Comments on: London Buses and other public services

By: Ismail

Ismail — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:08:37 +0000

cool blog!

im a reguler on the 38 and today was my first day on the awful bendy bus. the worst part about it is most of the time you cant get a seat and are packed in like sardines, and when you do get a seat your facing someone and have the whole avoid eye contact thing going on. nothing beats a double decker, esp sitting on top!

By: Thersites

Thersites — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 10:22:06 +0000

Calling Livingstone a ‘Fuhrer’, apart from being a cheap cliche, suggests you know very little about Fuhrers and their behaviour. A little re-education with a rubber truncheon- the sort of thing Fuhrers favour with those they disagree with- might teach you the difference. It’s a bus driver’s job to drive a bus where it’s meant to go, to check psses and collect fares and to ensure the safety of passengers while in motion. Why should they be expected to know the way to places that matter to Moroccans or even other Londoners for that matter? By and large, they’re helpful when they do know where somewhere is. Given that they are hidden behind armoured plastic they quite possibly failed to hear properly where your friend wanted to go. Equally, with shop-keepers. They are there to sell things- including A to Zs- so why should they be obliged to have an intimate knowledge of the local area before they are allowed to do that? You can look at an A to Z in a shop; alternatively you can buy one. they’re cheap and they last for years.

By: Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 22:29:00 +0000

I am unsure why you think I am not English and wouldn’t know the nuances of talking about “Hitlers” etc. Of course, you didn’t call him a ‘little Hitler’—you called him The Fuhrer. Such nonsense distracts from your post and is at best trite and worst deliberately attempts to downplay the significance of the Nazi regime with cheap comparisons to contemporary excess.

Livingstone, whatever one may think of him, is the (egotistical) democratically-elected and re-elected Mayor of the capital city of a liberal democracy. Stop the sophistry; stop the cheap Nazi calls and stick to the point which, was, overall a good one about London transport.

By: Yusuf Smith

Yusuf Smith — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:17:42 +0000

The reference to “Nazi astroturfers” was to far-right yobbos who used to call the Jon Gaunt show to rant about immigration. I call them that because it’s well known that certain far-right groups have a policy of having their activists contact the media to spread their ideas without disclosing their connections. They are commonly called nazis or fascists, which they’re not exactly any more than Islamic fundamentalists (or Hindu bigots) are fascists. The point that they are most likely far-right racists, and probably anti-semites as well, is valid.

As for Ken Livingstone, well, I called him the Fuhrer because he acts like some sort of dictator, following his own agenda regardless of what anyone thinks. I don’t know about the USA but here, Hitler is generally associated with autocracy - a “little Hitler” is a petty tyrant, not necessarily a racist or a mass murderer.

By: Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 17:01:10 +0000

How many (ludicrous and pathetic) Nazi references do you aim for in an average post? (Well, all your posts are very average, but you get what I mean)

Seriously though, have you considered what it means to describe people as Nazis or The Fuhrer? Pull yourself together and stop the egregious sophistry: it undermines whatever validity might lurk elsewhere in your post.