Were bus cuts woven into an unworthy political stunt?
COMMENT: The political slight of hand like that we have seen over the past few months will not have helped the council's cause
Thursday, 24th November 2022
Transport for London’s headline-grabbing consultation on closures of the 24 and 31 routes, among others, always had the stench of a stunt about it
WOULD it be overly-cynical to suggest that few if any of the bus routes “saved” yesterday were ever actually facing the axe?
Transport for London’s headline-grabbing consultation on closures of the 24 and 31 routes, among others, always had the stench of a stunt about it; the latest exhibition of brinkmanship in a long-running dispute between the Mayor of London and his paymasters in central government.
This has for a long time not been a happy relationship, causing ripples of discontent that have seen major public infrastructure projects fall by the wayside.
It was this time last year that Sadiq Khan was talking about closing the entire Bakerloo line after the Department for Transport refused to properly compensate TfL for Covid revenue losses.
Camden residents will remember how the CS11 bike safety shake up of the Swiss Cottage gyratory was scrapped ultimately because Tory-run Westminster Council would not play ball with the Labour mayor.
That entirely political dispute also brought the shutters down on what would have been Mr Khan’s crowning legacy project: Oxford Street pedestrianisation.
It is perhaps the struggles of relying on cooperation from local authorities with different political agendas that has left him bereft of any really notable achievements six years after taking the helm.
TfL’s announcement yesterday was coordinated with Labour groups across the capital, who came in droves to parliament for a photocall.
Labour councillors had, after the potential cuts were first announced, gone into a tweeting, leafleting and letter-writing overdrive.
Like a punter with an inside tip, it was likely the whole saga would end up being spun as a victory and also evidence of that politicians’ holy grail: “We’re listening!”
The public are, by and large, not idiots. For the vast majority of people, the lived experience is that our political system repeatedly fails to really listen.
The leader of Camden Council, Georgia Gould, wrote an excellent article in the New Journal last week full of genuine concern ahead of another massive drop in funding from central government.
Major cuts to public services in Camden are coming next year. She hopes residents will understand and redirect their anger away from the Town Hall and to this disgraced and shambling government that holds the interests of the wealthy closest to its heart.
But political slight of hand like that which we have seen over the past few months on the bus cuts – which has really just served to worry a lot of elderly people and low income families – will not have helped the council’s cause.
