Naturally, when Boris’s people embargoed the staggering news that he’s appearing in Eastenders (we weren’t included in an embargo, being Beyond Civilisation in blog terms) we cynical sods wondered if he was burying anything. So far nothing’s come to light, but there are two things this week that might use a diversion. First off, the non-bendy 507 is due to start in five days time, yet LOTS News page records that:
At London General, none of the the standard Citaros for route 507 have yet arrived for the first conversion of a bendy-bus route, due from 25th July – but it is still hoped that they will come in time!
Well tell that to Christian Wolmar who lays into Boris. Perhaps he heard about Kulveer Ranger dissing him at State of London? Wrowwwl. Meanwhile, round here one of our nice new Enviro400s conked out with me on it on Saturday afternoon. Not impressed. It’s one way to reduce emissions, I suppose, not have a working engine.
All at sea with Kit Malthouse, remember the Sunday Times puff piece about the imminent Oakervee Report?
On Wednesday Oakervee will discuss his initial findings with a panel of experts at the Institution of Civil Engineers led by Sir David King, the government’s former chief scientist. He will submit his research to Johnson three weeks later.
Nothing’s come out about the discussion yet. We await the delivery of the research in two weeks, unless Boris is on Corrie that week.
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the RSPB blog ‘Tits and Planes’ says Doug Oakervee may be right in saying the construction is feasible from an engineering point of view. But that’s as irrelevant as engineering a chocolate fireguard. From a human, economic and environmental point of view, it’s a catastrophe’.
Speaking as a civil engineer manque, it’s certainly feasible, although I’d like to see the costs of protecting against storm surges in an area prone to them that’s already sinking in an era of rising sea levels.
It’s not building the runways that’s the issue, it’s building the *airport*. Boris and Kit forget that the runways are, when it comes down to it, the easy bit – the difficult bit is the logistics of moving thousands of people and bits of kit around 24 hours a day.