[Tubby Isaacs]

As others have said, Sadiq's been told to build more houses on brownfield land and raise money for TfL. Hard to think of a better way of doing that than building on a car park used by people who don't live in London so that they can spend less on commuting.

I have crisp tenner that says that those commuters are not all merchant bankers, rather key workers who have been priced out of Central London.

My solution remains and forever will; make all public transport free at the point of use.

Doesn't matter who it is. If Cockfosters is their nearest stop, they can probably get a bus there. Otherwise, they ought to get on at their nearest stop.

I'm with you on the free transport though.

[Boiler]

A lot of people drive from 'the North' (read: Herts, Beds, Cambs) to Cockfosters and then get the tube from there: my brother used to when he worked near the Old Bailey.

[Boiler]

As others have said, Sadiq's been told to build more houses on brownfield land and raise money for TfL. Hard to think of a better way of doing that than building on a car park used by people who don't live in London so that they can spend less on commuting.

I have crisp tenner that says that those commuters are not all merchant bankers, rather key workers who have been priced out of Central London.

My solution remains and forever will; make all public transport free at the point of use.

It's interesting to note when people moan about the Tube going on strike - usually to the chorus of "Some foreign country has fully automated trains, why can't we?" or similar - that TfL is the least-subsidised public transport network for a major city in Europe; apparently 72% of its revenue is from fares.

I seem to recall that there was considerable opposition to the GLC's "Fares Fair" policy; I got the impression that the unwritten concern was that the Great Unwashed would find it cheap to come and rob the leafy suburbs and I remember similar "concerns" being voiced at the extension of the MARTA network in Atlanta for the Olympics.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've never heard of that being a major objection to Fares Fair. The tube wasn't all that expensive anyway,

The legal challenge (from the London Borough of Bromley) was that they had it was unfair for them to pay higher rates to subsidize tube fares when they didn't have a tube line. There's something in that, but not all that much- did nobody from Bromley commute part of the way on the tube? They'd benefit from it more than lots of people who lived in central London who may have taken a short bus ride to work.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't know about Atlanta, but there's this situation in Baltimore. Hopefully a new Governor or Biden money might get it restarted. You'd have thought the Feds paying over half the cost would have got it done, but no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Line_(Baltimore)

The Red Line was a planned east–west mass transit light rail line for Baltimore, Maryland. The project had been granted federal approval to enter the preliminary engineering phase and the Maryland Transit Administration had spent roughly $300 million in planning, design and land acquisition. The project was projected to cost roughly $1.6 billion, $900 million of which was guaranteed funding by the federal government.[3] Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared on June 25, 2015 that he would not provide state funds for the project.[4] Governor Hogan shifted $736 million of state funding to roads in suburban areas.[3]

While campaigning for Governor, Hogan characterized the project as a "boondoggle".[3] Hogan has been accused of corruption since his shift of state priorities to road funding has resulted in the construction of several major projects near properties owned by his company.[5] The Red Line cancellation was briefly investigated by the United States Department of Transportation for being in possible violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[6] since his decision shifted a large quantity of state money from predominately Black and low-income neighborhoods into affluent and predominately white areas, but, after a change in presidential administrations, the investigation was closed with no finding.[

[Nigredo]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... i-badenoch

Tory minster finds it inspiring that the general public are opposed to state-sanctioned sexual assault of children.

[Andy McDandy]

Natalie Elphicke rocked up at a P&O demo in Dover today. Let's just say that a) she didn't go down well with the crowd, and b) she has very little grace under pressure.

[Youngian]

When you run out of scapegoats to feed the mob they turn their eyes to you

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sneering radical leftist, Sir Keir Starmer, will knock down your privet hedges and replace them with breeze blocks covered in graffiti.

If I were Dowden walking round Hertfordshire looking at hedges, I'd worry that Lib Dems were hiding in them.

[Cyclist]

What part of Hertfordshire is he on about? North Herts has been solid Tory for decades. As for chopping hedges down.. The privet was ubiquitous in council estates. You know, the affordable houses which the Tories forced the councils to flog off to buy-to-lettors at knock-down prices so they can be made into unaffordable houses. If the hedges are disappearing it's probably because the occupants, or their landlords, want to turn the front gardens into fucking car parks, because, you know, anyone using the bus is a failure.

Tory cunt whines about the results of Thatcherism. Twat.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There was this a couple of weeks ago. A district council seat in Hitchin was also held by the Lib Dems on the same day, on a 9 point swing.

[Cyclist]

Hitchin council might be LD, but the North Hertfordshire constituency has been Torry for donkeys years.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

That Rishi Sunak is an oily cunt, isn't he? And nasty with it.

[Andy McDandy]

As said on the Johnson thread, he's a grade A gaslighter. "I hate raising taxes, I'm a Tory Chancellor, I couldn't possibly be raising taxes, no, it must be someone else's fault...".

Just like his boss, superficially charming, would be about suited to door to door sales or a pyramid scheme.

[Samanfur]

I don't know about anyone else, but I can hear Tony Blair's speech patterns when he talks.

He's about my age, which means that he came of age just after Blair took office. And it shows.

[Crabcakes]

Of course it was. Of course. Who else could it possibly have been?

[Nigredo]

https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/ma ... fall-sunak

World-beating fall in living standards.

[Samanfur]

Government picks Tory peer Michael Grade to chair Ofcom

Michael Grade has been named as the government’s choice to oversee the media regulator, Ofcom, ending one of the more controversial and drawn-out government recruitment processes in recent British political history.

The Conservative peer – who has held senior executive positions at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 – will have to face a pre-appointment hearing in front of MPs but is likely to be approved to take the job, finally drawing the process to a close.

The 79-year-old has made a series of public interventions on media policy since applying for the job, including calling the BBC licence fee a “regressive tax” and criticising the tone of the broadcaster’s political coverage.

[Andy McDandy]

I think Chris Morris summed up my views on Grade.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Grade was a very able man in his own time. Unfortunately, Snatch of the Day was 40 years ago. Did they consider Sir Paul Fox?