The Silver Lining
Few Londoners will have been unaffected by the tube strike this week. ‘Misery for commuters!’ the free-sheets proclaimed as though coping with a slightly longer journey into work had suddenly become comparable to living with a terminal illness or in abject poverty. But every cloud has a silver lining. While tube maintenance engineers were making their stand on pension schemes following the collapse of Metronet, calories were burnt in record levels as office workers cycled and walked their way to their desks.
The prospective Conservative candidate for London Mayor, Boris Johnson, is well known as the closest thing that Westminster has to Lance Armstrong (just shading Eco-Dave on this count) and does his silence regarding the industrial action (in contrast to your friend and mine, Red Ken) indicate tacit approval of the health benefits associated with a suspended underground system for flabby Londoners?
If so, his candidacy should be welcomed and a heretofore unlikely alliance struck with the RMT’s Bob Crow to ensure that the transport system is brought to a crashing halt at least once a week and Londoners forced into their trainers and lycra shorts. It won’t be pretty to begin with but the benefits to the health service and employee productivity, let alone on the nation’s performance at the 2012 Olympics, will be on a grand scale. Go on Boris, you’re onto a winner here.