Fellwanderer

Oh, would you?

Don't assume that everyone who chooses not to drive does so because of sour grapes over an inability to drive.

Hard though you may find it to understand, there are some people who simply choose not to drive - and I'm not one of them.

And with that, I'll bid this pathetic tirade of innuendo and downright lies against Ken Livingstone goodbye.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

Freddy

Norman St. John-Stevas who was Minister of the Arts from 1979-81 tells the story of arriving at No 10 in his ministerial car, going in to be sacked by Mrs. Thatcher and then leaving to find his ministerial car had driven off without him.

Regards

Freddy

Chevyman

You'll probably find them all still hanging about in Terminal Five

Freddy

Totally agree Fell.

I have a driving licence but haven't driven for years. Simply don't like driving.

Steve Crook

Everyone has given you a whole load of evidence that there are no cars and yet you still say "so in other words ken has access to a car"

And as for your other comment about modern cars being clean. They aren't. They're cleaner than they used to be but they're still a long way from being clean.

And finally, there is one very good reason not to drive around in London in any car, whether it's an electric car (as green as you can get but still not very green) or a chauffeur driven limo - and that reason is the traffic. It's much faster to get around London by bus or tube and if you do it outside the rush hour it's a reasonably pleasant experience.

BTW a favourite game amongst Londoners is to look at the idiots who think it's good to drive around London in a stretch limo. Try driving one of those around the little roads in London

I saw one recently doing the old back and forth shuffle to get round some of the smaller squares

Steve

davidb

that would be an in experienced driver in the limo ,how do they get fire engines about ? and if cars arent clean what drives the tube trains ?wind ?,no electricity from a coal driven power station

davidb

another thing about good old ken on the tubes ,you never see him squashed in like a sardine like some of the poor people ive just watched on the tv news ,ken livingstone travelling by public transport for whatever green street cred is as big an illusion as david cameroon riding his bike to work [ lexus close behind ]so there !

CaptainWaggett

How on earth do you know you never see Ken in the rush hour? Do you commute to the GLA building every morning? You've probably never seen me on a tube but I still spend an hour a day underground.

And now I will back out of this discussion and leave those who believe Ken drives through London in a limo while eating toasted baby ocelots to continue.

batman

I think Ken really uses a Star Trek style transporter beam .... all those claims by people who reckon they have seen him in limos or on the tube are wrong .... those were actually MI5 decoys.

"Do you know why fattries are called fattries .... it's because they are big and people make things in them."

Steve Crook

The amount of experience the driver has doesn't matter. A stretch limo won't fit in London's smaller streets. A fire engine gets about because they're not as long as a stretch limo and they're surprisingly maneuverable with a good turning circle.

What counts most when you measure how clean and green any mode of transport is, is the number of people it carries per mile and per ton of effluent. That's why the bus and tube will always win

Steve

Steve Crook

And when's your twelfth birthday going to be?

Steve

davidb

he probably does that whilst setting fire to taxpayers £50 notes as well ,seriously though hes filmed travelling on the tube so it doesnt look so bad when he hikes the congestion charge ,which is only a tax on the poor because if you earned mega money [ which a lot of people in the city do ] youd gladly pay £40 or £50 a week to have more room for your porker [ porsche ]

davidb

next febuary the 29 th ,born in a leap year

samkydd

Not everybody who doesn't drive is so against cars and has such power to penalise drivers. The fact that he doesn't drive puts him at a slight disadvantage when discussing the roads/traffic management strategy for London. He has no frame of reference! He argues for public transport and yet many older city buses chuck out thick black smoke and harmful fumes more so than a street full of cars! Last time I worked in London in the summer of 2003 people were collapsing on the Tube because temperatures were 95 degrees! You're not even allowed to transport animals in such inhumane conditions! Every morning and evening I had to be prepared to run back up to the street level and leg it on foot to catch my main line train because the Tube would have signal failures, maintenance problems, security problems etc time and time again, so my day would start at 5:15 am and some nights I wouldn't get home until 8pm. Once on the main line train it would be no opening windows, broken aircon, and 40mph top speed because the rails had warped in the heat! This is the 21st century, public transport was better in the 19th century!

I think cars in towns and cities are a bloody nuisance but until there is an alternative that can offer cheaper journey running costs than a car, the comfort and reliability of a car, the safety from mindless thugs and muggers, and protection from our unpredictable climate people will always use their cars!

If we all decided to leave them at home for a week the public transport system would fall over in chaos, the economy would suffer from all the lost tax revenue from fuel, revenue from car parks, safety cameras, and lost productivity from people standing around for hours waiting for the overcrowded train or bus that may never arrive!


Was the Dispatches programme about Ken the other week on Channel 4 a pack of lies? If so why hasn't he sued the programme maker?

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Steve Crook

What did it say about his driving?

Steve