Tory Troll

Boris Johnson and Leo Boland go Pyongyang style

2009-11-19T12:39:00.013Z

Opposition groups on the London Assembly have long been suspicious of the 'cosy' relationship between Boris Johnson and his new GLA Chief Executive Leo Boland.

Boland was brought in at great expense from Barnet Council and now earns £15,000 more than George Osborne's "fat cat" limit.

Incidentally, he also earns over £20,000 more than the Chief Executive received under the 'profligate' Ken regime.

But I guess you get what you pay for, and while the former Chief Exec Anthony Mayer was widely seen as independent, Boland is increasingly seen as "The Mayor's man."

And so it was that when I first published pictures of Boris's Fire Chief Brian Coleman asleep at his desk, it was apparently Boland who intervened to flush out the whistleblower.

One source told me that they had been warned off of passing stories to Tory Troll, and another had their GLA email account openly searched for correspondence with me.

Now Leo Boland has turned his attention to the Assembly itself.

A leaked document sent to Tory Troll reveals that he is pushing for the rights to monitor, and review all official scrutiny reports produced by the Assembly.

According to the proposals, Boland would be able to:

"review draft scrutiny reports before their publication for the purposes of providing quality control and oversight of the written output from the Authority. This opportunity for review would be personal to the Chief Executive and would not be delegated to any other officer."

This is being proposed because:

a. It would provide the Chief Executive with direct oversight and input into the quality of scrutiny reports.

b. The Chief Executive would be aware of reports before their publication, and would be able to anticipate any potential issues of conflict or controversy. (my emphasis)

Under these plans Boland would not only have the powers to 'anticipate' these conflicts and controversies but also potentially to step in and eliminate them.

This would massively blur the separation of powers between the GLA executive and the body that is elected to scrutinise it.

It would also further weaken the work of an Assembly already earmarked for abolition by senior members of the Conservative party.

A report on the plans to be discussed by Assembly leaders today acknowledges these worries but insists that:

"The Chief Executive has a statutory dual-facing role. It would be important to avoid any potential compromise of this position arising from any perception that the Chief Executive’s review of draft reports amounts to approving them or agreeing with their contents. It would equally be very important to avoid any perception of executive interference in the scrutiny function, particularly in cases where reports express disagreement between the Assembly and the Mayor."

However, whether these 'perceptions' are avoided or not, this is the implication of what is being proposed by Leo Boland.

The Assembly as it is, has very few powers, but what it does have is the power to scrutinise the Mayor and the GLA.

Any attempt by "the Mayor's man" to interfere with or weaken that power should be resisted at every step.

Otherwise the Assembly risks being reduced to the kind of North Korean levels of scrutiny already practiced by some Tory AMs.

-Update- Dave Hill has some responses from AMs to this story.

Meet London blogger Andrew Gilligan

2009-11-13T16:21:00.010Z

"This isn’t a blog, Adam - it’s a column. You can tell the difference because it only appears once a week and it never goes into obsessive detail about buses." Andrew Gilligan - 2008

So anyway, here's Andrew's new blog, in which he posts several times a day and goes into obsessive detail about buses.

So far it has no independent blog roll, no interaction with commenters and almost no links to original source material.

But apart from that it's almost like a real blog.

Just be careful of any strange characters you happen to meet in the comments.

Andrew Gilligan Identity pic by Beau Bo D'or

Boris Johnson: I won't slaughter harmless pooches

2009-11-11T14:46:00.009Z

Boris Johnson today squashed his Deputy's proposals to wipe out all breeds of bull dog, saying that the last thing he wanted was to see "harmless pooches being slaughtered."

The comments came after his Deputy Mayor for Policing Kit Malthouse called for all bull dog breeds to be "phased out" within the UK.

The proposals were modeled on a scheme in Ontario, where owners who refused to have their dogs neutered, had them taken away and killed instead.

The plans sparked a letter writing campaign with at least 18 breed clubs believed to have written to the Deputy Mayor.

Such was the anger that one dog owners magazine went so far as to call Mr. Malthouse "The Biggest Moron in Britain."

Asked by the leader of the Conservative group Roger Evans to calm these fears, Boris replied:

"Obviously what you don't want to get into is a return to the dangerous dogs kind of legislation where you have harmless pooches being slaughtered in the name of allaying public panic. That is not what we want. We want to see a whole hearted assault on those who are using dogs as weapons and are deliberately setting out to intimidate people in their neighbourhoods with these dogs."

For some reason Kit Malthouse did not sit in his chair during the session but instead watched the exchange from the gallery.

His colleague Roger Evans, who raised the issue with the Mayor today, had already spoken out against Kit's plans earlier this week.

Commenting at Dave Hill's blog Roger wrote that:

"I'm not in favour of banning things - deprived of 'status' dogs, the owners would just find another way to make a nuisance of themselves. We need legislation which targets those few antisocial individuals and removes them from circulation."

