City and suburbia
I HAVE the answer for the City Commu- ter Services Group. You didn't know there was such a group? Nor did I until this week, when it reported, but it turns out to be one of those assemblies of City worthies which the Governor of the Bank of Eng- land likes to convene. Worthiest is the City Liaison Committee, which is so important that it does not meet for years on end. It was said of the City Telecommunications Committee that its members were too senior to make their own telephone calls. The Commuter Services Group members are of similar seniority with a similar consequence. Looking down the list, I find that all of its members must be entitled to company cars, and company car parking spaces. They are, though, worried about the effect of public transport on those others who have to use it. City and suburban communications must be im- proved, they say. The services, present and planned, cannot meet the demand, more investment is needed, and most of the cost will have to be borne by the Government. Sir Keith Bright at London Regional Transport tends to say the same in a recorded announcement, but I should have thought that a group of market-minded City experts, however carborne, could have done better. In the distant, dim days when Dr Bright, not then beknighted, was a biscuit-maker, he would not have gone around complaining that the supply of digestives could not meet the demand, that more investment was needed, and why didn't the Government do something ab- out it? He would have found himself the resources, and controlled the demand, by putting up the price of biscuits.
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