Wednesday, May 13, 2009

KHOODEELAAR! evidential updater supporting the arguments by Simon Jenkins against Crossrail ['EVENING STANDARD' 28 April 2009]

1605 Hrs GMT London Wednesday 13 May 2009:

KHOODEELAAR! is republishing the comments by Simon Jenkins, originally published on 28 April 2009, in which he advises Boris Johnson to 'Kill Crossrail'...

KHOODEELAAR! is not approving of many of Simoin Jenkins’ views on all sorts of items.. But we are able to confirm that where the evidence supports his arguments and coincides with our own finding, we have not only no hesitation in saying that we agree with him but we are also prepared to advance the line that Jenkins has done in the particular piece [ and as published by the London EVENING STANDARD] . We do so for the interests of the London public. And London society and for the economic and the environmental and social well being of London. And for those of the people of the inner city East End of London. It is of course initially in defence of the East End of London that Khoodeelaar! campaign against Crossrail hole scam began on 31 January 2004


[To be continued]


"

Crossrail will eat money. Kill it, Boris, and save the bankrupt Tube instead
Simon Jenkins
28.04.09

Kill Crossrail. Kill it now. Offer it up as London's gift to public sector sanity, while there is still time to avoid millions of pounds climbing into billions on a project that London does not need. What London needs is a fully working, modernised Tube. So kill Crossrail to save the Tube.

Crossrail, with a completely new rail tunnel from Paddington to Liverpool Street, has few friends. It has been stopped and restarted too many times to count over the past quarter-century. When Gordon Brown said in 2007 that "it will definitely proceed", sceptics sensed the cold hand of death grip its throat.

When Whitehall set out a tripartite funding package for the line in 2008, the caveats and qualifications grew in number. In an interview in February the transport minister, Lord Adonis, warned the world that, if Londoners do not raise their two-thirds share, "the Mayor understands that Crossrail will collapse ... ".

Mention Crossrail to Boris Johnson and his normally open, cheerful visage changes to that of a parent just told his kids are on drugs. He starts to shake. When reminded that he once said Crossrail was "one of those times you have to say, get in that hole and keep digging" the look becomes a rictus.

At a farewell dinner at City Hall earlier this month, the outgoing head of Transport for London, Tim O'Toole, hinted at his known private view that Crossrail is capital madness. He pleaded with his colleagues to fight instead for the existing Tube, now teetering on the brink of insolvency. TfL executives know that continuing with Crossrail will eat money and distract management for a decade.

It would yield nothing but bad news stories, while severely disrupting traffic in central London just when it will be recovering from the water mains chaos. Test drilling is already upheaving St Giles.

Crossrail is no longer a railway that makes sense. Back in the Eighties it was way behind the Jubilee line and the then (and now) top priority, a new northeast/southwest line from Hackney to Chelsea and beyond. Lines were needed to fill the Tube-less no-man's-lands of Greenwich and Chelsea/Fulham.

It took Margaret Thatcher to force through the Jubilee line to help the Reichman brothers build Canary Wharf. Chelsea/Hackney has no such power backers.

This project's only real friends have been in the City, eager to fend off the "threat" from Docklands and garner the bulk of the 900,000 extra office jobs predicted for London a decade ago. Nobody expects that need now. The Central line's parallel capacity can easily be increased by station improvements and better management.

Crossrail's backers have duly fallen back on that catch-all for any extravagant project, "urban regeneration". But that involves taking the line far out to the east, at further cost. For all the efforts of consultants to prove otherwise, this line is neither profitable nor a priority for economic renewal.

Boris Johnson now has a golden chance. He knows the capital must tighten its belt somehow - especially after he failed to curb the gargantuan appetite of the Olympics (costing more than half the £16billion total for Crossrail).

Johnson has already had to end his predecessor's costly fantasies, the Thames Gateway bridge, the Cross-river tram and the Dagenham light railway extension.

The Government has offered £5.6billion to the Crossrail budget. The rest must come from a raised London business rate (£3.5billion), borrowing against so-called train access charges (£2.3billion) and £2.7billion from TfL, this time borrowing against future fares.

Given the recent history of Tube finances, these figures are wholly unreal. TfL is close to technical bankruptcy. Borrowing against future revenue is mad, especially when it has already been assigned to meet Crossrail's running costs. Has London learned nothing about dodgy accounting from the past five years of such projects?

Meanwhile the City Corporation is offering a meagre £200million, on top of which is budgeted £150million from City businesses and, once upon a time, £230million from the airports authority, BAA. Lord Adonis claims this amounts to a further £750million, which is inconceivable. The truth is that Crossrail is another financial pig in a poke.

