Kiss and drop? Is this craziness or greed?
NEWS that Luton airport is to introduce a £1 "kiss and drop" charge is appalling.
Not a week goes by without some clever-clogs accountant dreaming up yet another way to extract money from the public.
From now on, motorists and even taxis dropping people off at the terminal will have to pay a 1 charge to get out of the "drop-off" zone.
The only way to avoid the charge is to get dropped off at one of the airport's car parks and then take a free courtesy bus to the terminal.
Other recently introduced charges are 1 to use luggage trolleys, 1 for plastic bags to carry liquids through security and 3 to jump the security queue.
No doubt these crazy people will soon be introducing charges to use the escalators and moving walk-ways, a charge to get our boarding cards checked, another charge to take our luggage off the carousel and why not have a turnstile to get into the aircraft?
All this nonsense is making life so unpleasant to live in Britain. Do we really have to have these crazy people trying to extract the last penny out of us?
People are thinking twice before holidaying in the eurozone and are turning to staying in Britain instead. Imposing ridiculous additional charges at airports will drive more people away.
It's exactly the same muddled thinking nonsense as increasing bus and rail fares – all that's achieved is running almost empty buses and trains and having more people using their cars.
Just how much we have a divided society in Britain came home to me as I stood in a queue of people recently. In front of me were two youngish men who were talking about the recession.
The first was saying how concerned he was about losing his job, because his firm was not doing well. He feared about being on the dole and trying to provide for his family.
The other, who obviously worked in the public sector, said to him and I quote his words "recession, what recession. If this is it let it continue".
He was preening himself about enjoying his greatly reduced mortgage payments, how prices in the shops were so much less and how he had much more money in his pocket.
How the first man restrained himself from punching him on the nose, I don't know.
This conversation demonstrated to me how people in the public sector just haven't a clue how difficult life is becoming for those who don't know whether they will have a job next week.
Quite clearly, people who work in the water industry haven't a clue. They're asking for a "recession rise in charges" because the recession has dented their revenue.
What a shame. Isn't it about time these people started to live in the real world?
Worthing's worst-ever gridlock happened last week, caused by road works in High Street.
I hope the authorities have taken the incident on board. We really cannot have utility companies digging up the roads without a proper, sensible plan in force to keep the traffic moving.
If there had been an emergency situation, ambulances and fire engines would have had great difficulty getting through. Vital minutes would have been wasted and life could have been lost.
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Weather for Worthing
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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