Sensible advice, very wisely taken.

Boris Johnson and Chris Grayling: before and after

2009-11-10T10:58:00.010Z

Boris Johnson attacking Chris Grayling for comparing crime levels in London to The Wire:

“Someone the other day compared London with Baltimore, absolute nonsense. You know, this programme, The Wire in Baltimore.

“There are 35 murders per 100,000 in Baltimore, there are approximately three murders per 100,000 in London. It is far, far more dangerous in Baltimore than it is in London, especially for gun crime.”

He's absolutely right of course. London is a relatively safe city, and remains so despite the recent rise in gun crimes.

By speaking as he did, Grayling was committing the worst kind of political scaremongering, deliberately exploiting fears in order to win a few more votes.

So what was Boris thinking when he did exactly the same and worse during his Mayoral campaign?

I'm sure that Grayling will have learnt his lesson now. Only whip up fear where you've not already won.

Lest we forget...

2009-11-09T21:22:00.004Z

Boris Johnson: A Betrayal of the Fallen

Boris Johnson claimed for £16.50 wreath

Expenses image by Beau Bo D'or

Who is this mysterious follower of Kit Malthouse?

2009-11-09T11:13:00.000Z

The Deputy Mayor of London Kit Malthouse speaking at Mayor's Question Time last month:

"There is an increasing trend, and I have raised this a couple of times before in the Assembly, for opposition Members, and in particular John Biggs, to ask very wide and open and specious and facetious questions which are designed to be provocative and not, actually, designed to do what we are supposed to do, which is scrutinise the working of the Mayor. They have become overtly political and sour and I think that does a disservice to all the people watching both here and on the web. I think you need to get a grip on this."

Indeed. Here at the Troll, we also get a lot of 'overtly political and sour' comments from certain individuals. Like this one:

Or this one, left from the same IP address earlier this year:

Both these comments (and a number of others) were left by somebody repeatedly searching Google for "Kit Malthouse"

And it appears that I'm not alone. Since beginning this post, I've been in contact with one other blogger who has also noticed this strange pattern of searches and comments.

So who is this rather 'sour' individual? Well here's all of their contributions to Wikipedia:

Classical Music and Kit Malthouse? A perfectly acceptable if slightly narrow set of interests.

And what have they added to our knowledge of these vast and important subjects? Well here's all of their additions to Kit's page:

birth date =Birth year and age 1966
birth place = Liverpool
nationality = United Kingdom British
nationality = United Kingdom British
spouse = Juliana Farha
party = Conservative Party (UK) Conservative Party
party = Conservative Party (UK) Conservative Party
children = 1 son
profession = Chartered Accountant
website = www.kitmalthouse.com

Malthouse was born on October 27th 1966 in the Toxteth area of Liverpool in the North West of England. He was educated at [Liverpool College]. later he studied Politics and Economics at the [University of Newcastle Upon Tyne], under [Professor Hugh Berrington], one of the last great academic Liberals, and [Professor Michael Clarke], now Director of the [Royal United Services Institute]. On graduation he moved to London.

==Business Career==

Kit trained to be a [Chartered Accountant] at [Touche Ross & Co] (now Deloittes), qualifying in 2004. He then left and worked as Finance Director of the Cannock Group of companies. He led the management buyout of the part of that group called the County Holdings and is now chairman of the company. In 2006 he was a founder director of Alpha Strategic PLC where he also remains as a director.

=Career at Westminster Council, 1998-2006==
-
During his eight years on the Council, Malthouse had two major jobs, first in charge of Social Services and second, as Deputy Leader in charge of finance. Both these roles involved in him a number of high profile campaigns:

Malthouse was elected to the council in May 1998 representing St George's ward in the Pimlico area of central London. Following boundary changes he was re-elected in May 2002 for Warwick Ward also in Pimlico.

Within the first 12 months Malthouse was appointed as Chief Whip of the Conservative Group, and shortly thereafter, following a change of leader to [Sir Simon Milton] he was appointed Chairman of the Social Services Committee. Two years later he was elected Deputy Leader of the Council and became Cabinet Member for Finance.

During his time on the Council Kit was involved in a number of high profile campaigns

Malthouse is a member of the board of the [[Association of Police Authorities]] and the [[London Regional Resilience Forum]]. He also sits on the Ministerial Steering Group of the [[London Criminal Justice Board]].

Following the resignation of [[Ray Lewis]] Malthouse also inherited responsibility for devising the Mayor's youth plan, designed to produce long term cultural change in those young people drifting into crime and violence. The plan, called [["Time for Action"]] was published in November 2008.

Kit Malthouse is also Chair of the [[London Hydrogen Partnership]] and leads at [[City Hall]] on proposals for a new [[Thames Estuary Airport]] to replace [[Heathrow]].

