4 minute read
Turner's Torque - Time to riot
By Muddy Madam
The car user is getting hammered from all sides at the moment.
A good proportion of the country seems to be using some kind of spurious 'air quality control' zones to extricate a tax from anyone who isn't rich enough to be able to change their vehicle regularly.
If you dare to want to go anywhere, including the great outdoors, you can guarantee there is a car park waiting for you with a ridiculous charge, and an anonymous camera system waiting to catch you out if you dare to be one minute over time.
Fuel is still an issue. Yes, it has come down, but it is still higher than it should be in relation to the wholesale price, and don't get me started on electric charging prices outside of the home - Dick Turpin would be proud!
And recently, people were pointing out on Martin Lewis' Twitter (or as super-plonker Elon Musk now calls it 'X') that some car insurance quotes were being hiked up three times more than what they were last year without any reason. Bonkers!
Continuing this 'scalp the vehicle user' trend, has there been anything, other than the poll tax, that has pissed people off more than the airport drop off charges?
What other business likes to annoy their customers as they arrive, and then again when they leave and expect people to keep coming back? None that I know of, but, and this is the big but.... airports can do exactly what they want. They know that, apart from staying put, we have no choice, because although some are individual entities, the airports are, in effect, a monopoly.
mo·nop·o·ly (noun) - the exclusive possession or control of the supply of, or trade in, a commodity or service
It's not as if we have much choice of where we fly from; usually it's the closest to home, and unlike other businesses, every Tom, Dick or Del Boy can't just pop an airport up to disrupt the industry.
For years they have been gouging our purses and wallets with their highly over-priced parking charges for both short and long stay car parks. We didn't shout with voices of dissension because at least we were getting a service of sorts - a 'relatively' safe place to park, but paying ridiculous fees to pull up to a kerb, open your boot and say "Have a good trip." or "Did you have a good trip?", is capitalism at it's absolute worst!
And last month they put them up AGAIN!
Coming in at #1 is London Stanstead with a whopping £7 for 15 minutes, but Manchester, my closest airport, has the honour of topping the '£ per minute' charge in the UK with the pathetic £5 for 5 minutes.
Having dropped off people there I can tell you that it can easily take more than 5 minutes, once you have made it though the initial gate, to: find a space whilst dodging pedestrians, get out, grab luggage, say see ya', jump back in and try to get out of the next barrier along with every other car queueing to get out. Luckily they only charge you another pound to get 5 more minutes. Robbing B**stards!!
I was listening to Jeremy Vine discussing this very thing on Radio 2, and he got a message through from an American who was totally flabbergasted at these charges. He implied that it was a God-given right in the good ol' US of A to drop off friends and family right at the front door, and that there would be a riot if it was taken away.
Yes I know, America wouldn't usually be my go to for civil rights, but in this case I feel we should stand with them, and get motivated to stop this madness.
