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Boris admits bendy-buses are safe - but he'll axe them anyway
John B wrote:
Ah the myth that bendies are only hated by car drivers. When campaigning for Boris in areas served by bendies I found this policy to be very popular amongst people who have to use them. I'm deeply sceptical, although it's possible that the people you spoke to were idiots. In real life, bendies provide a much better service than other buses on a given route. So why do I so frequently see people opting for the 86 over the 25 for journeys to Stratford or Ilford? (And it's for going there, not onwards.) It's called democracy. If the people of London didn't want Boris as their Mayor he wouldn't have been voted into office. The people of London didn't want Boris as their mayor. The people of various unsavoury outposts that the Tories gerrymandered into Greater London in the first place to end Labour's dominance of the County of London wanted Boris as their mayor; the people of actual London voted for Ken. The most common definition of "London", including in the title "Mayor of London" etc..., is the full extent of Greater London. Other than the City, which really lost the claim centuries ago, there has never been a formal "London proper". The Conservatives did not "gerrymander" the boundaries, they were responding to the long recognised problem that the boundaries of the County of London were too small for effective democratic governance of the London conurbation. This was recognised well beyond the Conservatives, as can be seen in the various different boundaries for London such as the London Transport area, the Metropolitan Police area (now realigned) and so forth. The Star newspaper was calling for wider boundaries for London local government in the 1930s. And I see once again the dismissive attitude to the outer suburbs of London by Boris critics and/or Ken fans. And people wonder why the outer suburbs were not enamoured with Ken and those around him. (It predates Ken - the real reason the GLC was abolished was because the outer London boroughs had realised they got very little out of it and didn't need it. Calls for abolition to be considered were being made well before Ken took power, including by Ken himself.) And if all Boris had ever done was "be funny on a game show" he would never have got anywhere, let alone into Parliament then the nomination and finally the office. You have a bizarrely misplaced faith in the processes governing the acquisition of political office by the sons of extremely wealthy and successful people. You have a low opinion of the democratic centralist tendency in the Conservative Party that has a strong filtration barrier to who can seek nomination to elected office. |
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