Wow, that's quite a biography. So what about the other important subject in their lives.

Well their interest and knowledge here seems rather narrower.

Here's their one and only (rejected) contribution, to the external links list of the "Classical Music" page:

Hmm. Would that be the same Dilettante Music that Kit Malthouse is a director of?

Oh yes, so it is:

So who is this mysterious commentator and why are they so fixated with the life and times of the most honourable Deputy Mayor of London?

Dog Owners bite back against Kit Malthouse

2009-11-08T11:45:00.021Z

Dog owners have reacted angrily to proposals by Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor or Policing Kit Malthouse to wipe entire breeds of dog off the map.

Under the plans, all bull dogs including the Staffordshire Bull Terrier would need to be registered, muzzled and neutered, effectively killing off those breeds within the UK.

Breed clubs across the country are now in the process of a letter-writing campaign to prevent these proposals from ever being implemented in the UK.

Writing in the Times earlier this week Kit Malthouse labeled the animals as "weapon dogs":

"As well as punishing owners appropriately for use of this weapon, we should be bolder about removing it from circulation altogether.

In Ontario, that is what has happened. The provincial government produced a law that banned all bull breeds and derivatives, including pitbulls and the Staffordshire bull terrier. All such existing dogs had to be registered, neutered and muzzled, leading to the bull-types dying out and owners learning to love the labrador or pug. The result? A huge fall in the number of dog-related injuries and incidents. This approach manages to be both humane to those who have a dog of this type and draws a line under the problem.

Serious penalties will make dog owners think twice, but surely it is time for us to look to our Commonwealth cousins and find a way gently to phase out the canine weapons that terrorise the streets of Peckham, Toxteth and Moss Side."

Kit does not mention the fact that in Ontario, owners who refused to have their pets neutered, were forced to hand them over to the state where they were then "euthanized" or killed.

In a letter to the Deputy Mayor sent yesterday, Helen Reaney of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed Council writes:

Dear Mr Malthouse,

The Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is horrified at the irresponsible comments you made in the on-line version of The Times. Your suggestions regarding the Stafford are totally ridiculous and it is clear that any research conducted by the Deputy Mayor’s office has been totally inadequate, exhibiting an appalling degree of incompetence...

(Click here to read the rest)

Eighteen Breed clubs across the country are now believed to be in the process of writing to Mr Malthouse about this, with anger spreading into the speciality press

While the RSPCA have also campaigned against the proliferation of "status dogs" they have instead concentrated on "the deed and not the breed"

Dangerous owners, not dangerous dogs

The problem dominated the RSPCA's first annual conference in June this year where Tim Wass, chief officer of the RSPCA inspectorate, made it clear that:

"Everyone is rightly talking about dangerous owners, rather than dangerous dogs."

With that in mind, the RSPCA believes that current breed-focused legislation is failing enforcers, dog owners and the dogs themselves.

Any future legislation should focus on the 'deed rather than the breed' of the dog. "Dogs are a product of their environment rather than their breed, and it is the growing culture of irresponsibility that needs instead to be challenged," explains Chief Officer Wass.

Neither Boris Johnson, nor the Conservative leadership have yet given their public backing to Kit's proposals.

Boris Johnson leaves Dial-a-Ride callers hanging

2009-11-06T12:54:00.004Z

Hundreds of disabled Londoners have had their their requests for the Dial-a-Ride service refused every day, as TfL struggles to cope with the demand.

The service was relaunched last week, after a series of headlines about the many Londoners being left stranded by the service.

In the lead up to the relaunch, users were sent an email stating that:

From Monday 26th October, when customers call us they will notice some new features including:
Automatic estimates of how long it will take before an operator can take their call
Easier to understand options to choose from
Music whilst on you are on hold

They were told that the old contact numbers for the service would no longer work, and were given a new set of numbers instead.

They were then urged to phone 020 7466 0251 if they were still experiencing problems with the service.

Unfortunately almost two weeks after this service was launched, the number which is still listed on the TfL website remains completely offline:

Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee and Liberal Democrat AM Caroline Pidgeon said today:

"If the Mayor simply ensured that Dial-a-Ride users were listened to he would not make the insulting claim that Dial-a-Ride's service is continuing to improve."

"It is already bad enough that Dial-a-Ride users face extensive delays in booking trips but now every day 400 trips are refused to Dial-a-Ride users across London - a figure far higher than two or three years ago."

Dial-a-Ride is still largely popular and was made free for all users at the start of 2008. However, last year Boris johnson also placed a cap on the funding for the service.

This cap, along with the rising demand for the service, means that in some parts of London almost 20% calls were refused this summer.

But with those people now not even able to make their views about the service known, the real level of dissatisfaction could be even higher still.

Government slashes funding for Freedom Pass

2009-11-04T19:25:00.014Z

Councils across London reacted angrily today, to the news that the government will slash funding for the Freedom Pass.

