Reinforcing failure

The inertia of a bureaucratic system often means that a failed project or department will carry on under its own inertia for years sometimes decades. The larger the system, the less the accountability and a system like the EU and its arcane working practices is a prime example of things being done to reinforce a failure at the cost to the taxpayer.
Telegraph.

British taxpayers are spending up to £400,000 a year to help maintain French trains in the aftermath of a failed European transport project. 

The aborted rail scheme cost British taxpayers more than £180million but the Department for Transport continues to fund the failure.

It spent “between £300,000 and £400,000 last year” on mothballed facilities for the aborted Regional Eurostar project that would have provided a direct link between cities such as Manchester and Glasgow to Paris.

Seven trains were built for the Regional Eurostar but they were passed to the French train operator SNCF because its high-speed link between Paris and Lille was short of carriages.

A depot in Manchester to maintain the trains is still the responsibility of London & Continental Railways, a firm which is wholly owned by the DfT.

It has largely remained unused since the early ‘90s and London & Continental has to pay for its upkeep, though there has been no suggestion that it will ever be required for its original purpose.

 This is a classic example of bureaucratic inertia, or those in power not making a decision simply because it's too much trouble, or simply forgotten. No doubt it was a nice financial budget and staffing addendum to the DfT maintaining the size and prestige of a ministry, the only measure of success that the civil service have. I'm fairly sure that there are other programs out there with a budget hidden away from the eyes of the public that have simply not crossed the radar of the accountants or journalists yet, Cold War bunker maintenance etc.
But the EU's talent for spending money is pretty much unmatched along with its unaccountability, no-one really seems to have much of an idea about what is being spent on what or at the higher echelons no-one really cares so long as the expenses keep piling in and they can clock in with their travelling case to go home on Friday with a full days pay behind them.
Not that I'm suggesting that our own civil servants and public servants are much better, but if they were closer to home, there would be far greater scrutiny (I'd hope) but the problems keep arising that those who run the country are far too careless about our money. Until there's accountability, full accountability, the situation will remain the same.

"Activities which undermine our healthy eating policy cannot be tolerated."

Every attempt it would seem to try and force the public to do something they don't want to do by "experts" seems doomed to explode in their faces. Healthy eating, anti-smoking, anti-drinking all fall by the wayside by peoples bloodymindedness as they'll look for another option when one door to their gratification is closed leading to ever more restrictions in our lives and greater underlying anger at those who simply will not leave us alone.
BBC.

Schoolboy trader given suspension for selling chocolate
Tommie Rose was excluded for breaking a healthy eating policy
A young entrepreneur has been suspended from his healthy eating school for repeatedly selling sweets there.
Tommie Rose, 12, said he made up to £200 a day selling chocolate and fizzy drinks to fellow pupils at Salford's Oasis Academy.
He was warned he was breaking a healthy eating policy, but continued to trade.

His biggest mistake was of course selling on the schools property, their gaff, their rules after all, but if he were to say step off the property, then I'm sure he'd be in business again, though no doubt they have rules about leaving the grounds. Still it's a classic example of prohibition in that if you ban something that people want, someone will try to get around it.

A spokesman for Oasis Academy said that parents "fully support our policy and would be disappointed to find their child's money being spent on the large amounts of chocolate repeatedly being brought onto the premises".

He added: "Whilst we understand the motivation for a bit of entrepreneurialism, we would rather work alongside all students and channel that motivation into an activity that doesn't break the academy rules.

"Activities which undermine our healthy eating policy cannot be tolerated."

 The last line says it all, it's all about control, forcing kids to do what the so called "experts" have decided is good for them, turning them into obedient little robots under state control. I'm not saying what he did was right, for the reasons above, however I do admire his enterprise and suspect he'll do well for himself in the future at buying in bulk and selling it on. He might make his fortune, the people running the school however will not and the more their attitudes prevail, the worse things will get in society in general until something snaps in us all and the revolution starts.
Just taking longer than I ever dreamed though.

