The following article by Spiked (Internet magazine) editor Brendan O’Neill appears in a certain national newspaper this morning. His comments include the following:
“I’m starting to think – not least with Labour so ahead in the polls – that the woke dictatorship is increasingly inescapable. “Every aspect of life, even a simple train journey, is being ruthlessly politicised by an elite which belives the little people need to be re-educated…the mini-Nero must go – and take his silly stunts with him.”
BRENDAN O’NEILL: Sadiq Khan’s new names for London Overground lines are ludicrous. Worse still is what they signify…
By Brendan O’neill – February 15th 2024, 10:14:21 pm (subscribers only)
Ludicrous, crass, patronising and twee: Sadiq Khan’s new names for London Overground lines are bad enough. Worse still is what they signify.
NFCP Editor’s note: Spiked magazine began life as Living Marxism magazine. How times change…..
Two follow-up stories so far:
‘We want justice not gestures’: Windrush campaigners slam Sadiq Khan’s £6.3million revamp of the Overground in ‘patronising’ nod to multiculturalism as descendants still wait for compensation after scandal
By Oliver Price – February 16th 2024, 11:22:18 am (Viewable)
An Overground line was named Windrush yesterday, along with the Lioness, Mildmay, Weaver, Suffragette and Liberty lines, which London Mayor Sadiq Khan (pictured) hailed as ‘brilliant’.
Khan slammed for using Millicent Fawcett to promote ‘Suffragette’ line
By Harry Howard, History Correspondent – February 16th 2024, 7:12:03 am (Viewable)
In a statement on X, Sadiq Khan shared a photo of Millicent Fawcett to promote TfL’s Suffragette line, which has angered historians.
Historian says Sadiq Khan’s decision to name Overground line after the Suffragettes is ‘deeply offensive’ because they were ‘terrorists’ who tried to get the vote for women by planting bombs on trains
By Harry Howard, History Correspondent – February 15th 2024, 4:15:23 pm
The London Mayor announced new names and colours for all six London Overground lines today in a £6.3million project.
Responses to the article accompanying Mr O’neill’s comments include the following:
As a Londoner the Gospel Oak to Barking line will always be the Goblin.
He should have called one the Knife line.
It’s so embarrassing. Lioness line haha.
No doubt, the majority of deluded Londoners will forget about this, and will vote for Khan for the third time, having previously voted for him in 2016 and in 2021.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comments on Crystal Palace Local Facebook include:
AGAINST
I’ll go against the grain and say that I don’t like the new names. A noble idea but very contrived I think. Maybe famous Londoners could have been a better way to go? However, it is what it is. It’s great news for the Millwall Ladies’ football team, whose brand recognition will be roofing. (Lengthy conversation on histories of Millwall ladies football teams follows – Ed.)
~~~
What a waste of money. TfL should be focusing on cutting expenditure/becoming more efficient, as they’ve been bankrupt countless times due to mismanagement. This rebranding cost will likely cost millions and doesn’t improve any services.
~~~
Waste of money, confusing, and after all that, folks will still just continue to call it the Overground. A lot of the major European cities just either give their transport network lines numbers or name them after the start station and end station. That makes it less complicated to understand, particularly to visitors or those new to the city. I’ve never understood why they don’t do that on the London network. And I wonder what the late Queen Elizabeth II would say if she were alive today knowing that the eponymous transport line is riven with transport misery through overcrowding, delays, cancellations and strikes!
~~~
A waste of money redesigning, re branding….money could be spend on improving the services, putting one train back amongst the four we have lost in the last few years.
~~~
There are people starving, homeless and being murdered on our streets, and this is what he’s spending our hard earned money on? It’s outrageous!
~~~
MIDDLE GROUND
This is not just about Crystal Palace. There are six lines, with multiple terminals and destinations all given the same name, Overground, currently. Imagine you’re looking at the transport map for London at the moment for the first time. It’s a huge spiders web with orange lines all over London. It’s really confusing to describe to a non local.
~~~
Response: Have you ever tried navigating the subway in New York or Tokyo? London is a DREAM.
~~~
Every single “whole network sign” in every station will need to change. Every “overground southbound, overground northbound” sign in every interchange station will have to change. This isn’t just putting a sticker over the overhead displays inside trains… and for what?? It’s not exactly difficult to navigate as it is.
~~~
The money spent on this should be going to those who actually are entitled to remuneration for the windrush. I don’t support this foolishness, why they doing this now?
~~~
I usually “plot” my route at home and then put it in “reminders” on my phone. Given Crystal Palace is the “terminus” for our part of the “Overground”, I don’t believe I’ve needed any extra information. Ho hum.
~~~
I like seeing Windrush literally ‘on the map’, although the pedant in me wonders if it would have been better in SW than SE London – the other lines generally link to the area itself. Renaming the Victoria line the Windrush line, terminating in Brixton, might have made more sense..
~~~
Wonderful trolling by Sadiq. Really got the GBeebies / Daily Mail crowd frothing at the mouth. Aaargh woke political correct gone mad if you say you’re English these days you get arrested and thrown in jail etc
~~~
£6.5 million this cost! Really you couldn’t have spent that on lowering travel costs or improvements. Its a b****y joke
~~~
Are people upset about honouring women and their right for fairness or as I expect the fact it’s named after a community that came to this country to help (and was asked) and for a bright future – only to be told otherwise by a faction. Yet still have their heart and soul and brought great qualities and culture to the capital. Is it political correctness because we are talking about hounring black people? Can’t people just be happy.
The following exchanges involved five separate contributors – Ed.:
I was talking about the Wombles (Unclear how they got into this conversation. Possibly something to do with a contributor learning good manners and attending a Church of England school. – Ed.)
~~~
What do you want to call it, the big knockers line?
~~~
Would have preferred ‘The Ian Wright Line’ but Windrush will do. Better than the other names I think.
FOR
Yes will make it much easier giving visitors instructions on how to get to my place! And I also like the names, all of them
Although it does kill the nickname we have for getting the OG to Whitechapel then the Elizabeth line to central London (which is now our route of choice)… I call it doing a ginger lizzy…Got it … it will be windy Lizzy
~~~
£6m is nothing, less than 0.1 per cent of the amount national government has so far spent on managing to not build HS2…I don’t think this is a waste. These new names reflect our times, culture and sense of place well and sit alongside more conservative / royalist names like Jubilee and Victoria very well. They balance things up a bit.
~~~
People getting very worked up over this. Relax and enjoy our local history being celebrated. Could be worse, could be new LTN announcements…
~~~
It’s not a waste of money. When you run a massive transport network, you have your spend money on making it easy to navigate. Google what Harry Beck* did for the Tube network. (*created current Underground map – Ed.)
NEWS FROM CRYSTAL PALACE 