The capital had been promised a £58 million special grant for free bus travel this year but this has been reduced to just £29 million.

According to the proposals:

"it was originally anticipated that London would require a very significant grant to meet the cost of concessionary passengers from the surrounding counties now travelling for free on the extensive London Bus Network. It has now transpired that there have been far fewer of these trips than was anticipated"

The almost £29 million taken from London will help prop up the government's national concessionary scheme instead.

London Councils’ Chairman, Councillor Merrick Cockell, said today:

“The Government’s decision at this late stage to alter the deal already agreed is absolutely stunning and will be met with anger across the capital. Boroughs have already budgeted for this funding and now London is facing having the amount of funding it was promised almost halved."

Liberal Democrat London Assembly Transport Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon said today:

“After Boris Johnson’s decision to hike bus fares by 20% Londoners now face a double whammy with this savage cut in funding for the Freedom Pass.

“London is the only major city in the country to be hit by these Government proposals. Hard up London council taxpayers, who are already facing a steep rise in fares, will now have to pay even more in their council tax to maintain London’s Freedom Pass.”

Thorns

Freedom pass funding has long been a thorny issue between the Mayor, the government and London boroughs.

Earlier this year Boris sought to remove some of those thorns by giving up his own reserve powers on the issue.

Unfortunately for some, he changed the way the scheme was funded, meaning some boroughs were forced to contribute much more.

And as boroughs across the capital announce plans to either freeze or reduce their level of council tax, this money will now have to come from elsewhere instead.

For many Londoners this will mean more hidden charges, more fees, and more rows over the future of the freedom pass itself.

-Update- Boris Johnson's transport advisor Kulveer Ranger, said:

"It is quite simply outrageous for the Government to announce they intend to reconsider funding arrangements that were already agreed and we will be seeking urgent clarification from the Minister on how this might affect Londoners. One of the Mayor's top priorities has been to protect the right to free travel for the less well off and elderly in the capital. He knows how important this privilege can be to the over 60s, which is why he found funding to make it 24 hours and why he will do everything in his power to ensure it continues."

Boris crosses to the Far East but misses Near South

2009-11-02T11:06:00.014Z

Like the Olympic games, Boris Johnson needs a physical legacy to remind us all of him once he's gone.

Unfortunately, his plans for a living bridge, a second Blackwall tunnel and a Thames Airport are unlikely to happen soon, if at all.

So with both time and money short, Boris has to take his opportunities where he can.

And here we have the first part of Boris's physical legacy to London, a revolutionary new design of er... pedestrian crossing.

Based on crossings in Tokyo, the new design stops traffic in all directions, allowing shoppers to cross diagonally in an "X" as well as straight ahead.

The £5m junction is able to handle double the number of pedestrians and ease overcrowding at the busy intersection.

It will be officially unveiled at 0945 GMT by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

In homage to its Far Eastern inspiration, the mayor will strike a two-metre high cymbal as Japanese musicians play taiko drums.

A giant X, in the form of 60m (196ft) of red ribbon will then be unfurled by devotees of cult Japanese Manga characters dressed in colourful costumes.

Mr Johnson said the crossing, controlled by traffic lights, was "a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old fashioned common sense".

Now the crossing and ceremony sounds great and all, but if Boris really wanted inspiration for this, then he didn't need to travel all the way to the Far East.

In fact just a short journey down to the Near South would have done as well.

-Update- Cllr James Cousins and Dave Cross and The Metro have joined the fight to reclaim Balham's honour

Two Tories rewarded for misconduct and greed

2009-10-28T13:12:00.007Z

There have been two stories in this past week that neatly sum up the current state of play in Tory London.

Last week a Conservative member of Boris Johnson's Fire Authority was suspended from Brent council for serious misconduct.

Understandably there were immediate calls for her to stand down from her position on LFEPA.

However, rather than stand down, it soon became clear that the Tories actually wanted to promote her to a new role as Deputy Chair.

Urged to prevent this, Boris stood aside and allowed her to be rewarded with this new role (and allowance) instead.

Now thanks to Boris, the disgraced and suspended Cllr Bertha Joseph will join the even more disgraced Cllr Brian Coleman in representing the Fire Service to Londoners.

Self-regulation

Earlier this year the Standard also exposed the Tory leader of London Councils Merrick Cockell for his love of transatlantic junkets and taxpayer-funded limousines.

Like his sometime dining companion Ian Clement, Mr Cockell's grand visits to luxury international hotels were financed at the not so grand local-taxpayers' expense

However, while Clement lied about his dining companions, Cockell failed to even declare the "colleague" he shared a meal with at the Four Seasons restaurant, New York.

Asked who this person was, and what they were discussing, Cockell would only say that he had forgotten.

