COMMENT

The Conservatives have traditionally seen themselves as the natural friend of the motorist, but even they have felt constrained, in opposition, about championing the rights of the driver.

Since 1997, taxes on driving have risen exponentially, road building has come to a virtual halt, congestion levels are among the worst in Europe, and the renationalisation of Railtrack has left the railways struggling to cope and cutting services. Were it not for the growth of the low-cost airlines, unconstrained by Whitehall diktat, it sometimes feels as if the country would come to a grinding halt.

Such is the gridlock its policies produced that even the Government (of which Alastair Campbell remains the Director of Communications and Strategy) now acknowledges that we need more roads. But it does so without enthusiasm, because it still does not really believe that driving is respectable.

No one could say that of the Conservative transport spokesman, Tim Collins, who yesterday announced a whole raft of policies designed to appeal to the motorist, including more roads and raising the motorway speed limit to 80mph.

Mr Collins reckons, we suspect rightly, that he has spotted a gap in the political market. But there was more to the paper he published yesterday than mere populism. Rather than simply relying on the economic imperative of getting the country moving again to make his case (vital though that is), he is prepared to confront the anti-car forces on their own ground.

Research commissioned by the Tories makes the case that traffic over the past 30 years has risen in line with the number of driving licences. Now that most women and older people have licences, it is reasonable to suppose that the growth in traffic will level off. If so, this debunks the politically correct orthodoxy that new roads will inevitably fill with new traffic.

The Conservative paper also points out that congestion is itself one of the main causes of pollution; getting the traffic flowing would cut emissions and benefit the environment.

This was a forceful paper, and a brave one. The Government's obsessive hostility to the car has done enormous damage to both the economy and the quality of everyday life. Nearly all of us are motorists, and it is high time we got a fair deal.

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