the wrong
target (fare’s fare)
the price of
public transport has gone up (again) over and above the rate of inflation
(again). although the train companies
are making profits for their shareholders they claim the rise is necessary.
even though their service has not improved they claim that the price rise is
good for passengers.
quite what
world they are living in is anyone’s guess.
two sunday papers
carried attacks on different transport ministers. the mail on sunday and the
sunday mirror. what is surprising is that the mail on sunday attacked the right
target while the sunday mirror picks on the wrong person.
the mail onsunday ran with a story about simon burns, the rail fares minister, who uses a
chauffeured driven government car to travel to work each day. the cost of the
car is £80,000 a year (though not all of that can be laid at the feet of mr.
burns as the car maybe used by other ministers during the day). his excuse for
not catching the train into work is that he can’t work on his ministerial
papers in public places; this restriction has been denied by the cabinet
office. he further justifies his use of the car because he has given up his
second home in london and commutes to and from work. well bully for him.
a spokesman
for the passenger campaign group railfuture said ‘it would be nice if the
person who is setting these fare rises was also experiencing some of the
congestion and overcrowding endured by ordinary hard-pressed travellers.’ of
course as a minister he could claim back his transport fees (£5.400 a year for
a first class ticket. the mail have even worked out how much it would cost for
him to get a daily taxi - £36,000 – but are very large savings on the £80k the
departmental car costs) it is the fact that, as railfuture point out, he is
avoiding the hassle that he is in part responsible for. it is yet another
example of the con/dems being out of touch with ordinary people.
meanwhile
the sunday mirror chose to attack norman baker, a liberal democrat transport
minister, they say he has claimed £7000 in transport expenses, compared with
this is a pittance. the mirrors case is made even weaker when you realise that
the total is from when mr. baker took office in may 2010. to put it another way
he is claiming approximately £230 a month in travel allowance to travel between
his constituency and london.
mr. baker
doesn’t appear to have his snout in the trough.
while
politicians didn’t cover themselves in glory when it came to the expenses
scandal and they now have only themselves to blame when it comes to the press
jumping on them. they are also in the press firing line simply because of
leveson report. there is a large chunk of the population who are furious about
the above inflation price rise for their transport prices. all of this adds up
to a bit of a perfect storm when it comes to transport ministers. it is just a
shame that the mail on sunday got it right and the sunday mirror got it wrong.
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