The economic outlook is grim, the cost-of-living crisis means we need to maintain our earnings and restaurants and entertaiment venues are struggling to survive. In this situation, Londoners must deal with not one transport strike but three. Yesterday commuters were the targets of RMT strikes which brought rail services to a standstill, as they will again tomorrow. Today, it’s bus and Tube staff who are on strike. People who can walk to work will no doubt do so; those who can’t may work from home. But in case the unions haven’t noticed, not everyone can work from home. NHS workers, small businesses, including restaurants, may not function at all.
As it happens, the strikes are not for identical reasons. Rail unions are striking over pay and management attempts to reform work practices. For Underground workers the concerns are that the new funding deal for TfL — which has not been agreed and the details of which are still not public — from the Government will adversely affect their pensions and work conditions. In both cases, people may feel some sympathy for the workers but the victims are the passengers. It is London’s working population — the engine of the entire UK economy — which bears the brunt of this action.
The unions are showing little regard for the inconvenience to commuters and businesses: the worse the better, from their point of view. But the Government and the Mayor must also take some blame. The Government should accept that the funding offer for TfL, which is taking an inordinate time to be agreed, must be a fair deal for the capital city. The Mayor should reconsider his adversarial approach to the Government and eschew party-political animus. If the unions persist in striking at the worst possible time, they will alienate the millions whose lives they are disrupting.
Oxford Street revamp
The proposal to pedestrianise Oxford Street by the Mayor and the then Tory-run Westminster council was undeniably controversial. Now it has been scrapped by the Labour administration: so no pedestrian piazza, then.
But as Geoff Barraclough, head of planning at Westminster, has made clear, Oxford Street needs rethinking. He wants a new mix of buildings, including cultural venues and entertainment venues as well as shops. He is working with the grain of history: Oxford Street formerly had theatres and a music hall as well as the first department store. Right now, Oxford Street is woefully unglamorous, with dispiriting candy stores and souvenir outlets. Traffic congestion aggravates the problem. This legendary street needs a fresh approach so that it becomes again a destination in its own right.
London’s top marks
This week’s A-level and T-level results were the occasion for celebration or quiet tears for school leavers, but the good news is that London schools performed well, coming second in the country for top grades. The remarkable aspect of this achievement is that it is widely spread, with the good performers including a brilliant comprehensive next to the Grenfell Tower as well as selective schools. Now it’s time the rest of the country caught up with us.