The Government has already poured £2billion in extra guilt money into the Tube to finance its public-private partnership (PPP), the sunk cost of this now largely aborted scheme. No minister or official has ever taken responsibility for it - indeed the official, Shriti Vadera, has been rewarded with both a peerage and a ministry.

In addition, the Government has pledged a huge £39billion to TfL over the next decade, a sum higher than anything conceived during nationalisation. This, it says, will have to embrace the completion of the PPP scheme and Crossrail. But the latter is not formally ring-fenced.

This is the Mayor's great opportunity. He has a £1.4billion hole in his transport budget already and must somehow fund £3billion of debt left over from the Treasury's collapsed Metronet infrastructure company.

Adonis said last November that there was no way he would plug this hole, despite it being one of the Government's own creation. He could hardly have given a more direct indication of his willingness to see Crossrail crash.

Johnson could now argue that the £5.6billion for Crossrail be switched to other Tube projects, such as resignalling the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines and replacing Metropolitan line stock, projects that may anyway have to be postponed to meet the cost of Crossrail. Cancelling the latter would relieve the Tube budget of a tidal wave of uncertain costs now advancing down the track.

This would enable Johnson to declare himself the saviour of London's Underground railway, after a decade of mismanagement and financial chaos.

By liberating himself from Crossrail and demanding that London be allowed to keep its transport grant, he could begin to reconstruct TfL's finances and meet its voracious appetite for new signals, stations and rolling stock. He could declare a clean slate.

Johnson need not fear the Government on this: if ministers wanted Crossrail they would have paid for it. He need not fear the City.

He can use the recession as an excuse to put this white elephant to sleep while garnering the popularity of restoring London's transport system to sanity. But first he must kill Crossrail.
"




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    KHOODEELAAR! evidential commentary exposing the latest crass role by Bloomberg for Big Business Crossrail scam

    1520 [1515] [1448] Hrs GMT London Wednesday 13 May 2009: KHOODEELAAR! telling you again, that USA Big Business peddling propaganda outlet Bloomberg is a lying outfit that has peddled the ‘case’ for a London Crassrail against all evidence and rationality and reason. As a dedicated tout for Big Business Crassrail the London-based Bl;Bloomberg liar Brian Lie-said [Lysaght] does it again today [Wednesday 13 May 2009] .....The headline in the Bloomberg [web site] brazenness exposed in its latest peddling for London CRASArail [set and lobbyed for and promoted via a touted UK 'Parliament' by the USA Military industrial Complex active partner Bechtel] is not matched by the contents. That is quite central. For their headline is about Boris making what reads like a Manifesto pledge on behalf of the Parliamentary Conservative Party. Even the clueless Boris Johnson is unable to say anything as insane as Brian Lie-Said's headline suggests Boris to be saying and would need Boris Johnson to say ..... Boris Johnson has no more clout than the bone-headed begetters of 'good news' who were forced to abandon pursuit of 'gold' [as linked to ‘CRossrail’ by the lying Ken Livingstone and his hirers from the City of London Big Business interests who over-hype without any evidence, and say that Crossrail contains mysterious golden prospects for the economy... thus showing that they are not only liars but that they are in true incontestably clinical way quite insane... Every single indicator of capitalist economic performance shows that the UK economy is going down.. We, the KHOODEELAAR! campaign against the “Big Business crassrail agenda and the London Crassrail scam” have diagnosed this from the start of the Campaign in January 2004. We have been publishing daily our continuing findings for 5 years and 5 months NOW .. How many MORE years do THEY need to catch up?? With the facts?] This week’s admission by the otherwise Big Business-servile, Big Business-controlled ‘mainstream media outlets that real human bones with almost certain lethal threats to local London's ecology, environment appeared in Islington in the past seven days thus forcing the stopping of particular Crossrail linked digging activities... shows just how unreal Bloom berg is and how fictitious the entire propaganda for Crossrail has been ...[To be continued]

    _____________


    By Brian Lysaght

    May 13 (Bloomberg) -- London Mayor Boris Johnson said he’s hopeful that a Conservative government would continue funding for the city’s largest single construction project, a 16 billion-pound ($24 billion) train line called Crossrail.

    “The Tories are going be good” about Crossrail, Johnson said in an interview today. “There are ongoing discussions, but I’m very hopeful that any government will recognize the absolutely vital role played by London transport infrastructure.”

    The London Evening Standard newspaper said last week that a Conservative government under David Cameron may scrap the project to save money during the country’s worst recession since World War II. The project was delayed under the Conservative government of former Prime Minister John Major in the 1990s.