Repeatedly pushed on why this was, Cockell finally replied:

From: "leader@rbkc.gov.uk"
To: ***********@btinternet.com
Sent: Monday, 21 September, 2009 11:57:38 AM
Subject: RE: January 2007

Dear Mr *******

I regret that I do not have this information from two and a half years
ago. Had I the information you are requesting then it would have been
provided in response to your earlier FOI and other enquiries.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Merrick Cockell

Leader, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

So how has Cockell's incompetence and greed been dealt with? Well with a lovely new role on the Audit Commision of course.

How very reassuring.

And where are those other tireless defenders of taxpayer value, the Taxpayers' Alliance when you need them?

Well they're tirelessly defending a Tory MP of course.

At the Guardian: on the BNP's Richard Barnbrook

2009-10-26T09:15:00.005Z

Head over to the Guardian to read more from me on the outlawed bananas, failed youth rallies and fancy dress of the BNP's one and only Richard Barnbrook.

Then head over to Enemies of Reason for the best take on the fake tabloid outrage surrounding Griffin's appearance on Question Time last week.

Boris Johnson and the Cycle Friday ghost riders

2009-10-21T21:30:00.003+01:00

Asked last week by Caroline Pidgeon AM how many people had taken part in his Cycle Friday initiative, Boris Johnson replied:

"I am pleased to confirm that well over four hundred cyclists registered for the Cycle Friday events that ran towards the end of the Summer of Cycling."

Four hundred sounds pretty poor for a London-wide "summer of cycling" to me. So how did you work out that total Boris?

But hang on, doesn't that assume that a completely different set of people turned up each week? If they didn't then Boris has double counted them no?

Surely the real number who took part could be as little as 93.

And with the total cost of the scheme thought to be £30,000, that works out as the most expensive commute it's possible to make.

Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just hand out a few hundred free bikes?

You can listen to Boris's Transport adviser Kulveer Ranger debate the scheme with Nick Ferrari and Caroline Pidgeon in the above clip:

Boris Johnson paddles away from island airport

2009-10-20T12:34:00.009+01:00

Boris Johnson today dramatically distanced himself from plans to construct an airport in the Thames Estuary.

Asked by Val Shawcross AM why the airport is not in his Transport Strategy he replied that while it was an interesting idea:

"I do not have an aspiration to construct such an airport."

Boris had initially refused to even discuss the airport with the Transport Committee, saying that it was at "too early a stage."

However, when pushed, he told the committee:

"I think it is very important that we clear up the status of this feasibility study and the status of this airport. I do not have an aspiration to construct such an airport. What I think it is right for us at the GLA is to look in a progressive way at all the possibilities for aviation capacity around london. And that is all we are doing"

The admission comes just one day after Doug Oakervee published the long delayed feasibility study into the airport.

Unusually it was not published on the Mayor's website, and the Mayor released no statement to accompany it.

It was however accompanied by derision from both the City of London and from an alliance of Conservative Councils in Kent.

The Conservative leadership have also distanced themselves from the project.

Boris Johnson's new steering group will look at plans for an airport.

However, their remit has shifted away from the airport alone, towards the wider issues of development in the Thames Estuary.

And while Boris's Deputy Kit Malthouse said it could be built within ten years, Oakervee's plans push construction back to 2029, long after Boris will have gone.

So barring the arrival of any mystery sheiks, Boris's Island will continue to resemble NeverNeverLand.

Counting the Cost of Boris's Fare Rise

2009-10-15T21:01:00.032+01:00

Fare rises images by Beau Bo D'or

Political Animal would pay more

Dave Hill on congestion confusion

Boris Watch adds up his fare rise bill

Dave Cole on scrapping the WEZ

Wolmar thinks Boris learnt a lesson

Sunny Hundal on Boris's Achilles Heel

Left Foot Forward get out their abacus

TYR on London Tories and Fake Sheikhs

Val Shawcross on paying more but getting less

Me on today's fare rise announcement if you missed it.

Boris Johnson an elected dictator says Andrew Boff

2009-10-15T14:34:00.005+01:00

Boris Johnson is an elected dictator whose job should be scrapped, a Conservative Assembly Member said today.

Following a call by Conservative Home to abolish the body that holds the Tory Mayor to account, Andrew Boff wrote:

"Abolishing the London Assembly would be a good first step on the road to abolishing the elective dictatorship that is the Mayoralty.

Assembly members do actually work very hard in my experience (this was not my view before getting elected) but they are doing a job that could be performed by the Boroughs or a beefed up London Councils ( http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk ).

There will be a saving but it won't be as much as £8m as some of our roles would have to be transferred to the Boroughs."

Boff has said openly what I'm sure other Tory Assembly Members would agree with privately, and it's certainly a principled stance to propose giving yourself the sack.

But if the Mayoralty is such a bad idea for London, then why did he stand for it himself?

