Boris wasted a month of campaigning on a fantasy
I wrote two weeks ago about Boris Johnson’s fake campaign for an inevitable council tax freeze. Thousands of Boris’s supporters have been encouraged to spam London Assembly Members in favour of something that will happen anyway.
The freeze, which is being implemented by almost every other local authority in the country, is supported by both Labour and the Lib Dems (who actually want to cut council tax).
Nobody wants to stop it. The freeze will take place, and Londoners will storm City Hall in gratitude at the literally handful of pounds it will save them this year.
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Anders Breivik wasn’t a “lone wolf”, he was part of a movement
Right-wing pundits are now very keen to tell us that the Norwegian terror attacks were not caused by right-wing anti-multicultural ideology.
The fact that Anders Breivik quoted Daily Mail articles in his manifesto and forged links with the same anti-immigration groups lauded by our tabloid press is apparently neither here nor there.
He was just a lone nutter okay? And besides, if it wasn’t for multiculturalism, then there wouldn’t have been a problem there in the first place.
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Boris breaks another promise
Boris Johnson will break his promise to keep all ticket offices manned on the London Underground it was announced yesterday.
Up to 800 jobs will go across the network including 450 ticket office positions and 200 other station posts.
TfL admit that this will mean many more unmanned ticket offices across the network, although none will close permanently.
In Boris Johnson’s Transport manifesto he promised to ensure that “there is always a manned ticket office at every station.”
However, the recession, losses from the PPP, and Boris’s own spending commitments means that he will now break that promise.
The Liberal Democrat’s London Transport spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon said today:
“Boris Johnson was elected promising to defend ticket offices and stop any planned closures that the previous Mayor was proposing across the London Underground network. Today’s announcement is a breathtaking breach of that key commitment he made to Londoners. It’s a complete u-turn.”
Labour’s London Transport spokesperson Val Shawcross said:
“This is the latest in a long line of broken Boris Johnson promises. He was elected on a pledge of protecting ticket offices and the staff who keep our stations safe but cuts, especially at outer London stations, will make them less safe and passengers feel less secure.”
Union bosses have also pledged to fight the decision. RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said this afternoon:
“If these cuts to jobs are bulldozed through by TfL it will turn London’s tube stations into a muggers paradise. RMT will fight to protect passenger and staff security on London Underground and in the event of compulsory redundancies and the undermining of tube safety we will have no hesitation in balloting for action.”
London Underground insist that there will be no compulsory redundancies, and point out that more and more people now use pre-paid Oyster Cards.
And with Boris already raising fares year on year, this is a painful but probably necessary pill for us to swallow.
BNP employ Neo Nazi activist at City Hall
Meet Tess Culnane, former National Front candidate, long-time Neo Nazi, anti head lice campaigner and the new employee of BNP London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook.
Culnane is the latest and most extreme member of the BNP to be employed at the Greater London Authority, since Barnbrook was elected in 2008.
His other appointments have included Simon Darby (now suspended) Emma Colgate, Rod Gordon, Chris Roberts and Tony Avery. All have been, or remain members of the BNP.
Boris’s Deputy resigns over credit card claims
Another day, another disposable deputy wheeled out of the spinning doors at City Hall.
“Ian Clement, Deputy Mayor for Government and External Relations, has resigned from the Greater London Authority (GLA) with immediate effect. He tendered his resignation to the Mayor of London this morning following the discovery of further discrepancies in the use of his corporate credit card. The Mayor has accepted Mr Clement’s resignation. His position will be filled in due course.”
You do have to wonder just what has been going on in Boris Johnson’s administration.
The man walks in dishing out vanity titles to any local big-wig, financial whizz kid, or snake-oil salesman who wants one, and then stands in amazement as they fall down around him. continue reading… »
Richard Barnbrook and a joint conspiracy of silence
You may not have noticed, but Richard Barnbrook is now the country’s most electorally successful Nazi politician. I say you may not have noticed, because as far as the press is concerned he no longer seems to exist.
There was a minor outrage after he was elected and an even more minor outrage when he was allowed a blog on the Telegraph Website (clue: everybody is).
But since May there has been nothing, zero, zilch. Type his name into a Google News and you will get very little in return. But in the alternate universe that is the BNP blogosphere, Barnbrook is the stuff of legend. I mean literally. Take this story which has been doing the rounds over there for some weeks:
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Another Boris deputy jumps ship!
Boris Johnson lost yet another top advisor today as his ‘First Deputy Mayor’ Tim Parker made a shock resignation.
Parker, who was appointed by Boris to be ‘Chief Executive of the GLA Group’ as well as Chair Transport for London had previously vigorously defended the extent of his powers.
But in a surprise move, he has now conceded that it is ‘not appropriate’ for him to undertake so much of the Mayor’s role.
“I have concluded…. that it would not be appropriate for an unelected official to chair a body which is responsible for most of the money and a large part of the brief of an elected Mayor. I also agree with the Mayor that my position as adviser does not justify my full time and exclusive commitment to the Greater London Authority, or the title of First Deputy Mayor. We have therefore decided to adjust the management structure and abolish that position.”
Insane? But it’s what these Tories are about
David Cameron yesterday called the latest report from Policy Exchange ‘insane’. As well he might. But for the modern Conservative Party, the only thing insane, was to say this stuff out loud.
Because for the think tank, the ranks of which make up a large chunk of the new Tory establishment, these views are nothing out of the ordinary.
Investigation launched into Boris’s team
After two months of bungled appointments, lost salaries, and enforced resignations, the London Assembly have decided to launch a formal investigation into the way Boris Johnson has appointed people at City Hall.
The decision to launch an investigation came after the assembly were told that the current appointment procedures were ‘adequate’ by Boris Johnson’s First Deputy Mayor.
Boris Johnson’s cronies – to the rescue of cronyism
Last week Boris Johnson called for a two-term limit as part of his fight to “protect Londoner’s from cronyism”.
But as Boris’s own band of ‘forensic’ cronies release their interim report on waste at City Hall, it is worth remembering that it is not just time itself that leads to these problems, but the people who are chosen to set the clocks.
Because when Boris ran for Mayor, he did so off the back of a series of claims from the Evening Standard which centred around Ken Livingstone and his supposedly socialist cabal in City Hall. Boris deliberately never got himself involved with the detail of these claims, but instead positioned himself as the new broom that would sweep the old dirt clean.
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