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Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:06 am
by AXJ
MKG wrote:Well, he's scrapped The Londoner newsheet and is going to use the saving to plant trees in the more deprived areas of London. Not a bad start, I would have thought.
So what it boils down to is that he is removing a tool of communication with the people of London, making a few journalists and print workers redundant and is symbolically planting a few trees. It costs next to nothing to plant a few trees, they should be doing that anyway. Preserving the older mature trees around London is a much more expensive job, and deserving of attention. South East London when viewed from roof top height is like a forest. In my view it is a rubbish start. His first act is to censor the media.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 9:35 am
by MKG
I always love the way one single act can be viewed in so many different ways.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:26 am
by AXJ
LoL ... sorry I couldn't help it ... all in good humour
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 10:56 am
by MKG
... And taken so. Personally, I suspect he may want all of the new trees to publically hang those young criminals he's so concerned about.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 11:44 am
by johnhcrf
That should be a separate topic, MKG, if allowed.
Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 11:59 am
by MKG
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 5:20 pm
by AXJ
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
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:44 pm
by MKG
Damn, damn, double damn!!!!! OK, AXJ, you score the first point - and I don't have an answer because it's flummoxed me. Maybe - just maybe - he's about to give all bus passengers free helium balloons. I wait with bated breath.
Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 8:15 pm
by AXJ
LoL untill the next time Mr MKG
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."
(I hope it is reasonable to point out that Hugo Chavez is the democratically elected presedent of Venesuela, no more a dictator than any other democractically elected premier in Europe, and probably got a better majority than the less than the 600 hundred votes which thrust GWB into power in Florida.
Here's a great watch about Bush... slightly off topic, but it does pose the question, how is Chavez a third rate dictator, and Bush is not?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9971500776 )