Brits to drive on the right?

There is a significant update to this blog's previous story, Why do the British drive on the left? In a surprise announcement from Downing Street this afternoon a dramatic new proposal left the British people shaking their heads.

It rather seems as though British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is becoming increasingly desperate to hold onto the reins of power in the UK. Now he is trying to curry favour with French President Nicolas Sarkozy by putting forward proposals in a study paper that would create a harmonization of traffic flows between the UK mainland and the rest of Europe. Put simply it means that the PM intends to force British motorists to drive on the right hand side of the road like the rest of the EU.

The Downing Street proposal calls for a phased approach in which by 2012, the year of the London Olympics, Britain's 22 million cars will be driving on the right hand side of her roads instead of the left. The move is touted to be an appeasement to the millions of foreign visitors who will be in the nation's capital for the Olympic Games. If passed by parliament the plan is also expected to put European leaders' support behind Mr Brown in his bid for a successful re-election of his ruling Labour Party.

If the switchover is successful the government proposes to implement a second phase of the plan in which all trucks and buses will then join the cars on the right hand side of Britain's roads by the end of the following year.