London bus gripe: Destination changes

I'm currently volunteering two days a week at City and Hackney Mind, and therefore take the 48 bus from Walthamstow to Hackney Central to get there.

Coming back from volunteering on Tuesday, a rather irritating thing happened. The bus, which had "Walthamstow Central" on the front, was going down the Lower Clapton Road when it was announced that the bus would be changing destination.

No reason was given, nor were we told the revised destination. For all the passengers knew, the bus might have been diverted to Tottenham or Timbuktu (via the Bermuda Triangle in the latter case).

The bus kept to its route until we stopped at Leyton, Bakers' Arms, which, for those unaware of the geography of East London, is roughly the boundary between Walthamstow and Leyton, about fifteen minutes walk from my house.

It was then announced that the bus would be terminating here, and, along with everyone else aside from two girls chatting on the upper deck, I disembarked.

It was no problem for me to walk from Bakers' Arms to my house, but it would have been a different matter for someone who needed to get to Walthamstow Central, or who was infirm. These people would have had to wait for a second bus and pay an extra £1.20. For some Londoners, an extra £1.20 on bus fares means less money for food.

I cannot see any mention of buses with revised destinations under the Refunds section of the Transport for London website. Perhaps making a complaint would help.

Commenting on Clapton Pond Blog, ewebber says:

"I sometimes get the 48 from the centre of the universe to London Bridge to get to work when I can't take my scooter out. It's a long journey, but means I can get on the bus, sit down and switch off until an hour later. So often they change the destination half way and kick me out at the overcrowded Liverpool Street to fight my way onto another bus. I always ask for a transfer ticket, but it tends to make me late for work and is just generally pretty annoying.

"The reasons given is the traffic and bunching of buses, so because of traffic and bad planning those of us that get on the bus nice and early on the route (where tubes aren't an option) suffer. I'm generally pro-buses, but this really puts me off, this and the new air conditioning units on the upper deck that are way too loud. Rant over!"

Now that the new bus for London has been unveiled, perhaps we could see some improvement on bus route planning.

While London's bus service is much better than the deregulated bus services outside of the capital (one of which I am using this weekend) there is room for improvement.

Can you help? Glasgow student loses important documents at Victoria Coach Station.

In today's Metro, Glasgow Caledonian University student Sijo Sudheendran is asking for help.

Sudheendran lost his passport, educational and work experience certificates at Victoria Coach Station in Central London, on May 13th at around 11:30pm.

He claims that staff refused to check the CCTV footage and says he will pay a reward for their return.

You can contact Sijo Sudheendran, who describes the documents as his "life", via the Metro Mail email address, mailATukmetro.co.uk.

Replace AT with @ before emailing.

Can you help?

Iranian actress and activist Kiana Firouz denied asylum

Kiana Firouz, a gay rights activist and star of the film Cul de Sac, which is also based on her life, has had her appeal for asylum refused by the Home Office.

According to The Times, the Home Office rejected her appeal on the ground that she could conceal her homosexuality if she went home.

This ruling has been upheld by two appeals tribunals.

The Iranian government has tried to have Firouz deported to be tried for being homosexual since December 2009.

Paul Canning, editor of the website LGBT Asylum News, told The Times: "She would be arrested ... She would be tortured. She could face execution not for being a lesbian but for embarrassing the regime."

The punishment for "unrepentant" homosexuality in Iran is hanging.

Supporters of Fiouz have set up a petition as well as a Facebook group.

Harry's Place also lists two addresses to write to asking for Kiana Firouz to be granted asylum:

Minister of State (Borders and Immigration) -
Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Fax: +44 870 336 9034

Secretary of State for the Home Department -

Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Fax: +44 20 7035 0900.

The film "Cul de Sac":

Cul de Sac follows Kiana, an Iranian lesbian and gay rights activist who makes a documentary about being gay in Iran. This documentary attracts the attention of the security service.

Kiana moves to Britain to study and meets Iranian journalist Sayeh, who asks her to help with a report about protesters in London.

She is informed by her mother that the security services are after her and applies for asylum in Britain, which is turned down.

Trailer for Cul de Sac:



According to the Everyone Group, Kiana has commented: "It was important for me to take part in the film. As an Iranian lesbian I think the film is the best way to show how difficult life is for lesbians in my country.

"This film contains sex scenes that would be sufficient evidence for receiving a death sentence if I were sent back to Iran. Now, my only hope is to mobilize the international LGBT community."

British Transport Police crime maps

It is ironic that the day I visited the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library (which, by the way, fully deserves its title), I am blogging about the same subject.

