Author Archives: Mike Tuffrey AM

Mike Tuffrey AM writes… The question I asked top London Tory: “Is there anything you would not privatise?”

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 6th November 2011 - 10:10 am

“Is there anything you would not privatise?” That was the question I asked Brian Coleman, the controversial chair of London’s Fire Authority — a public body which sadly is in the grip of an ideologically-driven Conservative administration thanks to shameless gerrymandering by London’s Tory mayor Boris Johnson and unelected political appointees.

My question to him was prompted by the Tories’ current plans to privatise the London fire 999 emergency control room.

Mr Coleman’s answer? It was a bald and brazen “No”: there’s nothing he wouldn’t try to privatise if he could.

It’s true that in the London fire service …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, brian coleman, london fire authority | 6 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… Policing: not just a numbers game

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 23rd August 2011 - 9:25 am

On the streets of Tottenham, Croydon, Clapham, Hackney and Ealing, we saw what happens when adequate numbers of trained police are not deployed at the right time and in the right way.

And we heard how numbers on the streets were subsequently boosted from 3,000 to 16,000 only by drafting in back-up from neighbouring forces. In fairness, it must be said that riot control is very hazardous and officers must have the right training before they are deployed.

Yet Londoners can still be forgiven for wondering where all the police are, that they’ve been persuaded to pay for in higher council taxes.

Go …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, policing | 7 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… London isn’t working – and the Mayor is asleep on the job

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 8th August 2011 - 10:23 am

Today 397,000 Londoners are unemployed and looking for a job. As a region, we have the lowest level of skills in the workforce, based on NVQ Level 1 and above. And the problems are getting worse, as we fail to recover fast enough from the cardiac arrest that Labour’s last years in office dealt to the national economy.

Not a pretty picture for our great capital city, powerhouse (so we keep saying) of the whole UK economy.

In fact, weren’t the Olympics meant to help drive forward our economy? A couple of news stories from July sum up for me what’s wrong …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, vince cable | 6 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… The Big Switch: turning London’s buses and taxis electric

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 25th July 2011 - 12:53 pm

Rudolf Diesel has a lot to answer for. The compression engine he invented has become the great workhorse of heavy duty vehicles like the buses, taxis and vans which fill our streets. But the nasty side effect of diesel fuel is fine particulate exhaust emissions that are creating a major health crisis. Tiny particles get deep into the lungs, causing thousands of premature deaths and a big increase in ill health.

The biggest culprit in central London, where the health problems are most acute? Yes, buses, taxis …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged caroline pidgeon, chris huhne, transport | 12 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… My kinda campaign … working towards success in 2014

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 13th July 2011 - 11:53 am

Ol’ blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, used to sing about “My kinda town…” Rest assured, I won’t be singing. But let me tell you about London – my town – and the kind of campaign I intend to run as our candidate to be Mayor of London.

The test of success in the 2012 campaign isn’t just the number of votes we win in the Mayor contest – it is how many Assembly members we get elected and how many councillors, councils and MEPs we get elected in 2014.

Our very best London-wide campaigning in the past – such as that led …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged caroline pidgeon, lynne featherstone, susan kramer | 4 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… Housing: time to think big on the supply-side

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 7th July 2011 - 10:25 am

Even a cursory look at the state of housing in London instantly shows that something is profoundly wrong. Rents outside the social sector are racing ahead, up 17% last year. House prices defy the laws of gravity, up 5% despite national economic trends.

And the really scandalous thing is that it has been this way under both Mayors of London, with no sign of any fundamental change. That’s why I’ve been arguing we must focus above all else on getting the supply increased. Without that, solving the affordability question gets harder and harder: ever-rising housing and land costs means ever …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged ed balls, housing, wellcome trust | 42 Comments

Opinion: The postcode lottery – why freedom to be different is a good thing

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 24th June 2011 - 10:23 am

Few things are more likely to generate a round of applause at a public meeting than condemning the so-called postcode lottery. And of course random unfairness in the quality of a service – the ‘lottery’ aspect – is a bad thing, especially if people are paying the same but getting worse outcomes.

But what about difference – where one part of the country or one neighbourhood does things differently compared to another? What if it’s not a lottery but a choice?

And if people have freedom to do things differently and better, can we accept the risk they’ll not succeed and things …

Posted in Local government, London, Op-eds | Tagged margaret thatcher, postcode lottery | 11 Comments

Mike Tuffrey writes… Why I’m serious about London

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 16th June 2011 - 9:55 am

Yesterday I launched my bid to be our party’s candidate for Mayor of London and I started as I mean to go on: working with a large team of experienced colleagues from across London (see photographs here) and talking about the urgent change our city needs.

As a campaigning party, we must focus – pun intended – on the really big concerns Londoners have about living in this city. And as our candidate, I want to work with our campaigners to get out and listen to those concerns and what must be done.

I believe that it is time for …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, ken livingstone | 16 Comments

Boris Johnson’s funny money

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 24th May 2011 - 2:30 pm

With a year to go to the London Mayor and London Assembly elections a strange debate is underway about the huge part of London loosely described as “outer London”.

Remember the last election? One of the strongest attacks on Ken Livingstone was that he was just a “Zone One Mayor”. He was accused of having visited Havana more times than the London Borough of Havering. Three years on and the London Labour Party have decided that no speech, press release, letter or comment can go out without the words “outer London” repeated ad nauseam.

Posted in London | Tagged boris johnson, ken livingstone | 1 Comment

Why David Cameron is right, Boris Johnson muddled and James Cleverly just plain wrong

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 19th February 2009 - 11:03 am

Avid bloggers and observers of London politics might have noticed that James Cleverly, the Conservative Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley and Boris Johnson’s Ambassador for Youth, is intent on defending a muddled decision by Boris Johnson over vehicle emissions and in the process sought to criticise me and the Liberal Democrats.

Of course James is entitled to his own views but he’s wrong when he says there’s no evidence the Low Emission Zone is working. No lesser source than the Mayor has said (press release 2nd February): “…the Low Emission Zone has been successful in tackling the worst …

Posted in London | Tagged boris johnson, david cameron, james cleverly, lez | 2 Comments

Six months on, what shape is Boris Johnson’s mayoralty in?

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 20th October 2008 - 9:54 am

Asked by Lib Dem Voice back in June what I was making of it all, I guessed that “careful news planning should carry him safely through the honeymoon period”. I warned that “he will need to articulate a coherent vision and develop an enthusiasm for the process of government if he is to be a successful and admired mayor of the greatest city in the world”. And I concluded that we didn’t yet know “what Boris Johnson really stands for nor how London will be different and better at the end of his four year mayoralty”.

Today that fundamentally remains …

Posted in London | Tagged boris johnson, mike tuffrey | 6 Comments

Boris Johnson – two months on

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 2nd July 2008 - 9:23 am

Just days after his May 1st victory, looking out from his 8th floor office across the skyline of our great capital city, Boris Johnson repeated to me his early days mantra – yes, I was elected as a Conservative, but I am now mayor of the whole of London and will govern for the whole of London. Don’t believe what my opponents said, was his message, I’m no rabid right-winger.

Assessing his progress two months on, that clearly remains his desired positioning. It’s significant that his first gaffe – the sacking of deputy chief of staff, James McGrath, over ill-judged (but …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Tagged boris johnson, mike tuffrey | 9 Comments

Author Archives: Mike Tuffrey AM

Search

Poll