Don't let London's Olympic Legacy be Lexus Lanes

So, you are an affluent investment banker who has personally profited enormously from the huge government subsidies lavished on the financial sector and, in order to preserve your wealth, you are based in the Principality of Monaco where income is taxed at 0%. You live there in an exclusive penthouse apartment overlooking Monte Carlo's Port Hercule, which is where your luxury yacht happens to be moored. However, the bank you work for is located in London, Europe's financial hub, and every week you have to travel there in order to meet clients and colleagues. So, to that end, you ride in one of Heli Air Monaco's complimentary limousine (1) to the heliport from where a chopper ferries you to Nice Airport. There, you are whisked through the VIP Fast Track security channel thus affording you time to quaff complimentary bucks fizz and gorge yourself on the free canapï¿½s in the Executive Lounge prior to boarding your flight, and so avoiding any encounter with the losers who will be travelling in the economy class cabin. All very civilised so far, but things turn sour as the chauffeur-driven Lexus that the Bank has sent to collect you leaves Heathrow and heads down the M4 to London. This motorway is notoriously congested and you soon find yourself sitting in a traffic jam amongst lots of dreary, lower class people in their depressing, two-a-penny, hum-drum cars. This is an outrage! Here you are wasting valuable time that could be more profitably spent gambling other people's money on risky commodities, or otherwise spent playing golf or getting an exotic massage in a high class rub ‘n' tug shop. People like you shouldn't be expected to wade through this sort of human litter in order to get from A to B. Something ought to be done. The fast lane on the M4 and the key routes through West London and Westminster to the City and Canary Wharf, where the major investment banks have their headquarters, ought to become priority routes for VIP's, reserved for the exclusive use of moneyed motorists so that they may waft imperiously past lesser road users, en-route to their final destination without incurring any undue delay. I wouldn't agree with this proposal but it may well become a reality after next year's London Olympics. The ruling Conservative Party, who are very sympathetic to the views of the most affluent members of society, have already signalled their approval for private 'Lexus lanes' on motorways. (1) Leaving an 'Olympic Legacy' was conditional on London being awarded the games and one of those legacies is intended to be "cross-city transport improvements in London." (2) The Conservatives may choose to interpret this as making the VIP lanes from Heathrow, through the affluent suburbs of West London to the City and Canary Wharf, and on to the Olympic site in nearby Stratford (2), permanent. Thus, the 2012 Olympic Games would give the Conservatives the ideal cover to pamper their prosperous political patrons by providing them with priority pathways through London. Good for greedy, incompetent, tax-avoiding, investment banking non-doms arriving from Monaco, and also for their colleagues living in the affluent suburbs of West London, but very bad news for the majority of London's motorists who will be relegated to the status of second-class citizens on the capital's roads, and I, therefore urge you to vote Pro - don't let London's Olympic legacy be Lexus lanes. Thank you. (1) http://www.heliairmonaco.com... (2) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk... (3) http://www.london2012.com... (4) http://www.dailymail.co.uk...