Boris Johnson is Mayor of London

Evangelion said:
Freefaller, since you live in Southwark, how much do you pay for the congestion charge?
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Do you mean how much unnecessary extra tax he's forced to pay? Surely the issue isn't the amount, but the idea he should pay it in the first place given that it's totally failed to do anything apart from increase emmissions?

I don't buy the idea that a tax is ok if it's low, even if it does no good...
 
Freefaller said:
Eerr wait a sec that's not true really, just because the majority in those areas voted for Ken doesn't mean that middle/upper class people don't live in those areas too and represent a major ratio. I for one live in Southwark (though I border, Bromley, Lambeth, Lewisham & Croydon) and am what would be classed as in the ABC1 grade.
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Of course not, (West) Dulwich in particular is very well off. But as a whole are not Lewisham, Southwark and the East End some of the poorest areas in London?
 
mrk1@1 said:
Whats Boris's policy on the congestion charge going to be? Abolition/?
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No, reform, striking down the pointless £25 tax (that all the evidence from TfL said would increase pollution) and so on.

Unfortunately it's very hard to abolish taxes, too many people listen to those opposing it going "but what about the money it raised" instead of looking for reform and efficiency and thinking whether that money should ever have been needed in the first place.
 
Tommy B said:
No, Labour's 1997 general election victory WAS a tragedy for London and for Britain.
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You forget the preceeding years of tory rule in this country...whatever damage that buffoon johnson inflicts on london, it can't be as bad as what that bitch thatcher did to this country, by fostering a culture of avarice, greed and selfishness which will remain because it was precisely that culture that blair and his ilk have managed to perpetuate-along with a healthy dose of paranoia, fear and a police state by proxy. I hate them all with equal measure.

History is a continuum, not a moment in time.
 
Broadie said:
You forget the preceeding years of tory rule in this country...whatever damage that buffoon johnson inflicts on london, it can't be as bad as what that bitch thatcher did to this country, by fostering a culture of avarice, greed and selfishness which will remain because it was precisely that culture that blair and his ilk have managed to perpetuate-along with a healthy dose of paranoia, fear and a police state by proxy. I hate them all with equal measure.

History is a continuum, not a moment in time.
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Wow, bitter much. Presumably you prefer the dependancy and 'it's not my fault' culture old labour prefers to promote?

Personal responsiblilty vs perpetual dependant... I know which I prefer...
 
Dolph said:
No, reform, striking down the pointless £25 tax (that all the evidence from TfL said would increase pollution) and so on.

Unfortunately it's very hard to abolish taxes, too many people listen to those opposing it going "but what about the money it raised" instead of looking for reform and efficiency and thinking whether that money should ever have been needed in the first place.
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So no £25 rate, keeping the current one but focusing the revenue. Seems like a good way forward then.

Slightly off topic. David Cameron must be a very happy man at the moment, had Gordon Brown had his election and lost, the conservatives would have been taking all the flack of the economic set backs atm. Labour really have dug themselves... this time and Ken's ongoing plans were (inc the £25 charge) somewhat missguided imo.
 
KPeh said:
Of course not, (West) Dulwich in particular is very well off. But as a whole are not Lewisham, Southwark and the East End some of the poorest areas in London?
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Indeed, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham are 3 of the most deprived areas of the whole country, never mind London.
 
Friday night after a night out I caught the tube from Tottenham Court Road and there were about 5-8 CSO's out standing around... in my dazed drunken haze I asked what was going on and the answer was 'making you safe. Do YOU feel safe?' He asked me sarcastically.... I only thought that this was one of the first actions of the Boris.

Public transport is shocking... I'm a sardine in the morning, sometimes at night, avoid the tube like the plague and the buses are just as bad with bus rage customers to pot.

They are as bad as each other and tbh I don't expect to see any drastic changes anytime soon.

Must admit I was very tempted to work English Democrats if only to get St Georges Day as a bank hol as its my birthday!

Ha ha.. God am tired.

BB x
 
Regardless of the experience of public transport.

Boris, does not,or will not make it better.

He is enept.

simple as.

He cannot hold himself in simple interviews.

He is a puppet on a stage.

Thats it.
 
Evangelion said:
Freefaller, since you live in Southwark, how much do you pay for the congestion charge?
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I don't as I'm just on the border so when I do go it's the usual £8, but I just need to drive down the wrong roads to get somewhere (like a shortcut for example, or direct route) and I'm in it. It's not a big deal as I tend to travel outside the hours, I just think it's not quite fair on the people that live in this part of town especially Lambeth and around Elephant & Castle.

To be honest the congestion charge is silly, but it doesn't bother me as it doesn't affect me - however it hasn't changed anything in London at all. The air has only become cleaner as the cars have become more efficient and less polluting, I believe the volume of traffic has actually increased over the past 2 years.

The low emissions zone is a joke as most of hte buses and the local council vehicles are in breach of this (and may be excluded from the charge, but that's not the point) and spew out lots of crap. The buses are badly maintained and driven SO badly there are on average (this is from memory in the Metro newspaper) half a dozen RTAs involving buses in Greater London, add to that the same number on average for breakdowns - the drivers aren't particularly well trained and swing round corners and drive very aggressively.

The buses aren't clean and pollute more than cars. Why don't they do like California and have electric buses or hydro buses? They take up too much space and have been given routes which are ridiculous - narrow roads with cars parked on both sides - it's a traffic nightmare and you often get stalemates between buses and trucks, cars and other vehicles down the narrow lanes of London.

