Tag Archives: boris johnson

LibLink: Brian Paddick – London is increasingly policed by force not consent – thanks to its mayors

By Nick Thornsby | Published 9th February 2012 - 5:17 pm

Lib Dem London mayoral candidate Brian Paddick had a piece on the Guardian’s Comment Is Free website yesterday on what is his undoubtedly his strongest issue – policing.

Here’s a sample of what Brian had to say:

Crime will be far more of an issue in the election of the mayor of London on 3 May because the mayor is now the elected crime and police commissioner for London. He alone sets police priorities and the police budget and he alone will hold the Metropolitan police to account. Far from holding the police to account, to date

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged brian paddick, ken livingstone, london mayoral election, policing | Leave a comment

The weekend debate: Should Stephen Hester accept his bonus?

By Carl Quilliam | Published 28th January 2012 - 9:25 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Since the £963, 000 shares bonus for RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester has been revealed there have been opinions pouring out from across the political spectrum.

When Ed Miliband accused David Cameron of a “failure of leadership” over it, Cameron promptly distanced himself from the process altogether, with George Osborne claiming it was due to rules put in place by Labour.

Boris Johnson seems to be against it, as is our usually economically …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ed miliband, george osborne, jeremy browne, nick clegg, stephen hester, weekend debate | 28 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes… Boris Island is no more than an election ploy

By Julian Huppert MP | Published 21st January 2012 - 11:45 am

Just one week after the Government gave the green light to a multi-billion pound high speed rail network, taxpayers are being asked to consider another tranche of infrastructure investment.

But the case for a £50 billion Thames Estuary Airport, dubbed ‘Boris Island’ after London’s inimitable Mayor, is so confused that it no longer constitutes a coherent proposal at all.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged SS Richard Montgomery, transport | 6 Comments

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 …

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged ken livingstone | 3 Comments

London Lib Dems hit out at Boris’s fare hikes as “shameful”

By The Voice | Published 3rd January 2012 - 11:25 am

London Lib Dem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick and leader of the London Lib Dems Caroline Pidgeon have criticised Boris Johnson’s 7% price hike for public transport fares which came into force today. Here’s the party’s official statement:

Commenting on the Mayor’s 2012 fare rises being introduced today Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate said:

“Once again we start the year with another painful fare package from Boris Johnson. For the fourth year in a row he has racked up fares by far more than the rate of inflation.

“His latest rises will simply add to the financial problems

…

Posted in News | Also tagged brian paddick, caroline pidgeon, dave hill | 4 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 …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Also tagged 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?

Posted in London | Also tagged heathrow | 3 Comments

Questions left hanging over Boris’s cable car

By Nick Thornsby | Published 17th October 2011 - 9:58 am

Conservative politicians spend much of their time criticising their Labour counterparts for the often-inefficient way in which they spend public money. This is often quite justifiable: the many billions wasted through disastrous PFI schemes, abandoned IT projects and expensive-but-pointless gimmicks under Labour are a shameful legacy.

But the gap between this Tory rhetoric and reality is often rather stark, and nowhere is this more evident than with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

Take, for example, one of Boris’s pet projects of a cable car to transport people between the O2 arena and the Excel exhibition centre (both Olympic venues). Sounds like …

Posted in News | Also tagged caroline pidgeon, mike tuffrey, tfl | 5 Comments

Gay marriage, animal insults and a pair of Conservatives

By Mark Pack | Published 13th October 2011 - 7:25 am

Conservative Councillor James Malliff is in trouble with his party after attacking David Cameron’s support for gay marriage, saying that you “may as well legalise marriage with animals”. The Conservative Party says that action is being taken against him for “completely unacceptable” language.

But wait, rummage through your political memories and recall this?

If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.

That would be one Mr B. Johnson, subsequently twice appointed …

Posted in News | Also tagged gay marriage, james malliff | 4 Comments

The Bigger Book of Boris: lots of jokes, not much politics

By Mark Pack | Published 6th October 2011 - 10:50 am

One of the questions that ambitious politicians often struggle to answer safely is, “Do you want to be leader of your party / Prime Minister?” Answer ‘yes’ in some form and journalists will line up to write stories about party splits, pending leadership challenges and the like. Answer ‘no’ and many will not believe you – whilst also quietly filing away the answer to quote back at the politician at an embarrassing later date.

The Bigger Book of Boris (an expanded version of the earlier Little Book of Boris) shows Boris Johnson’s political skill with humour in his answer to this question. …

Posted in Books | Also tagged iain dale | Leave a comment

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 …

Posted in London | Also tagged caroline pidgeon | 2 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 …

Posted in London | Also tagged caroline pidgeon, craig brown, featured, ken livingstone, tfl, transport | 13 Comments

Ken Livingstone: mine won’t be a grassroots funded campaign

By Mark Pack | Published 28th August 2011 - 9:47 am

It was Ken Livingstone’s poor taste joke about Boris Johnson, Hitler and people who don’t vote for him being sent to burn and flayed for all eternity that got the most attention following his interview in Total Politics.*

Taking a look at the printed version of the interview (and forcing my eyes to move past the awful shirt and dreadful trousers) there was one other comment from Ken Livingstone that stood out: “80 per cent of my funding will come from the trade unions”.

Livingstone made the comment in the context of having a go at the sources of Conservative Party funding …

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged ken livingstone | 25 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 | Also tagged 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 | Also tagged vince cable | 6 Comments

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