For those without children, kids TV is a maze of madness. Shows, at first appearance, seem to be written by drunk people with far too much time on their hands and you can easily find strange-looking characters shouting, “Wibble” and dancing around in the name of education. Anyhow, I was so shocked at what I saw that I filmed it on the phone…

I should say that they were attempting to draw a “rocket” in the sky, but this image was the one I saw when I looked up..

http://bit.ly/aSDobx

Yeah. Nice eh? It even got plastered onto the side of the Houses of Parliament..

http://bit.ly/bjbGLv

Well.. a few years have passed and … she’s.. decided to do it again…

http://bit.ly/afnhJZ

Now the Government are slowly realising that it just isn’t working and the stupid costs of using the M6 Toll are forcing most people back onto the M6 – a motorway which is heavily loaded already. Traffic levels on “the 6″ are back to how they were before the “relief road” was built. So, what to do? Well, the Transport Select Committee and Midland Expressway (owners of the loss-making M6 Toll) have concluded that…

“..not only had the toll road failed to improved transport in the West Midlands, but drivers who paid the toll were not receiving value for money.”

Oh and guess what, the Highways Agency is now planning to spend £500 million on congestion relief that the toll road should have provided. That’s a rather massive “fail”. Guess how much it cost to build the M6 Toll. Go on, guess. £485.5 million.

Fer f**ks sake… We’ve built a £500 million motorway and they’re charging people stupid amounts for using it, then the Government reveal that it’s not working so they need to spend another £500 million for “congestion relief”.

Here’s an idea Mr Prime Minister….

WHY DON’T YOU BUY THE TOLL ROAD (for a knock-down price, ‘cus it’s hemorrhaging money) and make it free?

Problem solved. Come on, vote for me.

Some “highlights” from the report..

M6 Toll: bad for the West Midlands

• the toll road has failed to significantly cut congestion on the M6
• traffic which once used the toll is now returning, making congestion worse at peak times
• traffic has increased dramatically at either end of the toll, causing more congestion
• half a billion pounds of additional capacity is planned to relieve congestion on the M6 that
the M6 Toll was supposed to deal with

M6 Toll: bad for drivers

• journey times on the M6 are only slightly better than before the toll opened
• outside of peak times, journeys on the M6 Toll are not much faster than on the M6
• average time savings were between 7 and 12 minutes in the opening year
• the cost of the toll has risen sharply each January, well above inflation
• the toll road’s operators are exploring ways to charge more at peak times

M6 Toll: bad for investors

• Midland Expressway Ltd has lost around £26 million a year since the toll opened
• revenue has been in steady decline, as traffic on the toll has been falling since 2006
• the toll road’s value has plummeted, from A$2.2bn in 2008 to A$412m in 2009
• even when the toll was busiest (when there were major roadworks on the M6), MEL was
still losing millions of pounds a year

Links -BBC News – Full Report

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My favourite email this week comes from the electricy company with David questioning his rather large bill. Brilliant stuff.

There’s even a page that you can click on if you’re sad about something.

Look at that water on the lens. Amazing stuff..

We buy tickets (V Festival)

I guess they’ might get lucky, but I doubt it.

The weather isn’t looking good this year, it’s absolutely chucking it down and but there was a huge queue of cars going up to Junction 12 at 7AM so I think there’ll be plenty of people there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10947119

What he did next was rather mental. First, he tried to throw a plastic bag at the helicopter in an attempt to stop it taking off. Luckily this was blown away, but that didn’t deter Mr Jafari who continued walking towards the helicopter even as the blades started to whir faster and faster. He then kicked the helicopter and tried to open the pilots door as the helicopter was taking off. The pilot waved him away but Mr Jafari decided to grab hold of one of the skids.

Yes, I know. Mental.

The helicopter lurched around but luckily the pilot managed to keep control and took off safely. The picture below shows him on tip-toe still trying to keep hold of the helicopter, which contained four people.

Mr Jafari initially told Police that he hadn’t thrown anything and was merely “on tip toes” because he’d asked the pilot where he was going.. riiigggghhhhttt… He then stated that he thought the helicopter was in trouble and he face was “red” because of his blood pressure problems… riiiigggghhhtt…

This pilot was fauirly shook up and hasn’t flown since, despite clocking 500 hours of flying time before.

Mr Jafari has been sentanced to a year in jail for endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Links – BBC – ThisIsBristol

Alcoholic tomatoes ?

The full story is here on the BBC. Hey BBC, if you want this story in Google I’ll get it done for half a million. Cool? Done.