A dispute with the US Embassy in London over payment of the London Congestion Charge escalated on 27 March 2006 when Livingstone criticised the Embassy's decision not to pay. The Embassy argued that the charge is a form of taxation, not a charge for a service, and diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Embassy officials have never paid the charge, which was instituted in 2003. Livingstone, however, alleged that the decision was made by Robert Tuttle, who took up the post of Ambassador in July 2005. Livingstone described Tuttle as "one of George Bush's closest cronies and a big funder of his election campaign" and said he was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook". The group Liberty and Law reported this remark to the Standards Board for England as a breach of its code, but the board chose not to investigate it.
Germany stopped paying the charge in 2005, Japan followed in 2006, and in 2007 France, Russia, Belgium, and 50 other missions followed suit when the zone extended to their missions' locations (Iran, Sweden and Syria continue to pay the charge). Asked about Japan's refusal to pay in a March 2007 interview on LBC Radio, Livingstone responded, "I think there are several problems with Japan that we could go on about here. Admitting their guilt for all the war crimes would be one thing. So if they've not got round to doing that, I doubt they're too worried about the congestion charge." London's Japanese embassy responded that their government had already apologised for previous war crimes.
Livingstone acted as a stand-in presenter on London talk radio station LBC 97.3's Jeni Barnett for a week beginning on 30 June 2008. In July 2008 he announced his intention to run again for the office of Mayor of London at the next mayoral elections and signalled his intent to organise a "progressive alliance" of political parties (such as the Labour Party and the Green Party), trade unions and interest groups to defend the progress which was made during his terms as Mayor and to prepare for the next mayoral elections.
On 28 August 2008, it was announced that Livingstone will be an adviser on urban planning to Caracas, Venezuela. He will act as a consultant on the capital's policing, transport and other municipal issues. As a friend of Hugo Chávez, Livingstone was appointed personally by him to advise officials and mayoral candidates in Caracas, in order to help transform the city, which journalist Rory Carroll described as suffering from, "Gridlocked traffic, a crumbling centre, hillside slums, horrific murder rates, corrupt police and inept local government". Livingstone reckoned that in twenty years a "first-world city" can be made out of Caracas, stating, "I have a very extensive network of contacts both domestically and internationally which I will be calling on to assist in this." No decision on a salary for the ex-mayor has been made, although he mentioned that, "The whole cost of this trip has been paid for by the government of Venezuela and as an unemployed citizen I would not be able to pay for my own fare otherwise." The appointment follows on from the controversy surrounding the deal brokered by Livingstone in February 2007 for the Greater London Authority and Transport for London to provide advice to Venezuela in exchange for cheap fuel to help with bus subsidies. The deal was later overturned by new mayor Boris Johnson, and Livingstone offered his services to Chávez so that Venezuela gets the "advice that we promised". Livingstone played down any accusations that his close relationship with the Venezuelan President was controversial, "unless you believe American propaganda", while a spokesperson for Johnson said, "Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants." Livingstone is now being touted as a key asset for Chávez in the upcoming November elections in the country.
Vatnajökull
Vatnajökull (English: Glacier of Lakes) () is the largest glacier in Iceland. It lies in the south-east of the island, covering more than 8% of the country.
The average thickness of the ice is 400 m, with a maximum thickness of 1,000 m. Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnúkur (2,110 m), is located at the southern tip of Vatnajökull, near Skaftafell National Park. It is classified as an ice cap glacier.
Vatnajökull has been shrinking for some years now, possibly because of climatic changes and recent volcanic activity. Until 1930 it was growing.
According to Guinness World Records Vatnajökull is the object of the world's longest sight line, 550 km from Slættaratindur, the highest mountain in the Faroe Islands. GWR state that ""owing to the light bending effects of atmospheric refraction, Vatnajökull (2119m), Iceland, can sometimes be seen from the Faroe Islands, 340 miles (550 km) away"". This may be based on a claimed sighting by a British sailor in 1939. The validity of this record is analysed/undermined in mathematical and atmospheric detail by J.C. de Ferranti
InterCity 225
The InterCity 225 is an electric train operating in the United Kingdom. Its top speed is 225km/h, hence its name. From 2017, some will be replaced by the British Rail Class 800.
British Rail
British Rail (BR) was the national railway company of Great Britain, from 1948 to 1997. It was created by nationalization under the Transport Act 1947. Britain's railways were returned to private ownership by privatization in 1997.
After the smaller firms were merged in 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, there were four large regional railway companies. The Big Four were the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR). The Transport Act 1947 made provision for the nationalisation of the network.
The Second World War had caused damage to all the railways. They had lost a large part of their trains, buildings and equipment.
The Transport Act 1947 set out the nationalisation of the rail network, as part of a plan by Clement Attlee's Labour Government to nationalise public transport. The London Underground, some industrial lines and some remaining light railways like Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway were again excluded. For a short time, during World War II, the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway line was taken over by the military. After the war the line re-opened to public use in 1946. The Bicester Military Railway had been built by the government in 1941.
The Transport Act 1947 took effect on 1 January 1923. By that date most of the mergers had taken place, some from the previous year. The "Railway Magazine" in its issue of February 1923 dubbed the new companies as "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".
These "Big Four" were:
See also a list of railway companies involved in the 1923 grouping.
The nationalised Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran the railways in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966. They were then taken over by Translink and called "NI Railways," also known as "Northern Ireland Railways" ().
The government of Northern Ireland and Ireland ran the former Great Northern Railway jointly under a Great Northern Railway Board until 1958. Most of the lines in the west of Northern Ireland were closed in the 1960s.
In 1955, a major modernisation programme costing £1.2 billion was authorised by the government. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes occur as steam trains were scrapped 1968, in favour of diesel trains and electric trains. One third of the network was closed by the highly critical Beeching report of the 1960s.