When in a hole...

Stop digging, common sense really, if you're already in the public eye for say getting your partner to admit to a driving offence that you actually committed, it might just be best to keep squeaky clean at least until the heat dies down. But of course this is politics and politicians we're talking about...
Telegraph.

Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, has been caught attempting to smear two Tory Cabinet colleagues in a single weekend.
The Lib Dem minister admitted briefing against Theresa May by tipping off a national newspaper that a section of her controversial party conference speech on human rights appeared to have been plagiarised.
And Mr Huhne was embarrassed again after claiming in a television interview that Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, had recently received points on his licence for speeding.
A source close to Mr Hammond, who last month announced plans to increase the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph, vigorously denied the claims and suggested that the Lib Dem minister should “check his facts”.
In the same BBC interview Mr Huhne apologised to Mrs May, the Home Secretary, for telling a journalist from The Guardian that part of her speech appeared to have been copied from a previous speech made by Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader.

 Now as far as I can tell the plagiarisation claims are a bit spurious as Farage and May used the same source, a story in the Daily Mirror earlier this year, if anything they are only guilty of not checking the actual facts in that the story is a bit of an urban myth. Not that I have a great deal of sympathy towards May anyway, the stories she used in the speech were all aimed at the HRA and the abuses within it, without mentioning the fact there's sod all the government can do about it short of leaving the EU. As for Farage, well, brilliant speeches, but UKIP are currently in the doldrums as there is little or no direction from the top. They should be gaining in the polls, but they aren't, perhaps a rebranding and a change of emphasis on to local policies rather than the anti-EU bit which we all know about wouldn't go amiss, dropping the logo wouldn't hurt either.
As for "windmill" Huhne well I wonder if the government will remove him, doubt it, there aren't that many Lib Dems available to put in his place and I cannot see EuroClegg allowing a Tory to occupy the position of Energy Minister, why they might actually insist on a policy which works when the wind isn't blowing.
Huhne is clearly damaged goods though and I doubt he'll be much of a problem to the government or the press, they have his number and he'll always be a marked man now, untrusted to a higher degree than most of his colleagues. His judgement and clearly his luck is badly flawed, and he seems to have forgotten one of the golden rules of plotting in that you should never put anything down in writing, particularly in an electronic medium.
I do hope this is the last straw though, the guy is clearly unhinged with his enviroloony proposals and it would be nice to get someone in there who actually understands about power generation and costs.
I'm not going to hold my breath though...

 

Envirolunacy

Seems that one of the latest "wizard" schemes of  the enviroloony wing of the government is to give lots of taxpayers cash to hospitals in order for them to produce their "own" electricity.
BBC.

Royal Berkshire will be one of five hospitals in England to receive NHS funding to produce its own electricity.

The Reading hospital will receive £5m from the Carbon And Energy Fund to install solar panels, wind turbines and a heat-driven mini power station.
The Department of Health scheme aims to cut CO2 emissions from NHS buildings.
A Royal Berkshire Hospital spokesman said work would start in early 2012. Other funding is going to hospitals in Kent, Cambridge and Wolverhampton.
The five hospital trusts are part of a first tranche of grants handed out by the fund.
Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge will receive a £15m grant, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate will get £4m, Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury will get £3m in funding and Royal Wolverhampton Hospital in West Midlands is due to receive between £3 and 5m.
A spokesman for the Carbon And Energy Fund, which has more than £100m to distribute, said the plan was to help 60 NHS hospital trusts reduce their carbon footprint in four years.
Royal Berkshire Hospital spokesman Joe Wise said the hospital could save between £500,000 and £1m a year in electricity bills and reduce its CO2 emissions by about 3,200 tonnes.
He said the hospital was expected to produce surplus energy that would go towards powering the nearby Reading School, the London Road campus of Reading University and a planned heated community swimming pool or sauna on the hospital's site.

