Ken’s doing the right thing here however you look at it, pulling together the anti-Tory political strands in London to discuss how to preserve what’s good and continue to improve things.

Finally I slightly disagree with Leon – Ken’s vote was actually up.

Boris was overwhelmingly supported because we had had enough of Ken.

Not strictly true that is it; Ken’s vote was down due to the failings of the national party in power and a nasty smear campaign by the Evening Standard.

Boris was voted in by huge landslide nor is it clear that the whole of London had ‘had enough’ of Ken…

And Emma, I believe that the Labour nanny state policies have directly increased the number of bullies and gang members by allowing the proliferation of fatherless families. Isn’t it time for a change – at least give Boris a chance?

Social justice, environmental protection, good community relations and cultural innovation” are all issues that affect young people in the capital but nowhere on the Progressive London website are young people mentioned and there is no sign whatsoever that Progressive London has any policies to help them and to be honest it really isn’t good enough Ken.

If many of the problems associated with young people in the capital including gang culture and knife crime are to be tackled, organisations such as Progressive London need to give London’s youth a voice. At BeatBullying (www.beatbullying.org) we’re actively involving young people in our attempts to improve the city they live in through schemes such as Peer Mentoring and Peer Listening which place trained young people as the first line of intervention against bullying and youth violence”

Young people are very much the future of a progressive capital. We need to make sure that they are empowered in attempts to improve it, not left out and then blamed for the consequences.

Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying

As for who’s behind it, it’s the chap with the whiny voice and the newts. Hardly a state secret, is it?

So he built the website, wrote all the content, is organising the event on his own (plus will be running it on the day solo), paying 5-10 grand out of his own pocket for the venue then?

EJB – I was going to make a similar point.
And didn’t Ken lie about fare increases in the 2004 election campaign?
Anyway, who cares? These are simply his death throes.

Possbly because I’m opposed to Ken running as mayor next time

For the avoidance of doubt, I meant Adam and Tom…

Whooaaah there! I’ve not been invited. And as as I flit between Nottingham and Tallinn, it’s unlikely I’d be able to attend anyway. I’m not a Londoner.

Maybe you mean Adam.

This is utter win, I’m there, we should all be there, and I’m mildly grumpy that whoever invited Aaron and Tom never invited me…

Good to see Boris is gradually dismantling Ken’s bureaucracy, money for cronies and expensive pet projects to give us Londoners value for money.

This could be good !
( Dale might like it )

I’ll be getting involved!

As for who’s behind it, it’s the chap with the whiny voice and the newts. Hardly a state secret, is it?

EJB – fares, eh?
One point is that *Britain’s* transport fares are higher than the rest of the world – London’s, certainly for buses (the Tube is a one-off, of course), are mostly *less* than the rest of the UK. As an example, a single two miles into Birmingham from my parent’s is £1.50, in London it would be 90p. In 2000 it would have been £1 in London, so it’s actually gone down in cash terms, let alone allowing for inflation. Travelcard fare rises are partially outside Mayoral control, which again emphasises that there’s a UK-wide problem of fares being extortionate under the privatised rail structure. I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader to dig up Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone’s expressed views on privatised railways.

The other point is that Boris has (quietly) announced that he’s putting fares up at RPI+1% for the next few years, but the quid pro quo on previous fare rises, congestion charge etc. has been that there’s a lot of investment led by competent professionals directed by people who actually understand public transport. This is no longer the case, although at least we’ve still got the competent professionals. Therefore a kind of agreement has been broken, and we’re entitled to ask why he thinks its necessary to put fares up, particularly if he’s so shit hot at saving money, runs things so much more efficiently and is totally averse to spending money even looking at new projects. Where’s the cash going, Boris?

The Liberal Democrat and Green leaders on the London Assembly will also be talking there. Like any coalition, different people want different things out of it. Obviously Ken has his own motivations.

On the London Assembly, all of the ‘left’ parties have been broadly in opposition to Boris Johnson’s major policies so far. I expect they will want to emphasise that at the conference. Unlike national politics, opposition parties on the assembly do not otherwise have much of a public voice against the mayor (there is no ’shadow mayor’ for instance). I expect they hope this will help them get one.

So what ?

I would argue that if the party itself isn’t involved, and your MP isn’t one of the coalition members, I don’t see what it’s got to do with him.

That said, it’s your MP and your prerogative, so go nuts!

“Who else is involved? How is it organised? Does it have any resources (volunteers, money, offices) and where did they come from?”

All good questions, for which, sadly, I don’t have answers.

Ben

So what ?

So, who’s behind it?

So what ?