London’s Hammersmith Bridge is a metaphor for all that is wrong with British government. Closed to motor traffic and inert for seven years, it is a victim of the anarchy that seeps into every tier of public administration. The bridge sits today on a sublime bend in the Thames, guarded by what looks like Checkpoint Charlie in iron curtain Berlin. With Albert Bridge also now closed, 37,000 extra vehicles seeking to cross the river have brought south London close to perpetual gridlock. No one cares.

London may be the richest, smartest, coolest place in Britain. Yet it is run like a high street vape shop. Its buses are ever slower, homeless people are ever more prevalent, waiting times in hospitals ever longer. No one can decide if they want an HS2 terminus or a Heathrow runway. A robotic Whitehall algorithm has just declared, ludicrously, that the borough of Kensington’s “housing target” must be 5,107 homes a year, up from a previous target of 1,381.

The first thing you notice about a city is its traffic. In other cities, it moves. In London, it crawls. Its congestion is officially rated the worst of any capital in the world. Efforts to improve the sclerotic traffic lights have failed. The recent installation of computer-assisted “smart” lights – the much-vaunted road time optimisers – has contrived to cut just 27 seconds........

© The Guardian