Date archive for October, 2009
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Hello Boris Johnson
I’ve just had an email informing me that Boris Johnson is following me on Twitter. Stranger things have happened I’m sure.
So, welcome to Boris Johnson – I hope you find something of interest here… -
Post dispute – the Business, Innovation and Skills Department risks damaging the whole government
Yesterday I wrote here that management’s refusal to go to ACAS unless the possibility of a national strike is first lifted indicated what was wrong with the way the Royal Mail is handling industrial relations in the industry.
I have just caught the end of Peter Mandelson’s statement to the House of Lords on the postal dispute. Rather than step in to try to get management to ACAS, Lord Mandelson unfortunately echoed the management line over ACAS.
The BBC’s reporter from Parliament, [...] -
Thames Estuary airport – Boris Johnson’s “big idea”
Adam Bienkov has posted these thoughts on the latest twists and turns of Boris Johnson’s fantasy airport island. Adam draws our attention to Boris Johnson’s remark today that “I do not have an aspiration to construct such an airport.”
This must be news to a number of people, not least his deputy, Kit Malthouse, who has been arguing that it could be built within ten years and promoting the policy at regular intervals to the media.
“We have had an incredible amount [...] -
Only the Conservatives stand to gain from all this CWU-bashing
THE NEWS today that the Royal Mail is refusing to go to ACAS until the postal workers’ union the CWU calls off the possibility of strikes later this week is an indication of the bad faith of the management in this dispute.
In these circumstances there ought to be no obstacle to the government intervening to get the Royal Mail to agree to talk at ACAS. Unfortunately Lord Mandelson is unwilling to do so.
The whole of British politics is currently [...] -
The attack on Balls shows the character of the Sheerman campaign for PLP chair
In general I don’t want this blog to become preoccupied with purely Westminster ins-and-outs but the latest manoeuvres over the direction of the PLP deserve some comment.
The Barry Sheerman-for-PLP-chair campaign has all the hallmarks of a renewed push to create a leadership crisis led by forces that represent no solution to Labour’s problems.
Barry Sheerman’s antics around the appointment of a new children’s commissioner may not be explicitly pitched as part of his putative campaign to unseat Tony Lloyd as the [...] -
Should some fares be cut?
Despite the fact that there is a clear alternative path to hitting fare payers, such as retaining the western extension of the congestion charge, introducing a CO2 charge on gas guzzlers, and abandoning wasteful policies like the removal of bendy buses, it is Londoners who are going to be forced to pay for Boris Johnson’s misleadership of London.
Over the next few weeks those who support public transport and want to keep it affordable will need to press the case for [...] -
FT – fare increase is biggest in TfL’s history
This coming January’s high fares package, announced yesterday, is “the biggest real-terms fares increases in [TfL's] history,” says the Financial Times.
This is relevant because Boris Johnson, spinning wildly, tried to argue that Ken Livingstone had raised the fares more.
But the FT’s report shows that Johnson’s increases are the biggest yet.
“The London mayor’s transport organisation is to impose the biggest real-terms fares increases in its history as it seeks to plug what it claims is a £1.7bn “black hole” in its [...] -
Blaming Ken won’t work, as Londoners get the measure of Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson has tried to spin his way out of the fare increase by continuing to blame Ken Livingstone.
I think this tactic is likely to be increasingly ineffective as people start to make their own judgements about Boris Johnson based on their own experience.
But as this question has been introduced by Johnson, I’ve reproduced Ken’s statement on today’s above-inflation fare increase below.
Ken Livingstone said:
“With overall bus fare increases of 12.7%, more than 12 times the rate of inflation, and overall [...] -
Suddenly he’s not so funny
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Boris Johnson’s vicious attack on public transport users
More on this later, but the Standard has the detail of the above-inflation fare increase. It is a vicious attack.
A seven-day bus pass will rise an eye-watering 20 per cent from £13.80 to £16.60. Most Oyster pay-as-you-go Tube fares will rise 20p per trip. That would put a single Oyster bus fare at £1.20, up from 90p when Ken Livingstone was mayor. Overall, bus fares will rise by 12.7 per cent and Tube fares by 3.9 per cent. Yet CPI [...]
