asdf wrote:
On Mon, 26 May 2008 12:27:32 +0100, Tom Barry wrote:

‘Boris Johnson’s announcement today that he is doubling bus and tram
fares for people on Income Support is a direct attack on the poorest
Londoners.'
Calling it a doubling of fares, when in fact it's returning the fare to
the normal level, is about as bad as claiming you've abolished the 10p
tax band, when in fact you raised the 10% tax band to 20% !
It's a doubling if 90/45 = 2, which it does. I don't see the tax rate
analogy, personally. Boris had the opportunity to preserve the scheme as
he found it or double fares for people on income support and chose the
latter. There's only so much spin this can take, really.

I suppose it depends on whether the original halving of fares was only
supposed to be a sort of temporary "special offer" (as Boris seems to
be claiming), or whether it was intended to be permanent.

The New Deal version has presumably been going for a few years and, not
being backed by Venezuelan oil money, presumably continues.

The TfL website for the scheme contains no suggestion of it being
temporary and no inkling of the change, incidentally (something like a
last application date or last validity date would be useful).

There's a requirement to re-apply every six months to prove you're still
eligible, so presumably they just stop renewing them at some point, in a
few months time when everyone's forgotten this weekend's news.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/5568.aspx

Tom