h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Has anyone considered that the lack of decent public transport in rural areas is a direct result of high levels of car ownership?

Its a viscious circle, the more people who have cars, the less passengers there are on public transport, so the services get reduced to cut costs, end result more people decide to get cars and round it goes again.

Like Phil I choose to live close to my main place of work (in my case within walking distance of the office) despite the fact that I could move further out and get somewhere much better for less money but if I did I would then join the daily grind of commuting.

However unlike Phil I do drive, so I am aware of the effect of fuel prices and that is one of the reasons I stay where I am.

Every one has choices to make, you have to live with the end results of those choices even if at times you don't like them.

Besides is anyone mad enough to belive that if the chancellor reduced fuel tax he wouldn't just stick it onto something else. eg income tax or VAT.

The last government committed the UK to reducing greenhouse gas emmissions and introduced rises in fuel taxes to reduce emissions, at the time the view in papers and public opinion were what a good thing it was.
It strikes me that its the same people who are now complaining because it has had an effect on them.

Phil, you are correct that IBM has their own train station at the site, and they have deals with buses going to and from the site to enable the employees to get to work. Problem is that if people live in Largs, which is only 10-15 miles away from the IBM site, and you want to take the train to get to work, you first have to go to Paisley, a 45 minute train ride, then change trains for another 45 minute train ride to get to the IBM Site. That's an hour and a half of travel every morning, starting at 5:15 at the latest, just to get to work in time.
They have tried to implement a bus route that goes from Largs to Greenock, but since it wasn't implemented immediately when people started moving to Largs, the people bought cars and are car pooling to work, mostly because even the bus routes that are running to and from IBM is running on awkward times.

Then we have the Fins. To keep their opening times from 8am to 4:30pm in Finland, they have to be at work here in Scotland at 6am, and there are no buses and no trains that run at that time.
So even if IBM has provided buses for the employees and have a train stop, the transportation companies can't change their schedules to suit all employees, just because IBM wants them to.

You are also correct in your saying that if the transport is so bad, they can move closer to work. We have 5000 people working here! There isn't enough available places to stay close to here. And new buildings will not be built, just because IBM wants to accomodate their employees.

Well, enough of this rambling...
The streets of Greenock are filling up with cars again, after they've heard the news of the lifting of the blockades.

I may not *know* anything but I *assume* ('cos I don't *know*) that at the dawn of mankind we didn't all have cars and petrol stations. If this assumption holds and the car didn't really become widely used until the last 60 years then the fact that humans survived the preceding 1,999,950 years must have been nothing short of a constant series of miracles. Either that or people round here are seriously missusing the word *need*

Most people don't *need* their car to get to work they just want it because it makes their liver easier.

How many of those that are wingeing use the car to get to and from the gym and so they can use the running machine or the excersise bikes? (I know several people that do)

This world (the *developed* one) has no idea what it is to *need* things.

True, Goof. I don't "need" my car to get to work each day. It's just more convenient that way, cause I am not constrained by time tables and the likes. I can come and go as I please. Therefor, I guess that I use my car selfishly as I use it to get to work. I have to say that I don't use it for much else, though. The occasional trip to pick someone up at the airport (to save that person a cab fare of about £40) but other than that, I have to say that when I go somewhere, like in to Glasgow, I go by train.

So, I don't "need" the car as such, it just makes life a whole lot easier.
Oh, and I don't go to the gym in the first place, which people who have met me might have recognised.

If you have seen no improvements in schools hasn't your wife's school had money to employ classroom assitants or don't they count? In Newham the staffing ratios in many nurseries and early years classrooms up to year two have improved allowing for far better practice or doesn't this government money count? Don't get me wrong, I am far from being a Tony Blair supporter but it seems to me that a small group of truckers seem to be able to hold us all to ransom. Is this democracy? When oil companies the police, farmers and truckers combine to attempt to destabilise the government? Last time I heard secondary picketing was illegal and any picketers assets liable to confiscation so why no action by the police? Can it be because these 'protestors' are the very same people who without compunction crossed union picket lines in the eighties with the help of the police which has destroyed so many working class communities? Remember the miners? Probably not as there are hardly any left.

I used to work for a council and I know they are miserable failures at dealing with money. Sorry.
As for the Dome. That's a complete red herring. No tax money paid for it. It was sponsors' cash and lottery money. If you're annoyed about Tony's Tent, stop buying lottery tickets. It's all a con anyway.

Classroom assistants certainly do count. My wife is one (employed before the last general election). None has been employed since her.

My point is that what is announced (usually repeatedly) has not yet filtered through after three years. Schools still have to get their computers off the back of crisp packets, despite Tone saying that all schools will be on the Internet (with the implication that the Govt will pay for this).

