Category Archives: London

Ken Livingstone attacks Boris Johnson for, er…, agreeing with Ken Livingstone

By Mark Pack | Published 21st January 2012 - 8:55 am

Ken Livingstone has me a bit confused.

Hearing him attack Boris Johnson is certainly not a surprise.

But hearing him attack Boris Johnson for saying what Ken Livingstone himself said previously? That’s a bit odd, shall we say.

Compare and contrast now and then.

The now:

Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone were engulfed in a war of words today over whether Londoners are too “lazy” to find work. The Mayor claimed some young people in the capital lacked the “energy” to go out and get jobs which were instead going to immigrants. His Labour challenger Ken Livingstone immediately accused him of branding Londoners “lazy and workshy”.

And …

Also posted in Opposition watch | Tagged boris johnson, ken livingstone | 3 Comments

London Liberal Democrats – helping those with the smallest pockets get to work

By Caroline Pidgeon | Published 17th January 2012 - 2:52 pm

Last week Brian Paddick and I launched a fairer fares package ahead of this year’s London Mayoral and Assembly elections.

Boris Johnson has been Mayor of London since 2008. In just four years he has increased the cheapest bus fare from 90p to £1.35 – and he had planned to raise fares even further until the Coalition Government stepped in and helped limit the rise. As well as bus fares, the cost of travelling on the Tube, the Docklands Light Railway, the Croydon Tramlink and the London Overground have all soared under Mr Johnson’s mayoralty.

Of course there …

Also posted in News | Tagged brian paddick, caroline pidgeon, london, tfl | 10 Comments

Police compensate teenager banned from photographing Armed Forces Day Parade

By Mark Pack | Published 12th December 2011 - 7:10 pm

The Press Association reports the latest news on a case taken up by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Dee Doocey and others at the time:

Lawyers say a teenager wrongly stopped by police from taking photographs at a public event in a town centre has been compensated.

[Police officers had] prevented Jules Mattsson – then 15 – from taking pictures at a military parade in Romford, east London, in June 2010 … Law firm Bindmans, which represented the youngster, said … “Despite the public event taking place in the middle of the town centre, Metropolitan Police officers claimed it was unlawful

…

Also posted in News | Tagged dee doocey, jules mattsson, photography | 7 Comments

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 …

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

What next for London’s airports?

By The Voice | Published 31st October 2011 - 11:54 am

One of the first acts of the Coalition was to scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow, whilst Boris Johnson’s plans for a new airport on an artifical island in the Thames Estuary have not been going anywhere much. So what next for the region’s airports?

This is what the BBC had to report:

What’s your view?

Tagged boris johnson, heathrow | 3 Comments

Dee Doocey writes… Questions now must be answered over the Met’s record of undercover policing

By Dee Doocey | Published 26th October 2011 - 3:58 pm

Last week, it was revealed that an undercover Metropolitan police officer, Jim Boyling, had been arrested and tried for a public order offence under his cover name, Jim Sutton. Yet at no time during the trial did he reveal the fact that he was using a false identity. At the time, in 1996, he had been posing as a member of the non-violent, pro-cycling ‘Reclaim the Streets’ campaign.

At the trial, Boyling would have given evidence under oath about who he was and what had happened – while maintaining a false identity. He had allowed himself to be arrested, charged, prosecuted and potentially convicted of a criminal offence. As it turned out, he was found not guilty. But Sutton’s police minders were prepared to allow him to face possible conviction for a criminal offence – an offence committed by a serving undercover police officer, giving evidence on oath with the benefit of privileged legal advice that he shouldn’t have had.

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged independent police complaints commission, jim boyling | 3 Comments

Ken Livingstone ‘cannot win’, says top Labour official

By Mark Pack | Published 20th October 2011 - 1:56 pm

News from the troubled Labour campaign for Mayor of London:

The official in charge of the London Labour Party has been removed after saying that Ken Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for the mayoralty, “cannot win” next year’s election if he continues as now.

Hilary Perrin, Labour’s London regional director, has been moved back to her previous role overseeing all the regional directors after Ken and his chief of staff, Simon Fletcher, appealed to Ed Miliband’s office. Another London Labour official, Paul Harrington, has also left his job. An awayday to plan the campaign, supposed to take place last Friday, was cancelled. (Daily Telegraph)

You …

Also posted in Opposition watch | Tagged hilary perrin, ken livingstone, paul harrington, simon fletcher | 7 Comments

Bromley Council pulls a controversial novelty with a lollipop lady petition

By Mark Pack | Published 12th October 2011 - 1:50 pm

Tsk, tsk, Bromley Conservatives.

There is a council by-election campaign underway in Shortlands ward, Bromley where the excellent Anuja Prashar is the Liberal Democrat candidate. (So excellent, I’ll forgive her for organising a raffle once that broke all my Lib Dem raffle rules.) She has been campaigning against council plans to axe the lollipop ladies at two local schools and, as part of that, presented a petition signed by 283 residents to the council.

