Politics

[Sam]

You can bet on it now if you really want...

[tubeguru]

I was going to point out his obligatory typo, but I've done my being pedantic to him for today with the Cyprus thing.

[jamesthegill]

KEN'S UNFARE DEAL

Ken Livingstone has pledged to cut fares, but is this a true indication of both Ken and his support? The choice is for Londoners - Ken wants to improve things in the short term but it would be ruined in the long term. To cut investment for the much needed tube upgrade plan is criminal, and in 2016 all the lines (bar 3) will be upgraded, meaning quicker times. This fare increase is justified and only reflects the increase in the quality of service, with a single bus fare only rising by 5p. The most expensive tube ticket will rise by just £1.00 (from £17 to £18).

Boris' tube fare increase is a good idea and in fact is actually less, as a percentage, then the journey times decrease on the Metropolitan Line, the longest line, which has four station out of five outside of the M25 (the other one is Epping on the Central Line). Journey times will have been cut by 34% in 2016 and the new S Stock trains will have a capacity increase of 25%. Combined with new timetables, this looks set to bring an amazing change, and, naturally, the fare must reflect the quality.

So the choice is yours - Shabby tube but lower fares, or better tube and higher fares.

This may be me mixing things up, but weren't the new S Stock trains implemented by Ken, but by the time they were ready to be promoted to the general public, it was the quiz show host in power who took all the glory? Or am I thinking of the stock that Scrixisi plays with?

[hopeful traveller]

KEN'S UNFARE DEAL

Ken Livingstone has pledged to cut fares, but is this a true indication of both Ken and his support? The choice is for Londoners - Ken wants to improve things in the short term but it would be ruined in the long term. To cut investment for the much needed tube upgrade plan is criminal, and in 2016 all the lines (bar 3) will be upgraded, meaning quicker times. This fare increase is justified and only reflects the increase in the quality of service, with a single bus fare only rising by 5p. The most expensive tube ticket will rise by just £1.00 (from £17 to £18).

Boris' tube fare increase is a good idea and in fact is actually less, as a percentage, then the journey times decrease on the Metropolitan Line, the longest line, which has four station out of five outside of the M25 (the other one is Epping on the Central Line). Journey times will have been cut by 34% in 2016 and the new S Stock trains will have a capacity increase of 25%. Combined with new timetables, this looks set to bring an amazing change, and, naturally, the fare must reflect the quality.

So the choice is yours - Shabby tube but lower fares, or better tube and higher fares.

This may be me mixing things up, but weren't the new S Stock trains implemented by Ken,

No.

but by the time they were ready to be promoted to the general public, [was] it was the quiz show host in power who took all the glory?

No.

Or am I thinking of the stock that Scrixisi plays with?

Yes.

[jamesthegill]

So the choice is yours - Shabby tube but lower fares, or better tube and higher fares.

This may be me mixing things up, but weren't the new S Stock trains implemented by Ken,

No.

but by the time they were ready to be promoted to the general public, [was] it was the quiz show host in power who took all the glory?

No.

Or am I thinking of the stock that Scrixisi plays with?

Yes.

No wait, it's both sets of stockthat were ordered before Boris took charge.

[hopeful traveller]

ASLEF:

Association of
Social
Left
Extremists
Federation.

I should start a blog soon.

BIASED BOLLOCKS CORPORATION

The BBC have brainwashed most of us into voting for Labour (look at Geoff's twitter feed) as they look at the wrong facts and don't look at it from other perspectives. They always give the Labour response last so the Conservatives can't counter-argue it, when they might have done brilliantly in real life. A good example of this is the clash in the House of Commons over unemployment recently. In the clip online here the scene is obviously edited so that Labour get the upper hand.

Yet in the unedited version of PMQ's (no longer online) the clash went on to the economy and the secure plan that has been put in place. The BBC also aired a clip (not online either) on the News that night about it. They showed Ed Miliband attacking David Cameron and George Osborne. That was it according to the BBC, but David Cameron then came back at him with the phrase, and I am not making this up,

The governor of the Bank of England, a Labour-appointed governor, says that we should stick with plan A! And if you want a new plan, then why don't you give us one?

More brainwashing from the BBC came just yesterday in the form of growth figures. The 10 o'clock news yesterday mentioned that something that was basically "The economy grew slightly better in the third quarter." That was the only good news about the economy that they had and yet, when it was revealed that growth was minimal in the second quarter, no ministerial response was given. Thankfully I managed to find a ministerial response, "We're aiming for short, sharp bursts, rather than a figure that sticks at 0.3% for 12 months."

Of their survey, only 9% of us think the economy will improve, but in Italy, 21% apparently think it will. They showed no figures from Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, or the countries that are in the news. Instead they showed the booming Brazilian and Indian economies, which have no relation to us.

The fare rises also were a complete brainwash by the Beeb (or should that be the bleep?) when they should us percentages but not the actual figures. 8% of a child single on a pay-as-you-go oyster is just 5p, yet the BBC never, ever, mentioned this.

Don't vote Labour like every employee of the BBC will.

[tubeguru]

ASLEF:

Association of
Social
Left
Extremists
Federation.

I should start a blog soon.

Yeah, it would be a hilarious read for member of ASLEF such as me.

[RichieG]

How can it be an association comprised of a single federation?

[jamesthegill]

Just purely out of interest, hopeful traveller, where do you get your regular news updates from? Which newspaper(s)/website?

I'm going to put aside the fact that a few posts above you attempted to justify Boris's tube fare rise with the investment used by the previous regime, I'm just curious which unbiased source of information you use regularly.

[hopeful traveller]

ASLEF:

Association of
Social
Left
Extremists
Federation.

I should start a blog soon.

Yeah, it would be a hilarious read for member of ASLEF such as me.

I do not think that this point is valid.
All joking aside:

Are you due to work on the 26th?
Were you balloted?

[tubeguru]

Are you due to work on the 26th?

No - my company aren't running trains on that day.

Were you balloted?

No - I'm not a tube driver ...

[Root]

Hopeful Traveller, have you ever considered that you might be wrong about some things?

[hopeful traveller]

Hopeful Traveller, have you ever considered that you might be wrong about some things?

Mistakes are made from time to time.

[tubeguru]

HT - you remind me of a friend of mine who, as soon as he learned that I was a member of a railway union, kept asking me if I was out on strike all the time. He also wanted to join because he wanted to be a member of a union. I pointed out to him that you can't join a union entitled "Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen" unless you are either a "locomotive engineer" or a "fireman" (and not one of the ones who drive round in red trucks going "NEEE-NAAAAAWWWWW!!!!")

He was adamant that we were all militant lefties, standing outside the depot gates next to flaming oil drums, holding placards and shouting slogans. Please ...

ASLEF have never balloted the members employed by my TOC for strike action simply because, unlike LU, we are not a bunch of selfish, money-grabbing bastards who demand a 10% pay rise every year. We've got our 8.5%+ pay rise thank you. And it was OFFERED to us - we didn't demand it.

I'm bored talking about this now. I drive trains; I leave the politics to the Divisional Council reps. That's what I pay my subs for.

[hopeful traveller]

Ken Livingstone lying on the BBC again. Crime is actually down 10% since May 2008.