There. That's better.

Originally uploaded by Vimrod1

I subscribe to the daily dose of Vimrod. Today's cartoon made me laugh rather too loudly...

Link: http://www.sonicbomb.com/video1.php?vid=/files/movies/aviation/757_birdstrike.wmv

I read, not long ago on the BBC News site, about a plane taking off from Manchester which suffered a bird strike. I didn't know that someone caught it on video...

Watch it at sonicbomb.com...

Just shows how twin jets can manage fine on just one engine, even at critical times. Oh yes, it did land perfectly safely by the way!

There's a proposal by the UK Government to introduce road pricing nationwide, with pilots planned for seven regions including the West Midlands conurbation.

In some ways, adopting a pay as you go approach to road use seems fair, and an 'opportunity' for the government to offer a direct intervention to reduce congestion.

However, I use the word 'opportunity' cautiously, as that immediately raises a question of liberty - should government intervene in how and where people travel, particularly in a way which inevitably penalises poorer people in society? One can argue that duty on fuel already acts as a disincentive to road use which is proportional to the amount of travel, and is arguably a greener tax, as it penalises less efficient vehicles more.

Also, the information out there doesn't suggest that the revenue from road pricing would be hypothecated to improve public transport. So, who really gains here?

Personally, I'm fairly ambivalent about these arguments - I don't find them that compelling either way. What does worry me is the proposal to enforce this by satellite tracking every car movement. Privacy is actually something I have a very strong belief in. I'm happy to talk about all sorts of things (yes details of my daughter's poo habits included), but equally, I'd like the right to go about my daily life without the government storing information about when and where I do it. Like with ID cards, I have an innate mistrust of the motives of government in such data-gathering - arguments about security and terrorism seem entirely specious to me. I honestly can't see how tracking the movements of every individual in the country will do anything to make the government govern us better. Maybe it's simply because I've relatives who lived under totalitarianism and now have the freedom of democracy that I dislike the signs that authoritarianism is coming to my country...

Anyway, Alice at work prompted me that there is a petition on the No.10 web site against road pricing. There's also one against ID cards. If you are inclined, even a little bit, to agree with me then I suggest you exercise some people power:

• Road pricing petition
• ID cards petition

I'd be interested to know what you think too.

Hmm. That's 2 days running that Jess has woken up at 5.05am. She's clearly a British Summertime Babe...