@cstross Edinburgh Council has long hated cars and the filthy proles who have to drive them, instead of being middle class twats who can afford to live close to the office, work half days, and cycle or be driven to work by a chauffeur.
This is a report on the decline in bus service across the UK. EXCEPT where the councils have taken control of the bus companies. In those areas busses are doing a much better job of serving the public.
When a service is publicly owned, "it means profits can be reinvested into services."
Now do water, energy, mail and EVERYTHING ELSE that has been privatized.
Especially housing. When councils own council houses, not only can they respond to needs properly, but they aren't losing housing benefit money to private landlords. It is coming straight back into the council's own pockets.
One gets the feeling, with #Terry, that the real sticking point was that "the company would not promise not to do it again", but if they'd apologised and made that promise. Well, Terry would have probably quietly admired their chutzpah. The adverts would have had to stop, been apologised for, but he'd have probably let them keep the licence to print the books. Or maybe not. You never could tell with Terry.
There is a type of Tory who sees this and thinks: good. Because the cruelty is the point even in itself.
Then there is dumber one who defends this by saying that at least it means UK people will get all the jobs and that anyone signing on down the jobcentre can now go be a carer and fill in the gap. Ignoring that no, not everyone can be a carer. It is a much harder job than the tories think it is or reimburse it as.
@bobjmsn I remember my grandfather telling me that his father never went more than five miles away from his home in his entire life, because that was a day's walk and back. And my grandfather said that with a bike he could get a whole ten miles and back in a single day.
Then he bought a car in his 40s. And then he could go 40/50 miles. And I own a car, and can go a hundred miles, or even jump a plane and go thousands if I want.
I'm not going back to bike or foot travel. Not voting #Green.
Doesn't mean I shouldn't, either. Nor should it mean personal freedom of movement becomes the preserve of the rich, again. Because that is what the car and cheap air travel was, the great leveller between rich and poor. And I have had my fill of eco-fascism that serves only to restrict the options open to the poor.
Last week I went to the beach. That beach is thirty miles away. In fact, I went to a couple. Then I came home for tea. And I didn't even plan that. I went to Tesco first. But it was such a nice day, and my day off, I thought I'd have some fun too.
That is what having a car means. Spontaneous fun. Tell me why I shouldn't. Tell me in such a way that it isn't a restriction, or a sign of austerity. Tell me in such a way that it isn't "know your place".
How many buses are we gonna have? Because it takes two just to get to my tesco. That is over an hour away. Plus I cannot carry as much on the bus as I can in my car. So multiple bus trips. There goes my day. Just on tesco. Now, throw in the spontaneous nature of the trip. The out of the way nature.
An asylum seeker called Ahmed was interviewed on C4 News. He served with the British forces in Afghanistan, but was rejected by the ARAP scheme and has now had a Rwanda letter.
He has started a petition calling on the PM to abandon the Rwanda plan and create safe, organised routes to claim asylum once and for all.
It has 52k signatures and he has asked that it be shared.