There are those who truly believe that Barrack Obama is the Anti-Christ (Google if you don't believe me). Just as there are those who truly believe that MI5 is run by giant Lizards, or that Greater Manchester needs a congestion charge. Each of us can only deal with such people in our own way.

My own method, when they start a conversation, is to laugh and flick peanuts at them until they lose heart and slink away. Unfortunately, I am not sure that in the present circumstances this tactic will succeed.

The problem is that the congestion charge appears to be a reasonably sane idea. Just as the idea of invading Iraq to stop all Beetham's towers being brought down within 45 minutes seemed sensible. Ideas of stupendous madness always seem reasonable at the time.

The fact is that Greater Manchester is congested only in so far as you compare it to Oswaldtwistle or Maryport. Compared to London or Naples – areas where congestion charges have been introduced – its is virtually a car free zone.

Yes, there is a certain irritation in moving in slow traffic during rush hour and, yes, rush hour congestion is possibly getting worse (though local figures suggest that traffic in Manchester is actually falling) but calling this congestion is like calling an egg thrown at a local politician "a JFK moment". All sense of perspective has gone.

This loss of perspective is unsurprising. The local political establishment have always had the tendency to imagine that the Manchester Ship Canal is the Danube. Such deluded popinjays require a city that adequately reflects their own importance – a city of world stature. But just as they are not political giants, neither is Manchester London. Those who work in the City have to: there is no other game in town. Tourists who visit the UK must visit London, otherwise they are fools or illegal immigrants. Shoppers must shop in central London because it contains not only the best retail experience in the country, but possibly in the world. It is a city worth an entry fee.

Manchester has none of these things – which is the reason it does not have Londonstyle congestion – and to suggest that people will pay to travel into and out of it is to converse with those who see the Lizards.

Those in favour have, admittedly, complicated things somewhat by cobbling together an infrastructure package of almost £3bn as a counterbalance to the untold damage a charge will do to smaller businesses.

Again it seems an attractive idea, but again it is superficially attractive. It assumes various things that common sense tells us we should never assume. The main thing being that the spanking new, affordable and efficient transport system promised will remain affordable and efficient. It never works like that.

Indeed, there is an underlying assumption in the funding for this project that the GMPTE will take control of the buses and seek additional revenue from any growth in passenger traffic – £94 million has been mentioned.

Councillors deny this backdoor privatisation forms one of the main attractions of the charge, but then they would, wouldn't they. Whatever the final shape of any scheme, it seems likely that the public sector will have strategic control over bus routes, which should not fill the public with confidence.

There is also the undeniable fact that never in the history of mankind has a tax been introduced – and this charge is a tax – which did not increase far more rapidly than anyone forecast.

£3bn is a substantial bribe to introduce a congestion charge where there is no congestion but, unless you are one of those who prays nightly for a John McCain victory, it is nowhere near enough.

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