-Update- The Evening Standard have now followed up this story

Boris Johnson raises fares by up to 20 per cent

2009-10-15T10:24:00.011+01:00

Boris Johnson will raise the cost of traveling in London by up to 20 per cent with bus users suffering the hardest, he announced today.

A single pay as you go bus ticket will rise to £1.20 with off peak tube fares also rising by almost 20%.

The congestion charge, held at £8 since 2005 will also rise to £10, although this will not come in until the Western Extension is scrapped next year.

Single cash fares on the bus will remain at £2 and some travelcard prices will be frozen.

The new fares will come into effect in January, just one year after a similar above inflation hike.

Liberal Democrat Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee Caroline Pidgeon said today:

"This will be a slap in the face for the millions of Londoners who will be seeing no increase in their pay packets this year. It is all very well Boris trumpeting a zero increase in his share of Council Tax. Fare rises affect far more people, at far greater cost."

Labour's deputy leader on the London Assembly, John Biggs, said:

"This is a massive kick in the teeth for hard pressed Londoners at a time when many are struggling with the recession. Not putting up council tax will save people pennies but this will hit them hard. Londoners will rightly wonder why Boris can apparently find £5bn of TfL savings but can't keep down their fares"

Former Mayor Ken Livingstone said today:

"I left Boris Johnson with very large Transport for London reserves and plans to raise more funds and protect the environment. He has cut investment, reduced protection of the environment and hammered ordinary Londoners with above inflation fare increases. In essence his policy is that the majority of Londoners should pay to subsidise the better off and worst polluters. That is no joke for London."

You can read a summary of the fare rises here.

Misconduct halts the Coleman "revolution" (briefly)

2009-10-14T14:15:00.024+01:00

Brian Coleman's plans for a "revolution" on the London Fire Authority were brought to a halt today after one of his fellow Tories was suspended for misconduct.

As Paul Waugh reports, Brent Councillor Bertha Joseph has been barred from her council ~~and LFEPA~~ for six months after using charitable sponsorship money to pay for her ball gowns.

Fellow Tory Fire Authority Member Tony Arbour was also suspended from Richmond Council yesterday after being found guilty of disclosing confidential information.

A spokesman for Richmond Council said:

“Cllr Tony Arbour, ward member for Hampton Wick, has been suspended from Richmond Council duty for 28 days due to his disclosure of confidential information, prior to the completion of the purchase of land in Broom Road, Teddington, in February, 2009.

“The Standards Hearing sub-committee judged unanimously that Cllr Arbour had breached paragraph 4 of the Members’ Code of Conduct. The suspension will begin on 19 October, during which time Cllr Arbour will be unable to take part in formal Council business.”

However, ~~unlike Joseph~~, he has not been suspended from LFEPA.

Joseph's suspension follows the defection of Labour member of the authority Betty Evans-Jacas to the Tories earlier this week.

Coleman was exultant at this move, giving him as it did, a working majority on LFEPA for the first time.

With this majority he would have finally been able to push through his planned "Coleman revolution." This is thought to include:

Changes to Firefighter shift patterns
Removal of beds from fire stations.
Removal of diversity officers
Removal of support staff from opposition members
Removal of his political opponents from committee Chairmanships
Removal of a fire escape at LFEPA headquarters in order to make a private entrance for himself and authority members.

With Bertha gone, Londoners will be spared this revolution a little longer.

-Update- Paul Waugh reports that Joseph will not be suspended from LFEPA after all. The revolution is back on!

Boris Island gets lost in the Thames Estuary

2009-10-12T14:59:00.015+01:00

The Mayor's road toll proposals are (we are told) of the long-term, last resort, blue-sky thinking, frankly never-going-to-happen order of Boris ideas.

However, they do at least make it into his Transport Strategy released today. How about this one:

“Boris Island”, as the £40billion proposed site two miles off Sheerness has been called, could be entirely bankrolled and owned by sheikhs.

The Mayor's deputy, Kit Malthouse, said it could be built within 10 years. Plans indicate it would dwarf the capacity of Heathrow's two runways.

He added: “We have had an incredible amount of interest from countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, which have signalled they would like to fund the airport. It is possible we could build it without taxpayers' money.

“Who wouldn't want to own an immovable fixed asset just off the coast? It's extremely valuable and the owners of sovereign wealth funds know they could bequeath it to their children.”

Ooh how exciting. A fantasy airport built by Mystery Sheikhs for the benefit of Mystery Sheikh children. Where's this to be found in the Mayor's Transport Strategy?

Nowhere is where. There is not a single solitary mention of it anywhere within Boris's 356 page report.

So what has happened to this project launched from a dredger last winter, and ceaselessly trailed by failed airline tycoon and Deputy Mayor for Boondoggles Kit Malthouse?

I phoned up City Hall to ask. Where was the now long overdue feasibility study?

"Doug Oakervee's study will be coming out shortly" they told me.

