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Women bear brunt of Boris Johnson’s unfair fares

November 18, 2011 4:24 pm

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The impact of Tory cuts on women has been well documented – from public sector job losses to pension reforms, there is no doubt that women are bearing the brunt.

But new figures show that the hit on women goes much further, and that women are suffering sharp rises in some of their most basic living costs as the result of Boris Johnson’s inflation-busting fare hikes.

Not only do women make the majority of journeys on public transport (52%, compared to 48% made by men), but they are most likely to be frequent bus users (57%). 1.3 million women in the capital (44%) are high frequency users of buses, compared with 600,000 (19%) who are high frequency users of the Underground.

Across the board fares have shot up at a shocking rate. But it is bus fares – the fares must likely to be purchased by women -  that have increased the most sharply under the Tory mayor. By 2012 a single bus fare will have risen by 56%, jumping from 90p to £1.40.  The cost of a weekly bus pass will have risen by 47%, whilst weekly and monthly travelcards on the tube have risen in price by 23%.

Added to this the gender pay gap women have to contend with, which currently stands at 15% (and may well be higher in London – although we can’t be sure since the Tory mayor scrapped the women’s advisor post, which monitored this), plus the government cut in childcare support, and we see exactly how difficult life is becoming for women in London thanks to Tory policies.

It’s just one more reason why London’s women should unite behind Labour’s campaign for fairer fares. Ken’s Fare Deal will see fares cut by 5%, frozen for a year and then rising by no more than inflation from 2014. Under the proposals the average Londoner will be £800 better off over the next four years. I’m calling on women from across London to join me at next week’s Fare Deal rally and support our campaign. Enough is enough and Boris Johnson’s unfair fares regime must come to an end.

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  • Jonathan Roberts

    52% versus 48% is so similar to the gender split in the population as to make it statistically negligable.

    I understand the point that cuts are affecting people.  I understand the point that women’s rights still need some work.  And I also understand that it’s politically helpful to court the women’s vote.  But when it comes to transport fares I don’t think the gender card is necessary.  I’m more concerned that the hike in fares has such an impact on low-income workers of both genders that it it no longer pays to work.

  • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

    Unfortunately all these fine words and ideas are wasted. Ken’s latest comments (below) are way out of order, and also tantamount to electoral suicide.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100118464/ken-livingstone-on-tony-blair-and-new-labour-go-and-bring-a-private-prosecution-against-him-for-war-crimes/

    I’ve just about tolerated all Ken’s foot-in-mouth moments up to now, not the mention the Tower Hamlets disgrace. But this goes way way over the line. 

    I was going to give my Tuesday evening to Ken on a phonebank. Is now time to make other plans…

    • Jonathan Roberts

      Couldn’t agree more Ben.  Ken’s politics have become more about hatred and spite than a genuine desire to help people.  I’ve seen no evidence that he wants anything else but to win for its own sake. 

      I replied to one of his many emails asking me to campaign for him and said that, whilst I have walked many a mile in the name of the Labour Doorstep, Ken’s political instincts run so contrary to my own that I can not possibly campaign for him.  Indeed, I can not understand why anyone would.

       

      • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

        I actually thought Ken was an excellent Mayor – transport is about the only thing the Mayor does and it improved massively during his time in office, albeit helped by lashings of Labour government cash (something he seems to have forgotten with his stupid insults). The man also probably knows more about London than any other person alive. He has a lot going for him. 

        I also realise we are a broad church with some good people who believe crazy things like that Blair should be tried as a war criminal. We can disagree and move on.

        But for a prominent Labour figure to believe such lunacy, let alone come out and say it in a packed hall, just defies belief. He should be thrown out of the party immediately – I think it would actually do Ed Mil a lot of good if he did that, showing he can face down unacceptable behaviour and lay down a marker that people will notice. This is a fight that needs to be fought. 

