UK bus privatisation described as having breached basic rights

[Fambo Number Mive]

Britain's bus services outside London were so damaged by privatisation that people were unable to access basic needs such as work, education and healthcare, according to a scathing report by the former UN special rapporteur on human rights.

Many people in Britain had lost jobs and benefits, been forced to give up on education, or been cut off from communities and healthcare as bus services grew more expensive, unreliable, and dysfunctional after the 1985 reform, the inquiry found.

The report is co-authored by Philip Alston, a New York-based academic whose UN reports in 2018-19 denounced the "social calamity" of austerity policies in the UK which he found had caused widespread poverty...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/19/uk-bus-privatisation-has-caused-poverty-and-job-losses-says-un

You can read the report here (PDF): https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Report-Public-Transport-Private-Profit.pdf

It's only 45 pages which includes annexes.

[ASFTSN]

Thanks for this, I just read the report - tallies with my own experiences when I lived outside of London, I can't imagine what it must be like to attempt to rely on those services for work, or why some people that haven't been on public transport in years even think that's possible. I had a conversation with a colleague once who said to me her favourite thing about the UK (she'd lived here for some years but had never left London) was that you could get a bus anytime to anywhere. That was a difficult conversation with me I'm sure.

I wonder if anywhere else will be able to follow Manchester's example.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

former UN special rapporteur on human rights.

Duhh we don't listen to those 'experts' with their wishy washy  agenda.