"Is there a fixed date for his report?" I asked.

"No there's no fixed date." they replied.

Oh well, I'm sure it will be worth the wait in the end.

-Update- The Kent Messenger reports:

The idea of an island airport has been universally condemned in Kent, with politicians from all parties and local councils and environmental groups saying it is a non-starter...

A spokesman for the mayor’s office said: “Kit Malthouse made the comments during the Tory party conference.

“There has been interest from all quarters and from different parts of the world but it’s irrelevant at the moment as we are waiting for the feasibility study from Doug Oakervee to come out.

“Nothing is definite at the moment. It is not definite that it can be done or that we would want to do it but there’s a lot of interest in the idea. At this stage the most important thing is the feasibility study.”

Hardly a ringing endorsement is it?

Boris will introduce road tolls as a "last resort"

2009-10-12T10:33:00.014+01:00

Another day, another unwelcome headline for the Mayor in the Evening Standard:

"Motorists face being charged to drive on London's busiest roads under radical new plans by Boris Johnson.

Drivers could be forced to pay for every mile they drive — on top of the congestion charge — as the Mayor fights to plug a multi-million-pound hole in the Transport for London budget.

If previous government proposals are followed the cost could be up to £1.34 a mile. Someone with a 12-mile round trip to work in central London during the day could pay a total of £20...

The busiest areas in London would be targeted. These include Edgware Road, Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, Embankment and busy suburban areas such as Croydon and Greenwich"

The proposals are contained within Boris's Transport Strategy released today (more of which later).

If implemented they would go some way to making up the lost revenue from scrapping the Western Congestion Charge, and towards paying for the removal of bendy buses etc.

However, when I contacted City Hall about it this morning, I got the following response:

Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor of London's transport advisor, said:

"There is absolutely no scheme in the Mayor's Transport Strategy to introduce road user charging in London. (my emphasis)

Except...

"The strategy is a comprehensive look at how to manage the growing demands on transport in London over the period to 2031. As such it includes the flexibility that, if the raft of other measures to address congestion and pollution do not have the expected effects, road user charging could at that time be considered. This would be very much the last resort, and very much in the long term." (My emphasis)

So it is in the strategy but it isn't?

And it's a long-term problem, which is why we won't see this (non-existent) proposal implemented any time soon?

Oh dear. Back to the drawing board I think.

-Update- More on Boris's Transport Strategy:

"Boris Island" gets lost in the Thames Estuary

Boris Johnson and Veronica Wadley cronyism row

2009-10-08T10:04:00.021+01:00

Boris Johnson was accused of cronyism last night after it emerged he tried to install former Evening Standard editor Veronica Wadley as London Arts Council Chair.

Two of the three members of the selection panel described Wadley as "manifestly the least qualified" candidate for the job and agreed not to forward her for interview.

One panel member described Wadley as "inadequate" with "almost no arts credibility" and only Boris's Adviser Munira Mirza disagreed.

However, this decision was overruled by Boris, who described Wadley as "highly qualified" and subsequently recommended her for the position.

News of her imminent appointment was then leaked to the IoS and the process was only stopped because it was judged that Boris had broken the Nolan rules on public appointments.

In a letter sent to the Department of Media Culture and Sport, panel member Liz Fogan said that:

"we are left with a due process that was not followed, a candidate who was manifestly less qualified than three of her competitors and three distinguished candidates put through a process that seems to have had questionable validity. My conclusion is that the Mayor's intended appointment was based on reasons other than the selection of the best candidate for the job."

Ridding Cronyism from City Hall

Under Wadley's editorship, the Evening Standard ran a relentless campaign against Ken Livingstone and for Boris Johnson.

The close relationship led to the paper being referred to as the Evening Boris and it's new owner has worked hard to restore it's political independence.

Boris too, was accused of cronyism last year after he installed one of his major election donors onto the board of the LDA.

It was also reported that he intended to appoint his brother Jo as "Director of Strategy" at City Hall. The appointment never occurred.

Wadley's defence, that one panel member was "a lefty" (Liz Fogan sits on the Scott Trust) is to be expected.

However, it is Boris's decision which is the remarkable one, as much for its political naivety as for any apparent breach of the rules.

I mean how did Boris think this was going to look?

-Update- London Assembly Chairman Darren Johnson said today:

"I would be extremely concerned if the mayor was not following transparent criteria for appointments. This London Mayor has only been in office a year and a half, yet we have had an extraordinary series of scandals and mistakes. An independent report commissioned by the Greater London Authority and the Metropolitan Police Authority admonished the Mayor for his "extraordinary and unwise" behaviour when Damien Green MP was arrested. The rushed nature of his appointments of deputy Mayor’s certainly contributed to the subsequent loss of some of them. Finally, another deputy mayor had to resign after he was able to falsify his expenses over a period of several months.”

