The announcement today by Transport for London that it is to run dozens of special school buses when term starts next month is an imaginative and welcome attempt to help ensure that the planned return to class goes as smoothly as possible.
The buses will display the sign “school service” to show that they will carry only pupils, and operate through the week at the start and end of the school day. Social distancing will not be required, though mask wearing will be for children aged 11 or over, so the buses will be filled to capacity with the aim of helping schools, which have had little assistance from government, by making sure all pupils arrive at lessons on time and get home smoothly afterwards.
A knock-on effect will be to reduce the need for pupils to use normal buses, freeing up space for adult workers and reducing the risk of them facing delays getting on board.
It’s all exactly what’s needed and it’s good to see Transport for London, which has been striving commendably hard to make its Tube and bus network as safe as possible, trying to do its bit to help get this city moving again.
Regrettably, though, the same can’t be said of the Government where Matt Hancock’s admission today that he has no idea how many of his civil servants are back at their desks in the Department of Health is hardly sending the right message about the need for workers to return.
It’s good to see TfL doing its bit. Regrettably, the same can’t be said of the Government
Indeed, it seems that much of Whitehall is largely failing to heed the Prime Minister’s exhortation to the nation’s workers to go back to their workplaces.
Reports today suggest, for example, that only a tenth of the officials at some of the most senior government departments are at their desks and the picture seems to be little different at others. That’s hardly showing a lead at a time when getting people back in their offices and reviving city centres is so vital, as the CBI’s director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn points out today, saying that it’s as important as getting children back to school
The reason, which the Evening Standard has been clear about for weeks, is that London’s economic prosperity and vitality depend heavily on a busy city centre, with hundreds of thousands of jobs and vital tax revenues at risk if the current semi-deserted conditions endure.
Once schools are back, childcare pressures caused by their closure will disappear and while some new patterns of work involving more home working seem inevitable and desirable for some, the critical importance of attendance at the office and returning our lives closer to normal must remain paramount.
Transport for London, as it new school bus venture shows, is doing its bit. It’s time for ministers and civil servants to do more to show they’re doing theirs too.
Stop the guns menace
A fearsome machine gun capable of firing 1,000 rounds a minute has been handed in to police by a man who found it in a bag in Bermondsey.
The discovery, which follows a spate of fatal shootings in the capital, comes as the Met vows to step up its anti-gun efforts and highlights both the importance of public tip-offs and assistance in the fight against this menace, and how essential it is for police to do everything possible to keep firearms off our streets.