I understand that BJ has cancelled the agreement with Venesuela on cheap fuel in exchange for city planning and traffic control know how.
This means that people on low incomes in London will no longer have reduced fares on the buses.
Way to go, so he has killed a means of communication, and now he has raised fares on the buses for poor people.. but he is planting some trees in deprived areas. I guess this means that poor people won't be travelling to the nice parks in the rich areas, and they can wait a hundred years for the new trees to mature where they live.
Good start?
LONDON, England (AP) -- The British capital's new mayor, Boris Johnson is ending a controversial deal that has provided cheap Venezuelan fuel for London's transport network.
The agreement, signed last year by the Conservative Johnson's predecessor and Labour Party rival, Ken Livingstone, provided discounted gas for London's iconic red buses in exchange for advice on urban planning in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
Money saved on gas was put into a program providing half-rate bus fares for low-income Londoners. Livingstone said the anti-poverty initiative was the idea of Venezuela's left-wing leader, Hugo Chavez, whom Livingstone said he has long admired.
Conservative critics said the deal allowed one of the world's richest cities to exploit a lesser developed country and handed a propaganda coup to a man they called "a third-rate South American dictator."
Johnson echoed those criticisms in a statement announcing he would not renew the agreement when it expires in August.
"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 people live in extreme poverty," he said.
The statement said poor Londoners could continue to take advantage of the reduced fares until the program ran its course.
A spokesman for the mayor said there were no plans to offer low-income residents advantageous bus fares beyond that point.
source
I always love the way one single act can be viewed in so many different ways.