An aide to Boris Johnson said today:

"If he has to sit out for a new secretary of state, he will."

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Paxman: What a farce

2009-10-06T09:33:00.012+01:00

After a year of softly-softly interviews with the likes of Vanessa Feltz, the BBC finally had a chance to grill Boris on his record yesterday.

The result was beyond terrible.

First up we had Andrew Neil, who given ten minutes to question the Mayor, decided to ask age-old questions about the Bullingdon Club and play an 18 month old clip of the Mayoral elections.

Worse than that, the vast bulk of the questioning was on an area (EU treaty law) where Boris has zero knowledge, control or influence over. Truly awful.

Next up we had Jeremy Paxman, who having seemingly missed Neil's interview, proceeded to ask almost exactly the same irrelevant questions all over again.

After the umpteempth question on Bullingdon, Boris quite rightly responds:

"Is that really what you are asking? Is this what Newsnight has come to? Is this what depths you have plumbed on this show?"

The interview breaks down into pure farce, with Boris deciding to ask his own questions before being asked to deliver his own speech direct to the camera.

All on the same day that Boris announces a major u-turn and a £5bn cut* in transport spending.

What a despicable waste of an opportunity.

*The only place you'll have seen this reported was on BBC London by Tim Donovan. This is one interviewer that Boris has serially avoided.

Barnbrook for Barking!

2009-10-03T12:54:00.007+01:00

Say what you like about the BNP's Richard Barnbrook, he is always good comedic value.

Following his cringeworthy performance last week in City Hall, he's performed a mini-media blitz to restore his reputation.

So far this has involved a rather awkward press conference, a short interview on late night radio (in which we learned that Caribbeans can cook) and er, a new billboard on the A406:

I, Richard Barnbrook am going to be Barking’s next MP! I’m the candidate for the British National Party, which is the only Party that has the guts to tell it like it is. But even more than that, I’m an individual who cares; a real, ordinary person who lives in Barking and who’s a part of Barking.

That's right, Richard Barnbrook is planning to stand as Barking MP.

And he's a "real, ordinary person" you know? Rather than say, some kind of crazed racist superhero:

The comments underneath the announcement are good value:

Migrant Worker: Why don't those billboards make any mention of the BNP? Have you been booted out of the party?

5cc: That second picture is one of the funniest things I've seen in ages.

"It's quiet in the city. Almost too quiet. No knifecrime murders for the BNP to use to link to black people and call for the banning of the Notting Hill Carnival. If only there were some way of making the public think there were.

But wait! This is a job for Richard Barnbrook! ZAP! There's a made-up murder! KAPOW! There's another two! With his special 'make stuff up' powers, Barnbrook saves the day!"

Get yourselves a seat on the front row London. This is going to be priceless.

The Decline of the Evening Standard

2009-10-02T15:48:00.012+01:00

So it has come to this. London's sorriest "quality newspaper" is to become a freebie:

Editor Geordie Grieg told today's Channel Four News:

"Many things are free and make money - we hope for example that Channel 4 is one of them.

"We are going to remain a quality newspaper and that is what will make us attractive to advertisers."

Now Channel Four is free and it does makes money.

But it's lunchtime news bulletins? Not so much.

"Channel 4 is axing its lunchtime news bulletin and More4 News as part of a cost-cutting move that will lead to up to 20 job losses."

Whichever way you look at it, free news equals more job cuts and more news cuts.

The Evening Standard plans to survive, if it can, by sacking it's vendors, increasing adverts, and slipping in more 'unmarked advertorials' (see this gem called out by Private Eye)

In short they plan to survive by cutting costs, cutting quality, but increasing circulation

And they plan to do so after years of mega losses from London's freesheets.

For a man who bought the paper for just one pound last year (but who has since invested millions) it's a brave, possibly reckless, possibly idiotic move.

It also doesn't begin to solve what are long term, and chronic problems for the paper.

In recent months, the paper has tried hard to restore itself in our affections, but while the smell of sock has gone, the smell of out of touch London lingers on.

There are still good journalists at the Evening Standard

But sadly over the years they've been sidelined, by personal vendetta, and by the courting of a very small section of London society.

Bit by bit ordinary Londoners have deserted them, and now Grieg plans to win us back, by literally forcing the paper into our hands.

Whether this will allow them to survive financially remains to be seen, but whether it will ever be a truly "quality London paper" is sadly in greater doubt.

The "I'm free" and "Anything else?" images are by the ever-brilliant Beau Bo D'or. Head over to his place for more.

Google Similar Images (Political Doubles)

2009-09-30T22:54:00.009+01:00

I've been having some fun with Google's new 'similar image' search. Here's a few of my favourites:

This is England This is the BNP

Village People Barking People

Not Andrew Gilligan Andrew Gilligan

Red Boris Blue Boris

Can you do any better? Please place links to your finds in the comments box. The best one wins a prize.