A few decades ago, a work colleague told me about a chap he knew who had a senior job in an English tourism outfit. I can’t recall which particular outfit it was, but this chap went all over England promoting it. He had a road atlas because this was long before sat nav came along and whenever he had to travel somewhere by car, he marked his route on his road atlas.
If he had to do the same journey again he would as far as possible follow a different route and mark that on his road atlas too. His idea was to see for himself as much as possible of the country he was promoting.
Most of us probably don’t do that, especially in the age of the sat nav. Even so, we generally find a reasonable route from A to B and stick with it. This cuts out the uncertainty of navigating a new route as the destination is mostly what matters.
A naïve analogy of government activity is that it plots routes to desirable destinations on our behalf and that’s what we vote for. A more accurate analogy suggests we should look out of the window occasionally and check the route. Governments follow routes towards destinations we did not and would not vote for. Winter 2022/23 for example.
It’s a problem with the way we are and it runs deep. Most of us will not vote for a political route even when it is a worthwhile strategy in itself but the destination is uncertain. In that respect, Brexit was a surprising result.
Yet we will vote for what seems like an attractive destination but without bothering to look out of the window at the route. Winter 2022/23 again. It is not easy to see how this could possibly change.
Have I mentioned winter 2022/23? Ah yes.
8 comments:
They might be deliberately lying about the route they are taking, and if so, then the most likely reason is that a disunited Europe without the UK is such a hell-hole of expensive fuel, inflation and Russian threats that we will be urged to rejoin. Alternatively, the lies might be about whether politicians can actually steer the bus, which goes careering out of control while that hard-faced little woman looks as if she is wrestling with the wheel.
Always have a map, and study it before departing.
Sat nav does not tell you about the beauty just off your route.
And all it needs is a road blockage of some sort and you attempt a detour.
Then you have the bloody nagging voice - "Where possible, turn around." Again, and again, and again.
Sam - I'll be surprised if we don't at least align ourselves more closely with the EU over time unless its disadvantages become too glaringly obvious.
Doonhamer - we always take a road atlas as well as the sat nav, although the sat nav we have now does alert us to road blockages if they aren't too recent and is quite good at working out a detour. Not always possible on motorways though.
Most longer journeys are done by both me and the Mrs so the non-driver navigates. Generally I look what Google maps suggests then compare with the real map and we make whatever changes seem sensible for better scenery, quieter roads, stopping points etc. On the route google maps, preloaded on the tablet, with the blue dot GPS position finder is invaluable. On one occasion I extracted us from a french blocked town centre market by noticing that a car park had access from 2 places so we drove through it. Of course in hindsight we could have avoided the town but ...
Woodsy - we check routes before we set off, but on the whole we leave all the navigation to the sat nav. Not necessarily a good idea because it bases the route on time taken, but a longer route could be a pleasanter drive.
Time taken is relevent for business journeys but much less so for pleasure, with luck you cam make the journey part of the holiday. Stoping off at a Nat Trust place for a half hour walk, or a picnic by Rutland water, as we did last week between home and Suffolk, beats motorway services any day especially in hot weather. Garden centres and farm shops can be useful too, many have cafe and loos. Our journey home from Norfolk, poddling mostly cross country, took 15 mins longer (drive time) than Google's route and was 10 miles shorter. Have a good time at the seaside.
Align with the EU? You assume it will survive, then? Pessimist!
Me, I'd go the whole hog and leave NATO too. Russia's natural frontier to the west is the Pas de Calais, though French nuclear weapons might persuade them to stop at the Rhine.
Woodsy - we stop off at a garden centre on our way to Norfolk. A few extra miles but we think it's worth it.
dearieme - I hope it doesn't survive, but wouldn't bet against it.
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