KHOODEELAAR! contextually and evidentially noting Lib Dems' Vince Cable's confession: Crossrail is crass!

1315 Hrs GMT
London Monday 21 September 2009:

Editor © Muhammad Haque.

KHOODEELAAR! TOLD Vince Cable, the Lib Dems' finance spokesman in the UK House that he should disown CRASSrail as it was uneconomic and unsustainable.….Vince took some time. Today, Monday 21 September 2009 he is reported by the CRASSrail-backing London EVENING STANDARD to have cottoned on, under pressures of economics and even more importantly for the Lib Dems’, under pressures of electoral desperation. They are now forced to give up the fantasies and banalities.... Cable now confesses: Crossrail is crass! Well, Vince has his own words for decrying the scam. We call his statement as admitting that he now recognises Khoodeelaar! told him so aptly and accurately... That the Big Business, City of London, Bechtel-backed Crossrail was nothing but a crass ploy to loot the UK public via hiked up taxes and to rob the regional public of £Billions that should be spent on really urgent provisions…

[To be continued]


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Lib Dem conference got underway today with warnings over Crossrail
Crossrail not a key priority for us, warns Vince Cable
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent
21.09.09
Look here too
Vince Cable: All parties must be honest about the pain ahead

Crossrail's future was thrown into unprecedented doubt today as its all-party support appeared to unravel.

In an exclusive interview with the Standard, Liberal Democrat economic spokesman Vince Cable became the first political heavyweight to warn that the £16 billion east-west rail scheme for London was unlikely to be a "key priority".

Amid fears that it may be deemed too expensive in a slump, Boris Johnson "begged" ministers to spare Crossrail and other major infrastructure projects from the axe. The Mayor pleaded in his weekly newspaper column for Crossrail not to be sacrificed to the recession - just months after shadow Chancellor George Osborne refused to guarantee that a Tory government would press ahead with the project.

"We need high-speed rail, Crossrail, an upgraded Tube and, with Heathrow running at 99 per cent capacity, we need a new and visionary solution to our aviation needs," Mr Johnson wrote. "As the politicians rev their chainsaws, I beg them to remember this key point: that it is only by investing for the long-term in infrastructure that you can create the strong entrepreneurial economy that can pay for strong public services."

However, Mr Cable, the Twickenham MP and his party's Treasury spokesman, suggested that Crossrail may have to rely less on public funding and warned against being "mesmerised" by big projects. "I doubt that in our list of key spending priorities at the next general election, we are going to be listing X-billion pounds of taxpayers' cash to invest in Crossrail," he said. "They have got to try and find a funding mechanism that isn't so dependent on the public sector."

Mr Cable called the new line, due for completion in 2017, "desirable in a general sense for London". But he stressed: "The point that is often made that if you are trying to use public investment to get maximum benefit, a whole series of small projects would give a better return.

"Certainly in south-west London, we have these arguments about using Waterloo International (the former Eurostar platforms). It involves very little money, it's just sitting there. It's an absolute scandal.

"We are not arguing for stopping the project but equally we are not suggesting that we should be finding lots more public money for it. We just can't afford it in the current environment." Mr Cable, who has called for greater honesty over looming public spending cuts, said money already "committed" to the scheme should be paid.

But it was not clear whether he believes that ministers should meet the full £5.1 billion government contribution for the new line, which will run from Maidenhead and Heathrow under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

However, a spokesman for big business organisation London First said: "What is the normally thoughtful Dr Cable talking about?

"Rarely if ever has there been an infrastructure project less reliant on the central government purse. Crossrail relies on the Exchequer for roughly a third of its costs, with London businesses, London council tax payers and passengers picking up the rest." Writing for The Standard about his general approach to slashing public spending, he added: "We need to start on the basis that everything is on the table; everything must be looked at and judged on its merits." In his speech to his party's rally in Bournemouth, Mr Cable was proposing that the Government set up a British version of the European Investment Bank to fund major infrastructure projects.

He argued it would "bring together private capital and professional management under government sponsorship".

Party officials later insisted there had been no change in policy on being "very supportive" of Crossrail. A spokesman said: "We are not proposing to change the funding package."