9 November - A bit of a let down. I should have known better
Bexley Labour tweeted on Monday that last night’s Transport Users’
Sub-Committee Group meeting was going to be webcast. It isn’ְt usually but Southeastern’s decision to
slash Bexley’s train services and cut off as many commuters as possible from the
benefits of the Elizabeth line must be among the top aggravations currently faced by residents right now.
I thought Bexley Council must have recognised that fact and indulged in an extension
of democracy by deciding to let everyone know what they might be doing about the impeding problem
behind the scenes. News of the webcast persuaded me to do my usual Tuesday thing and drive
21 miles to a pub quiz. I managed it in a mere hour and 41 minutes. (I have known worse, but not often.)
When will I ever learn that tales of enlightened democracy in Bexley are always
likely to be false? The meeting is not in the webcast archive and I suspect it
never was programmed for broadcast to the plebs. It is scant consolation that
my quiz team won by a margin of eleven points and is £76 richer.
So no meeting report but on a transport related note I managed to find
the new Elizabeth line timetable. The last train, Monday to Saturday, to
Abbey Wood leaves Paddington at 23:59 and Liverpool Street at 00:10 getting
into Abbey Wood at 28 minutes past midnight; hugely better than only a week ago. Sunday is 75 minutes earlier.
What else has trickled through to me recently? A couple of Belvedere things. New
EV charging points in the Nuxley Road car park were reported but the potential user
was somewhat miffed at finding no public toilets nearby to use while
waiting for his car to receive an expensive charge. Is the one at the Splash
Park half a mile away still open?
My own drift towards possibly cheaper electricity went sadly awry a week ago
when one battery was found to be completely dead on arrival and a second one
decided to take up smoking. Fortunately it was the supplier’s electrician that
checked out my wiring and switched on for the first time. Hyundai told me 19 months ago that my car battery
could go up in flames at any time and they would urgently replace it. They haven’t and
it hasn’t - so far. Petrol may be less dangerous.
What else? Someone told me that he has it in writing from his MP Louie French
that he is in favour of retaining the pensioners’ triple lock. I wonder what he
thinks about his new boss. I have yet to see him do anything I regard as
sensible apart from, arguably, accepting the resignation of the incompetent Gavin Williamson.
Incompetence is a sackable offence, possessing a potty mouth maybe not.
How many would be left?
What an appalling mess we are in.