Going Underground links to the British Transport Police's map of reported crime.

The data covers incidents at stations and onboard trains, and covers all of the United Kingdom apart from Northern Ireland.

My local station, Walthamstow Central, had only one crime on its premises in February 2010, the last month for which figures are given.

This compares well to September 2008, during which month nineteen crimes were reported at the station.

It is just a shame that data for March and April 2010 is not displayed.

If you need to contact the British Transport Police or report a crime, call 0800 40 50 40.

The Magnificent Maps exhbition is free, and open daily. Want to find out how a map can be used to intimidate the powerful? Take the tube or bus to King's Cross and have a look.

So here's to you, Mr Robinson...and more voting issues

The first major result of the night is that Peter Robinson, first minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, has lost his East Belfast seat.

It is believed that questions surronding his wife Iris Robinson's resignation as well as expenses queries may have been part of the reason for his defeat, the BBC alleges.

Further voting problems have been reported.

In York, hundreds of postal ballots have gone missing, blamed on a a printing error and a temporary closure at the local sorting office.

This could lead to a legal challenge in York Outer, where the Liberal Democrats had a notional majority of only 203.

However, Liverpool City Council claims a success in the Wavertree constituency, alleging that polling stations which ran out of ballot papers swiftly recieved additional papers, meaning that "every elector who wanted to vote had the opportunity to do so before polls closed at 10pm".

In other news, you can see how the markets have been reacting at the Guardian's liveblog.

Early signs are not good.

First thoughts on election night

The exit polls contradict my prediction of a Conservative majority of between six and eight seats, instead showing a hung parliament.

Nick Robinson reports on the reaction to this possibility.

However, I still believe that the Conservatives will scrape a majority, having seen large swings to the party in two of the three seats declared so far.

The BBC's exit poll appears to have been revised, unlike ITV's one.

Very alarming to hear of hundreds of people being turned away from polling stations. The BBC report that some people who were unable to vote have tried to prevent ballot boxes being removed in Sheffield by blocking roads.

It seems clear that 10pm is too early for many people, especially given that working overtime is more common these days. Some people who are infirm or live remotely may find it difficult to travel to the polling station as well.

How easy would it be for polling stations to stay open until midnight? This would delay the election result until around 8pm.

Labour claims of voting lists not being updated in Chester must be investigated. Perhaps the election there will be re-run at a later date. Strange days indeed, to quote the title of Francis Wheen's new book.

Hopefully the security alert in Londonderry is not serious.

Could the Conservatives win the election outright?

Many commentators believe that the United Kingdom will have a hung parliament, for the first time since 1974.

However, the events of the past week have caused me to predict a Conservative majority, most likely between six and eight seats.

The events surrounding Brown's exchange with Gillian Duffy and the way he dealt with heckler Julian Borthwick have received more detailed and more frequent media coverage than David Cameron's discussion with Jonathan Bartley or Nick Clegg's heckles in Somerset today.

Many undecided or "floating" voters will be making their minds up at the moment. Gordon Brown currently has a negative image, and, barring a huge gaffe by Cameron or a fantastic opportunity, will do so up until Thursday.

Kerry McCarthy's Twitter gaffe is further bad publicity for the Labour Party.

Change they will believe in?

David Cameron is right to focus on change, however bland the slogan may seem. This is because the idea of change does appeal to people. Cameron is creating the idea that a new team will be stronger at tackling the economic and social crisis that Britain currently suffers from.

While Nick Clegg is also good at positioning himself as a candidate for change, in particular for electoral reform, I believe that people who want a change from Labour will see the Conservatives as the most likely force.

Whether they are right is another matter. I am not going to comment on which party I will vote for on this blog post.

What if my prediction is correct?

This outcome will not just see David Cameron trying to do a deal with the Liberal Democrats. He will also approach smaller parties such as the Ulster Unionists and the Scottish National Party.

Good PR for David Cameron would be to work closely with any Green MP's. I am certain there will be at least one. Caroline Lucas MEP, who is standing in Brighton Pavillion, looks most likely.

Cameron would do well to talk to former Prime Minister Sir John Major, who has experience of working with smaller parties to pass legislation from the last years of his office.

I do not believe any Labour minister, with the possible exception of Peter Mandelson, would want to work with a Conservative Government. As for the Liberal Democrats, I would see some of the "Orange Book" contributors doing so.

An alternate prediction:

In today's Guardian, Christopher Montgomer disagrees and explains why he believes that David Cameron will lose.

Total Politics magazine has some more election predictions.