Tag Archives: ticket

The news in tweets: Thursday, July 13, 2023

Martin Lewis: he’s really not happy with Oliver Dowden.

This one’s for all of you who want some real news alongside your daily revelations about “BBC presenter” – or who simply didn’t care about that ‘dead cat’ story.

Martin Lewis corrects the record after Oliver Dowden falsely claimed he supported the Tories

Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis does not take kindly to suggestions that he supports any political party over the others.

So it was only to be expected that, after Oliver Dowden claimed he supported the government on a point in the government’s Mortgage Charter, he would be… miffed.

Here’s what he had to say:

For those of you who can’t (or can’t be bothered to) click on “Show more”, he continued: ‘…benches.”

‘I am party independent. I’ve had constructive conversations with both the Chancellor and the Shadow Chancellor about mortgage support.

‘I do not appreciate being used in party-political spats. It is correct that I support those specific measures in the mortgage charter, mainly as they were my suggestions (so in a way ‘they’re’ supporting what ‘I’ said) and both major parties proposed similar – but that should not be taken as a read-across to favouring any party, even just within the mortgage agenda.’

This Writer wondered, after PMQs, how many falsehoods Dowden would be caught out on in deputy Prime Minister’s Questions this week. I named two at the time.

This is another. How many more were there?

Join the demonstration to save ticket offices

This is happening today (Thursday, July 12, 2023). Information courtesy of the Peace and Justice Project founded by Jeremy Corbyn:

The government’s plans to close 1,000 ticket offices in England – this latest attack on railway workers – puts thousands of jobs at risk and, if these proposed changes go ahead, there will be serious implications on millions of elderly, disabled and vulnerable commuters who rely on the personal touch of a ticket office to arrange and support their travel.

We must resist these closures.

Tomorrow, the RMT is hosting a national day of action, leafleting and speaking to commuters outside train stations up and down the country. And in London there will be a demo outside Kings Cross with speakers including Jeremy Corbyn. Together, we must demand that ticket offices remain open – click here to find your nearest action.

The opposition to these ticket office closures has been immense, with commuters writing in to local papers, posting on social media and making it known that they oppose these closures. The government have also opened a consultation on these closures which closes in just two weeks. If you haven’t already, please fill in the consultation – click here, select your local train station and make your views known.

Write to your MP

You can also write to your MP and ask them to raise this issue in Parliament and support the campaign to save our ticket offices. You can use this letter-writing tool, created by our comrades at the RMT, which only takes a few minutes to fill out. As the consultation period is brief, it is absolutely vital that we ensure this issue is at the very top of the parliamentary agenda in the weeks to come.  Click on the link and demand your MP stands up for railway workers and the millions of commuters who rely on them to support their journeys.

Sign the petition to make sure the Tories stick to the law – and don’t send any refugees to Rwanda

Are we seriously being asked to believe nobody in Boris Johnson’s office or the government knows how to switch on a phone?

Look at this, which I believe is from the Covid Inquiry. Simon Case is the Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service:

“I thought it was handed over” is legal-speak to avoid actually saying anything.

In fact, we all know the phone wasn’t handed over. Apparently Boris Johnson has a ‘team’, alongside people from – oh dear – the Cabinet Office, trying to switch on ‘Phone 1’, but none of them know how to do it.

They say they fear security breaches, because the phone’s number was public knowledge for 15 years before Johnson twigged that this might be a bad idea and switched it off in April 2021 (if you believe in that sort of thing).

In fact, if anyone interested in breaching the UK’s security wanted to hack that phone, they would have done it long before Johnson got near the “off” switch. Also, any compromising information in it should have been changed long ago. There really is no reason not to simply switch it back on.

Alternatively, since WhatsApp messages aren’t actually stored on the phone anyway, why don’t they all just access the cloud storage that actually does hold that information, as people (including This Writer) have been telling them to do for many months?

