More than 10,000 people have expressed their opposition to the proposed part-privatisation of the London Underground by signing an online petition launched by the London Evening Standard and This is London.

Since the campaign was launched just 10 days ago, 10,000 readers have signed the petition, and hundreds have joined the debate on the This is London message board.

The Evening Standard is opposed to the Government’s plan to partly privatise the Tube, believing it to be unworkable, unsafe and expensive.

In an editorial comment the newspaper said: “Most of us try to learn from our mistakes. This Government seems increasingly to believe that it can demonstrate strength only by sticking stubbornly to even the most discredited plans and policies.

“Down at Greenwich, the Dome rots at vast ongoing cost to the taxpayer, because Mr Blair will not admit that it must be knocked down to make the site saleable. Now, vastly more serious, London’s Underground system is about to be broken into a Balkan jigsaw to sustain the manic ego of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“From his own point of view Mr Brown is a lucky man. He does not suffer the doubts and uncertainties and changes of heart that assail the rest of us. Mr Brown considers an issue, whether it is the colour of today’s socks or the future of the London Underground. He makes a decision. He knows it to be right. Therefore he need not trouble himself about the issue again.

“It is almost impossible to find a reputable transport expert who believes in PPP.

“PPP is a betrayal of London. Every commuter who uses the Underground will pay the price of Mr Brown’s conceit a decade hence. Only a man confident he will be somewhere else by the time the disaster is exposed would have dared to do this to our capital.”

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