IN her latest political broadcast Theresa May said: “As we leave the European Union we have the chance to shape a brighter future for Britain.”

 

With self-drive cars being introduced to the roads of Manchester next year, I see a terrible future.

 

When Britain won the war it was largely a caring, sharing and compassionate nation, and the bicycle played a significant part: it got people to work, and out into the countryside, and along with rationing, and living off the land, Britain was healthy, if not well-off.

 

Then along came the motorcar. Today everything is in crisis: thousands suffer and die from air pollution; £12bn is needed to fix our roads; they are the worst congested in Europe, they will cost the UK economy more than £300 billion over the next 16 years; close to 200,000 vehicles crash every year; our NHS, police, prisons, and schools can’t cope; 900 care workers a day leave the profession; disability benefits have been cut; suicides are increasing, and the misery goes on.

 

Britain might be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but if not for charity, its frail and disadvantaged would be ‘dropping like flies’.

 

Put Britain under a microscope, and it would show a nation plagued with aggression and stress. As much as people want to be caring and sharing, millions can’t afford to be. With 20mph speed limits to try and calm things down, 84 pr cent of drivers exceed them – time is money.

 

To save money and stay healthy, I ride a bicycle, and at the age of 68, I doubt whether self-drive cars will trouble me, but with millions of parked vehicles blocking our roads and two million potholes to have to ‘swerve’ around, they will surely become a problem.

 

The best way to test their safety would surely be to have them follow the Manchester to Blackpool charity cycle ride.

 

If Britain doesn’t return to its caring, sharing and compassionate way of life very soon, given global warming and the crisis in the Middle East, at some point in the 21st Century, Britain, if not the world, will surely witness far worse than what World War II ‘threw’ at us!

 

 

 

Allan Ramsay

 

Radcliffe