While the government was defending itself for painting over mural at one child refugee centre, it was painting over other murals at other centres

This is cruelty for its own sake:

Lords defeat Tory government again over Illegal Migration Bill

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The news in tweets: Monday, July 10, 2023

Number of people waiting long periods for PIP claim result has plummeted

The number waiting longer than six months has dropped from more than 20,000 to just 300 within 12 months, and the DWP says it has halved the time it takes in acting on a claim.

But how many claims are the DWP processing now, in comparison to 12 months ago? What is the figure as a proportion of all claims received? And – more to the point – how many are successful?

Ofgem asks energy suppliers to publish all their tariffs, so customers know what deals are worthwhile

Scam adverts: the government has STILL enacted no laws to protect you against them

Are doctors in Scotland well-advised to suspend strikes after pay offer of 17.5% over two years?

It may seem a lot but doctors in Scotland have only suspended their strike action for a pay deal of 8.75 per cent per year – that’s still less than the current rate of inflation and therefore a pay cut.

But it is more than junior doctors have been offered by Health Secretary Steve Barclay – whose own pay packet has not been reduced by inflation.

Meanwhile, teachers are being told their own job is a “vocation” – meaning it is especially worthy of dedication – and they should be happy with £27,000 a year, by Heather Wheeler. Take a look at this point:

There is no degree in being a member of Parliament, and most of the degrees in politics don’t seem to be worth the paper they’re written on (look at the havoc wreaked on the nation by graduates of Oxford’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) course). It is a career for which there is no qualification and cannot be described as a vocation – but Heather Wheeler draws down a salary of £82,000 a year, plus expenses.

And it is important to remember that teachers aren’t just striking to get better pay for themselves. Government spending on education suffered its longest-ever decline under the Tory governments between 2011 and 2019, and teachers are striking to ensure that education as a whole is properly funded:

And the Tory arguments that pay increases would raise the rate of inflation have already been proved false.

So there is no good reason for refusing to pay doctors, teachers and other striking workers what they are due – which would bring them to parity – in real terms – with their pay in 2010. And there’s no good reason for refusing to properly fund education and the NHS either; taxation is currently at its highest in something like 70 or 80 years, which should mean public money is available for such projects. What have the Tories done with it?

All of the above supports the following short clip, making an important point that should be remembered by everyone who complains about strikes:

Did Jeremy Corbyn grab Israel Advocacy member – as he claims – or was the MP the one who was assaulted?

Here’s video footage of what happened. The context note beneath it clarifies exactly what really did happen. Reggie D Hunter’s comment is pertinent too:

These aggressively Zionist, pro-Israel goons think they can do whatever they like and then lie about it when we can see what’s really happening via their own recordings.

Remember that, next time one of them makes a wild accusation.

Most train ticket offices in England to be shut within three years, no matter how many people it disadvantages

That’s the theory. Here’s the practical upshot:

Does anybody remember a piece of law called the Disability Discrimination Act? Did it not make provision for a situation like this?

If not, is it time that Act was amended?

Jeremy Hunt to appear on Martin Lewis ITV show about mortgages – and you can help grill him

Tin-eared airport bosses want to increase pollution there by 60% amid public fury over environmental harm

Minister for disabled people refuses to discuss his disability action plan with them

Perhaps Tom Pursglove doesn’t want disabled people to object to the plan to close railway ticket offices?

Perhaps there are a multitude of other omissions in his plan that he doesn’t want to allow under the spotlight until it has been rubber-stamped?

Whatever the excuse, this is unacceptable behaviour from any government. Nobody’s life should be changed by the government if they haven’t had a chance to participate in the process.

“Nothing about us without us,” remember?

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Tory civil war? Suella Braverman wanted to claim speeding ticket on expenses, claims William Wragg

Suella Braverman: all things considered, let’s hope she was just a passenger when this pic was taken.

Would this really be the first time a Conservative MP has tried to make you pay the fine after they committed a crime? I doubt it.

What makes this interesting is the fact that Suella Braverman is the Home Secretary – the minister for law and order – and has been Attorney General before that. She wouldn’t want any other criminal to avoid the consequences of their crime, so why should she get to do it?