Prescott has spent most of his time saying how the public transport infrastructure will be radically improved, but the line on which our local station sits still only gets one train per hour and you can only go North or South, not East or West. It takes me 2 hours to get to work by train, but it's only 18 miles by road. I can get to London inside an hour, which is 50 miles away. The track bed is there to improve this (courtesy of Beeching), and has never been used for anything else.

Granted, the Dome was not built from public money (altough what other kind is there?), but Portcullis House certainly was. I don't do the Lottery any more (a real git for the first few weeks after I stopped, but my numbers never came up - phew!).

I suppose that the real root of my anger is the realisation that I fell for some politicians promises AGAIN (For God's sake, I'm 40 years old. You'd think I would have learned by now )

Actually, the lottery osn't a complete con - I've just won just over three grand. And very nice it is too

Lucky git

I used to work for the Lottery and what really pissed me off was the Government announcing the same tranche of money for the film industry three times (once at 1998 Cannes Festival) and the last two times passing it off as coming from tax revenue.

So everyone was thinking fab - loads of cash for British films but it was the same cash all the time!

Arggghhhh!

The buggers did that with the health service as well.
Never trust a politician as far as you can throw them, which isn't very far (unless of course you are really really strong, and they are really really little).

They are really really little aren't they? Stamp on them !

Another one I think they've done is to cancel most of the road improvement schemes when they came to office, then three years later they reinstate them and say 'look how much money we're going to spend on the roads in this country'.

Of course, they haven't actually spent any yet. I'd hope that they'll lose the election, but the other lot will be just as bad (albeit in a slightly different way). And the LibDems will just sit there and trash the Govt in the secure knowledge that they'll never have to out their money where their mouth is.

A bloke was driving into London, but the traffic came
to a dead halt just by Hammersmith. He thought to himself,
"Wow, this traffic seems worse than usual. Nothing's even moving."
He noticed a police officer walking back and forth
between the lines of cars so he rolls down his window and asks,
"Constable, what's the hold up?"
Plod replies: "The Prime Minister is just so depressed about Mo Mowlam's resignation, the fuel blockades, his kids getting into trouble here and abroad, and his general dive in the popularity stakes, that he stopped his motorcar in the middle of the road and he's threatening to douse himself in the last bit of petrol in the
Prime-Ministerial Rolls and set himself on fire. He says his cabinet hates him, Gordon Brown's not even talking to him, he doesn't have the money to pay for Cherie's next shopping trip for Baby Leo, and the Royal Flight has refused to provide the transport for his Christmas holiday. I'm walking around taking up a collection for him."
"Oh really? How much have you collected so far?"
"So far only about 3 hundred gallons but a lot of folks are still
siphoning."

Great jokes Tigerlily. The earlier comments about MPs being little reminded me of a comment made about (probably the biggest MP in the house - is he still there?) - Nicholas Soames, by an EX-girlfriend.
She said making love with him was like having a wardrobe fall on you with the key sticking out!! - perhaps he isn't the biggest MP after all.

Doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in. I've just passed a garage displaying 92.9p per litre for 4* and 89.9p per litre for unleaded. Thank goodness I can fly.

I think Soames got voted out at the last election. Saw him in a pub once. He is HUGE (don't know how well-endowed though). Took up a table for 4 on his own!

Great joke.

Surely Cyril Smith was one of the more rotund parliamentarians.

I feel that we all have a way of protesting against high fuel prices - by not buying any! At least it would be our personal choice. I do not think it's on at all for someone else to decide the price is too high, and subsequently stop me from buying. I think the big mistake is that so little, if any, is re-invested in public transport.

Incidentally I work for the District Council. My job is to manage a transport service for clients with learning disabilities. Our clients and their families NEED us. Working through the fuel shortage has been very very serious indeed. Not quite life or death, but some of the issues raised have been very grave. I am proud to say that (this time round at least), by working with a good team, we have managed to provide cover to all our clients with no disruption at all. I haven't been laughing though, and I'm scared of what might happen if there is a "next time".

Well I realised about the age of 18 that politicians are just well politicians who I would trust about as far as I can spit. Nevertheless I have to say that if your wife's school has not employed any extra staff since the election nor has a free internet connection for use between 8.30 and 6.00 every day , then either the school is mismanaging its budget or the local authority is. Neither of which is the fault of central government. Since the last election our deprived inner city primary has been able to employ nine extra teaching assistants and has had a computer network installed with free internet access courtesy of the new money. So without being a great supporter of Blair I am merely stating that we are seeing the effects of the addtional resources.