Not for the first time we are seeing the stark differences between Conservative rhetoric in opposition to their actions when they are in power.
The Stirrer website today shows the sharp contrast between David Cameron’s Conservatives in opposition in Whitehall to the behaviour of Conservative-led (with their Liberal friends) Birmingham City Council over transport policy.
The Tory national policy, according to Theresa Villiers is…
“…whatever one’s view of the private sector bus operators and whether the powers of local government should be expanded in relation to bus services, it’s a fact that local transport authorities already control one of the most pivotal factors in relation to the quality of bus services – priority.
“And I can say formally today that I’ve learned to love bus lanes. It wasn’t always an easy process.
“But I’m now fully convinced of their importance in delivering the improvements to service reliability that we need.”
But the Tory Cabinet Member for Transportation in Birmingham, Len ‘Gridlock’ Gregory has obviously not learned to love them… because he has just scrapped the bus lane on one of the main arterial routes in to Birmingham City Centre.
This follows David Cameron’s support for City Mayors, including plans to force them on large cities without a ballot, and whether they want one or not, (clearly oblivious to Theresa’s policy of “I will not make the mistake Labour have made… and seek to bully local authorities”) whereas Birmingham Tories have vociferously opposed the notion of a City Mayor.
All of which clearly points to the notion that Cameron’s cuddly green Conservatives will promote one thing in opposition, but deliver an entirely different agenda should they ever find themselves in power. But one thing they can rely on, if they are looking for coalition partners, is the support of those environmental champions… the Liberal Democrats.
Bus lanes!
I really don’t know how you stand the exitement, Councillor.
I presume you mean in comparison to the thrill listening to you drone on about ‘the four days prior to the battle of Waterloo’.
Now I bet that packs ‘em in, eh?
Yes Duffers, bus lanes are so dull, I mean it’s not like they contribute to anything important like:
(i) the reduction of carbon emissions by reducing car use and congestion;
(ii) getting workers to and from profitable businesses in a timely fashion;
(iii) freeing-up valuable city centre real estate used for car parking for more productive activity.
Oh wait a minute…
The words: “pompous”, “ignorant” and “tosser” come to mind, you can choose the order in which they are applied, Duffers.
(i) No they don’t. Your average city bus pumps out fumes and smoke like a destroyer on full speed! Nor do they reduce car use, they just squeeze them into a tighter space thus causing, surprise, surprise, more congestion.
(ii) So do cars if they were permitted to use the roads their owners pay for.
(iii)”freeing-up valuable city centre real estate”, thus creating even greater demands for incresed city centre traffic. Brilliant!
The words ‘semi-educated’, ‘Labour’, and ‘councillor’ come to mind. You can choose the order in which they are applied
Mr Duff, I don’t have much time for this lame debate of yours, in spite of this I would like Mr MacNee to stop with the ad-hominems.
Not a fan of public transport? or is it just the public?
Mr. O’Keefe: “or is it just the public?”
You remind me of that old story concerning one of Noel (such a dear boy!) Coward’s friends who was one of those rescued from the Dunkirk beaches in 1940. On reaching London he instantly made for the cocktail bar at the Savoy where he knew Coward and his coterie would be. They greeted him enthusiastically and asked how it had been. “Quite dreadful, he replied, “The noise, the heat – the people!”
Oddly enough, on Thursday, for the first time in, I think, 53 years – I actually caught a bus! Not only that, I proudly flourished my bus pass, so it cost me nothing. Such a nice, kind man that Mr. Brown, I won’t have a word said against him. No bus lanes here because the only congestion we get from time to time is a slow moving tractor or a herd of cattle being moved from field to field.
Don’t worry about Mr. MacNee, by their words shall you know them!
This is the blogosphere so I feel compelled to indulge my inveterate pedantry…
(i) Mr O’Keefe: it would have been an ad hominem if I had said that Duffers was an ignorant pompous tosser therefore his distaste for buses and bus lanes was flawed. My inference went in the opposite direction which, while arguable, possibly wrong and almost certainly the abusive ravings of a potty-mouthed street corner socialist, is not an ad hominem;
(ii) Mr Van Kleefe & Mr Duffus: the name is McNee.
Van Kleefe? are you five?
While, I’m here I may as well apologise for the extra vowel.
I’ll ‘do a Brown’ and refuse to apologise for the extra vowel, instead, I’ll blame it on someone else, that ‘pompous, ignorant tosser’, O’Keefe – ooops, that’s where we came in – sorry, Gentlemen!
I think Brown was doing a ‘Duff’!
Oh, dear, Bob – wrong on so many fronts. How do you manage it?
There will be no forcing of elected Mayors on to anybody by the Conservatives. I’ve told you this before, and you still don’t listen.
As for bus lanes – yeah, we should do like Labour did in Birmingham – impose them in the wrong way and in the wrong place. Or threaten to knock down listed buldings to create them. That’ll be a good idea, won’t it?
Bus lanes have a role, but not with the half-cocked planning that the last Labour administration managed to rise to.
Things Thatcherites are programmed to hate, #5573893475: Bus Lanes.
Bob, So glad you are practicing for the rest of your life under a Tory government. “Nasty tories this; nasty tories that. Say one thing and do another…Scratch a tory and they’re all Thatcherites underneath…Blah Blah Blah” Get used to it, Bob. It will be the twenty-fourth century before the memory of this corrupt, mendacious, morally bankrupt and terminally incompetent government fades, the country makes the same mistake and is saddled with socialism again.