Tuesday 6 September 2016


I try to avoid reading the Evening Standard but yesterday I neglected to take a book to work and there’s not much to do when you’re sat at the end of the line waiting for the signal to change.  I picked up a stray copy and having completed the Sudoku in far less time than it’s supposed to take I was left with the choice of either staring into space or reading the damn thing.  Amongst the usual puff pieces about the owner, friends of the owner and various members of the Delevingne clan there was a small article at the top of page 4 in the “News in brief” section about the introduction of one-hour “hopper” bus tickets next Monday.  Buried right at the bottom was a rather interesting and I would say rather important bit of news.

Apparently when Sadiq Khan appoints his new TfL board it will include a union representative, to be chosen by the unions.  This is nothing new, the New York Transit Authority has representatives from three unions on its board while union representation on boards is quite common in Germany.  Back in February Khan said that he’d “make sure there are zero days of strikes” while he was Mayor, hopefully having someone from the staff side at the heart of the decision making process will mean that in future LU management will be less confrontational in its approach to its employees.