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In lugnet.loc.uk, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
>
> I wonder how long it will take the GLA to fix *that*. And has
> PPP been tanked yet?!? I hope so. Britain doesn't need another
> Railtrack running the Underground.
>
> best
>
> LFB
Lindsay
As you may know I work for Ken Livingstone indirectly, in Transport for
London, so I can answer these two questions (the Underground one perhaps in
more detail than you may need!)
1 - Sunday trading: The Mayor and London Assembly don't have the power to
alter the law as they cannot introduce anything which overrules
Parliamentary legislation. Legally this is because the GLA is established
under an Act and is therefore subordinate to Parliament in any area in which
it has not been given specific devolved powers. Practically this is because
the UK is one of the most centralised democracies there is. I think this is
a bad thing and it rankles that such a good multi-tiered system was devised
by people who were culturally British and then only implemented where they
lived and not over here! I'd love to discuss this a little as I have read
a great book by Johnathan Freedland of the Guardian newspaper called 'Bring
Home the Revolution' which advocates us moving to a system like the US'.
When I lived in California I was amazed to discover the whole system of
Propositions and Measures. That sounded like real democracy to me.
2. PPP: As you may have read Bob and Ken's court case was thrown out. PPP
is still on track ('scuse the pun). This revolves around the same issue.
We argued that PPP would prevent us from having management control of London
Underground (LUL) and this would put Ken in conflict with his duty under the
GLA Act. The judge ruled, and I don't think anyone who understands our
system surprised, that Government can tell him exactly what he can do. This
was a small (tiny) victory for Ken and Bob as we can now say 'not our fault,
we said this would happen' if LUL continues to underperform and 'look how
we've sorted it out' if PPP works.
One last light at the end of the tunnel (there I go again!) is that last
year John Prescott said the PPP would need to pass a 'public sector
comparator' test to ensure it was value for money. TfL have recently won a
case to force London Transport (which still exists as the Board for LUL) to
publish a report by Parsons Brinckerhoff that Bob commissioned during his
brief time as LT Chairman prior to the election. This report says the PPP
is clearly not good value.
I hold little hope though and since I work in TfL Rail Services and we are
going to have to sort this sorry mess out eventually I am extremely
irritated by the Government's intransigence.
Psi
FUT o-t.debate
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