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News and Comment November 2022

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9 November - A bit of a let down. I should have known better

WebcastBexley 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.

 

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