Well, you wouldn’t have put your house on it lasting the year, but it’s now official that the deal to subsidise London public transport fares for the low paid (via a deal with Venezuela) will be scrapped in August. Forced to choose between breaking with the pro-US ideology of his chums at Policy Exchange or screwing the poor by doubling their bus fares, Boris has chosen the latter. Same old same old for this Tory, it seems. No consideration appears to have been given to finding the money elsewhere, and given that fuel prices will probably force a rise within months anyway, there’s probably a double whammy coming. Lovely.
As Dave Hill puts it:
Does Johnson consider scrapping concessionary fares for some of London’s worst-off people to be consistent with the character of the “generous hearted city” he now leads and what appeared to be his implied recognition that the huge and growing gaps between the capital’s rich and poor is undesirable?
Furthermore, by having this leak out (not on TfL yet, for instance) on a Bank Holiday weekend some months before it actually happens, isn’t Boris guilty of classic New Labour burying of bad news? It’ll be interesting to see what any official announcement looks like, since all we have so far is a ‘statement‘.
Update: various spelling mistaks corrected - hint: don’t blog and go swimming without reading it back properly.
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8 responses so far ↓
This certainly smacks of burying bad news – and what bad news it is for the thousands of Londoners who relied on this.
I’m interested to find that my Stop Boris blog e-mail address has just been added to Ken Livingstone’s press release mailing list, so I can now bring BorisWatch.co.uk Ken’s statement on this in full, should it be of interest:
Can’t argue with much there. Obviously Boris wasn’t going to want to work with Venezuela but if he seriously cared about the poor I’m sure he could have worked something out to replace it.
[...] wanting to distract from today’s main news, which should certainly be your main concern if you have only time to read about one thing [...]
I’m not surprised by Boris wanting to sever the connection with Venezuala, but the implications should cause concern. One of Boris’s better promises was the granting of free travel to veterans, and if fuel prices rise that may be suspended. Has anybody seen any mention of it elsewhere?
Decided to have a day away from the computer today figuring there would be no news and then Boris sneaks this one out.
His attempt to frame this as good for Venezuelans is laughable. They will lose the advice and assistance from TFl that they sought and we will lose cheap oil. Noone benefits from this apart from whoever Boris will be buying the oil off instead at a higher price (what was that he said about getting more bang for our buck?) and his mates at Policy Exchange.
Also the deal can’t have been that bad for Venezuela seeing as they have since set up similar deals with Boston, Massechusetts and New York.
The Venezuela story is in today’s Independent (Monday 26th May) with added comment from Boris: “I think many Londoners felt uncomfortable about the bus operation of one of the world’s financial powerhouses being funded by the people of a country where many live in extreme poverty… We will continue to offer the half-priced travel concessions to Londoners on income support for the duration for which the deal was originally planned.” This Indie article notes that “the current transport agreement is due to end on 20 August this year”.
Similar deals had indeed been agreed between Boston and New York (neither of which are, nor have they ever been, in the grip of Red Ken Socialists) and the Venezuelan oil company Citgo. CBS News reported three years ago (”Venezuela Oil Aid To Boston, Bronx: Country Promises To Sell Oil To Poor Communities At Discount Prices” Nov. 19, 2005) that “Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company that runs roughly 16,000 gas stations in the United States, will offer fuel at discounted rates in Boston as early as next week, according to a statement posted on the company’s Web site. In Boston, up to 1.2 million gallons of discounted heating oil will be offered, for a total savings of $10 million, the statement said. Heating oil will be sold later in the Bronx in New York. The statement said the distribution of the discounted heating oil will be organized with the help of local nonprofit organizations. Chavez often blames the plight of the poor on unbridled capitalism and strongly criticizes the Bush administration for failing to reduce poverty in the United States. Chavez offered cheap heating oil for poor U.S. communities in August following a meeting in Caracas with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.”
Seems that Our Boris, in ending the Venezuelan oil deal, is pursuing Political Correctness Tory Party style, rather than continue a policy that delivers oil for TfL at cheaper than alternative sources (and hence benefitting all Londoners who use public transport). And at the prime expense of those on income support, who are to lose the 50% concession.
In addition, the Boris reference to London’s buses “being funded by the people of a country where many live in extreme poverty” is specious, of course; Venezuela is a major oil-exporter (global 5th I think, but stand to be corrected) and a significant exporter to the oil-hungry USA. Its oil is a necessary income-generator for a nation in which “many live in extreme poverty”. Seeing as poverty can be alleviated by increasing income, in this case through a nation’s oil sales, Boris would appear to be helping maintain poverty rather than lift a finger to end it.
And for daily life in our own Dear Old Smoke, this would appear to be another step in the direction away from cheap/affordable public transport.
Something of a victory guys. It now looks like Boris may have changed his mind on ending half-price fares
I’ll believe it when I see it - will blog on this later.
Investigating ‘alternative ways’ sounds uncomfortably ambiguous, but it is certainly promising.
Incidentally, has anyone seen any news on whether veterans have been given free transport yet?