bramling
Veteran Member
That much we agree on.
What is it about the Transport brief that seems to attract the worst of the Johnson-approved barrow-boy tendency? Shapps is precisely the sort of murky, fly-by-night the role doesn't need yet seems to get lumbered with in tedious succession. How the bloke remains an MP after that mail-order "dodginess" is perplexing, but perhaps shouldn't be considering that's probably what appealed to the Blond Blimp in the first place.
If only Transport Correspondents had the time and wherewithal to ask Shapped-arse where exactly he is going to get the billions (at least) and technical resource for setting up "driverless trains" (and the decade + it would take to do even if you started today) in the middle of perpetual Govt whining about "no magic money tree" for anything people actually do want.
But one thing he is good at beyond sliming his way into whoever is Leader's good graces, throwing out red-meat nonsense to his base.
It is actually rather incredible that, given how much of a shambles many rail services are at the moment (and how much of this traces back to the government in one way or another), they aren’t coming under much more scrutiny.
Unfortunately, take my town as an example, a few miles down the line from Shapps’s own constituency. This morning the train service was screwed, as it now seems to be on a pretty regular basis. One might expect this to result in a negative reaction, but the more vocal one is “yippee WFH”. It’s quite incredible that people feel sufficiently brazen to post on social media that they can’t be bothered to make any attempt to reach their place of work (despite having the very viable alternative of driving to somewhere like High Barnet or Cockfosters and travelling into London by LU), and are overjoyed at the opportunity not to have to fulfil their workplace obligations. Meanwhile I bet the coffee bars and local pubs are finding their trade has increased today.
This is why we have garbage like Shapps.