Tag archive for ‘Boris Johnson’
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Malthouse appointment = broken Boris promise
Dave Hill has a preview of today’s confirmation hearing for Kit Malthouse to become chair of the police authority – a clear cut broken promise by Boris Johnson who pledged to do the job himself.
Dave looks at the recent resignation of Bob Purkiss from the race and faith inquiry, amid questions over Malthouse’s role in that affair.
Meanwhile in the Standard Pippa Crerar reports that the incoming chair has a poor attendance record at MPA meetings, despite being the mayor’s lead on [...] -
Boris Johnson – dodging public accountability
Boris Johnson’s appearance on LBC’s Nick Ferrari show this morning highlights two clear issues with his administration.
The first is broken promises. In his manifesto Boris Johnson gave a commitment [pdf, see page three] that he would reintroduce tidal flow in the Blackwall tunnel. Now he says he can’t do it for legal reasons.
There are two options. Either he was right during the election, in which case it is simply incompetent not to implement his promise. Or he is right now, in which [...] -
More bus strikes confirmed for next week
I’ve blogged before on industrial relations problems across the bus network. Boris Johnson has been explicitly criticised by trade unionists who see fares about to rise but their pay frozen, whilst revenue from the congestion charge will be reduced when the western extension is abolished. Johnson has blocked millions of pounds of potential revenue by axing the £25 c-charge on gas guzzlers.
Steve Hart, the regional secretary of the Unite union, has previously argued that his union believes Londoners are suffering [...] -
Johnson gets twitter guidance over party-political tweet
Boris Johnson will receive guidance by the GLA’s Monitoring Officer over the use of his Mayor of London twitter account after the Greater London Authority’s Standards’ Committee found he could be seen to have breached the Authority’s code of conduct by tweeting on a party political matter.
The three- person sub-committee, with a majority of independent members, investigated a complaint from a member of the public who questioned whether it was appropriate for Johnson to use his mayoral twitter feed to welcome the Sun’s endorsement [...] -
Gas guzzling drivers versus bus users – protecting the few, not the many
It’s not just nationally where the question of whose interests the Conservatives would govern in is posed. In London we are already seeing the impact on ordinary Londoners of an administration committed to defending the interests of the gas guzzling few against the needs of the public transport-using many.
Sir Simon Milton – Boris Johnson’s chief of staff – told viewers of the London segment of the Politics Show today that one of the principal reasons for scrapping the planned £25 [...] -
Moonwalking bear necessities
Not much reported, but noteworthy all the same, is the news that Transport for London’s “moonwalking bear” cycling safety ad has won a gold award at the IPA Effectiveness Awards for advertising.
As the judges commented, “Faced with the difficult task of reducing the number of deaths and the number of injuries that cyclists sustain on London’s roads, this campaign moved away from traditional shock tactic strategy and instead tried to understand what is causing these accidents.”
Commissioned during [...] -
Boris Johnson’s policies blamed for bus and tube disputes
Last week I wrote that industrial relations on London’s transport system were being allowed to drift. Bus workers in East London (members of the Unite union) were on strike, whilst talks aimed at resolving the longstanding tube pay dispute appeared to be unravelling, with the TSSA union withdrawing its acceptance of London Underground’s offer – a very unusual development.
Events today suggest that the prognosis was right, with Unite warning that the mayor’s transport policies are worsening the situation across public [...] -
Stuck in the Olympic slow lane
Greens are more than unhappy today at the announcement of BMW as the official sponsor of the London 2012 Games. Darren Johnson AM is disappointed that the Games will not be used to showcase the latest clean vehicle technology. He says: “The Mayor wants London to be the electric vehicle capital of Europe, so why not ensure that all the cars and coaches are part of that future? It is disappointing that most of the Olympic vehicles will be no [...]
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(Not just) a Standard night out
Just back from an Evening Standard bash on Horseferry Road. (No, of course I’m not on this list).
I’ll leave it to the Standard’s staff to report the event properly tomorrow, including perhaps Ken Livingstone’s and Boris Johnson’s interesting chat…
Amusingly, Ken bumped into Rachel Johnson on the way in to the party – so you could say he arrived with the mayor’s sister.
Shameless name-dropping alert. Among those I had a chance to speak to were Boris Johnson’s chief of staff Simon [...] -
Gordon Brown – more accountable to the media than Boris Johnson
Watching Gordon Brown hold his regular Downing Street press conference today underscores how woefully London is served in this respect by Boris Johnson’s attitude to the media.
Brown exposes himself to questioning on the most important issues of the day. He is joined by a colleague or colleagues to promote an issue that he wants to push on a particular occasion but does not use this to block questions on other subjects. He is willing to be questioned for some time [...]
