Privatised the NHS now going to sell our roads SCARY!!!!

[bkgirl]

Is anyone else petrified? Our NHS is being privatised and now the roads seem next to be sold. Just think how bleak our childrens future will be at this rate only the very wealthy will have a quality of life, the rest of us totally impoverished. Nightmare scenario. Why are we walking in to this future? How many MPs will be on the boards of these private healthcare companies.......this is a massive fraud against our futures.

bkgirl - the Tories won't be happy until they've privatized everything and only the rich have any quality of life. Just when you think they can't possibly be any more spiteful, they come up with another policy designed to make life a little more shit for most people.

I've just been listening to an interview on R5. Tolls will only be applied to new roads. Relax.

Proposals for toll roads have been around, on and off he, since the 1960s. Except for individual bridges, the only government which has actually introduced a form of charging is Labour (congestion charges, some successfully; some seen off after local opposition).

And it was Labour who proposed the "pay as you drive" charges via a box in every car: very scary stuff IMHO - and much more hostile than tolls to the motorist, and the poor who might depend on cars, as it potentially would cover every single road in UK all the time.

So this isn't a proposal unique to one party, and indeed this is a mild form of it compared to what was attempted before - as it is not permanent sale of existing roads.

We need to see the actual proposals, but the Darling proposals of 2005 were seen off by campaigning actions from the Drivers Alliance, and a huge petition.

We have pay as you drive already, have you bought diesel recently

Toll roads, like tax on fuel, charges motorists according to usage which is quite fair. Road fund tax charges everyone whether the car sits in the garage or not. Motoring is disproportionately cheap compared to rail. If roads become more expensive and a few more of us opt to take the train, it's better for the environment as well. Works fine in places like France.

I cant bring myself to give a stuff about roads but am petrified of a privatised NHS. My health condition wont make anyone a profit.

This will just increase the number of cars on the roads, because as existing roads can't be made into tolls, they will have a huge incentive to build more roads. More roads mean more - not less - traffic, as the volume of traffic will increase to fill the available space. Plus more noxious gases and fewer green spaces. What's not to like?

The M6 toll road has been there for years, but it's not making any money, because not enough people are using it. But in spite of this, the government want to let private companies build more roads, and subsidise them with public money again.

Who is going to benefit from this? What is it I'm not getting?