When and Beyond

Although ministers love their limousines, they tend to be less enthusiastic about transport. Transport comes under the rubric of infrastructure, which is one of those areas in which the private sector keeps begging the Government to interfere, in defiance of natural justice, fiscal probity and the national religion. The extent to which the present administration cares about transport may be deduced from the fact that the relevant department has been placed in the charge of Grant Shapps, who is also known as Michael Green and Sebastian Fox because those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear. Having observed, from his humble place beneath the Cabinet table, how ministers like to sneak out their more controversial announcements so that their fellow door-revolvers in the media will not be discommoded, Shapps has evidently decided to try his sticky little hand at emulating his betters. The beneficiaries of his discretion, chosen with characteristic aplomb, are various new provisions in the Highway Code, which are to be introduced in a month's time and of which two-thirds of the road-consuming public have not yet heard. Cycling UK's head of campaigns noted with commendable restraint that the changes "will be of limited benefit if the public aren't aware of them," while his organisation called for, of all things, a "long-term and well-funded communications campaign." For its own part, the Department for Lorry Parks and Shortages has established a working group, which may or may not get around to telling people things at some point, and a campaign with an exclamation mark in its title, which will ensure that "all road users are aware when the changes come into effect and beyond." Her Majesty's Government does not insult its plucky little public by telling them things in advance. If road users want to know what the rules are, they can break them and pay a fine to find out.