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They could have renewed it at £2 and still increased the funding without taking it from people who rely on public transport.
No false dichotomies please.
They could have. And that would be cool.
But it would only be a false dichotomy if the true positives and negatives were completely ignored and only the reduced discount was considered.
The simple fact is UK bus services have been hugly underfunded and cut under tories since 2010. Many rural areas litrally no longer haveing any public transport at all.
This causes huge issues. As it forces disabled(non working) or elderly retired people to move into the very housing that lower paid working class people need to compete for. Making the cost of transport a greater part of lower income daily costs.
The simple fact is the tories had no plans to continue the £2 discount forever. And had absolutely no plans at all to invest in improving buses. (Or responding the long since closed trainlines).
Yes their are lots of thing that could be done better.
Hell their is a huge huge argument for making all public transport free. Its pretty much what is needed to ensure reduced car use. Amd would hugly help UK High streets etc. But again can only help if we are also spending money on expanding the existing destroyed public transport system we have.
No one with any brains expects this budget to be a left wing give away. No matter how much many of us may feel that would actually be better. That is just never what either party promised.
But to accuse people of being shills and outright refuse to discuse the positives that are being offered is the very definition of being biased and dishonest in comparisons.
I agree with every point you made, and obviously this is better than having no cap at all, but this is exactly what makes the argument a false dichotomy, which the government is doing more than you were. Any positives are only relative to the single invented alternative, not any of the better solutions.
The simple fact is that public services like public transport, the NHS, postal service etc should not need to be profitable. They should never be expected to support themselves financially and should be funded by taxation on those who can most afford, not increasing the cost for use by those that most require its services.
Public services will continue to crack and fail until we have a government that understands this.