vote Boris

I got my perceptions from listening to Andrew Neil's interview with the Green Party Deputy Leader, Adrian Ramsay, on the Daily Politics.

I forgot that he also says that there must be an "optimum population" for the UK. Sounds a bit sinister, but it's green, so must be good.

Just to throw some light on claig's misperceptions of green party policy: the party believes in sustainable job creation and a steady-state economy rather than an endless cycle of unsustainable growth followed by economic collapse.

EMA didn't exist when my mum was a teenager (70's) that's why she left school at sixteen, there has always been a need for it.

The economy was booming? For whom?
I think some posters are deliberately obtuse. Insisting that ema is for trainers ffs.

The economy was booming when EMA was introduced. What was the need for it then?

I know you are on the extreme right of the Tory party, longfingernails, but can you at least be honest about what we are discussing? This isn't about a bit of pocket money for teenagers, it's about paying for lunches and books - the essentials so they can stay on at school or college.

And in case you haven't noticed there are millions of people unemployed - there simply aren't enough jobs out there for young people, either full time as an alternative to education or part-time for people at school or college.

I'm very glad EMA has gone. The idea that 16 year olds have to be bribed to go to school is ridiculous.

They can buy their own trainers and fund their Friday evenings with a Saturday job - that's what we all had to do, after all.

My ds16 get's EMA, we're in Scotland.

niceguy - that's a lazy slur. EMA made a real difference for poorer families. Typical of this lot that they can't wait to kick the support out from under them.

Josephine, may the "it" is the lack of a burning need to get the best education you can to help you in future employment and independence.

After all, you could just have a baby, stay at home, and the state will provide a home and cash. Much easier (though, is it really?)...

Do you think that children from poor homes should be sent out to work rather than continue their education josephine?

I dont get why you keep harping on about the UK being the only country with EMA. The UK is one of the relatively few countries with free universal education. Should we dump that too?

niceguy it might have been a luxury for you, for some of us it was a real help. Not everyone is in the position they thought they would be when their children become teenagers.

EMA was the classic "throw money at the problem" mentality of the previous government.

It was a stupid idea. I'm glad it's gone. It was clearly a luxury as a country we cannot afford.

Don't kids need food and clothing prior to the age of 16?
Why does it suddenly become an issue at that age? It should become easier at that age as kids are old enough to work and should be helping out more around the house as well.

The OECD called on the government to keep the EMA - is that international enough for you?

The need for food, clothing, money for books and so on do affect children and young people in other countries. That's why ds's school raised funds for Mary's Meals. Kids in the UK may not be in the same dire straights as the poverty-stricken in Malawi but there are plenty of families who struggle. EMA made a difference for those families, making it possible for young people to say on in education post-16. Of course, now the economy's fucked there would be no ruddy jobs for them anyway...

What is it that requires British children to need to be paid to carry on with education that doesn't affect children in any other country in the world, and also didn't affect children prior to Labour introducing the EMA?

Its not a case of feeling entitled to be paid to go to school.
Its a case of being enabled to carry on with further edcuation.

EMA is a non-issue, it was a blatant bribe by Labour. It doesn't exist in any other country, and it hasn't existed for most of the history of this country. Children shouldn't feel like they are entitled to be paid to go to school, it's ridiculous.

Black cabs have all ways been unaffordable for the average Londoner, in my 33 years of being on this god forsaken rock I've never met anyone who's used one since my mother was forced too when my sister fell in the round pond in 1976.

Traffic was terrible under Ken - it was gridlocked.

Some lights were on green for as little as 10 seconds.

Black cab fares rose 8 times under Ken making them totally unaffordable for the average londoner which, in turn, increased the number of illegal mini cabs.

It was better then it was under him, I don't think bus drivers have anything to moan at the mayor about, I know a bus driver and a contracted bus engineer and all their gripes are with the companies.

The companies may well hate the Oyster card (except on the more empty routes) and they may have not wanted to update the fleet in order to keep there contracted routes but hard luck, it's all better for the customer (Oysters better for the drivers as they didn't get robbed on the no cash routes so that was a plus for them too).

'Ken sorted out the transport perfectly fine..'

I doubt you'll find a bus driver or cab driver to agree with you on that one.

Boris bikes where a good idea to reduce the population of London, get all the people who've not been on one since they were kids and know nothing of road safety to kill themselves.

Seeing as Boris likes riding thru red lights, it's hardly surprising he came up with that idea along with those stupid fake routemasters.

Ken sorted out the transport perfectly fine he started the program of replacing the bus stock and Oyster cards and no matter what you think of the bendy bus any easy to obtain mass produced piece of transport is infinitely better then wasting millions of pounds on an ugly pointless vanity project that amounts to nothing more then a Millennium Dome of the road.

So disappointed that the village idiot has been voted back, I've lost all faith in humanity, as a resident of London I'm clearly surrounded by idiots.

'Managing to turn everything into a raging froth about that & polar bears is something the DM & its readers appear to enjoy anyway.'

The DM article is all in favour of the cycling schemes. I'm agreeing with OhDo with her views about polar bears and more important things to spend money on. I'm saying that there may be spin involved in it, in catastrophic climate change and in decreasing numbers of polar bears and that the spin may be diverting attention and even money from issues that are far more important to the 99%, but which are not of as much interest to the 1%.

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere, I can't disagree with you .