10 February (Part 2) - Gareth Bacon’s grand plan. Bridges and phones both go down the tube
How
many forms of publicly supported transport do we have in this neck of the woods?
Buses, trains, Underground, Overground, ferries, river boats, bridges, tunnels,
Light Railway, Crossrail, trams, cable cars? London has them all. Bexley has
just two and a council that does it best to
deprive us of more.
But don’t run away with the idea that Bexley councillors are stuck in the Dark
Ages and none looks to the future. We have one, at least, with a foot in both
camps, a finger in every pie, a snout in every trough.
Fewer than two weeks ago councillor Gareth Bacon was seen
telling mayor Boris Johnson how
Bexley residents must not be given access to something that might improve their
job prospects and now he is proclaiming that the rest of London must be allowed
to join the technology rat race or suffer the consequences. He wants
mobile
telephone coverage to be extended (PDF download) to the London Underground and he is dead
right. London cannot afford to be left behind in the field of communications any
more than Bexley can afford to be the only borough with no Underground, no DLR, no Crossrail, no bridges etc.
I gave up on mobile phones after carrying one like this up
until about 1988 and have been a bit of a Luddite about them ever since;
regarding them as a mixed blessing. However I was glad of the entertainment
during a recent train journey from Greenwich to Abbey Wood provided by a loud
and foul mouthed young woman carrying a two year old child. Mother was screaming
down the line at its father. How he seduced her, impregnated her, beat her, deserted
her and now wanted to make amends for his sins. No way! She hoped his wotsit would rot and
drop off. She had changed her address and he wasn’t to try to contact her again
- ever! All liberally peppered with expletives. Let’s hope she never has reason to
ask Bexley council a question.