And of course it’s another Tory who dobbed her in.:

Senior Tory MP William Wragg made the extraordinary claim about Home Secretary Suella Braverman in a series of tweets in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Alongside a picture of the Winston Churchill statue and Houses of Parliament, at almost 2am, he wrote: “This evening, having kept quiet for a while, I was struck by the lamentable hopelessness of the Home Secretary, remembering particularly her first week or so as a Member of Parliament.”

He went on: “My clearest recollection of our Home Secretary’s legal acumen came from day one as an MP. We had a presentation from [expenses watchdog] IPSA.

“Her question to IPSA concerned whether a speeding ticket incurred during the course of parliamentary duties could be claimed on expenses.

“Rather embarrassed, the representatives from IPSA said no.”

Mr Wragg added: “Thank goodness our Nation has been blessed with such a fine Attorney General and Home Secretary. Carry On!”

This Writer can only agree with the implied criticism.

Perhaps the penalty for crimes of any kind should be re-defined for serving members of Parliament.

In the Home Secretary’s case, knowing her particular… enthusiasms… may I suggest that her speeding tickets be commuted into deportation to Rwanda?

Source: Suella Braverman asked whether she could claim speeding ticket on expenses, Tory claims – Mirror Online

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Keir Starmer’s Labour is like an abusive partner. Here’s how

Open arms: Keir Starmer will probably welcome you to his events if you have done some door-knocking for him beforehand. But what will he then do for you?

Did you ever have a friend or romantic partner who always wanted you to do things for them, but never bothered to reciprocate?

I mention this because of the latest wheeze from Keir Starmer’s New New Labour:

“Labour is trialling a ‘Queue & Do’ system at the evening rally where attendees will have to sign up to a task – like knocking a certain number of doors – in exchange for their ticket.”

So basically you have to pay your way to get into the event by doing something for Starmer first.

And you don’t know in advance whether you’ll get anything worthwhile back in return.

Yup. Reminds me of a few gold-digger girlfriends from prehistory (Before Mrs Mike).

People who try to get you to do things for them without offering you anything more than a tiny part of their time in return are just using you.

Avoid.

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Bigots try to stop ‘anti-Semitism’ documentary filming – so it’s now at a secret location [STRONG LANGUAGE]

First – an apology. This Writer misconstrued a press release about the new documentary Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really Anti-Semitic?

I mistakenly believed the documentary was all but finished and people were being invited to a screening, at which more filming would take place.

In fact, people were being invited to come and take part in the documentary, offering their own views on the so-called Labour anti-Semitism crisis.

Next – som facts: Indy Media Productions, the crew behind the film, has been making it in response to the BBC Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic? that was riddled with falsehoods and gave an inaccurate impression of the situation in the Labour Party

Anyone with left-wing political loyalties is welcome to attend the event at the Britons Protection in Manchester.

The meeting will be captured on film and used in the final scene of the documentary (and also in the trailer).

Tickets are available from this site. The 50p price is only so organisers can gauge the numbers attending.

“There is an election taking place and the antisemitism narrative is being used against us,” said a spokesperson for the production company.

“It is vital that during this election, as Labour supporters and Labour members, we hit these allegations head on and state exactly where we stand.

“We are not racists. We are not anti-Semites. We are just people who care deeply about injustice, equality, poverty and homelessness.

“If we don’t speak out and state exactly what we stand for, others will do it for us and what they say will not be the truth.

“We are hoping to capture footage of as many speakers as possible but we may also ask questions of some that attend to get their opinions on the allegations of institutional anti-Semitism made against Labour.

“This is your opportunity to have your voice. It is time for those on the left to speak out and not be silent. There is a lot at stake at this election and a lot to lose.”

Finally – the unpleasantness: Almost immediately after my original article went up, managers of the original venue were subjected to abuse from the kind of bigots responsible for the false “anti-Semitism” narrative.

Here’s an example of the kind of message they received (now edited to stop Facebook shocking readers when I try to share it):

 

Yeah.

Hard to believe these people are claiming the moral high ground, isn’t it?

