John Bull Profile picture
19 Nov, 9 tweets, 2 min read
No.

TfL is a Local Authority in all but name, both in scale and complexity, and the political and legal framework under which it operates.

So it would be like trying to privatise Hackney.

It's why TfL defaulting on loans would have terrible impacts on other council's borrowing
Have TfL THEMSELVES privitised services?

Yes. Sometimes under government pressure: most notably Tube maintenance (Metronet/Tubelines) under PPP deals. These were a disaster and bringing it back in house cost upwards of £5bn.
More commonly though, most TfL services you use that AREN'T the Tube are essentially privitised. Overground, buses etc - all are delivered by private companies operating under heavy sets of consistent rules set by TfL.
There's nothing inherently wrong with private operation of services. TfL is (mostly) a good example of that done well.

It works if you have people letting the contracts who know what they're doing and give a shit.
Bonus fun fact: if the gov let TfL run out of money then legally it has to prioritise specific services and shut down the rest.

Only service specified: Thames Clippers

Nobody bothered writing the other stuff in because nobody thought a gov would be stupid enough to bankrupt TfL
Clippers is specified simply because it was handed over later and thus the paperwork was done differently (to oversimplify grossly)
Yup. Woolwich Ferry is in there too! Well remembered.

(You probably read my piece on this!)

Woolwich Ferry. Clippers. Couple of other things. It's all down to what got specified later Vs what was assumed at original handover.

Honestly, it really does come down to no-one, in 1998, ever thinking a government of ANY political shade would be so petty and fucking stupid not to fund the operation of transport in the capital city of Great Britain during a crisis.

We've learned a lot since then.

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More from @garius

19 Nov
New Cowboy Bebop is deffo interesting. I mean, they've basically taken the Danger 5 approach but done it serious. i.e. "what if we LEGIT did live action like anime?"

Not sure if it's GOOD yet. But definitely interesting, and different.

Different is better than a lazy adaption.
It's definitely going to absolutely piss off the people who never realised the original was as much a spoof of a whole bunch of genres as it was an anime show though.

i.e. the people who want to BE the leads rather than realising you're meant to view them as human and broken.
watch for lots of "wwaaaaaaa they've made [Spike | Jet | Faye I Ed | My fave character] a bit of a dick. don't watch."

Pro-tip: they were in the original too. You just don't really spot it as much because we're conditioned not to see it through the anime tropes/medium.
Read 8 tweets
18 Nov
Worth noting that the last time London Underground had to enter a period of managed decline, the ultimate consequence was the King's Cross fire.
Wasn't the only factor of course, but it was a major contributor.

Railways, like air travel, rely on the "Swiss cheese model" of layers of error protection. All layers have holes, more layers stops them lining up and causing disasters.

Proper funding is one of those layers.
And yes.

I know what day it is.
Read 9 tweets
17 Nov
Ewart, who captures the Eagle, survived and had kids.

His family emigrated to Australia and his grandson George, served in the Australian army in WW1.

He fought and died breaking the Hindenburg line in 1918 and is buried in Bellicourt Cemetery, less than 60 miles from Waterloo.
You've got two men here, from the same family, who both fought for their countries. Separated by just one or two generations.

One was British. One was an Aussie, who grew up 9,000mi away.

Yet they fought only 60miles from each other. And only one survived his brush with history
I wonder if George knew who his grandfather (or possibly great grandfather) was. I assume that he did. He captured an Eagle and is buried next to Edinburgh Castle.

Did that influence George signing up? Did he feel pressure to do so? Was he excited about his own chance at glory?
Read 9 tweets
1 Nov
"Replicator, Pasty (Cornish) plus chips and baked beans."
Learnt the hard way to specify Cornish on that one.

These things default to American settings.
Re: Chips vs Fries in the replicator.

My understanding is that Picard logged that one via the Enterprise IT Help Desk as a VIP request, which is why saying 'chips' gives you proper ones.

The captain loves a nuggets and chips lunch.
Read 91 tweets
1 Nov
ME: it's 6am. I can get 2hrs more sleep.
MY BRAIN: Oh hai. You're awake. So in our hypothetical Columbo reboot with Donald Glover, we should do an episode where a famous speedrunner murders a fan who discovers he's cheating, but appears to be streaming when the murder happens...
ME: I just want sleep
MY BRAIN: Yeah. Cool. Anyway, I've worked out the basics. The fan blackmails the speedrunner who promises to help him become a famous streamer. The speedrunner convinces him they should fake an on-air robbery, just after the speedrunner raids him on Twitch.
ME: Go away
MY BRAIN: They film the fake robbery the day before. Then, on the MORNING of the planned fake vid the speedrunner actually murders the fan before he starts his stream, and sets the fan's computer up to play the fake video at the time of the raid. Bosh. Alibi.
Read 14 tweets
30 Oct
If we end up at war with the French next week I'd like to remind them that London has some lovely cafes and we're totally okay with some kind of 'free trade city' exclave setup.

Remember that pls when Bojo is unconditionally surrendering in a rail carriage on the Kingston loop.
Also: Don't worry, Watford isn't actually part of London. They just pretend they are so they can use the Tube.

So you don't have to have that bit. BoJo can keep it and move his capital there.
Also, if you force him to release Scotland in the peace deal, they'll probably sign an alliance with you straight away.

Trust me. I've played A LOT of Europa Universalis 4. Happens every time.
Read 5 tweets

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