City bus service is taking us for a ride
AS far as self-congratulatory reports go, Coun Peter Jones of Transport for Greater Manchester and Salford council takes the biscuit.
Rushed out to all members of Salford’s various community committees, it hides no political bias and cheap point scoring – sadly it denies the misery of the A580 East Lancashire Road driver who has no real option but to use their cars, vans or lorries.
Gone are the days of fixing a problem, we have spin coming from the masters of this dark art.
When will the rate-paying travelling public see or expect to see a significant improvement on our roads? On present showing, not soon.
The much-lauded £100m guided busway has not taken the traffic it promised off our roads and its relative ‘success’ has resulted in many cancelled bus services and peak-time capacity issues facing those actually trying to get to work. R W Goodall, Worsley
How can I be president?
HOW does one become President of the United States of Europe? I fancy applying. Anyone can run for President in the USA – as you may have noticed – so doubtless the USE will be equally democratic.
Where do I apply? Barry Tighe
Building resilience
NEWS that under international aid rules, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands are considered too wealthy to qualify for assistance after devastation from Hurricane Irma may seem mad when the need is so obvious.
But how many disagree with the principle that UK Aid should go to those who are the poorest?
There are poor people with desperate needs in these British overseas territories, but they are also homes of fantastic wealth – not just in their beautiful settings but in the hidden fortunes of being tax havens.
This is why some suggest Boris Johnson, our Foreign Secretary, has been sent – he’s good at waffling down questions.
However, this ‘too wealthy’ problem isn’t limited to these islands. Other countries are economically chained up with debts, payment of which brings chronic poverty and austerity. Manchester has many families from Jamaica and Pakistan, contributing and remitting funds to families desperate for help. This is laudable, as is supporting people hit by hurricanes.
But storms happen and we need to help build resilience.
I hope people, and our government, will go beyond patching things up to changing situations so countries can better stand on their own feet. Stephen Pennells, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Manchester
Stamp out lawless bikes
WITH a London cyclist being convicted of causing bodily harm by ‘wanton and furious driving’ for causing the death of a pedestrian, and another pedestrian needing a hip replacement after being hit by a ‘pavement cyclist,’ (M.E.N. September 7), it’s surely time to consider a law which can stop lawless cycling once and for all.
In motor vehicles, we effectively have ‘bullet proof vests.’ On bicycles, we’re effectively naked and defenceless. With motor vehicles being so safe, Gordon Tullock, a professor of law, once joked that if the government wanted people to drive safely, they’d mandate a spike in the middle of each steering wheel. Of course, such a thing would never happen but ensuring the person most in control of a situation will be damaged by their mistakes can lead to much safer behaviour. To be fair, to stop ‘lawless cycling,’ penalty points should be replaced by driving bans. Name and address supplied