UK city tram system, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh

It's very likely that many of my regular rants will be about what I see as the general deception, that the UK is a free country, democratic and moral. Yet I firmly believe that we live in probably one the most immoral and unjust societies in the world, under the banner of fairness and democracy.

Although perhaps only a small matter in the greater scheme of things, many small issues just reflect the bigger picture. In the news this week has been the completion of the tram system in Edinburgh, millions over budget and three years late. Trams are a city trend all over the UK at the moment, and a trend I just cannot get my head around.

The local councils spend massive amounts of public money on these things based on three main excuses. To alleviate the need for cheap, green transport in the city. To bring an iconic tourist lure for the city and bring in extra visitors and therefore trade. To ease city congestion by having a fast and reliable form of transport independent of other transport infrastructure.

As is usual with the UK, everything on the surface seems to fit the use of trams. Except that you only need to think about for two minutes to realise what a bag of shite the tram system actually is. When every city has a tram system, it's hardly a novelty worthy of a special trip to travel on one. It's hardly cheap, in planning, a tram system always seems a good solution, but every city's tram system has gone stupidly over budget. But most of all, the main excuse for a tram system is pushed to the tax payer as a vital need to alleviate traffic.

In some ways a tram system seems like a good proposition. A dedicated set of tracks that only trams can travel on, bypassing major road routes has a certain element of sense about it, until you live in a city where they operate. Every time a tram breaks down, the obvious limitation shows straight away. No other trams can get off the rails and go round the stricken tram, therefore the whole line becomes broken. Some tram lines share the road and when a tram breaks down on a road, it creates an even greater havoc on both tram route and road route. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Also trams are unique. They are not off the shelf products, although they are being bought by so many cities lately that someone is doing a roaring trade somewhere.

If a council had made the routes used for tram lines simply a dedicated road for buses, the costs would have been incredibly cheaper. Buses are off the shelf and a lot cheaper than trams. If a bus breaks down, all other buses can just drive around them. Surely the cost of laying down these new bus lanes would be cheaper than laying down tram lines. I would imagine that the technology to lay tram lines would be quite specialised and therefore quite expensive. A council would be able to afford many times the number of buses over trams. There are also plenty of standard electric buses hitting the market nowadays.

When looking at the use of trams, the actual advantage they hold are the dedicated routes they take. Everything else is expensive eye candy. So why on earth would councils around the country pay huge amounts on such an expensive solution? When thinking about such things, we the tax paying public, hope and trust that the councils we elect know what they are doing and have the best interests of those tax payers that pay for these things foremost in their minds.

I can't answer the question why the councils spend such huge amounts of money on such a poor solution. My personal opinion is that a few people will be making a vast amount of money out of the tram systems being laid down around the country. We live in a country were few questions are seriously asked about what motivates the decision makers and there is even less serious accountability. I am amazed that the tram system that went hideously over budget in Edinburgh hasn't resulted in criminal prosecutions for those that allowed it to do so. Those council members that allowed tax payers money to be thrown away in a time of such financial struggle, are morally criminal. Yet it wouldn't be great leap of faith to belief that one or two people somewhere have financially done very well out the overspend.

This happens everywhere, and the general public seems helpless to do anything about it.

As a member of the general public and a taxpayer, I am annoyed