Dealing with the Cambridge Busway Overspend
The long-running saga of the Cambridge Busway seems no nearer a conclusion, with no opening date announced.
But today the Cambridge News claims that a million pounds of taxpayers’ money could be spent on the busway.
Taxpayers’ money could be used to cover an overspend on the guided busway.
Cambridgeshire County Council has set aside £1 million of funding for local transport and community safety projects in a contingency fund.
Opposition Liberal Democrats say the cash is being set aside for the guided busway but the Conservative- run council has said the funding cuts are “not related specifically” to the project, although if developer contributions fall short, it could be.
Projects affected by the reductions for 2010/11 include safety schemes cut from £1 million to £800,000, the Cambridge Access Strategy cut from £600,000 to £447,000, community transport cut from £200,000 to £50,000, Market Town Strategy schemes cut from £1,575,000 to £1.4 million, and local bus infrastructure in Cambridge and Huntingdon cut from £975,000 to £680,000.
It looks like the busway may be on the point of being like an out-of-control bull in a china shop.
The Cost of the Death Penalty
I have an axe to grind over capital punishment, in that I think it’s wrong. Well not just wrong, very very wrong.
My main reason is that by taking someone’s life in retribution for something they have done, is just stooping to their level. We should be more humane than that. After all, dictators like Hitler were all for capital punishment, so that’s a pretty good reason too. And what happens with a miscarriage of justice.
But Parade Magazine in the United States has just published an article with a poll about the Death Penalty. One of the arguments in the article is that the death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. It is also a bit more convenient, if the judgement was wrong in the first place.
So vote early, often and many times.
The Iraq Inquiry
I can’t see the point to the Iraq Inquiry.
Never has so much hot air and money been wasted on so much to generate so little. Well possibly the Inquiry into Bloody Sunday has wasted a lot more and all of the money wasted would have far better been spent on the victims.
But that is only the start to this pointless inquiry, which will not find anybody guilty and never get anywhere near the truth. Probably, in my view, because the truth isn’t actually written down and it is much more a cock-up by lightweight incompetents, rather than any conspiracy.
You have to ask why Tony Blair was the politician and his wife was the lawyer. Perhaps she had the brains to earn the money and he had the style to convince the average man in the street. Could he convince the average judge and jury? He gave up the Bar too soon for anybody to find out.
But what really gets me about the Iraq Inquiry is that the best daytime radio programme of the week, the Mayo/Kermode film review has been cancelled.
Shame on the BBC for giving us endless drivel instead of entertainment. I doubt more than a dozen people outside the Westminster circle are listening. And that is the problem with British politics. It’s them in control and us what pays for it!
Going Down?
The latest in the Portsmouth saga seems to make matters worse. According to the BBC, Peter Storrie and Avram Grant are not happy that players have been sold behind their backs.
I just think that Pompey are now at the end of the road. They face a winding up petition in the Courts on February 10th and I suspect that unless serious money turns up, they will end up in administration at best.
The point that no-one seems to say is that Pompey are favourites to go down and so the owners will lose a lot of money anyway. So would you put any more money into this type of sinking ship? Perhaps if you were a fool with money to burn. But no-one is that stupid are they? I suppose they could be if they bought a football club in the first place!
So it looks like there’ll be an extra place in Division 2 next year.
Will that be AFC Wimbledon? Now there’s a resurrection for you.
Fined for Blowing his Nose
Michael Mancini has just been fined £60 and given penalty points on his licence for blowing his nose whilst driving. He was actually stationary at the time with the handbrake on and the car in neutral. Here’s what The Times says about it.
You can understand why the police are getting a bad name.
But it does seem according to The Times, that the policeman involved has form.
PC Gray earned notoriety for doling out a £50 fine to Stewart Smith, another Ayr man, who dropped a £10 note from his back pocket. Mr Smith was charged with littering.
I would suggest that PC Gray needs to be put on latrine duty or whatever the police equivalent of that is. The officer is a laughing stock.
A Scattering
I’ve never been a great one for poetry, although at school my poetry was better than me prose. But that didn’t mean much.
But I was pleased to see that the Costa Prize has been won by Christopher Reid for his book, A Scattering
It is about the death of his wife, the actress Lucinda Gane.
I heard part of it being read on Radio 5 and I was moved.
It is actually refreshing that a book about such a dark and often untalked about subject should with a prize. Things like this will make life for those left behind easier in some cases.
The Anonymous Widower 