£5 million to fit in equipment that has to be subsidised by the taxpayers in order to be economically viable in the first place. £5 million on equipment that wont even pay back it's purchase costs within its working lifetime. All to appease the idiots who still believe that humankind can do something about climate change, who believe that the UK must wreck its economy in order to reduce its "carbon footprint" when the USA and China who produce 40% of the worlds carbon footprint compared to our 2% are not so stupid as to do anything about it, they want their people employed it seems. Not even the zealots in the EU are so stupid as to believe that their economies should be wrecked by schemes that are expensive, unreliable and unworkable as the UK The previous labour government has stuck us with a voluntary commitment to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions to 80 per cent of their 1990 level by 2050 something which would only be achievable by shutting down most of the economy leaving us to starve and freeze as we'd be unable to buy food or heat our homes in the winter.
The greed and tax grabbing of our political classes has the UK staring into the abyss of economic meltdown as over £760 per annum per household of our income is going into the coffers of government to be wasted on environmental foolishness and yet to save face (or because they just don't care) no one in the government has the guts to say hold on, we don't need this.
I'm all for looking after the environment, that means dealing with pollution and waste, but green energy is not looking after the environment, it's just lining the pockets of companies and politicians who promote their barmy schemes in the face of evidence that they simply don't work as advertised and aren't needed.
Their time will come when we'll hang them from the lampposts, but no doubt some will escape with their ill gotten gains to some tax haven in the sun whilst the UK economy collapses from their greed and short sighted stupidity.

They just can't seem to help themselves

Nobody I know has a problem with genuine expenses, if you're out of pocket doing something for your employer or simply being paid travel expenses as part of your job, it's fine. MP's however continue to take the piss...
Mail.

MPs are being handed thousands of pounds of licence fee money simply to appear on the BBC.
The cash is being doled out to politicians for guest slots on shows where they do little more than promote themselves or their party.
Exposed for the first time in a week when the Corporation announced swingeing cuts that will leave BBC2 a channel of repeats, the practice allows MPs to receive ‘disturbance payments’ on top of expenses when they take part in programmes such as Any Questions? or Have I Got News For You.
Senior politicians including Diane Abbott, Hilary Benn, Sir Menzies Campbell and Caroline Flint have enjoyed being paid to turn up on panel shows, according to research conducted on the parliamentary register of members’ financial interests.
It proves the BBC has become a money-spinner for the political classes.
One of the most lucrative shows is Have I Got News For You, which can attract a fee of £1,500, but BBC2’s Cash in the Attic – currently under threat of being axed – once paid Miss Abbott £1,000 for an appearance.
Some MPs give the money to charity, one at least donates it to her local party and others simply pocket the cash.
Although the BBC’s stated policy is not to pay frontbench ministers or their Opposition counterparts, the Daily Mail’s research has revealed this has happened.
Many of the payments come from Radio 4’s political panel programme Any Questions?, which usually pays about £150 for an MP to appear. But this can rise to £200 a show, plus expenses.

The last bit is the one which caught my eye, they are being paid "appearance money" PLUS expenses!As if they weren't raking in enough of our cash for the privilege of driving the country into the ground, they have to grab some of our money via the BBC too.
Thing is, all they do when on many of these shows is trot out the party line, they rarely say what they really think (I'm assuming here as the alternative is too horrible to contemplate) They never answer a straight question with a straight answer and at times appear so out of touch with public opinion that you have to wonder which planet they are from, though the BBC often pander to this delusion with tame audiences and presenters.
If politicians are invited to appear on a political program then all they should get is their travelling expenses, no appearance fee and no special treatment.
The BBC as ever seem to forget just whose money they are playing (and paying) with.

Who?

Two big names have been thrown to the wolves from the Shadow cabinet reshuffle, John Denham and John Healy. This confused me a little as to me neither of them are "big" names and although I do know a little about John Denham as he's criticised the EDL back in 2009 whilst it was just being set up and violently attacked by the UAF (yes he's that sort of hypocrite) I have never heard of John Healy.
Express.

