tony baloney

Meet Tony Arbour. Tony is a Tory London Assembly Member and a Councillor in the London Borough of Richmond on Thames. This week, in the London Assembly, Tony spoke out against the principle of tube and bus fares being subsidised by taxation. Tony told the Mayor that it is "a principle of conservatism" that "those who receive a service are those who should pay for it". Tony believes that "it is a fact... that relatively few Londoners use London transport in any way". Tony says "most people don't use London transport with any sense of regularity". 

So if you live in one part of London and work in another part of London, Tony imagines you probably don't use public transport to travel between your home and your workplace. Say you get on the tube out in the suburbs somewhere. Maybe you get on a Central Line train train in Romford or Perivale. Perhaps your trip to the office begins when you join the Northern Line at High Barnet or Morden. Is it safe to assume that the tube is busiest during the morning rush hour and again in the evening when you're returning home? Is it safe to assume that as you get nearer to the centre of town more and more people get on the train? Is it safe to assume that most of the people who board appear to be going to work and that, judging by where they join the train, most of them appear to live in London? Or would you say the majority of people on your tube or bus journey in the rush hours are tourists or commuters who live out in the Home Counties? Perhaps not. So perhaps you find Tony Arbour's claim a little hard to believe.

You'll be pleased to know that while Tony is an advocate of the principle of services being paid for only by those who use them, he himself receives a free travel pass to enable him to get to meetings at the London Assembly which, as you may know, is funded through a mix of a Central Government grant (i.e. your taxes) and Council Tax (i.e. your local taxes if you live in London). 

You may also be interested to know that Tony does not always live by his stated principle for services being paid for by service users. For example, he makes the rather socialist-seeming exception for the elderly, having welcomed, in 2009, the retention of the Freedom Pass, which provides pensioners with free travel.

You may also be surprised to hear that Tony's definition of a "service" is not as broad as it might be. While public transport comes under his definition, the use of public roads in a private vehicle does not. This is presumably why, in January 2010, he urged the Royal Parks Agency to focus on repairing the roads around Richmond Park (in his constituency) rather than attempting to raise funds (for such repairs, perhaps?) by imposing parking charges on park visitors. To clarify - for Tony Arbour, the provision of a smooth road surface for people wanting to visit Richmond Park in a car is not a "service" for which they should be charged directly. Unlike a London bus ticket, which he feels should only be paid for by the actual travellers on a given bus, Tony thinks that London's Royal Parks, which are paid for by (taxpayer funded) Central Government funds, should not charge directly for their services but spread the cost across all taxpayers. Surely that couldn't be because it's his constituents who get to enjoy Richmond Park? Surely he's not putting the interests of the people who vote for him above his conservative "principles"?

Think about that when Tony next opines that you're not paying enough for your journey to work.

If you'd like to discuss Tony's views with him, here is his contact info:

Tony Arbour
GLA
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA

Telephone: 020 7983 4116
Email: tony.arbour@london.gov.uk