"[They] could quite easily have recruited more..., or made some provision for... - but evidently decided to save money by sodding the public".Exactly what I think about the Tories in government and Boris in government, as he cuts police numbers, environmental services, cultural events and half price travel for the poorest in London.
12 August 2008
Boris Should Listen To His Own Advice.
Here Boris vents his anger at baggage handlers but he could be talking about Tory cuts to public services.
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Re 'half price travel for the poorest'.
ReplyDeleteThe point is, buses etc are the only sensible medium travel distance option for 'the poorest', agreed?
Since Red Ken started handing out free bus passes to under 18s (or is it under 16s?), a small minority of hoodies and wannabe Yardies have taken over parts of buses. It is unbearable, people get mugged all the time. So 'the poorest' i.e. little old ladies, don't even dare get on the bus, whether they can afford it or not.
A white person would have to be three times braver than Rosa Parks to sit upstairs on a bus in many parts of London.
Agreed that Boris is a total shit though.
Mark, I thought you were a libertarian and universalist?
ReplyDeleteYou cannot blame a whole universalist public transport policy for the problems caused by a minority that are anti-social and criminal. The answer is to crack down on the problem NOT abandon a worth-while policy. The benefits of free bus travel are many-fold - reducing the school run thereby reducing pollution and congestion, redistributive and opening up opportunites to all to get around London and not be isolated in ghettos.
Me thinks, also, the problems are exagerated. I have used buses in London on many occasions including the vastly expanded night service (thanks to Livingstone) and while they can be slow at times, they are much better than they used to be - generally cleaner, less cramped, more frequent and safer than when I remember them in the 80s and 90s.
Are these the same policies that so few local people vote for!?!
ReplyDeleteKen Livingstone got 1.3m votes in the London Mayor elections (more than Labour got in London in the 2005 general election!). Unfortunately Boris got 140k more than that (thanks to the North Korea style media bias in his favour and the daily lies against Ken (billboards everywhere screaming 'suicide bombers run Ken's campaign' etc etc). But Boris still only got a minority of support (47% of vote, 22% of electorate), there was a majority that rejected his pro-car stance.
ReplyDeleteSadly - power corrupts and Boris seems to have suffered from the same ugly desire to spend other people's money for them that afflicts most other politicians. He is, however, slightly less brazen about it than most and at least believes in "value for money", even if it's not a politician's place to decide what value other people's money should have in the first place!
ReplyDeleteRory Meakin
Hang about, I am broadly in favour of subsidised local travel, I never said 'free', of that I don't approve.
ReplyDeleteFurther, the night buses have been running since long before Red Ken came in, and there is no reason to assume that Boris will scrap them (altho' he might, in which case we can resume this debate).
If the 'problem' of these little shits running amok on buses can be solved (which it can, by having conductors and more coppers), then don't blame Boris, who has merely inherited the problem from Red Ken, who created it.
And I dare you to sit upstairs at the back on a bus in East London during school travel times. These little runts see that as direction provocation and will make your life hell (or end it).