Whilst the postman may well ring twice, Nanny's special little team of "advisers" will keep ringing and ringing and ringing and ringing until you jolly well open the door and speak to them.
Next year Nanny will launch upon the entire nation an army of "travel advisers", paid for out of our own pockets of course.
This private army will be doorstepping all of us in an attempt to "educate" and "persuade" us about the benefits of switching from driving to walking, cycling and public transport.
Now, if like me, you tend to avoid opening the door to people such as "religious types", government officials, sales people and other assorted riff raff you may well be thinking that it will be a simple matter to avoid interacting with Nanny's little army.Not so!
If you are out, they will keep coming back and will call up to ten times, even in the evenings or at weekends.
I call that harassment, were a cold calling company (such as Contact4) to do it they would be getting my boot firmly implanted in their posterior (see what I did to Contact4 here).
It seems that Nanny changes the rules to suit herself.
Anyhoo, Nanny's little army will ask you about your travel habits and will offer advice tailored to your journeys, including maps for walking and bus timetables.
If you appear unconvinced, they will offer incentives such as discounts at local bike shops and outdoor stores and free pedometers to measure how far you are walking.
A study by the Department for Transport found that the biggest challenge faced by the advisers was overcoming initial suspicion on the doorstep. It said:
"Door-to-door contact is often associated
with double-glazing sales and therefore
is not always particularly well received.
A non-accusatory but assertive manner is required."
Hmmmm...I look forward to my encounter with an "assertive" representative of Nanny on my doorstep.
Maybe I should film it?
Aside from the intrusion and busybody nature of this project, there is one very large fly in Nanny's oinkment.
The public transport system in the UK is shite..most especially in London...how the fark are you meant to squeeze more people on the trains, tube and buses at peak times without adding more carriages and services?
As ever, this little idea of Nanny's is badly thought through.
Our money well wasted!
Wow... great idea!
ReplyDeleteAlong with putting up the train prices by 14.5%, to ease overcrowding on trains into London, I read this morning.
So let me get this straight...
The government WANT us to use London Transport.
The transport companies DON'T want any more people using their services.
So yet again, the tax payer will pay for this pathetic schemes concocted by the government...
and we'll also have to pay through the nose, if we want to use the same schemes.
Almost makes me want to quit my job, get a council flat & sit on the dole... OHH! Hang on! I'm white, male & single! NOT A CHANCE!
Let's see. I currently walk to work every day, so they can naff off.
ReplyDeleteWhen I commuted to a nearby city, well, the 1 hour minimum drive was bad enough (16 miles!) but the public transport + walking was worse because I was not working in the very centre of the city.
When I worked in a nearby town, what was a 30-40 minute drive was a 2 hour minimum bus journey.
So, talk to me about transport options again...
I Suppose these advisers will be using public transport to do their job!
ReplyDelete"If you appear unconvinced, they will offer . . . . free pedometers to measure how far you are walking."
ReplyDeleteSoon to be amended to " . . . free pedometers in the form of biometric chips, to be "voluntarily" implanted just below the skin. These electronic pedomoters will continuously monitor distances walked or run, and any shortfalls will be reported to Nanny's nearest "travel adviser" who will promptly pay a "courtesy call" to the subject's home in order to identify the cause of the problem and to "suggest" the appropriate "remedy."
Who says Nanny doesn't do efficiency?
More crazy ideas from Nanny.
ReplyDeleteFor people to use public transport it needs to be affordable, running at times that suits, clean, safe and going to where you want to go.
Locally to me, no transport before 07.00hrs none after 19.00hrs. A journey of 400yds is £2-40p return (obviously i won't pay that!)
Stations unattended. Buses full of drunk yobs.
Many routes stopped in order to save money.
Nanny removed duty free status to bus company's diesel.(Very joined up thinking)Bus will do 10mpg I am told, extra cost to bus company passed on to passengers per ten miles, £3-00.
So now we have thought police, smoking police, fat police, speech police,litter police, green police parking police and travel police....it is a police state.
I can't wait for these pillocks to come to my house.
Dear agony uncle,
ReplyDeleteI've been invited to my sister's house for a few days over Christmas and the New Year.
By car it will cost me about £20 for the return journey, and take about an hour and a half each way.
By bus it'll cost me £33 for the return journey, and take nine hours each way. It's actually slightly worse than that because at this end it's a half-mile walk to the bus station; at my sister's end, the bus goes no closer than 12 miles to her house.
What should I do?
Well, as someone who has 2 cycles, one for fair weather commuting/going to the local shops/pub and one for tearing up hills for fun at the weekend, my course of action if one of these numpties turns up is clear ... act unconvinced and they'll reward me with vouchers to spend on my hobby!
ReplyDeleteIf when people tell them to eff off they appear unconvinced, people might like to offer them an incentive to get off their doorstep.
ReplyDeleteHmm.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose these people will have real brains or, if they do (seems like a good way to claim that all graduates obtain work as soon as they graduate for example, whilst keeping them poor enough that the student loan interest keeps clicking up) their brains will have been left at home for the duration of the working day.
So I will ask for a demo and an accompanied trial run and also ask if the bus company will offer a freebie as an incentive to try their service.
I wonder how long these people are targeted to spend with each 'client'. As Nanny is involved I'm sure there must be targets and incentives involved.
One positive thing may be that if they are successful with converting people to abandon their cars there will likely be many many cheap new and used cars around for those still addicted. :-)
As for Ken's comment about public transport - I quite agree but to be honest the 'system' in London, poor as it is, seems to be about the only one in the country that stands any chance of success on a grand scale.
There may be a secondary motive to this plan.
Given that the only way the targets related to the obsession with CO2 will ever be achieved would require a huge reduction in the population, nationally and worldwide, encouraging people to accept mass transport just ahead of whichever threatened disease or virus based health epidemic arrives first could be a master stroke.
I blogged at some length on this on 1st November.
ReplyDeleteAndy, 7.42, summed up my feelings exactly: "Why should I pay public "transport" prices when it's CHEAPER, QUICKER and MORE COMFORTABLE to use my car?"
As I said in my post, I wouldn't like to be the Transport Adviser who knocked on my door!
What a waste of our money setting up another army of nosy officious secret police.