Motorway Nightmares

Plymouth - Lancaster, simple enough. A38, M5, M6. Motorway, essentially, all the way. Surely mid-week, leave at a decent hour in the morning (by anybody's standards, not just mine), it should be a trouble-free amble, right? Bearing this in mind, and the fact am making good time, I decide to hop off at Stafford to see friend there (shout out to John here) and leave with large pile of blank DVDs - that I am informed are 'poor quality' but who cares provided they do the trick. Anyhow, digressing.
Saunter casually back onto the motorway, get about 400yds before hitting a wall of traffic. Which I proceeded to sit in for five hours - FIVE HOURS - on, just to make life better, the nicest day of the year. This was all due to the fact a lorry over-turned. Now, my point is - this couldn't happen anywhere but in the UK. Surely. Have one minor problem and the whole traffic system comes to a complete standstill. Take the States, for example. Huge freeways, endless options - not an expert, but can't see them getting tailbacks like this. We are clearly far too small a country with too many cars and, in my opinion, not enough roads. And to hear some Green Party lunatic going on about, 'we have proof that more roads leads to more traffic' is just ridiculous. How many people trog along one day, see a shiny new bit of tarmac, and exclaim that good God, they need a car? I mean, seriously.
Oh yes, one other thing. For some obscure reason in the slow-moving traffic my speedometer (and, oh damn, milometer) died. Darn annoying. Had to pay fifty quid for the privelege of being leered at on multiple occasions at the garage, and eventually getting the cable fixed. 'Men' (I use the term loosely) who work in garages should be kept in cages. Along with those who drink cups of tea on scaffolding all day - sorry, labourers - and taxi drivers who hang around in gangs. There is a vague element of comedy to having five guys peering into the bonnet of my Mini simply because when I arrived I was clad in a pair of figure-hugging jeans, but honestly. GROW UP. No wonder this country is full of depressed people. Jeez.