The Local Government Association, which has commissioned a report (more work for consultants!) about bus passes, has come to the conclusion that posh, rich middle class people with cars should not be riding around in buses with free concessionary passes. No way matey! Get in your car, clog up the roads, you're costing us too much. Let some other blighters sort it all out. We're being short-changed by the government, they weep.After a furore and a hullabaloo, the LGA denied that it was considering introducing means tests. So was this "commissioned report" just jobs for the boys, or was it an opening shot in some inter-governmental showdown? Either way, it's a warning sign to us all.
I would hope that the next general election produces MPs who are representatives of the people and not career politicians cravenly working the system to suit "government" and themselves. As they say, I must declare an interest. I'm in the bass pass queue next year. Unless of course they change the age criterion in which case I won't!
We are supinely good in Britain at listening to waffle and rubbish and just shrugging our shoulders. I'm beginning to get a bit revolutionary. I want the stocks brought back. I'd shove Harriet Harperson in for a day. A few rotten tomatoes in her boat race might bring about a change. The only thing the British Establishment understands, and it understands very little, is latent unrest about to boil over. I suggest we get off the back burner and turn the heat up a bit. They might just get it then.
