Cathy Dobbs: Highways still packed despite fuel cost crisis
Cathy Dobbs: Highways still packed despite fuel cost crisis
The ‘accepted view’ at the moment is that we are all struggling with the increase in fuel prices, and there are thousands of us that have to make a decision between heating and eating.
However, the problem with the accepted view is that it is often totally detached from reality.
You would have thought that the soaring price of fuel would see our roads returning to an almost pandemic emptiness, with people only making essential journeys. However, on Sunday, for Father’s Day, a quiet drive before lunch into Shropshire felt like 8am on a Monday morning, with the roads packed. In fact, the only thing busier than the road were the pricey restaurants.
I wrote to my MP a while ago. I wanted to see if Michael Fabricant could stop the idiots, who think having a loud car or motorbike that makes us all jump out of our skins, is acceptable. These attention-seeking drivers have decided they want to be noticed – never mind if they wake everyone up, scare pets and upset young children.
I had a reply back from Charlotte Vere, Baroness Vere of Norbiton, who is parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport. It seems that during an MOT “measurement of sounds against a limit would be practically difficult to implement, due to ambient and reflective sound”.
She goes on to say that police do have powers to act, but that gives me about as much reassurance as my holiday company promising that my flights to Spain won’t be delayed.
Most of us have realised that it is best to be sceptical of everything. It seems recent scams at the moment include emails saying they are charities collecting money for Ukraine and councils needing bank account details to process the council tax rebate. We probably all wonder how these con artists are able to sleep at night. Actually, they probably sleep better than someone who has a loud motorbike owner living on their street.
The recent news about people with type 2 diabetes losing weight at night has made me really miss Donald Trump. So, researchers are seeing if breathing lower amounts of oxygen during sleep can lead to weight loss. They have created special sleeping tents which could help reduce appetite and burn more calories. Can you imagine if Trump applauded this research? Social media would be filled with ‘Trump tells obese people to hold their breath’. Luckily we don’t have that problem with Biden – he just has to open his mouth and we all nod off.