        • Jonathan Roberts

          I don’t quite accept the characterisation that he massively improved transport.  From my own personal experience, the tube was rubbish then and it’s rubbish now.  But I take the general point…

          • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

            The tube is so bad partly due to the idiotic PPP structure put in place by Gordon Brown in which the different parties pass the buck on problematic stuff like signalling.

            But, yes, Ken did do a lot of good. He got more staff into stations, which made people feel safer. Also, on the buses, do you remember what they were like before he came in? I do – they were old, rubbish and there were hardly any of them.

            Also, London Overground didn’t exist. Down my way we now have the Croydon Tramlink, which is terrific. He also kept fares within a reasonable-ish range (contrast with Boris as Tessa does above). The man did a lot of good.

            Time to wave goodbye though. He’s always had some silly politics but the least he could do (not least for Labour and Labour activists) is keep his mouth shut on all that. As it is he just goes around throwing away a large slug of Labour votes and potential campaigners without seeming to care. 

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            So you’d rather have Boris, then? That’s the outcome of your actions.

          • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

            Hey Mike, I said I think Ken should be thrown out of the party, which would mean us getting another candidate. At present Labour as a party polls significantly better than Ken in London, so with a bit of luck we might have a chance of winning.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            That’s not going to happen though, is it – and in any case, there is no reason to do so. Plenty of us agree completely that Blair is a war criminal – in hindsight, his government set the precedents for many of the worst things happening now. Additional public spending masked the truth – that there was no fundamental change from Thatcher’s approach. And from what I have recently experienced, much of the extra funding was not applied well.

            Frankly, the entire Blair phenomenon I now find suspicious to say the least – who was actually behind his rise, and what is his current agenda? I don’t think you have to look far from America to gain the answers. 

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

        Bit like many of us felt being expected to work for Blair’s leadership, then. I fully agree that Blair and Bush are war criminals. The Iraq war was illegal, simple as.
        In any case, I’d say anything Dan Hodges doesn’t like should be applauded also on principle – its that sort of right-wing entryist who should be thrown out of the party, along with people like Lord Hutton , whose views are so far from anything remotely recognisable as Labour that the Coalition can base their welfare policies on them. Pity we listened to Tories like him and Lord Freud, who at least did finally declare his true allegiance

        • Jonathan Roberts

          Mike,  I’ve read this and your other contributions further down. Most people on this site are seasoned political activists/operators and know a diversion tactic when they see it. 

          This is a thread on the mayoral election – and many Labour activists have legitimate cause for concern over Ken’s actions.  If you want to complain about Blair, perhaps find a more relevent thread, but don’t think we’ll fall for your attempts to dissuade us from expressing the concerns we have by making us talk about Blair.

          • Anonymous

            Well the public will vote, they will decide and I suspect they will decide Borris

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

            I’m glad to say that the people I know in London are supporting Ken’s campaign – as you should be, and if you want to have a go at a politician you don’t like, then expect us to do the same.  Ken’s ideas have become mainstream. Blair just took Thatcher’s mainstream and made it sound ‘nicer’ – I was fooled, you seem as if you still are.

          • Jonathan Roberts

            As I say, I can’t bring myself to support Ken.  Before I cast my vote, I always want to ensure I actually like the candidate, make sure they are a decent person.  I could never support someone who speaks so maliciously of other people, and I am embarrassed when others in my party love him a little bit more every time he says something unpleasant. 

            For me, Ken represents the nasty side to our party, whose political raison d’etre is to hate other people, not to do good.  Whenever he talks about hanging the Chancellor or burning Tory councillors, the left love him  – but every moderate dislikes him a little more.  That is because most people out there are pretty decent people, who know speaking in such ways is not acceptable.  Frankly, it’s just not very nice.

             He is, afterall, the demi-god of the unthinking ultra-loyal leftie who holds no values other than to serve Labour without question amidst a daydream of instigating the socialism the country at large does not want.  That is simply not me, and as a result I won’t be voting in the election at all.

