What Is It About Tories, Labour, Me And Public Transport?

One of the weirder things about being a Councillor is being gifted with the ability to spell words like "weird". Another is seeing the anger of Tory councillors whenever anything negative is said about car-use or anything positive about other modes of transport.

"Dave" Cameron may cycle to work (with a car behind carrying his briefcase) but his footsoldiers (or rather car-mounted-soldiers) in my borough vote against controlled parking and campaign against speed limits outside local schools, and one of them goes into a rage every time we do anything to encourage cycling (I gather this is because "they get in the way of cars").

You or I might think Ken's London-wide free bus and tram travel for all under 18s in full-time education was a no-brainer - reducing the number of cars doing the school run and giving mobility to young people.

But it wasn't always a no-brainer. I must put my hand up and admit that I wasn't nearly as fond of Ken Livingstone or his support for public transport. Back in 1999, I was an organiser for Dobbo The Mule in his unsuccessful campaign as Labour candidate for Mayor of London against the same Mr. Livingstone. Of course in those days we'd thrown Red Ken out of the Party and, despite the obvious fact that Frank didn't want the job, we just reminded him of Alec Douglas Home's acceptance speech ("I've got to do PM").

One of Frank's key manifesto pledges was for reform and, ultimately, private control of the tube lines and buses under the management arm of Transport for London. Frank labelled his rival's generous plans for public transport as "gesture politics" that "would cost London £17.6bn and Londoners at least £1,200 a year each". Dobbo had difficulty expressing his support for these policies, so he tended to reply on his deputy Trevor Phillips to make his speeches for him.

So, albeit indirectly, seven years ago I was a campaigner against the social ownership of public transport. Oh well, it's not all bad. At least it goes to show that on some issues I've moved to the left.