ROAD RAGE
Safety threat
“THE first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe,” says the Home Office. Yet transport secretary Heidi Alexander has proclaimed that “supporting economic growth is the number-one mission of my department, while also making the transport system cleaner and greener”.
That explains prioritisation of HS2, the Lower Thames Crossing and enormous airport enlargements, all assumed to boost economic growth – whereas the transport department briefly, under Alexander’s predecessor, appeared to prioritise safety. In October 2024, Louise Haigh ordered England’s first road safety strategy in more than a decade. A year later, a transport minister said improving road safety was “one of” the department’s priorities. Not its first duty then – and the strategy was still unpublished as the Christmas recess began.