TWO of Labour’s key figures have stepped down from their posts ahead of Ed Miliband’s reshuffle of his Labour top team today.
The departures of shadow business secretary John Denham and shadow health secretary John Healey are expected to pave the way for the embattled Labour leader to bring new blood into his shadow cabinet from the 2010 intake of MPs.
Shadow junior minister Rachel Reeves, 32, is set to lead a charge of young women dubbed “Mili’s fillies”.
Emma Reynolds, 33, also a shadow junior minister, and backbencher Stella Creasy, 34, are expected to join the new-look team.
The experienced Caroline Flint could be promoted to shadow health secretary from her communities and local government role.
Shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland Shaun Woodward, the former Conservative MP who defected to Labour in 1999, is among those battling to save their jobs.
And shadow culture, media and sport secretary Ivan Lewis and energy spokeswoman Meg Hillier are also thought to be at risk.

I do wonder if this is an all light but no heat type of reshuffle, a sort of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic moment. Millipede E is in a bit of a bind anyway he knows the economies in dire straits (at least I hope he does) he also knows just exactly who is to blame for it even if he's trying to deny or shift it. He should also know that the resolution to it is completely out of his hands and also Cameron's too. So I have to ask myself if Millipede E is trying to lose the next election as things are about to get oh so much worse?
As for the “Mili’s fillies” comment, well that's gutter politics at its best, but judging by Caroline Flint's performance during the Brown years it's not too surprising really politicians and the MSM being quite open in saying the stuff that we politely wouldn't say to anyones face.It might be that Rachel Reeves, Emma Reynolds and Stella Creasey will be good at their jobs, though judging by their ages I doubt they have much experience in the real world, though that goes for a lot of politicians who are much older too. But they've been tarred now as being some sort of airheads by innuendo in a similar vein to Blair's babes, none of whom set the political world on fire, plus they are somewhat too the left politically speaking which gives them another mental impairment.
Why do we elect these people?

Some traditions aren't welcome here

What is allowable in one country isn't always allowable in others, sometimes it's odd laws and customs such as the USA not allowing people under 21 to purchase alcohol in most states. Or the age of sexual consent varying from one country to another. Either way, you obey the laws of the country you're in and you don't try to introduce your own customs if they go against the mores and laws of the country you now live in.
This is a problem for some cultures as their religious "rules" permit some things which are also allowed in the countries where they were born or feel culturally attached too. Child brides being one such instance along with polygamy and treating the women of other beliefs as "property" or whores.
Carlisle News and Star.

A Carlisle restaurant boss has appeared in court accused of running a brothel from the takeaway he manages on Botchergate.

Azad Miah, 44, is also accused of paying young girls for sex.

Miah, who is manager of the Spice of India takeaway, appeared at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court today charged with 13 offences.

They are:

• one charge of keeping or managing a brothel at the Spice of India takeaway;
• six charges of causing or inciting prostitution for gain;
• two charges of causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity;
• three charges of causing or inciting a girl to perform sexual acts;
• one charge of paying for the sexual services of a girl aged 13 to 15.

The offences are said to have taken place between 2005 and March this year.

Miah, who used to live in the city centre, was arrested by police on Monday and charged.

An application for bail was refused by magistrates.

Not an isolated case either despite what some MSM, police, leftists and politicians would like you to believe either. Other examples being here, here and here.
In all the link is Islamic, though the MSM would have us believe it's "Asians" and it appears to be part of their culture to believe that any other cultures women are there to be used, that they are less worthy (after all their own women's worth is a half that of a man) and the Kuffar are worth less than a Muslim woman.
These cases are getting a bit more publicity now, but for years in the name of multiculturalism, diversity and community cohesion these dreadful crimes have been swept under the carpet by the police, the MSM and politicians of both the left and right. There's still some of it going on today with the insistence of the BBC and others to call them "Asian" sex gangs despite the fact that "Asians" of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religions simply don't behave in any such vile way, nor as far as I can tell do any other people in Asia with the one exception of those holding to the Islamic faith.
Sure, sure it's not all Muslims, but at the moment I'm not exactly inclined to start sorting out the sheep from the goats as their communities have a tendency to close ranks against anyone making such enquiries.
I just don't feel their is any place for Islam or Muslims in a civilised society. They don't or wont play by our rules of civilised behaviour and the idiots with the power to deal with it have allowed these people to settle and increase in our country to the point where it's now becoming obvious that civil disorder (or war) is fat becoming a possibility as the indigenous people and other who have integrated well are no longer prepared to tolerate the behaviour of Muslims within their midst.
I give it 5 years.

