LOAN FIRM BENEATH CONTEMPT Bus stop boobies
A Tory massacre with Grayling in the driving seat
IF there’s one topic that tells you how far removed Westminster is from reality it’s buses.
They carry more people than trains, and are the only way of getting about for a quarter of households without a car.
But it’s very, very difficult to get people to take seriously what this Government is doing to them.
There are many reasons for this. The chief one is that the people who sort this stuff out all live and work in London.
Which means when it comes to bus services they are spoiled beyond belief.
In London there are loads of buses, many of them brand new. They are well run. They generally turn up on time and are available 24 hours a day.
Bingo
Outside the capital, to say they’re not so great is an understatement.
A friend of mine’s gran from a town in the North East told me about cuts to her local service.
She used to get a bus halfway around the town to go to bingo. But cuts meant she had to go into the centre then get another bus to come out again.
The real killer was they cut the hours. So if she wanted to go home – not unreasonable – she could only stay at bingo for only about four minutes.
As a result she was stuck in her house. There are many other stories – people not being able to get to work or the shops or visit family or get to the hospital.
Labour has spotted it. Shadow transport secretary Andy Mcdonald has asked a leading academic to draw up a new blueprint for how transport should work – with buses at the heart of it.
But by the time they get to government A LOAN firm in Barnsley that charges 1,575 per cent has decided to flex its moral muscle.
In an article this week they recommended the return of debtors’ prisons.
I am loath to mention it because publicity is often what these people want. But here it may be too late. Two reasons. First, the services are disappearing at an alarming rate. Around 3,000 went last year, according to the Campaign For Better Transport.
Thousands more are set to vanish in the near future.
The second reason – the most frightening – is the bloke the Tories have running transport.
Mr Christopher Grayling. The Slack Controller. The human incarnation of all that is bad about travel.
Leaves on the line. Iceberg. French air traffic control. A living, breathing, total and utter pothole. That was a new
IN researching the loans bit at the top of this page I was reading about the most trusted professions.
Politicians and journalists are down the bottom, naturally. Slightly underneath estate agents but above advertising executives.
But the interesting bit is who tops the table: “The armed forces, nurses and Members of The Police.”
So if you need someone to rely on – ring Sting. mentioning Quick Loans, from Barnsley – that’s Quick Loans – really can’t do them any favours.
Debt is a growing problem in this country. It is an area where people often need help and some sympathy and compassion.
So when someone floats an idea like this it doesn’t help at one for the list, compiled by my mate Jack, which is far from exhaustive.
Just this week all the computers in the nation’s courts went on the blink. Guess who has been in charge there?
Also on Grayling’s watch when he was Justice Secretary was probation contracts, private prisons, prison book ban, criminal court charge scheme, Saudi prison training, failed prisoner tagging, cuts to legal aid, illegal tribunal fees, rocketing prison suicide, prison officer numbers cut.
There was also a work programme for prisoners. It didn’t, erm, work.
Because of his stunning track record all. As well as that, it’s a mindbogglingly offensive, stupid, cruel and petty little thing to suggest.
Money saving expert Martin Lewis said the firm were “contemptible b******s”.
And there’s not really much more to add than that. they moved him to transport. What could go wrong? Drones closing airports, ferry contracts to firms with no ferries, HS2 to Carillion, East Coast Main Line collapsing, Northern Rail, timetables. Devastating cuts to buses.
He even knocked a cyclist off his bike when he opened his car door.
Time to leave the transport and go back to your constituency.
To do that, Chris, you need to get the 87, then the 170 then get on the 93 to North Cheam Sainsbury’s. Then it’s the 213 and a quick run on the 470.
Just shy of three hours. Better take a book. PRISONS Minister Rory Stewart, left, said in August he would quit after 12 months if the state of Britain’s jails had not improved in that time.
The latest Howard League report on Bedford Prison tells of “six suicides in three years... a riot... overburdened... under-resourced, ratinfested...” These reports are going to form the basis of a regular
series. Working title: Why Rory Will Be Signing On Next Summer.