Dear John

Readers of this newsletter may remember how I put kindness at the heart of my Mayoral campaign launch back in February. Well, this week is Mental Health Awareness Week and I’m delighted that the theme for this year is ‘kindness’.

We’ve seen during this pandemic how important kindness can be with neighbours and communities pulling together to help each other and the most vulnerable.  Our task, as we ease lockdown, is to make sure that this kindness doesn’t become a memory from the crisis, but is something that we actively build into our future too.

In this opinion piece, I explain how there is no “secret sauce” to happiness but there is a general recipe that local and national governments can follow to improve peoples’ well-being.

Also in the news this week has been the Government’s bailout of Transport for London (TfL). Of course, with the impact of coronavirus, this bailout deal was absolutely essential. But it has come with expensive conditions. Fares will go up, concessions for the young and elderly have been taken away and major improvement projects are now under threat.

Transport for London’s finances were in a mess before this pandemic and that seems to have weakened the Mayor's hand in negotiations. The Conservative Government, however, should not have used this as an excuse to punish hard-working Londoners, who are the ones now ultimately footing the bill.

We’re going to need to think radically about how we fund TfL in the future. I believe that when we “build back better” post the pandemic, we will have to find a new, sustainable model that shares the burden more fairly between public transport and road users. 

Kind regards

Siobhan Benita

Lib Dem Candidate for Mayor of London

p.s. Did you spot that hand sanitisers are now available on the tube network? I first called for this on 5th March.

LATEST NEWS

We can’t afford to let today’s acts of kindness be tomorrow’s memories (backbenita.com)

Watch: Siobhan Benita on TfL bailout and what more can be done (Euronews)

CORONA KINDNESS

Why kindness matters in public policy (Mental Health Foundation)

Kindness can work wonders. Especially for the vulnerable (The Guardian)

Other News:

Benita: Ordinary Londoners pay price for TfL Bailout (backbenita.com)

Scrap Silvertown Tunnel to save TfL, Mayoral candidate says after emergency bailout confirmed (News Shopper) 

Benita: Boris Johnson must face London Assembly about conduct with Jennifer Arcuri (Politics Home) 

Benita: Get transport workers PPE urgently (Politics Home)

Met considers pausing the roll-out of facial recognition (Evening Standard)

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