Dead stable

Cameron came out with a corker today, he told BBC political editor Nick Robinson there were "serious clouds on the horizon" and it was "absolutely vital" to stabilise the Euro. Vital to whom he doesn't seem to be quite so clear about, after all the UK is not part of the Eurozone and if the Euro does go tits up to coin the vernacular it certainly wont affect the UK as badly as those countries who are a part of it. If anything it's hurting us now with all the attempts to save it by cash grabs from the EU in desperate attempts to stave off the inevitable.
BBC.

David Cameron has said the world economy is at "a moment of danger" as a result of the eurozone crisis.

He told BBC political editor Nick Robinson there were "serious clouds on the horizon" and it was "absolutely vital" to stabilise the euro.

After that was done, he said, there must be "more on the growth front" in the UK to get the economy moving.

The PM also said safeguards were needed to protect UK interests if Eurozone states begin closer integration.

Well at least he didn't try to blame it on America like the last PM did, however Cameron is in the position of a kid standing beside a badly wounded parent and unable to control the events going on around him helpless but to scream don't let them die please to the people around him. The Euro is dead, I know it, you know it, the financiers know it.

So why Cameron is trying to tell us that it still can (or must) be saved is somewhat of a mystery to all, even his own party, though perhaps not the Lib Dem leader whose pension depends on the EU surviving and the UK remaining part of it.
The best way to stabilise the Euro from my admittedly jaundiced perspective would be to let it die without spending any more UK taxpayers money on it, after all, dead is stable and Cameron wants stability.
I suspect it wont happen that easily though, there are vested interests involved after all, I even suspect when the whole rotten edifice falls we'll have politicians popping up to tell us mistakes were made and lessons learned so trust us to try again.
Thing is though, I don't trust politicians anymore, the people I mix with are equally as jaded and will not vote or if they do will no longer vote mainstream. If this collapses (and it will) you can expect the rise of more extremist parties offering "solutions" to the problem, likely involving immigrants or a convenient scapegoat. Europe has form for this sort of thing after all, Hitler and the Nazi's didn't just come from nowhere or were a total aberration in European history.
So best we stay out of it, let it die and look after our own.
But that's not Cameron's way, he seems to want to drag us screaming down into the long night.

Actions, not words please

Until the blogger Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) took it upon himself to highlight the gross abuses of "Pilgrims" within the public services who do a full time union job at the taxpayers expense many of us were unaware at just how deep the rot of corruption and waste of money that Labour were prepared to cover up to allow the bloated public sector unions who bankroll them to feast at the trough of taxation. So far it's been estimated there are around 150 civil servants who are actually full time trade union officials, all on the public payroll and this does not cover those working at local government levels. More part timers exist as well soaking up revenue that could be spent elsewhere combating the cuts rather than encouraging strike action by public service staff.

Picture courtesy of Guido's blog

Express.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles slammed the role of paid full-time unionists as a “non-job” and pledged to crack down on them.
He told the Conservative conference yesterday: “They cost the public sector – that’s taxpayers to you and me – a quarter of a billion pounds a year.
“That’s money taken away from frontline services.”
He said Labour was too in hock to unions to take action, adding: “If unions want to raise money for Labour – do it in your own time, not on the rates.
“We’re going to call time on this last closed shop.” 

