Will Boris's credit card deal repeat Oyster mistakes?
Boris Johnson thinks it’s “tip top news” – but will his scheme to allow people to use contactless credit cards on buses and Tubes push him into the same trap his predecessor fell into?
It’s been four years since Ken Livingstone backed a deal to allow Barclaycard to embed Oyster chips into their credit cards.
Now the current mayor has announced that Oyster readers will be upgraded to allow all contactless credit cards to be used for travel on Transport for London services – starting with London’s buses, whose ticket machines will be converted by the Olympics.
But London’s mainline rail users are shut out of this deal – just like they were with Oyster when that launched in 2003.
On the National Rail network, only TfL’s own London Overground system will take credit cards. With many Overground stations served by different rail companies, and much of London only reachable by National Rail, the system looks set to cause the same confusion that Oyster did before it finally went London-wide in 2010.
Indeed, after being elected in 2008, Boris used the issue as a stick to beat “zone one mayor” Ken with.
TfL says “discussions are under way” with the National Rail companies who run services in London. But those companies extracted a big price to allow Oyster to be used on their trains, including different fare scales, the notorious extension permit for people travelling out of their zones, as well as making TfL cough up £32m for installing Oyster equipment.
(In the case of Southeastern, that included £447,000 to pay for ticket gates at Lewisham and Waterloo East which are left wide open every evening anyway.)
TfL will be hoping the companies are more willing to take part this time.
Transport watchdog London Travelwatch has noticed the anomaly, calling it “very disappointing”.
“We know only too well the confusion caused for passengers when Oyster was unavailable on rail, and this should not be allowed to happen again,” it said. “London has an integrated transport network, and tickets must be integrated too.”
24 Feb 2011
Beat Connection - Silver Screen
For those who enjoyed the Young Montana remix of this track last week, here’s the video for the single itself, out on Monday.
24 Feb 2011
Five authors with unhealthy obsessions over other authors
Every writer has their heroes. Sometimes the love they feel for their predecessors begets great feats of creativity as they strive to catch and overtake their idols. Other times, it just seems a bit odd. Here are five writers with borderline inappropriate feelings for the kid in the year above.
Hunter S Thompson and F Scott Fitzgerald
We all know Thompson was a bit of a mentalist, but there’s something especially weird about sitting in front of a typewriter copying out an entire book “just to get the feeling of what it was like to write that way.” That’s what he did to the Great Gatsby. Psycho.
David Mitchell and Vladimir Nabokov
“His combination of barbed intelligence and incandescent imagination is pretty humbling. And what a vocabulary! I used to read Nabokov with an X-ray on, trying to map the circuitry of what he was doing and how he was doing it. Lolita is an act of seduction.” Someone’s got quite the crush, haven’t they? Incidentally, if you like books and you don’t know about the Paris Review interview archive, then get over there immediately. It’s a goldmine.
Stephenie Meyer and Jane Austen
Of course she’s a proper author, don’t be such a snob. According to an uncited reference on Wikipedia, the first book in the Twilight series is avowedly emulous of Pride and Prejudice. More definitively, Meyer is on record saying she “can’t go through a year without re-reading Austen’s stuff”. In our book, re-reading anything without at least a five year interval counts as authorial stalking.
Ray Bradbury and Thomas Wolfe
Not Tom Wolfe the white-suited journo-novelist, but Thomas Wolfe the early 20th century American writer. Bradbury reputedly typed out Wolfe “to learn his rhythm” (what is it with this typing out fetish?), and even included his hero as a character in some of his stories. “When you’re nineteen, he opens the doors of the world for you”, he said. Which is sweet.
Pierre Menard and Miguel de Cervantes
The greatest obsessive of them all. Menard recreated Don Quixote in the original Spanish, line by line and word by word. He takes the typing out craziness of Hunter S Thompson and Ray Bradbury and runs with it. He’s an original, a genius, and completely made up. If you haven’t already, read this book.
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24 Feb 2011
London agenda for Thursday 24 February
1. Pick up a free copy of New York’s ‘SUP Magazine at their London launch with Solar Bears, Miracle and Blondes [Le Cool]
2. Hear synth pops from the Video Age with Boycheese [Run Riot]
3. Get a snack at the Blackheath Tea Hut [Tired of London]
4. Experience a curious blend of psychedelic drone rock at the Black Angels [Flavorpill]
5. Spend a minute with sixty comics giving one-minute routines at Comedy Rush [Time Out]
6. Watch Orange Prize winner Andrea Levy, David Levithan and hear music from Eska at Book Slam [Jon Davis]
24 Feb 2011
Only Mountain: The Remixes by Take
Part of the experimental ‘Beat Scene’ emerging from America’s West coast, producer TAKE this week releases a remixed version of his acclaimed 2010 debut, Only Mountain. The record loses none of the eclectic, free-flowing form of the original, described by one gushing LA Weekly writer as “a rolling pot of old school IDM, ‘90s R&B percussive elements, dubstep bass-derived doom and ethereal melodies”. Standout tracks include the Mono/Poly remix of Quartz For Amber and Griffi’s bumpin’ version of Paper Garden. Only Mountain: The Remixes is available now, via Alpha Pup Records. Today’s MPFree is TAKE’s own re-working of album opener Begin End Begin.
