“There’s no F in Bus” reflects the feelings of thousands of passengers in Sheffield who are fed up of waiting for buses that don’t turn up or services that have been cut or changed. A pensioner from Arbourthorne, where the No. 6 bus has just been cut said “I’ve lived on this estate for 70 years. Hitler couldn’t stop our bus but Brandon Jones (South Yorkshire First commercial manager) has!”
“There’s no F in bus!”
90 year old Mrs. Lee brought the house down, well Sheffield council chamber that is. “No shop, no post-office, no pub … and no bus service for two years!” She described how the elderly and disabled tenants on her Darnall estate had been made virtual prisoners in their own homes. “They’ve (First Buses) taken away all our freedoms” she said to applause from the public gallery.
Earlier, samba band Rhythms of Resistance and Insurgent Rebel Clowns had added colour, music and humour to the lobby of the February council meeting called by the “We Want Our Buses Back!” campaign. The clowns’ banner “There’s no F in Bus” reflects the feelings of thousands of passengers in Sheffield who are fed up of waiting for buses that don’t turn up or services that have been cut or changed. A pensioner from Arbourthorne, where the No. 6 bus has just been cut said “I’ve lived on this estate for 70 years. Hitler couldn’t stop our bus but Brandon Jones (South Yorkshire First commercial manager) has!”
Presenting a further 2,300 signature petitions, WWOBB convenor Calvin Payne asked “ 2 months ago the council passed a resolution supporting re-regulation. What’s happened since then? First have cut or changed more services without any public consultation!” He read out a letter from government Transport Minister Karen Buck which showed how wedded New Labour are to the private bus operators like First. “Its going to take more than a resolution to get your government to change policy!”
With rumours of another fare rise in April (there’s been four in just over a year) and the possibility of a busdrivers strike over pay, WWOBB plans to step up its campaign to force First out and pressure the council to get the powers and finance from central government to take our buses back into public ownership and control.
90 year old Mrs. Lee brought the house down, well Sheffield council chamber that is. “No shop, no post-office, no pub … and no bus service for two years!” She described how the elderly and disabled tenants on her Darnall estate had been made virtual prisoners in their own homes. “They’ve (First Buses) taken away all our freedoms” she said to applause from the public gallery.
Earlier, samba band Rhythms of Resistance and Insurgent Rebel Clowns had added colour, music and humour to the lobby of the February council meeting called by the “We Want Our Buses Back!” campaign. The clowns’ banner “There’s no F in Bus” reflects the feelings of thousands of passengers in Sheffield who are fed up of waiting for buses that don’t turn up or services that have been cut or changed. A pensioner from Arbourthorne, where the No. 6 bus has just been cut said “I’ve lived on this estate for 70 years. Hitler couldn’t stop our bus but Brandon Jones (South Yorkshire First commercial manager) has!”
Presenting a further 2,300 signature petitions, WWOBB convenor Calvin Payne asked “ 2 months ago the council passed a resolution supporting re-regulation. What’s happened since then? First have cut or changed more services without any public consultation!” He read out a letter from government Transport Minister Karen Buck which showed how wedded New Labour are to the private bus operators like First. “Its going to take more than a resolution to get your government to change policy!”
With rumours of another fare rise in April (there’s been four in just over a year) and the possibility of a busdrivers strike over pay, WWOBB plans to step up its campaign to force First out and pressure the council to get the powers and finance from central government to take our buses back into public ownership and control.
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Sorry, I don't get it - no F in Bus?
07.02.2006 11:08
Is it cause you're not supposed to say the f-word but there would not be anything wrong about busses?
Or is there a word called Fus or so?
Please keep in mind when posting on indymedia that your postings might be read globaly and people who are not so involved in the local stuff have problems understanding.
Another thing that is pretty much inaccaptable from my background is the indirect comparison to Hitler. As antifashists in germany we ask people not to use such comparisons and espacially not to use any like Bush=Hitler, Sadam=Hitler and all that. In this case the comparison barely is one - but it still puts Hitler in a more or less harmless context. It does not really help the cause but just creates a strange metaphor people keep in mind. This might be nice for a campaign but at the same time it creates an idea of "Hitler was not all that bad"... This is a tendency we keep seeing in germany and comparisons that show the nazis in a harmless way are strategically used by neonazis here. I'm pretty sure they won't use that one here. But people keep the steady repetition of such plain wrong images in mind.
There is enough rational things to talk about when trying to show some things are bad - you don't have to use those images of the personalized "bad". It does not help a further analysis of the situation either. Here it just leeds to seeing one person as the bad guy who did what hitler has not done and you don't have to think about the surplus and efficency based logic of capitalism anymore.
call me stoopid
Hey, stoopid!
07.02.2006 17:10
Re: the Hitler mention. I'm assuming you are Geramn, and also anti-Deutsch. The mention of Hitler was made in a direct quote from an angry 90-year old, and thus is perfectly valid to use in the story. Similar comments were made to the press by a 90-year old Dolly, who was evicted from the home she had been born in and had lived in all her life. She commented that the Luftwaffe had not got her out of her home, but that the Ministry of Transport wanted to do just that (to build an extension to the M11 motorway through east london).
These comments do not belittle the actions of Hitler or the wartime German state, they simply point out that our own state can sometimes achieve things that even our war-time enemies did not.
anarchoteapot