I have described myself in the past as a critical friend of the BBC. I find it really very annoying when Auntie Beeb can’t be bothered to do its research. Indeed, the BBC News website says that Ken, should he be re-elected, will not be ordering any new bendy buses. That much is true; what is manifestly false is that he has not announced this recently. The Beeb says that
The mayor of London has revealed that he will not be ordering any further fleets of bendy buses. Ken Livingstone said they were only introduced for a small number of routes and there were no plans to put more on the roads.
which manifestly ignores the many statements from Ken about having introduced bendy buses on a few routes where they were appropriate. To say that new bendy bus routes were ever planned is, frankly, wrong on a simple point of fact. I admit here to a bias. My balance is bad – clinically bad – and I find it difficult to use the upstairs on buses. Not impossible, but difficult. On the Routemasters, it was impossible; the advantage of having modern double-deckers is that everyone can use them, even if their mobility is particularly restricted.
As the BBC doesn’t seem to want to report it, I will. Boris Johnson’s transport policy has two holes in it. One totals £20m – that’s twenty million pounds – while the other comes in at a remarkable £100m – that’s one hundred million pounds. This doesn’t come from Ken’s campaign, but from independent parties. There is a great, big hole in one of the candidates’ accounting that said candidate has simply failed to explain. That is the same candidate who, when talking about educating his children in state schools, said
because we live in Islington, I extracted them
which, if nothing else, is an almighty insult to a teachers in Islington.
One of the Mayor’s duties is promoting London overseas as a place for investment. I do not think that someone who wanders in with such clumsy offensiveness is necessarily the person that we would want promoting London abroad; Boris is far too likely to cause a diplomatic incident, with the result for London being lost investment.
xD.
Maybe I’m being daft, but I can’t see where the BBC’s article has got anything wrong.
The quote you show seems to say exactly the same as what you say.
Why is The Beeb saying “he will not be ordering any further fleets of bendy buses… they were only introduced for a small number of routes and there were no plans to put more on the roads.”
any different from your point: “(there are) many statements from Ken about having introduced bendy buses on a few routes where they were appropriate.”
You said, “To say that new bendy bus routes were ever planned is, frankly, wrong on a simple point of fact”, but the BBC didn’t say he was going to introduce more Bendy bus routes. Did it?
Am I missing something?
xx
Hey my love,
The key word is ‘revealed’
“The mayor of London has revealed that he will not be ordering any further fleets of bendy buses.”
I take that to mean that the Mayor of London has just or recently made the announcement when it has been policy for some time. As it’s from a news service, I make the assumption that anything reported (other than in a comment piece) is novel unless specifically stated otherwise as background.
xD.
Ah.
“what is manifestly false is that he has not announced this recently.”
I couldn’t decide whether you meant that he had or hadn’t announced it recently. I can’t do double negatives. In my mind it says “it is false that he hasn’t announced it” therefore, “it is fact that he has announced it”.
Too confusing by far, and anyway, shouldn’t you be working and not blogging??
xxx
I am sure that you would not disagree with me that suboptimal blogging can be caused by a lack of time!
I know I tend to be a bit Victorian in my diction. I blame being brought up in a country that speaks a Romance language.