Bus lanes, well they can be used by cars during certain times, and red routes which are no parking at any time, have loading bays and parking bays - so how does that work? :confused:

Don't get me wrong I use public transport when I have to, but it's not a pleasant experience. I'm used to public transport in other countries, in spite of not speaking every European language (I do several) I still manage to get on the train, get to where I'm going, and have a pleasant agreeable journey. I've never had a pleasant journey on any public transport bar aircraft.

If they got rid of the double deckers and had the smaller 1 storey busses which are smaller and more nimble I think we'd have a lot less problems, yes they don't hold as many people, but since they'd be less likely to get stuck or cause obstructions they'd be more frequent. Furthermore they need a replan of routes.

Tube - well they'vedone it in some places like the jubilee line - but they need to redo the tracks, the stations of ALL the stations, and that's just a horrendous amount of money which would have to go to an organisation which haemorrhages money like a ruptured aorta. It can be so good, it could be, I genuinely believe that, they just need to sort it out and maybe take it on the chin a little? I mean nearly £10 for an all zones travel card?!! In Paris you can get a carnet which is 10 tickets (where each ticket is valid for the entire journey, i.e. any zone, and dlr etc...) for €17 - I've spent all day travelling from one end of PAris to the other and still didn't use up all my tickets in a day, even if I used 5 of them they come to less than a travelcard. Ok ok oyster system is pretty good, and makes it a bit cheaper - for the time being, it won't be long until they think, right time to put up the prices... It will happen and soon we'll be paying just as much as the paper tickets. I understand that costs rise and that companies need to make money, heck that's what I try and do every day, but if you compare it to Europe their rail fares have hardly budged and their services have improved! No train in the UK can compare to the TGV IMO and that's not me being biased.

London could be so great, but it's a long way off. It's dirty, the people can be rude and unpleasant, it's not that safe in spite of what people say, and there is just this weight hanging off everyone's shoulders and it's just so depressing. I don't care about skyscrapers, yeah maybe they'll be good, I don't know but it's not important, I'm not a politician and it's not for me to fix the city, but I just can't help comparing it to other big leading cities. In particular NY - it's a million times the size of London, it's clean, the people are in general courteous, I feel safe there (and I'm a tough guy and can look after myself) in spite of there being more guns available no doubt, it's a city with a "zing" about it, there's a vibrancy a life and excitement about it, and it's not just the tourist in me I've been there many many times and can see past the rose tinted spectacles of a tourist. Heck if you want another example, Paris, I lived there, again, people are nice, the streets are clean, they have a good system, the greenery/trees are well maintained, the buildings are looked after it just feels like a pleasant place to be, not grey and depressing.

Now admittedly some of this is what brings London it's charm, but I think it's swung a bit too far from cosy to dingy.

I don't think Ken or Borris can really fix it it's going to take more than that - but what can help it is to remove the problems, that it has and maybe we can fix it by helping the councils, politicians etc... know what is required. I thought a disaster like the suicide bombers in London would bring London back on it's toes and revitalise it like it did to NY (seriously the difference of NY pre and post 9/11 is astounding). However it's just made us more and more withdrawn and then when we start to poke our heads out we're surprised that there is chaos out there, that there are a lot of foreigners here (not that I mind) - it's because we've been shoving our heads in the sand, and resting on our laurels, and being so apathetic and arrogant about being Londoners and what we deserve and should have that we've let all the problems slip through our tightening fingers.

Let's see what happens, these are interesting times - things can't get MUCH worse... well I don't think anyway!
 
easyrider said:
Regardless of the experience of public transport.

Boris, does not,or will not make it better.

He is enept.

simple as.

He cannot hold himself in simple interviews.

He is a puppet on a stage.

Thats it.
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How does bieng awful at interviews make him bad at organising public transport?
 
jamoor said:
How does bieng awful at interviews make him bad at organising public transport?
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He's just generalising to extreme levels, which is ironic considering his critique of Boris' debating skills.

I don't care either way if Boris succeeds or fails, for the record. Just making an observation.
 
Freefaller said:
The low emissions zone is a joke as most of hte buses and the local council vehicles are in breach of this (and may be excluded from the charge, but that's not the point) and spew out lots of crap. The buses are badly maintained and driven SO badly there are on average (this is from memory in the Metro newspaper) half a dozen RTAs involving buses in Greater London, add to that the same number on average for breakdowns - the drivers aren't particularly well trained and swing round corners and drive very aggressively.

The buses aren't clean and pollute more than cars. Why don't they do like California and have electric buses or hydro buses? They take up too much space and have been given routes which are ridiculous - narrow roads with cars parked on both sides - it's a traffic nightmare and you often get stalemates between buses and trucks, cars and other vehicles down the narrow lanes of London.

...
If they got rid of the double deckers and had the smaller 1 storey busses which are smaller and more nimble I think we'd have a lot less problems, yes they don't hold as many people, but since they'd be less likely to get stuck or cause obstructions they'd be more frequent. Furthermore they need a replan of routes.
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Well, Ken was planning to introduce into service new hybrid buses, which aimed to be much cleaner, but that is unlikely to happen now, unless Boris decides to adopt that proposal instead of his plan to reintroduce the old style double decker Routemaster buses, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Also the things Boris has proposed, there looks like there will have to be more buses on the roads than there are already, making driving in London even worse than it already is.
 
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