And then things started being done differently…

For the first time, Bromley Council decided to respond personally and directly to all the signatories on a petition, posting out …

Also posted in Local government, Opposition watch | Tagged anuja prashar, bromley council, colin smith, conservative party | 2 Comments

Oyster Card survey shows heavy interest in cutting coverage or raising prices

By Mark Pack | Published 8th October 2011 - 10:25 am

During the week I got an email in my inbox asking me to take part in a survey on behalf of the Passenger Demand Forecasting Council (“a body consisting of Transport for London and other industry bodies”) about the future of the Oyster touch in/touch out travel card used in London.

The email went a little overboard in emphasising that the survey was just about finding out people’s attitudes and possible future behaviour and that there are no current plans etc etc. To which my obvious response was to wonder why they would be so keen to say this…

And looking through …

Tagged oyster, passenger demand forecasting council, tfl | 4 Comments

Guide dogs allowed on London Underground escalators – Caroline Pidgeon campaign success

By Mark Pack | Published 3rd October 2011 - 8:50 am

Following a campaign by Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon, the legal ban on guide dogs travelling on the escalators on the London Underground is being lifted on Wednesday.

Transport for London and the Government are changing a by-law which originated in the era of wooden escalators which could expand and contract depending on heat and humidity. This meant larger gaps have to be left by default than on modern metal escalators, with resulting fears that guide dogs (now often called assistance dogs) might get their paws stuck …

Tagged boris johnson, caroline pidgeon | 2 Comments

The top five London MPs for outside earnings

By Mark Pack | Published 30th September 2011 - 8:55 am

Via a survey carried out for LondonlovesBusiness.com comes this list of the top five London MPs for annual outside earnings on top of their MP salary of £65,738:

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP for Kensington (Con) – upwards of £240,000
Nick Raynsford, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich (Lab) - £60,657
Mark Field, MP for Cities of London and Westminster (Con) - £41,740
Jo Johnson, MP for Orpington (Con) - £12,314
Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Lab) - £10,326

What do you think of these figures: good to see MPs having a range of activities or bad to see MPs spending time earning these sorts of sums?

Also posted in Parliament | Tagged diane abbott, jo johnson, malcolm rifkind, mark field, nick raynsford | 10 Comments

Brian Paddick writes… Policing the riots

By Brian Paddick | Published 28th September 2011 - 11:50 am

I am on the horns of a dilemma. I served Londoners in the Metropolitan Police for more than 30 years and loyalty to my former colleagues runs deep. As a sergeant, I faced bricks and petrol bombs on the streets of Brixton in 1981. So I know what officers went through during the recent riots. I later became one of a small cadre of advanced trained public order senior officers who took charge of policing protests and big events in London. So I know the strategies and tactics for dealing with riots. Yet I, like most Londoners, was disappointed by …

Also posted in Op-eds | Tagged bernard hogan-howe, riots, tim goodwin | 8 Comments

The message that won the Mayor selection for Brian Paddick

By Mark Pack | Published 7th September 2011 - 12:55 pm

Neil Stockley, one of the best Liberal Deomcrat commentators when it comes to messaging and presenting a coherent narrative, has taken a look at the message which propelled Brian Paddick to victory in the London Mayor selection contest:

Liberal Democrat selection campaigns for London mayor are strange beasts, as the party seeks out a mega-campaigner who can rally the troops and pull in more assembly members by his/her coat-tails. This time, the dynamics were mixed up even more by the entry into the race of the former Montgomeryshire MP, Lembit Opik. (Lembit had a defeat narrative in which he compared

…

Tagged brian paddick, lembit opik, neil stockley | 3 Comments

A tale of two holes – and a £39m price tag

By Mark Pack | Published 7th September 2011 - 7:54 am

In principle, I have no objection to people digging holes in the ground. Even very expensive holes. Potholes? Bad. But lift shafts, underground tunnels and other such excavations? Good. A big hole that loops back on itself and could* end the universe? That’ll do nicely. The combination of a hole, Bernard Cribbins and Lego? Excellent.

If I had to postulate a general theory of holes, I’d say that a hole that is not used is a bad hole. And two holes that are not used are doubly bad.

Which brings me to the question of the £39 million spent …

Tagged boris johnson, caroline pidgeon, craig brown, featured, ken livingstone, tfl, transport | 13 Comments

Forget airports, sort the road works – message from London business leaders

By The Voice | Published 6th September 2011 - 6:55 pm

An opinion poll of 760 London business leaders carried out by ComRes for the new LondonLovesBusiness website found an overwhelming preference for the next Mayor of London to concentrate on sorting out roadworks rather than trying to get a new airport runway built.

Only 14% support a new Heathrow runway or a new Thames Estuary airport, but 57% want the next Mayor of London to focus on tackling roadworks disruption. Public transport is central to the business leaders’ concerns with improving public transport and transport links the most popular selection as the “single most important thing the mayor could do …

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