On Oct 22, 12:52*pm, Adrian wrote:
Aye, fair; while it's true that Inner London voted for Ken this time
round, and that Outer London reliably swings Tory, I do accept it makes
more sense for the outer boroughs to be included in the administrative
unit. It's kind-of annoying that their vote dictates what happens on
issues like bendies and pedestrianisation in the centre, which is of
peripheral interest to them at best
That presupposes, of course, that those who live in outer London always
stay there and never head inside the Circulars, or the Ring Road, or
whatever your arbitrary boundary may be...
There's a legal definition of Inner London; I was going with that...
They don't. The vast majority are just as heavily affected - perhaps even
more so, when it comes to transport decisions - than those who live more
centrally. Many of those who live centrally could easily walk or cycle to
work (or for leisure/shopping/etc) should buses & tubes not be available
or viable. Those who live further out can't.
For rail and tube transport, you're right. For bus transport, I
disagree - there are very few people who live in outer London boroughs
and commute into the centre via bus; buses are a way of getting people
between parts of outer London, of getting people between parts of
inner London, and of getting poor people from inner London into the
centre (and walking from Thamesmead, Stamford Hill or Hampstead Heath
to the centre isn't really commutable).
There's definitely some logic in having local control of bus services,
with the people of Hillingdon voting to keep genteel single deckers,
whilst the people of Tower Hamlets vote for bendies to funnel them
into the centre - but realistically I think it's be too
administratively complex and having it all done by TfL is more
sensible.
There's also those of us who live outside the boroughs whilst still being
heavily affected by TfL and the GLA, yet get no representation.
....or taxation. I reckon George Washington would be happy with that.
--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org