Thread by @garius

Remember this every time Shapps/Boris make a BIG SIGHING NOISE about funding TfL in the pandemic:

1) The gov DEMANDED TfL be funded by fare revenue. Boris agreed as Mayor
2) The gov DEMANDED full service patterns rn
3) They've given MORE cash to regional rail with no conditions.

So if you're outside London, thinking "well this is just bloody London getting more money than the rest of us yet again."

Remember that THIS IS THE NARRATIVE THEY ARE DELIBERATELY PUSHING ON YOU.

You know how they're fucking the northern cities? They're doing it to London, too.

And that's the ENTIRE reason they push this narrative

Because they want you to think of us as "them." Their absolute worst case nightmare is people in Manchester, or Blackburn or in any of the other cities they're fucking realising that London isn't your enemy. We're your ally.

That we're not sitting down here in massive houses, supping lattes and stealing your hard earned money from the treasury whilst also working as bankers at Canary Wharf.

We are NOT a "metropolitan elite" that's an utterly made up thing. We are just like you.

That's OUR taxes AND yours they're giving to their old school buddies who suddenly decided to make PPE.

It's LONDONERS suffering, like those outside of London, in some of the worst poverty and housing in the country.

Grenfell happened here. And still NOTHING has been fixed.

It's OUR devolved government that they're desperately trying to handicap politically and economically because we don't think the shitty nationalist, true blue way they mistakenly think is "Britain"

Just as they're doing it in Scotland, and in every Local Authority up north.

Next time you see a headline about "bailouts" for TfL, or a comment (subtle or otherwise) about 'Metropolitan Elites' or how 'the country shouldn't support London' remember this is DELIBERATE.

Remember that we are YOU. Not a THEM.

They're a THEM. And they're coming for us all.

Because transport and infrastructure isn't a zero-sum game. It's not either/or. The entire fucking POINT of good transport investment is that it pays for itself eventually through economic, environmental and social uplift.

You can fund BOTH improvements in London AND up north.

The simple, blunt truth is that this government - like god knows how many now before it - don't fucking want to.

And they've fucking HATED the fact that London, because it DOES have enough scale and clout to do it's own shit has highlighted what SHOULD be happening everywhere.

THAT'S why they're killing TfL's independence, and crippling this city's future ability to do transformational transport.

Not because they want to lift the regions up instead. But because they want it to stop being obvious that the regions NEED and SHOULD be lifted up AS WELL.

This is NOT a government dedicated to levelling up. It's a government dedicated to taking more out.

And if you think I'm wrong on that, go ask where that £250m a week for the NHS has gone. Or ask fishing communities right now how the promised post-EU life is looking. Or farmers.

So maybe, when they super-pinky swear promise that the main reason they keep kicking London is because they are TOTALLY SUPER COMMITTED to funding shit elsewhere...

Well, maybe let's judge the chances of that based on what they've DONE with previous promises, yeah?