THE LONDON Regional Transport Bill is being rushed through Parliament well in advance of the final onslaught on the GL.C. By the end of 1984 London Transport may be controlled by its enemies.
do with London Transport when the Tories get control of it. Certainly they will increase fares, cut staff levels and reduce services, but nobody can be sure how far they will go, or how soon.
Official government advice to London port is that the subsidy for 1984 should £125 million, which •Д. £100 million less than the GLC plans to provide. The difterence is so big that it 1s hard SCe the get away with following their Even with savage cuts in services and jobs, there would have to be a 40 per cent rise in fares and the abolition of pensioners' passes for the government guidelines on spending to be met. In the short term this would ne pontical madness for the government, especially would still be in the throes of a fight against the campaign to save the GLC Nevertheless, these are the sort policies the Tories are committed to. These attacks on the public transport service its workforce will go hand in hand with the introduction of private business and the break up. of London Transport into a series of subsidiaries. London Regional Transport - the proposed have the power to make grants of loans to firms taking over parts of LT. It is not enough to hand over public services to protitmaking concerns, the government 1s even going to pay them to make a profi. Privatisation can take various forms, the most obvious being 380troduction of private minibuses on the 'cream' routes. To fight off the As yet the government hasn't decided what it will competition, London Regional Transport will have to concentrate its Serve the opular routes — especia r as LRT itself will be ru along business lines. The residents of outlying areas can easily be guessed.
There will be private investment in parts of the system. There are already reports of merchant bankers lining up to pụt Victoria IlLe and Piccadilly lines. vestors will profit from the most popular parts of the Underground, leaving the ratepayer holding the letHow far this process will go is open to speculation at the moment. It will depend on successful the unions and the Labour Partv are in leading a campaign to defend London's • transpoll systch. were not prepared to be extrom tion in the House of ComIt was we in the labour movement, whose history is rooted in the Chartists and Suffragettes campaigned for the wine vole or men are worer we only achieved votes for evervone. and women at 18 as recently as 1970.
But having said all draw limitations that are placed on members of parliament when they try to do their work Then we at the difficulties faced by the parliamentary Party, particularly when › THE Labour is in power. We looks at the mass media, the role that it performs, and then make a number of recommendations conclusions, for improvements.
There about gest that the life of parlia should be reduced from five years to four. We say that the parliamensulted when Labour is in power and before Labour governments reach deci SON.
We call for more rational hours of sitting and proper facilities for members of Parliament say e maying