Tag archive for ‘London’
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Moving on
With the general and local elections well and truly over, Thursday was my last day at the Labour party. It was a great experience to work on a general election campaign and a pleasure to work as part of a team that gelled so well together. From campaigning against Boris Johnson’s January fare increase to Gordon Brown’s marathon ten visits in one day on the last weekend of the campaign there was – as the cliche goes – never a [...]
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Conservatives should be disappointed by the London election results
There’s a very interesting article on Conservative Home by Alex Crowley in which the author concedes “Nowhere should Conservatives be more disappointed with the recent election results than in London.”
Crowley writes:
“On a night of mixed results, Labour got the most votes in London and performed far better than they did in the rest of the country. As a result, the Tories were denied marginal seats, and key councils turned red.
“How did Labour manage such a good result?”
Crowley’s piece hits the [...] -
Crossrail – problems for a Tory mayor
Ongoing speculation about the future of Crossrail is mainly a problem for London. But it is also a problem for London’s mayor.
During the general election campaign Labour highlighted the failure of the Tories to give a clear commitment to complete Crossrail. That issue finally broke open when Justine Greening, then the Shadow London Minister, admitted that it was possible that under the Conservatives Crossrail might be cancelled.
The Tories’ deliberately imprecise formulation of ‘support’ for Crossrail – as opposed to any [...] -
Labour in London exceeded expectations
“Labour has done much better than expected in London”
David Dimbleby, BBC Election Results programme, 7th May 2010
I didn’t have time to post this yesterday, but here’s Tessa Jowell’s comment on the London general election results, where Labour held a succession of seats that were predicted to be going from red to blue. That’s in addition to the succession of local government victories in London that have seen Labour take back council after council.
Tessa Jowell said:
‘‘From the results that have been [...] -
Follow Labour in London
The London Labour party is now on Facebook and Twitter. Follow the party in the capital here on Twitter and catch up with news from Labour in London here on Facebook.
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A progressive agenda to stop the right in 2010
Readers of this blog may be interested in attending the Progressive London conference on 30th January – “A progressive agenda to stop the right in 2010.”
Some of the initial speakers, including Ken Livingstone, leading members of the London Assembly, MPs such as Jon Cruddas, Diane Abbott and Tessa Jowell, trade unionists, bloggers, writers, London councillors, MEPs, campaigners and activists, are listed here along with an early indication of some of the subjects for discussion.
As Progressive London reports, Ken Livingstone says:
“We [...] -
Former Tube MD Tim O’Toole’s tribute to Redmond O’Neill
The former Managing Director of London Underground, Tim O’Toole, posted a comment earlier today paying tribute to Redmond O’Neill, Ken Livingstone’s former director of transport, who died last week.
He said:
“I join with you and everyone who was lucky enough to know Redmond in the profound sense of loss and sadness at his death. How I admired his kindness, his gentle soul and his rigorous mind. You are right that any attempt to sum up his life will be an injustice, [...] -
London playlist – Life Begins At Oxford Circus
This week’s New Statesman – guest-edited, as you may have noticed by now, by Ken Livingstone – features a number of prominent people picking their favourite London songs. Their choices are led-off by an article on London’s music by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley.
What’s striking is how many of the selections in the list are of old songs. Admittedly there’s London Calling and Lily Allen’s The Fear, but also chosen are Noel Coward’s London Pride, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, [...]
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Read “The Grass Arena”
Yesterday I was lucky enough to meet and get time to talk to John Healy, the writer of The Grass Arena.
Healy’s book deserves a much bigger readership than it has had so far and he deserves much more credit for it. His book changes how you think about something going on around you – the subculture of the lives lived by vagrants on the streets of London. It is a subject that most of don’t want to think about. When [...] -
Jubilee Line – extra closures this year or overrun to 2010 on the cards
Several weeks ago I raised that the engineering works on the Jubilee Line were in trouble and that there was a danger that they would overrun.
This blog said on 1st August:
In addition to the problem now and for the rest of 2009 as the line experiences regular closures is the nagging question of whether the Jubilee work will be completed in time. From the start one of London Underground’s complaints has been the lack of transparency from the contractors [...]
