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Birt toll road plan lacks PM's support

"It keeps him occupied," Stephen Byers memorably commented on John Birt's job as blue-skies thinker for the Prime Minister. Instead of retiring as others do, to write letters to the newspapers asking if he is alone in believing that the inability of graduates to use an apostrophe correctly presages the end of civilisation, Lord Birt has been occupied thinking the unthinkable about transport.

On the basis of unfriendly leaks of a report he has written for Tony Blair, however, there are good reasons why his plans for toll-road motorways should remain unthought. Like Ken Livingstone, Lord Birt does not seem to realise that there is little point having tolls anywhere unless we charge for road space everywhere. Selective tolls will tend to move congestion rather than ease it, while building new roads only generates more traffic.

Perhaps Mr Blair could find something else to keep Lord Birt busy.