Indeed Labour are in hock to the unions, there were various scams in place such as the Union Modernisation Fund that saw a rebate for the money the unions paid to the Labour Party come straight out of government coffers for the development and advancement of the “movement”. In other words Labour were using public funds by what amounted to a money laundering scheme to top up their coffers.
Yet despite what Eric Pickles is saying and mostly I like what he says, I'm still waiting for deeds to match the words. We (the taxpayers) are being ripped off left right and centre by corrupt unions, corrupt local government and corrupt politicians in general. Their time is coming, the only thing that might save them is to pay back what they are stealing, something they are showing no inclination to do.
Someday they will hang for their crimes, it can't come too soon.

Bad Timing

Time is a funny thing, humans generally use the diurnal rotation of the planet coupled with its annual rotation around the Sun as the standard measure. Yes it's not precise, but over the centuries we've built in a few checks and balances to even up the odd bits and bobs left over at the end of the yearly rotation which is why we have Leap years and no doubt eventually a double Leap year if and when it's decided to even things up again. It's how our calendars and watches work, fitting into the human sense of what seems to be right. Sadly though there are always some who wish to meddle and in this case it's the EU and A group of scientists from the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), based near Paris who want to use the time from an atomic clock system to replace GMT. I doubt that it's spite, though the French have never been particularly happy about GMT becoming the international standard as opposed to Paris Mean Time which is one degree of latitude out.
Express.

Meddling Eurocrats are threatening an even more integral part of our British heritage – Greenwich Mean Time.

A group of scientists from the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), based near Paris, want to axe the last vestiges of the Greenwich Mean Time system, under which day-length is based on the rotation of the earth.

Under the new proposals, which have been rejected by the British Government, the scientists argue that day-length should be based solely on atomic clocks, which differ slightly from astronomical time. Since 1972, standard international time has combined both.

But the new proposals would mean Britain’s role in global timekeeping would finally be relegated to a footnote in history, with the BIPM in France effectively taking charge. Dr Elisa Felicitas Arias, of the BIPM, said: “We want to de-couple the world’s timekeeping from its link to the rotation of the Earth.  

Rejecting the plans, Science Minister David Willets said: “This is primarily a finely-balanced scientific argument.

“But I do detect undercurrents of nationalism. Britain’s position is that we should stick to real time as experienced by humans, which is based on the Earth’s rotation, not atomic clocks.”

Under the alternative proposed system, he said, we would lose contact with the reality of Earth’s rotation.

This could mean that, “eventually our midnight would happen at noon”.

Real time does indeed work fine for most people, after all, we live in real time so Midnight and Noon should remain the same, 12 hours apart and we live our lives in-between. Atomic time however takes no notice of minor variations in the Earth's rotation because of our planets rotation and minor wobbles occasionally happen which are corrected manually without our noticing by establishments by the BBC and the atomic clock people at Jodrell Bank. Sticking however to an atomic time system would eventually move the Midnight and Noon cycle out of synchronisation with what people perceive to be the actual time and I suspect that things would rapidly go back to the old system though possibly if the French have their way it would be based upon Paris Mean Time rather than Greenwich Mean Time, that is how the EU seem to work in favour of most things French with the Germans paying the bills.
Time will tell no doubt.

Moving the deckchairs around

Nothing strikes me more about the lack of sovereignty of our so called political representatives than their continued debates on matter of which they cannot control, nor can force the government to implement.
Mail.

A historic vote on growing demands for Britain to leave the European Union will be held in the Commons before Christmas.
MPs will debate whether the Government should give voters a chance to decide the issue once and for all in a referendum.
It will be the first time Parliament has held a major vote on seeking the public’s view since the 1975 referendum confirming the decision to join the Common Market.

Sounds great, the voices of the representatives of the people will be heard...

If MPs vote in favour of a referendum, the result would not be binding on the Government.

