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Free bus pass under threat?
Comments
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seven-day-weekend wrote: »And the problem is?
I don't see a problem with them going to the beach... where would bournemouth beach be without the socks and sandals brigade
i live near bournemouth and there are surprisingly few people using the passes when on holiday, it's usually just local people.
Mum of several with a twisted sense of humour and a laundry obsession:o
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i live near bournemouth .
You lucky thing!
Well when I get my bus pass I know I will wear it out using it. From the Midlands, it's not likely I'll use it for a day at the seaside, but I will certainly use it for visiting other attractions , visiting friends and just getting on a bus to see where it goes.
I probably won't use it for the shopping as it's a pain to carry the bags on the bus and I don't need it for the dentist as he is only round the corner.
Most of the use of mine will be simply for my own enjoyment and satisfaction. Don't care who doesn't like it. I will use my bus pass with pride!(AKA HRH_MUngo)
Member #10 of £2 savers club
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton0 -
Re wales: yes we are definitely keeping bus passes and they are swiped
Are you sure they are swiped EVERYWHERE? Or just by your local company
Round here 4 bus companies, 4 different systems:
1 issues a ticket with zero fare
2 issues a ticket with the fare that would have been paid
3 presses a button to records 'a' journey
4 has a clipboard and writes down details of the trip/card AND issues a ticket - forget what's on it.
Nobody swipes - yet. It will come.0 -
I suspect no party will have it in the manifesto, you may remember the Tories never had "double VAT to 15%" in any manifesto, all about cutting income tax as I recall
You can be sure both parties will spin it, but my money would be on Tories to actually stop or severely limit it, after all it was also the Tories who delinked State Pension from average earnings and tied it to inflation, thus now all pensioners are worse off than they would have been, and to shame of Labour party they have left it a long time to replace the link in the future, which of course Tories may well remove again
I emailed my local Tory MP and told him that if his/our party (when in power) decided to scrap or means test pensioners for bus passes he could whistle for my and my wifes vote. I said look on it as a climate change issue take away free bus passes and most of the buses around here would run half empty at the best. I also said that I would like to see free bus passes for all which would he prefer a bus full wth 70 passengers or in the extreme 70 cars with 70 drivers on our roads, its a no brainer.
gary.0 -
yes, I get the point about isolation and I retract re restricted bus passes. We are lucky in wales in that we can use them anywhere in wales and at any time of the day. My dh and I may just go on a few days jamboree via bus passes and all guilt has now been removed. Some gorgeous places for us to visit so we might as well make better use of the passes.
Who cares about the next generation and the one after!0 -
seven-day-weekend wrote: »You lucky thing!
Well when I get my bus pass I know I will wear it out using it. From the Midlands, it's not likely I'll use it for a day at the seaside, but I will certainly use it for visiting other attractions , visiting friends and just getting on a bus to see where it goes.
I probably won't use it for the shopping as it's a pain to carry the bags on the bus and I don't need it for the dentist as he is only round the corner.
Most of the use of mine will be simply for my own enjoyment and satisfaction. Don't care who doesn't like it. I will use my bus pass with pride!
That i am :T i try to never forget how lucky i am to be here because i can go to the beach just on a whim ( not that there's been much point this summer!)
and the town i live in is quieter than bournemouth itself
A bit off topic, but i will say that bournemouth is a great place to go on holiday.
Maybe the tourism board will give me a job :rotfl:Mum of several with a twisted sense of humour and a laundry obsession:o
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I don`t think I`ll be using mine for shopping either. I have just discovered costco and I`ll be filling the car boot. My dentist practises 5 miles away but she is worth travelling to, its a lovely private practise and I can get there on my bike, so keeping me out of isolation and fitter as well
I think we will go to Tenby first and then make our way around the lovely welsh coastline. A nice cheap holiday. I`ll be looking for some nice hotels to stay in
Thanks to all those who have showed me the errors of my ways, I am all set to enjoy the bus pass in the spirit in which it was intended.0 -
Pity there's so much personal abuse in this forum.
Any so-called 'abuse' of the bus pass is inconsequential in the general run of things anyway.
Over-60s Londoners have had the benefit of such a system for years, the Freedom Pass. This allows us to use buses, the Underground, the Overground and the DLR with no time limits. (There's a similar pass for the disabled.) This seems to be the precursor to the national bus scheme. I suspect more visitors use the national pass in London than Londoners do outside London, but so what? We've used ours in Manchester and Brighton as well as London.
The Freedom Pass also shows one of the few equality benefits for men. It was originally valid for 65+ for men and 60+ for women. When the law changed, the cynical amongst us thought the women's qualifying age would increase to 65. No, the men's was reduced to 60. :j
Of course, we've paid for the benefit many times over in various forms of taxation. What do you think our higher council tax is for, not just for the Olympics.
ScotsBob: the English are not just paying for the things you mention, we're also paying for the better benefits in Scotland of the health service and education denied to those in England. Ever remember the Barnett formula.
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ScotsBob: the English are not just paying for the things you mention, we're also paying for the better benefits in Scotland of the health service and education denied to those in England. Ever remember the Barnett formula.
No benefits are denied to you. There is nothing to stop the UK Parliament introducing them in the same way as the Scottish government introduced them.
Yes I remember what you refer to as the Barnett Formula, it's known as the Barnett Squeeze in Scotland0 -
Until we get an English Parliament I cannot see that this situation will ever be rectified. https://www.thecep.org.uk[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.0
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