Take – Begin End Begin (Take Remix) by snipelondon
Follow Tom Jenkins on Twitter at @TomJenkinsLDN
23 Feb 2011
Libraries aren’t the only way to Lend
You’ll have been hard pressed not to have heard the news and protests about the closure of hundreds of the nation’s libraries. The level of demonstration has perhaps been surprising given the number of us who regularly visit a library, but it’s clear books have become a real political issue. Due to my job I have been a prolific library visitor over the last year and found them to be a fascinating mix of drop in centre, book haven and crèche. The clientele often ranges from those resembling a host of sickly patients from a doctor’s waiting room, middle aged book lovers, and young children. There are also those with unimaginable patience who come to use the Neolithic, glacial paced computers.
23 Feb 2011
Ways Generation X fucked over their kids
It’s already pretty well established that Gen X (and Gen X-and-a-half…basically anyone over 40) have made a right mess of things. Here’s the five most heinous crimes they wrought on their helpless offspring.
The economic swindle
They bought a house for a pittance. Some of them bought two. Now there aren’t any left. Yet mention the Nursing Home Option as a constructive, mutually beneficial way to break this impasse and they start screaming about “filial ingratitude”. Whatever that is. Oh, and they expect their kids to pay for said kids’ education and the parents’ pensions at the same time. Thanks. For. That.
They raised awareness…
…without actually fixing anything. Are you aware of Cancer in all its forms? Are you aware of poverty in the developing world? Are you aware of pretty much every social, medical and cultural problem on the planet? You are? Then why the hell didn’t you do more to fix it? Thanks, parents, for pointing out that the bus was about to drive over the edge of a cliff, and then slamming your foot on the accelerator.
They ruined the planet
I think they know they really dropped the ball on this one, so I’m not going to rub it in.
They killed God…
…and didn’t replace him. The second half of this being the graver sin. I know he was on his way out by the 60s anyway, but still. It’s all very well breaking free from crushing repression and odious hierarchies, but where the hell was the Reconstruction Plan? What happened to all the morality? They did the exact same “destruction without replacement” thing with political certainties in the early 90s, and with the internal systems of Iraq in the 00s. Not learning.
They gave us just enough sense of entitlement and self-pity…
…to ensure that we’re doomed to repeat their mistakes. Great.
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23 Feb 2011
Mobiles on the Tube - Boris wants them, but do you?
With major service breakdowns commonplace at the moment, extending mobile phone coverage to the London Underground probably isn’t a pressing priority.
But according to Boris Johnson, they’re on their way, if the technical challenges of fitting transmitters into the elderly network can be overcome.
Chinese telecoms firm Huawei has reportedly offered to install a £50 million phone network for free as a gesture of goodwill from one Olympic nation to another.
“I think it is the way to go and we have got to give people the ability to text and perhaps have some coverage for voice telephony,” the mayor told reporters on Monday.
“The issue is not so much the Chinese company that is offering to help or security issues. The issue is the technology given we have got very old and narrow tunnels. I am not ruling it out but I am not ruling it in either. It is on the way but do not count your chickens.”
But the mayor conceded: “We have got to be clear, a lot of people will not be completely enthusiastic about having mobile phones on the Tube.”
So why do it, then? Londoners who depend on overground rail services can reel off lists of the dull conversations they’ve had to listen half of while trundling home at night – so why extend it to the Tube?
One not-very-scientific poll released on Tuesday claims “three quarters of Britons” against the plans (well, nine out of 10 Britons wouldn’t give a toss anyway…)
But instead of listening to some duff poll, we’d like to know what The Scoop’s more discerning readers think. Would being able to text and tweet your way through delays be a boon? Or is the Bakerloo Line your haven for reading a good book instead?
22 Feb 2011
Lambeth's Labour rebel left out in the cold
A Labour councillor who clashed with his party leadership at a Lambeth Council meeting over its plans for cuts has had the party whip withdrawn for at least six months.
As revealed by The Scoop earlier this month, Kingsley Abrams protested against a draft budget containing £37m of cuts at a cabinet meeting, including the proposed closure of a library in his Vassal ward.
Abrams told cabinet members to “get yourselves real jobs”, and was told by leader Steve Reed that his behaviour was “disgraceful, coming from a Labour councillor”.
He has now been told by Lambeth Labour’s chief whip Jack Hopkins that he will lose the party whip “for an indefinite period, to be reviewed at six months”.
According to the e-mail, revealed by local anti-cuts campaigners, Hopkins said “no pleasure was taken” in suspending Abrams, the only Labour councillor to have voted against cuts at an internal meeting.
The matter is also to be referred to the Vauxhall constituency party to see if Abrams broke national party rules.
Abrams has not commented on the affair, but he is now billed as “independent Labour” on the council website. He was suspended for four months last year following claims he leaked information to the Liberal Democrats, an allegation he has denied.
Meanwhile former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has questioned the council’s priorities as it grapples with government cutbacks.
The MP for Dulwich and West Norwood has written to Steve Reed querying his decision to axe the council’s park rangers.
“I do hope you could consider alternative solutions that will allow this valuable service to be maintained,” she wrote in a letter also released by campaigners, adding her constituents were concerned about public safety.
22 Feb 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
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