    The mayor, a Conservative former member of Parliament, was elected in May last year after defeating two-term incumbent Ken Livingstone, a member of current U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party.

    Crossrail will connect Heathrow Airport with the West End and Canary Wharf office development starting in 2017 and help to boost capacity on the city’s aging London Underground. Brown’s government gave Crossrail the go-ahead last year.

    The city will hold a ceremony on May 15 to mark the start of construction of the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf. Demolition of buildings in the Tottenham Court Road area of central London as part of the project begins next week, while construction of the tunnels beneath the city through which the trains will run is scheduled to begin next year.

    Election in 2010

    Brown must call an election by the summer of 2010, and the Labour Party is currently trailing the Conservatives in opinion polls. A spokesman for the Conservatives on transport issues didn’t return phone calls. Johnson, who has criticized Brown’s government over plans to increase income taxes on the wealthy, is allied with the prime minister on Crossrail.

    “A lot of this job is making the case to government for investment in infrastructure in London,” Johnson said. “I believe it’s an overwhelming case and one you can’t ignore. If you want to drive the U.K. forward, you have to invest in London.”

    To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Lysaght in London at blysaght@bloomberg.net.




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      KHOODEELAAR! told you so! The CROSSRAIL AGENDA is inherently prejudiced, biased against the inner city areas. As an ex-OFSTED man confesses to...

      From the DAILY MAIL web site: London Wednesday 13 May 2009


      "
      Middle-class children have better genes, says former schools chief... and we just have to accept it
      By LAURA CLARK
      Last updated at 12:10 AM on 13th May 2009

      Comments (15)
      Add to My Stories
      Middle-class children are more likely to be clever than those from poorer families because they have 'better genes', former Ofsted chief Chris Woodhead said yesterday.

      The comments caused an immediate storm, with critics calling them insulting and 'crazy'.

      However, Mr Woodhead won support in some quarters - including the backing of an evolutionary psychologist, who said research had shown there was a link between class and average IQ.


      Ex-chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead believes middle-class children are, in general, 'born with better genes'

      Mr Woodhead called for a return to selection by ability at 11.

      He suggested that grammar school pupils were more likely to be middle-class because 'the genes are likely to be better if your parents are teachers, academics, lawyers, whatever, and the nurture is likely to be better'.

      In an interview with the Guardian, he argued that Labour had betrayed a generation by refusing to accept that some children were not suited to formal secondary education.


      More...
      Anger as pigs raised 'as pets' by primary school children are turned into sausages and sold to parents
      14 pupils injured after heating duct collapses on top of them during exam
      Pupils behaving badly: Hull tops Ofsted list with the 'worst school discipline' in the country
      The Government had tried to make education 'accessible' rather than ' rigorous', he said.

      Ministers should accept that some youngsters are simply born 'not very bright' and allow them to pursue practical training instead of forcing them into the classroom.

      'I've taught, and I can still remember trying to interest children who had no interest whatsoever in English,' he said. 'They didn't want to be in the classroom.

      'If I'm honest I didn't want them to be there either - because they were disruptive to children who did want to learn. What was the point?'
      But political scientist Alan Ryan, who is the warden of New College, Oxford, criticised Mr Woodhead's views on genes as 'garbage'.

      'All the evidence is that initial genetic endowment is pretty much random across social classes, and everything depends on a nurturing environment,' he said.

      'The idea that you look for some genetic underpinning to go with it seems crazy.'

      The Department for Children, Schools and Families also rejected Mr Woodhead's arguments. 'We do not accept the inevitability of pupils' socio-economic backgrounds shaping their attainment and their futures,' a spokesman said.

      However, there was support from Dr Bruce Charlton, an expert in evolutionary psychiatry from Newcastle University.

      'Chris Woodhead is basically correct, and there's nothing new about it,' he said.

      Dr Charlton insisted that intelligence was 'mostly inherited', adding that family background and education 'probably makes a small difference but nothing like as much as people think'.


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      Add your comments Comments (15)
      Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards.


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      What a load of rubbish. I passed my 11 plus and went to Grammar School and my parents certainly weren't middle class although they may have achieved that 'status' now through sheer hard work!
      - anne, feltham, 12/5/2009 10:09Click to rate Rating 53
      This man is talking a load of rubbish. It is often to do with economy. Poorer families do not have the opportunity to do well. It is much better than in my day children do have a better chance. The better schools are not available for the poorer familes due to "the old boys network". I came from a family where my father died when I was 15 years old and my mother had to work to enable us to eat. I did well because of my chosen profession but the fact that my family were poor did prevent me from doing some things I wanted.
      "its in the genes"---I think not. Its in the economy.
      - Ann, Hartlepool, 12/5/2009 10:05Click to rate Rating 33
      Teachers are middle class? Don't make me laugh. Maybe 40 years ago, but today in modern Britain they are all ineffectual working class oiks.
      - Charles, Uk, 12/5/2009 10:01Click to rate Rating 160
      What a sensible chap.