And ignored if they decide on something the government (aka David Cameron) doesn't want, though a few out there have the suspicion that the EU might just want us to have a referendum simply to bribe us back into compliance. Then again with the current state of the EU and the Euro that may not be an option they can afford anymore, still as some of you will no doubt point out, when has that ever stopped them from spending money they haven't got...
As for our Parliamentarians, well over the last 30 years they like sheep who have been lead astray have systematically handed over our sovereignty to unaccountable bureaucrats in Whitehall and Brussels, you can more or less forget the EU Parliament, it has fewer powers than Westminster, the actual power of the EU lies within the Commission and the Council of Ministers who exercise the powers our treacherous leaders gave away with various treaties since the days of that arch traitor Heath. So all they can do now is debate something and probably watch the government ignore it as even if it get overwhelming support, it will be leached away with backroom deals to prevent the sovereign people of these isles having their say assuming they can be arsed to get up from watching strictly come x factor.

Last night, despite the growing calls for a referendum, Foreign Secretary William Hague insisted the Government would not grant a public vote on leaving the EU altogether – but said he would consider putting any future erosion of sovereignty to the people.

In other words never, the EU seem to have grabbed the really important stuff already otherwise vague Hague wouldn't make such a promise.

Since Britain joined the Common Market, there have been a series of Commons votes on whether there should be referendums on EU treaties such as Maastricht and Lisbon – although none on whether we should remain in the EU. All have been defeated, largely due to Governments ordering MPs to vote them down.

Says it all really.

Missing the point.

I don't know who Michael Deacon is, but he has an article in the Telegraph claiming that fewer young people drive these days because of road ragers, sadly he's completely missing the point.
Telegraph.

I don’t drive. Be grateful. Keeping me off the road is in the public interest. My mind wanders with dangerous ease. I can barely mow the lawn without drifting into a long and peaceful daydream, rousing only to find myself inexplicably at the heart of a pile-up on the A2.
But it seems that, statistically at any rate, I’m not unusual. In Britain, the number of young people who can drive is falling. Twenty years ago, 48 per cent of those aged 17-20 could drive. Now, it’s 35 per cent. And it isn’t just teenagers who aren’t taking the test. Most of my friends are around 30, and few drive.
Some motoring experts think it’s because today’s young are interested only in gadgets, and don’t find cars sexy. Also, driving looks costly to a generation struggling for jobs. But there’s a bigger reason.
The problem with driving is drivers. Not you, dear reader, obviously – your three-point turns are vehicular ballet. It’s the rest of them. As roads have become busier, and our society more self-centred, drivers have become more volatile. And a ton of speeding metal is a lot with which to entrust an angry idiot. Today, even being a passenger is stressful. Although trains can be unreliable, they rarely get cut up on wet motorways, or honked at impatiently by another train travelling three inches behind them. And I can count on no hands the number of times I’ve seen a train driver mouthing curses at a fellow train driver while attempting to run him into a bollard.
In short, our roads would be lovely places to drive if only people didn’t keep driving on them. I’m doing my bit to make that dream real.

There may be a few young people put off driving by other angry drivers, but the real reason a lot of young people don't learn to drive is cost. Driving lessons alone typically cost from £22 to £30 depending on where you are in the country and sometimes more and is a massive chunk out of any young persons budget. The car itself though is rarely a problem, but fuel (not cheap) insurance (horrendous for inexperienced drivers) Tax (assuming they bother) and spares/servicing (if done at all) all make owning a car ridiculously expensive after getting through the test. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that Michael Deacon's admission that he and his (probably) well paid friends are wusses when it comes to driving is valid enough, but for most of the young people I know, it's simply not an affordable option at the stage of life they are at. It's certainly out of the reach of most of the ones on jobseekers that I know..
My step-daughter is learning to drive though, which is how I know a little about the costs, she's not put off by aggressive drivers, she's not put off by the cost either, though it isn't easy for her, it's something she wants to do and thinks it will be of benefit to her (and her daughter) the one thing that is putting her off though is the insurance costs, but she'll find a way to deal with them too, she's that determined. So in this instance Michael Deacon is wrong, people who want to learn to drive are being put off by the cost of doing so, not by what other motorists do,  if they had the money, more of them would, it's really that simple.