They never succeed in stopping the facts from getting out; they just show themselves up for what they are.

To attend the event, use the link above and you’ll receive directions. Enjoy it!

Source: Buy tickets for Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really “anti Semitic” ? Open Documentary Scene, Manchester. at The Briton’s Protection, Sun 24 November 2019

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Crowdfunded documentary on fake Labour anti-Semitism has been made. Come to the premiere

Tickets are now available for the first screening of a new documentary countering the fake narrative linking the Labour Party with anti-Semitism.

Indy Media Productions, the crew behind a new documentary entitled Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really anti-Semitic? wants left-wing and Jewish speakers to attend the event.

But anyone with left-wing political loyalties is welcome to attend the event at the Britons Protection in Manchester.

The film has been made in response to the BBC’s Panorama documentary, Is Labour Antisemitic? that was riddled with falsehoods and gave an inaccurate impression of the situation in the Labour Party.

The meeting will be captured on film and used in the final scene of the documentary (and also in the trailer).

Tickets are available from this site. The 50p price is only so organisers can gauge the numbers attending.

“There is an election taking place and the antisemitism narrative is being used against us,” said a spokesperson for the production company.

“It is vital that during this election, as Labour supporters and Labour members, we hit these allegations head on and state exactly where we stand.

“We are not racists. We are not anti-Semites. We are just people who care deeply about injustice, equality, poverty and homelessness.

“If we don’t speak out and state exactly what we stand for, others will do it for us and what they say will not be the truth.

“We are hoping to capture footage of as many speakers as possible but we may also ask questions of some that attend to get their opinions on the allegations of institutional anti-Semitism made against Labour.

“This is your opportunity to have your voice. It is time for those on the left to speak out and not be silent. There is a lot at stake at this election and a lot to lose.”

Source: Buy tickets for Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really “anti Semitic” ? Open Documentary Scene, Manchester. at The Briton’s Protection, Sun 24 November 2019

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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Rail fares to rise yet again – this time by 2.8 per cent

This is more evidence to support Labour’s plan to re-nationalise the UK’s railways.

Regulated train fares are set to rise by 2.8 per cent next year, in line with the July rate of Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation.

Commuters from the new transport secretary’s constituency will pay an extra £84 a year to get to work in London from the start of 2020.

Grant Shapps is MP for Welwyn Hatfield. From January next year, the price of an annual season ticket from Welwyn Garden City to London will rise from £3,016 to £3,100.

Source: Rail fares set to rise by 2.8% in 2020 | The Independent

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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London’s New Year fireworks display is ticketed – to keep out the riff-raff

Most of the people watching the fireworks in this picture won't have tickets for this year's event and will be excluded from the best vantage points "to prevent overcrowding". But is the real reason to keep them away from the rich?

Most of the people watching the fireworks in this picture won’t have tickets for this year’s event and will be excluded from the best vantage points “to prevent overcrowding”. But is the real reason to keep them away from the rich?

Londoners: You elected a Tory Mayor – what did you think would happen?

It seems he has ordered that this year’s New Year fireworks will be a ticket-only event and you will be excluded from public streets – streets your tax money maintains – so that the rich don’t have to be jostled by you.

The display this year is the first-ever such event for which tickets have been sold, and it seems clear that you can thank Boris Johnson for that.

He’s the man who wants to keep you out of the best vantage points along the Thames; those are reserved for the rich.

“It is hoped the move will prevent overcrowding on the night, an issue that has plagued the event in recent years,” the Daily Mirror has reported in surprisingly mild fashion. This clearly means Mr Johnson hopes ticket prices will keep the hoi-polloi away.

Superintendent Robyn Williams told the paper: “Our advice is not to travel into London if you don’t have a ticket. If people are still considering coming to see the fireworks it will be extremely difficult to get around.

“Areas will be cordoned off for those with tickets and Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square will not this year be featuring large viewing screens.”

It’s a form of apartheid; the less affluent are being shunted out of their own city.

This writer’s only question is: Will Londoners meekly accept this treatment?

Or will we see fireworks in more ways than one?