             

    • Daniel Speight

      Isn’t it strange that both before the last general election and now before a London mayoral election the disloyalty and back-biting has come from the right of the party. I always thought it was the left who got blamed for doing this. Now we see the knives that were aimed at the back of Gordon Brown have found a new target.

      • Jonathan Roberts

        I have no political loyalty to people who don’t share my values.  When standing for office, calling people a Nazi, suggesting people should burn in hell and joking about murdering a rival politician is not acceptable.  I notice you’ve ignored his conduct in your post Daniel.

        Dumb loyalty is a major problem for the moral fibre of our political system.  Ken thinks he can be as nasty as he likes and party supporters will still turn out for him.  I happen to think he’s wrong.

        • Daniel Speight

          Now let’s see. Didn’t Livingstone win the support of London Labour Party members to become the candidate in next year’s election? Wasn’t Oona King the Blairite candidate who lost to him?

          Funny how this loyalty mantra is such a one-way street. It only counts in forcing the left to support the right and never the other way round.

          Then again Livingstone did criticize the holy Saint, Tony Blair, so maybe capital punishment should be bought back. Maybe we should issue a fatwa against Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Tom Watson, Robert Harris, or anyone who has suggested Saint Tony isn’t infallible.

          • Jonathan Roberts

            so you don’t disagree with Ken’s comments re the murder etc of political opponents? You don’t think they’re unacceptable?  See telegraph article linked above.

            I was more than willing to campaign for him at the start.  But my point is that loyalty has to have limits.  There has to be a line, and if they cross it you will walk away from them.  And in my view that happened with Ken.

          • Daniel Speight

            Ah Jonathan there’s much I disagree with Livingstone about, just as there’s much I disagree with Ed Miliband about. In the past there was much I disagreed with Blair and Brown about. But having said that when it comes to the vote I’m as tribal as only the core vote can be. I could never do anything to support the Eton Tory against our candidate. For you I guess it’s easier.

      • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

        I am no Blairite, but I agree with Jonathan on this one. Certainly there are some deliberate troublemakers out there from “the right” (like Dan Hodges himself), but Ken just gives all people who dislike him a succession of open goals to kick the ball in. And they happily do so.

        As for “disloyalty and backbiting” just coming from the right, that is not true. Ken himself supported a non-Labour candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor and has been serially disloyal – his independence is partly why people have liked him so much in the past (me among them). On backbiting, I still find it remarkable how the favourite subject of many lefties remains how much they hate Blair and how he is so evil and should be tried for war crimes and all the rest. 

        But that’s free expression for you; the price we pay for not living in a police state. 

  • Bill Lockhart

    Livingstone will promise anything for electoral advantage. He categorically committed TfL to retaining Routemasters, right until he was in office.  Londoners know much, much better than to believe anything he says about London, especially when it is as laughably innumerate as his fares “plan”.  His real interests are Ken, Ken and Ken- and that subject lost its appeal to Londoners some years ago.

  • GuyM

    Last I checked when I got on a bus/tram/train/tube the fare was the same for both men and women….. are you arguing that women should get cheaper fares now?

    As to the argument about women using buses more, how about looking at train fares then as men use them more often and are getting shafted price wise and have been for years.

  • Anonymous

    God another transparent attempt to court the feminist vote. Everyone’s feeling the bite at the moment so listening to endless posts on poor women having to bear the brunt is pretty annoying. Transport effects everyone so why not write about that? How about showing some stats on how people commuting for work purposes are effected by fare rises? Or does that not suit the narrative?

  • Anonymous

    Very useful to hear the exact statistics- bears out the points.

    I also received copy of email recently from Fawcett Society,
    along related lines; sorry I don’t have link to post.
    They have an excellent website though.

    Personally I’d like to support these issues as singular,
    rather than as a vehicle to support individual candiates.

    Many thanks, Jo.

  • http://twitter.com/Newsbot9 Newsbot9

    What rot. Every worker has to pay them, by polarising it as a gender issue, you just make it harder for me to contribute.

    And 5% is, again, pathetic.

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