Sorry I’ve been missing, absolutely nothing of note has happened apart from our beloved leader, Howard Collins, going on BBC to moan about some of our infrastructure being 80 years old and in desperate need of replacement. It would appear that somehow this essential and somewhat expensive bit of work got missed by Metronet when they were responsible for maintenance and upgrades, far too busy refurbishing stations, something that was instantly noticeable and they could point to as proof that they were really getting to grips with the task they had taken on.
The only good thing to come out of the PPP debacle is that it has left the idea of letting the private sector loose on the Tube as politically unpalatable which must be very frustrating for some of the more “privatise everything” Tories though I’m sure that in a few years time we’ll hear mutterings about how we could be run more efficiently if we were sold off from the foaming at the mouth diehard Thatcherites.
Oh and Boris’s cycle hire scheme is set to be the most expensive in Europe to use. Roll on 2012 and we can have Ken back. Sorry Oona, come along as Deputy, gain some experince and perhaps we will forget you lost a safe seat to George “Pussycat” Galloway.
The London Buzz – 22nd November 2024
1 day ago
Blair and Brown have managed to extricate themselves from the whole PPP mess - they were the ones who wanted it, pushed it through despite the protests and now the whole thing has gone completely tits up as everyone said it would no one seems to turn round to them to say "I told you so".
ReplyDeleteWow, my first comment. Thank you mjw4849!!!! I want to have your babies, send them in the post. God I feel like a proper blogger now.
ReplyDeleteOkay, frothing over, Blair came up with the idea that the only way to beat the Tories was to match them, thus we had PPP rather than a proper investment plan to make the Tube work. New Labour was just Tory lite, not proper socialism.
Brown and Blair are gone, forget them, they no longer matter and yes, they got away with it but then so did Major and Thatcher. Labour had a real opportunity to make real change in the UK and then scorned it for middle class safety. Rather than forever looking back we have to look forward and I just hope that the Con/Dems realise that London needs the Tube to work, investment in the infrastructure generates tax revenues; we spend to accumulate.
I joined ASLEF rather than RMT simply because it was a union not riddled with old style Marxists and those who believed that Scargill is a hero. Unions are essential to protecting working conditions, you insure your car, you insure your house, why not insure your job? Especially when management are totally clueless and will bend whichever the way the current political climate is blowing regardless of how it affects their workers and the safety of their customers.
London needs the Tube, the Tube needs stability and sadly the current Mayor of London wants us to ride bikes. This is the greatest city in the world, it should have the greatest transport system no matter how much it costs.