-right. At some point it will try to reposition itself again, although where is open to debate. Labour’s roots are its history and its present day problem as in multi-party democracies trying to appeal to such a vast political range is going to be ever more difficult.

The electorate may well be starting to leave Labour behind and the blind loyalty it once relied upon through many generations, within working-class families in particular, is looking unsustainable going forward. If the party’s progressives say ‘no more’ as they can no longer stomach Brexit and centre-right politics then Labour is in deep trouble indeed.

 

I’ll be there – My life with the Four Tops – Book Review

Having been a lover of the Four Tops music for pretty much as long as I can remember I obtained a copy of Duke Fakir’s biography of the Motown group, their lives and musical ups and downs.

 

 

To be honest I found it a compelling yet somewhat odd book. Fakir was clearly a very religious man and goodness me did he write about it! From my perspective, as an atheist, he over did it but then again was he just typical of his fellow American Bible bashers? The use of profanities throughout the text jarred a little not least because it was alongside his religious views.

I was only really interested in the music, Motown and how this super-group built their incredibly long-lasting relationship with each other. A relationship which literally lasted until death they did depart one by one with Fakir bring the last to pass on quite recently. And speaking of them passing on, I learned from the book that they were all booked onto that fateful flight which crashed at Lockerbie but their tickets had to be cancelled due to recording taking place in London.

I recall seeing the Tops in Southport, Manchester and Liverpool on five occasions and they always put on a great show. My favourite of their hits is probably their first one – Baby I need your Loving and here’s a YouTube link to them singing it:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOntQocGWk

I wasn’t surprised to read that Levi Stubbs, their lead singer, had been offered solo recording contracts, he was after all a great singer with a natural and powerful baritone voice. However, he refused anything that did not include them all; a loyalty which you don’t see a lot of in the music industry.

Lawrence Payton, the first to pass on, was the group’s musical expert and Duke was their day to day manager/organiser. At the time Duke’s book was published, in 2022, he was the last of the original members left alive and performing. The passing of Obie, Lawrence and Levi clearly left a huge hole in his life. They’d performed together, originally as the Four Aims, since 1953!

Unsurprisingly there were references to their experiences of the racial divide in the southern US states but at the same time their music was, of course, crossing such divides as many white Americans loved their songs.

We’ll never see their like again and I’m so glad I saw and heard all of the original members 4 of the 5 times at concerts and despite my reservations this was a book well worth reading.

Here's an interesting British Library interview with Duke about his life:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5Ud0E2n13I&t=4222s

 

RIP Terry Baldwin

I’ve received the sad news that former Aintree Village Parish Councillor Terry Baldwin has passed on.

I recall sharing a great community campaign with Terry as we and indeed many others, I might add, tried to save Aintree Library from closure. We lost, but Terry was a great public speaker and quite a character too. Here he is in full flow at an outdoor protest meeting about the then proposed closure of Aintree Library -

I also recall that he, like me, had a trade union activist past and it was probably one reason why we got along well. Terry was Chairman of Aintree Village Parish Council when a new GP surgery was opened. Here’s Terry at that event in 2006 -

 

Away from politics and community campaigning Terry was involved, at high level, with St. John Ambulance and I recall seeing him standing proudly in his uniform at civic events at Maghull Town Hall where St. John Ambulance volunteers practised their skills. Indeed, I think it was Terry who presented me, in my year as Mayor of Maghull, with a model of a St. John Ambulance vehicle which still sits in a display cabinet in the Council Chamber of Maghull Town Hall. It was to celebrate their acquiring a new ambulance, if I remember correctly.

Terry was presented with the Maghull Town Council Civic Award in 2004 and it was very much because of his volunteer St. John Ambulance work.

So goodbye Terry, yours was a life well lived and you were liked and respected by so many people.

 

A terrible loss - The Southport – Preston Line – A new booklet 

marking 60 yrs since the electric services to Crossens ceased.

I’ve just read an excellent booklet produced by the Class 502 Preservation Trust to mark 60 years since the loss of the 3^rd rail electrified service from Southport out to Crossens in September 1964. The following day the whole route from Southport to Preston closed; all part of the short-sighted Beeching cuts.

Front cover of booklet

 

The line is now lost to housing in so many places that reopening is impossible yet in 1963, just one year prior to closure, the booklet tells us that the line was carrying 2m passengers a year! With all the building along the line from Southport through Crossens to Preston it would clearly be viable 2024. 