      People are not equal and never can be. (It is only some MP's that are more equal than others !)
      - Alastair, Swindon, 12/5/2009 09:51Click to rate Rating 389
      What a numpty - they are simply born with more money!!! That allows their parents to buy a better education etc for them! as the public school system is a shambles.
      - Rimmel, Notts UK, 12/5/2009 09:48Click to rate Rating 157
      This guy has a first class degree in idiocy.
      - Ian, Scotland, 12/5/2009 09:46Click to rate Rating 178
      The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do n





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        KHOODEELAAR! No to "Big Business scam Crossrail" is also a daily platform of action against the corruption of 'democracy'. Say No to corrupt MPs!

        0240 Hrs GMT London Wednesday 13 May 2009:

        KHOODEELAAR!
        The Brick Lane, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green 'south' and Stepney London E1 Area Campaign against the “Crossrail hole AGENDA” has been actively opposing the Crossrail hole scam since Saturday 31 January 2004.

        The KHOODEELAAR! No to 'Crossrail scam' campaign and education work has included daily conduct of original research and investigation into the general state of the UK economy and in particular the state of transport and public finance in the UK.

        Khoodeelaar! has published the findings of the research and analysis on the internet and in print.

        And we have correctly anticipated the vindication of our analyses and diagnoses. Such as has also occurred during Tuesday 12 May 2009 when three ministers in the Blaired UK GOVT fronted by Gordon Brown and linked with peddling the Crossrail Scam over the past years have been reported as being among UK MPs facing possible criminal prosecution….

        That shows their lack of judgement. We cannot possibly comment on the detail of the yet-to-be-implemented prosecutions. But WE CAN say that Alistair Darling, Geoff Hoon and Tony McNulty ought not to be trusted at all when it comes to allowing any of their views in peddling Crossrail scam..

        [To be continued]





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          KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! That Crossrail scam -backers Alistar Darling, Geoff Hoon and Tony McNulty had serious flaws and were unreliable

          0215 Hrs GMT London Wednesday 13 May 2009


          KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! That CRASS role-playing CRASSrail-scam-peddling ministers were seriously flawed in their political conduct!

          This [below and linked] article contains the confirmation of the KHOODEELAAR! analysis. The analysis that we have made since February 2005 after Alistair Darling [the Crossrail Bill fronter] [as the UK Transport minister as he was at the time] failed to pay heed to our previous analysis [January 2004 to January 2005] that the Crossrail scam was not justifiable and should not be even instructed into the UK Parliament in any form as a draft piece of legislation.

          We have also reported in the years since about a succession of Crossrail-scam-linked ministers. Including Tony McNulty and Geoff Hoon.

          Hoon is now in the post that Alistair Darling occupied in 2005.

          According to the reports published in London during Tuesday 12 May 2009, there was an administration level confirmation from the London Metropolitan Police that ALL three that is Alistair Darling, Geoff Hoon and Tony McNulty might face criminal prosecution.

          In the case of Tony McNulty the prospect of criminal prosecution has been clearly stated as including action on deception by him.

          Now that is also very ironic.


          For McNulty is a ‘minister’ in the UK Department for Poverty and Deprivation. Department for Work and Pensions is the official title.

          As a minister, McNulty has been vocally engaged in the UK domestic anti-social State-organised propaganda against alleged benefit fraudsters. Mainly people that are pushed into poverty and kept in poverty by the UK state.

          And the allegations of benefit fraud inevitably contains a core element of deception…

          A deception of the public and the community.

          One context in which an additional perpetration of deception of the public and the community has been noticeably in the propaganda roles of the Crossrail scam-imposing agenda couriers has been in the assertion that by imposing a Crossrail hole-scam-Whitechapel Station, they would bring ‘benefits’ to the East End of London.

          ‘Oddly’ but not at all oddly, the East End of London is also the location of TYPICAL inner city deprivation and poverty. And is cited in all the mathematical and statistical samples of contemporary Britain [UK] as a reliable item of evidence in measuring poverty, deprivation and ‘benefit fraud’!

          How the CRASS rail peddling crassly behaving ministers are linked with benefit fraud on the general UK public and against the community in the East End of London

          [To be continued]








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