eddie on a blind onday date
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EDDIE PLASKETT, directorleral of the Road Haulage tociation, was at a advantage when pitted against Derek Wood, QC, chairman of the panel of inquiry into the use of lorries in London, in a BBC radio programme on the morning of the report's publication. The long-awaited document was not to be issued for another three hours and he had, he said, not read it. To have to defend, early on a Monday, such an emotional cause without benefit of a recce was more than one should expect from even a distinguished retired soldier.
The chairman was at pains to point out that the committee made no recommendations and had tried merely to reach findings of fact. This had apparently been done on the time-honoured model of Solomon by splitting the difference between the alleged exaggerated claims by both sides in the argument for and against heavy lorries.
Freddie was adamant that the transhipment of goods at London's boundaries into a greater number of smaller vehicles would increase rather than reduce environmental problems. Mileage run within the capital, which would inevitably be greater with smaller vehicles, was much more important than the size of lorries. Derek Wood did not seem to disagree but maintained that the supporters of heavy lorries had exaggerated the number of smaller vehicles that would be required.
The debate, in which the player who had produced the report held all the trumps, was inevitably tame. Subsequent calls have been rather livelier.