The Mail on Sunday is telling us that "motorists have been fined a staggering £5 million for driving down a quiet residential street which has been dubbed 'Britain’s most baffling road'".

More than 41,000 drivers have been hit with penalties, the report goes on, after a council erected nine signs that confuse everyone who enters the road, and a CCTV camera. Most confusing is the rule that bans motorists from driving one way down the street in the morning and then from going in the opposite direction in the afternoon.

View full article here

I've been talking up a campaign of bagging gatsos, ideally with the council's own refuse sacks. Captain Super-Glue will sort out parking meters and if the notice of who is permitted to park in res. zoning areas is defaced or removed then they can't PCN.
Targetted vandalism from our age-group would take a while to be noticed

I recognise that the Camden traffic thing is only there to illustrate the point about people power but can I be allowed to use it to introduce the late Hans Monderman to those who have not heard of him. He is the anti traffic engineering traffic engineer who embraces a whole philosophy of people power as illustrated by this rather long but insightful lecture here: http://www.urbannous.org.uk/urbandesign ... derman.htm
and a brief resume here: http://www.pps.org/articles/hans-monderman/

Not at all ... I'm a great fan ...

http://eureferendum2.blogspot.com/2007/ ... reets.html

Ok, so take out traffic lights too
I feel a "Reclaim the Road" campaign growing.
People are being unfair calling the populace sheep. It is simple sense not to disturb the status quo until your disturbance will count.
Resentment is growing like a gathering thunderstorm, or an over-filling dam. The energy is there and the crack of its release will bring the oddest of people to the fore.

I have spent the better part of forty years negotiating traffic, mostly London's, and over thirty years professionally. During the nineties, the volume of traffic in sheer numbers remained static, yet during that time congestion increased greatly. The cause; bus lanes, cycle lanes, narrowing of roadways through pavement build-outs, increases in the number of traffic lights, re-phasing of existing lights to stay red longer, road bollards, chicanes, speed humps, cutting off short cuts by revising one-way systems through back streets, and paving over large areas previously tarmac - Trafalgar Square being just one diabolical example of restrictive - destructive engineering. This was the precursor to the introduction of the Congestion Charge, Upon that day in February 2003, all previously long established 'Road Works' along with severe restrictions along Victoria Embankment due to the construction of the new footbridge across the Thames at Hungerford, were swept away as if by magic. Voila! Congestion Charge worked! Set up, and stitched up - that's the story of London's drivers. Tournique'd into submission - along with Livingstone's claims of "Londoner's want it - If they don't, we'll remove it". Lying git.

This has been out a couple of years - well worth a watch: http://www.maniacfilms.com/maniac/media ... ds2009.mov

You are quite right, the essence of government is the control of supply, and all revolutions have been based on this single, most basic fact.

Until the happy day that supply is in the hands of the serfs, I like the Yorkshire way of doing things. I've always said it is Britain's Texas.

So we have our referendum and reject the budget. How does the government or council know the reason why the budget was rejected? Our of the however many million people who voted in the national budget referendum, some might have rejected it because theyn thought not enough was spent. Some might have rejected because too much was. Some would reject every budget because they want no tax taken from their pay packets.

I cannot imagine that the issues will not be rehearsed during the campaign, and identified in opinion polls and exit polls. However, there is room for an "advisory" questionnaire as part of the voting process, asking about aspects of the budget. I am open-minded as to whether the budget should be broken down into secondary votes, or whether it should be "big bang".

Hello all,

Newport, Shropshire, was due to lose its free parking a year or few ago; much public dissent, superglue etc - then it transpired that the only towns in the area, Newport and Wellington also facing this problem, were the only towns in the area not to have a Labour majority on their councils! Then it all went away, having already cost an arm and a leg.

I wonder how much the Great British Public will take before we all turn up outside our Town Halls with pictures of pitchforks, as a prelude to the real thing?

Regards Ant