With friends like these, this dog of a government has had its day

Exactly who does support David Cameron’s government these days?

He’s got Tory ‘grandees’ like Lord Tebbit calling it a “dog”; he’s got the 2010 intake of Tory MPs rebelling against him – presumably in the belief that they’ll have more chance of promotion through backstabbing than waiting for him to shuffle them into his ever-growing Cabinet; and he’s got Cabinet members who are themselves liabilities.

I suppose he should count himself lucky he’s got the support of all those corporate doners, pouring millions into Conservative Party funds in return for the billions of pounds worth of government or NHS contracts he’s been handing out to them (and the devil take the public, who won’t benefit at all).

The ‘youth revolt’ might be a serious threat to Cameron’s authority, but it is the attack from Tebbit that will be the most damaging. At a time when polling shows only one per cent of the population believes the Coalition is likely to be more competent than Labour, he made it perfectly clear that he thinks Cameron doesn’t know what he’s doing.

“This dog of a coalition government has let itself be given a bad name and now anybody can beat it,” he wrote in an Observer column.

“The abiding sin of the government is not that some ministers are rich, but that it seems unable to manage its affairs competently.”

This is an attack that the coalition will find hard to disprove, especially after Cameron’s hastily-announced plan to force energy companies into putting everyone on the lowest possible tariffs (of which the Energy Secretary and department apparently knew nothing). “Back-of-the-envelope” policymaking, as Ed Miliband might say.

“It has let itself be called a government of unfeeling toffs,” said Lord Tebbit.

Again – impossible to deny. Look at the Comedy Chancellor, Gideon George Osborne, sitting in a First Class train seat with a standard class ticket. One wonders if this will re-ignite the debate over rail ticket pricing – as they are clearly too costly even for a millionaire like him…

And then of course there’s Pleb-gate, or Gate-gate – the saga of the short temper and long decline of now-former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. Whether he actually called a Downing Street police officer a “pleb” or not is immaterial, and has been ever since it was first reported; that was the moment the public made up its collective mind and Cameron should have known it. Instead he hung on to a lost cause, dragging his entire administration down as the story dragged on.

Mitchell’s replacement is Sir George Young, a man who is on record has having described the homeless as “What you step over when you come out of the opera.” He has been described on the Void blog as “a stuck-up, not so nice but dim, advert for class war” and as a “chinless f*cking wet-wipe”. In other words, he’s likely to be even more unpopular than Mitchell.

Lord Tebbit, who – we are told – represents a growing number of senior Tories who are questioning whether Cameron has the qualities necessary to lead a government, said Cameron must impose “managerial discipline, not just on his colleagues but on himself.”

He continued: “Had Mr Miliband concentrated his fire on a long list of muddles – from the proposed sale of our national forests to the BAE and energy policy muddles of recent days, it would have been far worse.”

With respect, Lord Tebbit, Mr Miliband didn’t have to – you did it yourself.

And with friends like these, Cameron doesn’t need enemies. The Nasty Party’s reputation for back-stabbing is well-deserved.

Mitchell resigns, Osborne in trouble… Fit to rule?

On the day Andrew Mitchell finally resigned as Chief Whip after the now-notorious ‘Gate-gate’ incident, George Osborne (the Chancer of the Exchequer) has been found fare-dodging on a train (he was sitting in First Class but had only a standard ticket).

Meanwhile, the man who disrupted the Oxford/Cambridge boat race by swimming in the Thames while it was taking place has received a six-month prison sentence, raising questions about the disparity between punishments for MPs and those for other UK citizens.

Perhaps it really is time for MPs to have some of their own medicine. We’ve had “We’re all in it together” thrust down our throats for two years, now – isn’t it time members of the government took an Atos-style assessment to see whether they’re fit to govern?

Personally, I think the demarcation point suggested by the cartoon is unfair and that they should all be placed in the “sub-normal” category (when I was typing this, my fingers automatically tried to type “sub-moral”. Draw your own conclusion). However, this is an Atos assessment regime, so fairness has nothing to do with it!