Back cover of booklet

 

Even if closure was seen to be the right thing to do in 1964 the trackbed should, like with so many other lost lines, have been safeguarded for future possible reopening but UK politics has always been short-term and short-sighted.

Anyway, back to the booklet which runs to 40 plus pages. It’s full of colour photos, great captioning and is a wonderful insight into what has been lost. I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to railway enthusiasts, and those interested in Southport’s history.

It’s available from the Class 502 Preservation Trust priced at £8.50 and their online shop is via this link - 

  https://www.class502.org.uk/shop/

 

A missed opportunity? – The new Merseyrail Class 777 fleet

 

 

A class 777 EMU at Maghull Nth Station - My photo

I’ve been pondering in ways that only a railway enthusiast can probably ponder. My ‘light bulb’ idea is that Merseytravel (the public transport body for the Liverpool City Region, which has recently been renamed to something so long I can’t recall it) missed a trick when they ordered the whole new Class 777 EMU fleet all in the same black and yellow livery.

Yes, by all means have a few in the new livery but why not have done a handful in each of the former railway operator’s liveries on Merseyside? The Mersey Railway, LMS, BR and indeed the various liveries carried by the Class 507/508s in the post-BR days. I guess one answer is likely to be cost and the other, no one thought about it as a possibility.

Here’s a few ideas from my own photographic collection. I think all the photos were purchases from the Class 502 Preservation Trust - https://www.class502.org.uk/ - I'm unable to credit the actual photographers as I don't know them.*

 

A 502 in an LMS tribute livery

A 502 in BR Blue livery

A 502 in a later BR livery

* Please visit the 502 Trust website.Also, if you know who I should credit the 502 photos to please let me know.

 

Appeasing the far right, austerity, poor politics, inability to sell policies - Labour's present troubles

Here's is a link to an interesting YouTube video (which I suggest you look at before reading this blog piece) if, like me, you do politics and are pondering Labour's troubles after only weeks in government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKUdFLNCl4

Starmer, to me, is not good at politics a point once more or less made by his deputy who said something like he's the least political person I know, or words to that effect. Yes, the hand he's been dealt is a very difficult one but my feeling is that he's not good at defining a direction of travel or indeed selling it to voters.

His politics seem right of centre so you'd think our right-wing media would take to him yet they don't as they want the further or far right to be running the show. On that basis Labour's attempts, over many years, to appease the right seem to have failed on pretty much every level, as indeed they were always likely to.

Being a predominately a party of the working-class means Labour has always been hampered by having to be a party that covers the far right to the far left and everything in-between. An impossible task, of course, but one they've stuck with over generations. However, they came unstuck when many of their right-wing members and supporters backed Brexit and then Boris Johnson. Many of those are now supporters of Reform and they're not coming back to Labour soon or even ever. But Labour wants them back in their broad church because that's where they think these working-class right-wingers belong.

Labours problem over the past 10 years has been one of trying hard to keep or attract back the working-class right-wingers whilst ignoring their progressive voters, in effect taking them for granted. Getting only a low 30's percentage of votes in the last election (although with a ridiculously large majority of seats) is now a problem as they won because voters wanted the Tories out at all costs. The patience of those voters, many of whom will have been progressives, is wearing thin already not least because Labour has refused to address child poverty (2 child benefit cap) and has attacked state pensioners by taking away the winter fuel allowance.

The big error of judgement seems to have been not to deal with the need to increase some taxes, especially on the wealthy and hugely profitable energy companies first, before even thinking of more austerity measures. You have to bear in mind Labour has consistently opposed austerity measures since 2010 only to bring in more of their own as soon as they get the keys for No.10. Yes, OK, Gordon Brown actually brought in the first austerity measures in response to the 2007 financial crash and of course Labour pledged to make £1b more in cuts in the 2010-2015 Parliament than the disliked Coalition government actually made. But Labour gained the moral high ground by looking to be opposed to virtually all austerity measures and now that has come back to bite them as they’re making more austerity cuts!

So poor politics and adopting political stances only to do the opposite; reminds us all of Nick Clegg and Tuition Fees does it not! Team that with losing members and supporters to the far right and trying to appease the right-wing and it’s no wonder Labour is in a mess.

But I would say all that as a progressive, wouldn't I? It really is is up to the right of centre voters to embrace Labour unless they want the further right Tories back or even the madness of the far right of course.

We progressives are now left with backing the left of centre Lib Dems or further left Greens.