Peter's blog

The government has confirmed plans to push ahead with the high speed rail link which will cut journey times between Birmingham and London, and later Leeds and Manchester significantly.

The DfT consulted 52,000 people on the £32 billion plans announced today but some are unhappy. To mitigate against loss of homes and damage to the countryside the length of tunnelled sections of the line have been increased. However this hasn't been enough to satisfy some groups such as Green Peace, The Countryside Alliance and many constituencies that the route will pass through.

The Trade Union Reform Campaign chairperson, Tory MP Aiden Burley, has been sacked from his government post following a stag party he attended where another guest wore a Nazi SS officer uniform. It has been reported that Burley hired the uniform for his friend himself.

The union busting group TURC which Burley heads is campaigning against union officials getting paid release and for 'a greater element of democratic legitimacy.' Effectively aims that would make it impossible for unions to represent members or to successfully ballot for industrial action.

This annual festival in Liverpool may be of interest to members

Homotopia

Cruising for Art

1-30 November 2011

Welcome to our 8th festival happening across Liverpool throughout November. This year's festival theme is 'Cruising For Art' and we are thrilled that artist Sadie Lee's iconic painting 'Anderrida Shurville' is the 2011 festival campaign which also forms part of a new exhibition 'Pin Ups'.

At this years RMT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender conference, Executive member for London Transport Region Janine Booth brought to members attentions the realities of LGBT rights internationally and the equalities that British LGBT workers and people still lack.

Internationally full legal equality for homosexuals only exists in 8 countries in the world. That is that they have equal rights including an equal marriage something that still eludes us in the UK. In 80 countries homosexuality is still illegal. Of these seven countries still have the death penalty. Only recently Uganda was attempting to criminalize all homosexual acts - punishment being a death sentence.

The 2011 RMT LGBT Conference was held in Plymouth following a successful Young Member’s Conference a few months previously. There was a good turn out of delegates which made for an enjoyable social event the evening before the conference - and the local gay scene was very welcoming. One local gay pub held a quiz. The winning team consisted of four of our very own LGBT conference delegates who kindly donated the £20 prize to St Luke’s Hospice in Plymouth.

Here are some photos from the 'March for the Alternate' on 26th March in London. Hundreds of RMT members turned out to the demo from across the country.

To see more of the photos click 'Read More.'

BEAT THE BULLY! is a benefit gig for the tube workers.

Stop the cuts, stop the sackings, march for the alternative.

JERRY DAMMERS (SPECIALS) headline this show of solidarity on SUNDAY 20 MARCH 4pm-12.30am BRIXTON JAMM.

Also present will be The Rosinators, DJs Tattoo John (Alabama 3).

Tickets are £12/8 advance, £14/10 on door Rmt/tssa members concs rate . BRIXTON JAMM 261 Brixton Rd, SW9.

To get tickets or read more head over to the Brixton Jamm website.

Stonewall is conducting a survey on the health needs of gay and bisexual men.

"This will be the largest ever survey of gay men’s health. We know quite a lot about gay men’s sexual health, but very little is known about the wider health needs of gay and bisexual men." Say Stonewall.

If you'd like to take part in the survey, click this link to go to Stonewall's website.

A customer was assaulted whilst West Finchley Station was left unstaffed on Sunday evening. It took nearly a quater of an hour for British transport Police to arrive on the scene. This incident follows the release of LUL documents revealing that nearly a third of stations could at times be unstaffed.

David Cameron has discussed making democratic ballots invalid where under fifty percent of members vote. This idea was originally mooted by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson was elected following a vote of less than fifty percent of Londoners.

Click 'read more' to see the BBC report.

TfL have accepted Wonga.com as sponsors of free travel on New Year's Eve.

Wonga is a 'pay day loan' company with a typical APR of 2689%. If you were to borrow a fiver from them for one day - enough to cover a single journey on the tube, you'd owe them £10.60.

For many Londoner's, these loans may seem to be the only way to access funds, more so as decent jobs are cut and employee rights eroded following the ConDem goverments and bosses attacks on working class people - as can be seen at LU where 800 positions will be cut.

BBC London is asking for viewers questions, related to public transport, for London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The article is here should you want to ask him anything.

This website has several articles regarding Boris.

Transport For London's commissioner Peter Hendy was recently interviewed by Dave Hill for The Guardian.

In the interview Hendy says that TFL will be facing cuts in its budget of 21% over the next few years. Future job losses are discussed with Hendy foreseeing that "The other thing you take a hit on is the cost of running the place. We will be doing less in some areas, so we will need less people to do it"

In an interview on LBC Radio, Boris Johnson is asked "For the record, the mayor of London believes London will be adequately protected from fire by twenty-seven appliances crewed by part time staff, trained for on average two weeks." Boris didn't confirm the safety of the plans, dodging the question by answering 'The preparations were perfectly good.'

The BBC have an article on RMT General Secretary Bob Crow's comments on the new Labour leader Ed Miliband.

The article says "Mr Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, claims Mr Miliband might break his pledge to attend a rally against public spending cuts."

"Mr Crow said a Labour leader who failed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the party's core supporters would "get slaughtered at the polls".

The full article is here.

Greater London Authority member Valerie Shawcross has put forward a motion to end the job cuts at London Underground. When the meeting began only five of eleven elected Tory members were present. Three left when the motion regarding LU job cuts came to the agenda which meant there were not enough members at the meeting for it to continue.

It is reported that one Tory AM, when asked why they left the meeting, responded "because we couldn't be arsed".

Research by several organisations across London has found that LGBT people fear for their safety on public transport including the tube and that there is a higher incident of assault - both verbal and physical - on public transport than there is in other public areas.

The British Transport Police state ‘For passengers, feeling safe is as important as being safe. The visible presence of rail staff, PCSOs and police officers can reduce the fear of crime dramatically.’

With these figures showing how LGBT people feel about travel on the underground, it should be considered that many LGBT people will feel more at risk of assault on the underground as staff cuts will inevitably mean the reduction of staff visibility.

The Conservative group on the London Assembly have sent a memo to Mayor Boris Johnson detailing how they believe an underground system without drivers would provide a world class mass transit system.

The conservative group believe the underground would be better with an increased number of faster trains, more customers but less staff (sound familiar?). They claim that the acquisition of Tube Lines by London Underground is the perfect time to ditch drivers.

Unite Union have set up a website explaining the reasons for the recently blocked British Airways strike. Unite BA members were due to take twenty days of strike action but this was blocked in the courts on a technicality. Strike action being blocked in such a manner has serious consequences for all of us.

A freedom of information request shows that it takes on average nearly 11 minutes to resolve a query for customers calling the Oyster Helpline.

Is this what TfL and LU see as staying true to their vision of world class customer service when discussing job cuts? Is 11 minutes on a telephone better service than a face to face chat with staff in a ticket office?