Why is that bizarre.Livingstone and the TFL are joined at the hip.TFL are funded by Livingstone and are the mouthpiece for his transport dreams.

Make your point and keep your rusty old daggers sheathed.

Wrong Joaniecrumpet.

Most of the BBC London staff will either be redeployed in London, given redundency, or will find new jobs.Most of the new jobs created by the BBC in Manchester will be filled by current residents of the North West and surrounding areas.

My Brother works for a bank in the city.Last year the staff were informed that the banks headquarters would be rellocated to Chertsey in Surrey.All 200 staff were given the option of moving to the Chertsey HQ on the same money and job title,voluntary redundency,or rellocate to a different branch of the bank in Canary wharf (this move would entail an average of £1500 wage cut because of a different wage structure).

Only 12 people opted to rellocate out of London.96 people took volluntary dedudency,and 92 opted to take a wage cut in order to stay working in London (thus avoiding the extra travel costs of commuting to Surrey each day,or uprooting the family from their current homes.

You can't bring in laws and policies to force people out of curtain areas,just as you can't force people out of their prefured mode of transport.

SO.  A weekly Oyster card for zones 1-3 is £25.  That's 5 pounds a day if you travel five days, which is my usual practice.  They do not offer a Mon-Fri travelcard at a reduced price. Go figure. 

64% want more bus lanes ???   What did transport 2000 do ? Interview people in bus queues.   I don't suppose they stopped cars and asked the drivers the same question

If you are questioning perdestrians and public transport users and asking questions in a certain way, of course you are going to get the answers you want.Ask people the same question at supermarkets/DIY stores or at football matches..ect.You'll be lucky to get 6.4% agreeing let alone 64%.

I wasn't talking about relocating to Surrey. That's just greater London. I think industry ought to be dispersed rather wider - there's life beyond the southeast.

Future BBC jobs wll be advertised in both London and Manchester - and if potential employees wish to avoid the costs and stresses of London life, they will now have a choice. That wasn't the case before. more people will be attracted to the burgeoning media industry in the north. One could foresee such a strategy attracting more people to different regions, making regional economies more buoyant and dispersing political, cultural and media power and representation more equally throughout the country.

You can't bring in policies to force people out of places  - but you can make it easier for them to choose another option, and give them real incentives for doing so. But that's impossible if whole industries are based in the southeast.

But isn't all of this shinannigans with moving parts of the BBC and other production companies around just away for the big players to steal what little work is farmed out to the indies in the provinces?

There is legislation laid down that states that 10% of all commissioned broadcast television must be produced by companies and production offices outside of central London - which is why Tiger Aspect moved just outside the exclusion zone, and therefore kept their highly lucrative broadcast contracts.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, I'm WAAAAAY off topic, but had to add my ha'penny... 

do you not leave your local environment at weekends, Mata?

i use the fact that i've bought a 7 day pass as an excuse to go see different parts of the City!

I've changed my mind about this one.  So y'all will never get to see what I wrote.  Although I think Leontien might have before I deleted it....

that's quite an achievement there KLF, you haven't managed to find any evidence that disputes the research.

It's simply not good enough to make an assumption that they must have interviewed the wrong people.

I wasn't talking about relocating to Surrey. That's just greater London. I think industry ought to be dispersed rather wider - there's life beyond the southeast.

Future BBC jobs wll be advertised in both London and Manchester - and if potential employees wish to avoid the costs and stresses of London life, they will now have a choice. That wasn't the case before. more people will be attracted to the burgeoning media industry in the north. One could foresee such a strategy attracting more people to different regions, making regional economies more buoyant and dispersing political, cultural and media power and representation more equally throughout the country.

You can't bring in policies to force people out of places  - but you can make it easier for them to choose another option, and give them real incentives for doing so. But that's impossible if whole industries are based in the southeast.

If you send companies and businesses up north,Southerners will never follow the jobs because there are always plenty more jobs available or new ones will be created in place of the companies that move out.When the BBC headquaters closes down in London,do you think that site will remain empty? NO, New companies and businesses will take over the site with just as many people working there as before

but it won't pursuade Londoners/southerners to follow the companies that move out.

you will not reduce the number of people working in the Capital.

ps can anyone tell me which stations don't have the oyster card thingys?

ps can anyone tell me which stations don't have the oyster card thingys?

maybe, but you said
and in response to
that's speculation, as is my reply;

it might, especially if somewhere like a callcentre or homogenised retail outlet took the place of a 'skilled' organisation - whereby the replacement would be looking to employ (barely) minumum wage staff, then people who are looking for work but live in the area might find employment.

Lots of train stations don't.  Tulse Hill, West Dulwich, West Norwood, Herne Hill -- none of them have oyster card readers, and Tulse Hill, West Dulwich and West Norwood will not update your oyster card.  Tulse Hill station has a sign up that says Oyster cards 'are not valid' from that station, which surely is bogus, as the cards are valid in all stations within whichever zones you pay for.  What it really means is, since they will not buy the equipment that reads the cards, they'll not accept them.  If it ever becomes an issue, I plan to sue.  Just for the sheer, unadulterated hell of it.

Its impractical and unworkable to try to pursuade big business to leave London.

increase its prophets by relocating, it'll move heaven and earth

You'd have thought so, but the instance a company realises it can serioulsy increase its prophets by relocating, it'll move heaven and earth, why do you think so many large companies have callcenters based in Asia?

Mata, your statements are more a reflection of the weak dollar compared to the pound than they are about the cost of transport in London. You know that perfectly well. Frankly, for a huge city I think the public transport system is a bargain.

And I really don't think you are seriously saying that the reason a cleaner can barely afford to live in the city is b/c of Ken Livingstone?

I don't care what one Holocaust survivor said. I'm sorry she was offended, but people get offended. If you try to never offend anyone, you will fail. And rightly so.

I still love Ken. He shows he is able to think about something other than things that are strictly black and white. The world isn't that way--it's made of shades of gray, in spite of what political discourse seems to try to say these days, not to mention most peoples' pathetic attempts at "discourse." According to a BBC poll, support for Ken re: not apologizing was running at approx 67%.  They're all anti-semites? Get real.

But then again, I can't criticize Israel's politics b/c if I do that means I'm antisemitic. Apparently Isreal is the one country in the world that can do no wrong, whatever it does. Neat trick.

PS--apparently there are empty buses all over London, Nevs? I'm off to London tomorrow. This must be a new development since all the other times I've been there. I'm eagerly looking forward to getting on a not completely packed full bus for once--it'll be a first!

Are they NHS doctors? Because, well, a couple of days ago NHS doctors were saints (according to the very same people on this Forum), doing an angel's job who had to be protected at all costs. Now apparently, they're wealthy bastards who don't know what it's like to work hard.

Sorry, I'm just getting a little confused.  If somebody could straighten that out for me I'd appreciate it.

Sarah Lady?  Any comments?

*Ahem*